Because I haven't been getting enough, I am thinking about sleeeeeppppp. Usually I need to get say 6 hours and I feel just dandy, full of life and my brain works fairly well and all that good stuff. I've been running on 4 for 5 nights, and my brain isn't working so well any more. For me 8 is too much, 6 is great, four is way too little...five is "eh" but doable. Just curious as to the length others need to be cognizant. Thanks for entertaining me!!

-- Doreen (animalwaitress@yahoo.com), May 07, 2001

Answers

Hi Doreen, I usually go to sleep about 1am and wakeup about 5am( my better half works nights so I am farm husband).Work around the homestead until about noon when it is to hot to be outside,take a 2 hour nap and back at it again.I noticed when I hit my 50's I just don't need as much sleep. Daryll

-- Daryll (twincrk@hotmail.com), May 07, 2001.

Y'all are making me feel lazy. Lol! My brain and body don't work unless I have 8 hours of sleep, and I'm not sure about my brain then!

-- Deena in GA (dsmj55@aol.com), May 07, 2001.

When I worked I got by fine on 6 hours but since I've had all this back surgery and still have a lot of pain, I need 8 hours. I had a chiropractor tell me before the surgeries that the reason I was so tired was because my body was using so much energy just to stand up straight. I'm thinking it's using more energy now to fight the pain. At least I hope that's it and not that I'm getting lazy! My husband gets by well on 6 hours.

-- Barb (bjconthefarm@yahoo.com), May 07, 2001.

Usually 7 hours is good enough. Over 8 and I'm even duller than I usually am anyway. Less than 5 and I am among the walking dead.

-- Green (ratdogs10@yahoo.com), May 07, 2001.

I really don't know. I'm a morning person, so no matter what time I go to bed, I want to be up early(even when I worked til 11p.)

The problem is I dream too much, I wrote about that on cs, but asked Ken to delete it. I've never met but maybe one person that even comes close to the way I dream and I have since I was 3or4 or maybe even longer. I'm am involved in the dreams so deeply, that I don't rest. I've tried everything and absolutely nothing affects them except eating way too much and then going to sleep which almost never happens(they're a little more vivid-if that's possible). I remember almost all of them for awhile and then dismiss them, and can have 5 0r 6 different dreams a night. Some stay longer and can be very disturbing.

I say I dream in vivid Technicolor, Dolby sensoround, smell-a- vision and pain-o-rama. No, I do not believe I'm getting in touch with past lives. I even dream in animation. I used to dream of dogs biting me and could actually feel the pain, but thank God I haven't done that in a few years. I feel other people's pain as well as mine own, emotional and physical.

I've only had a handful of dreams that were in black and white and they were rather significant.

Part of the reason I'm so tired. Same goes for naps.

-- Cindy (SE In) (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), May 07, 2001.

I do best on 8 hours of sleep, especially now with the scedule I keep. Up at 4am, deliver 150+ newspapers, time for breakfeast and a shower, and then put in 8 hours at my real job. I try to be all wound down by 7pm, and asleep by 8. I get a nap once or twice a week, and it helps. I hardly ever dream anymore. I love to sleep, all snugged up with Daisy and Jasmine, my dogs, and a pile of cats.

-- Cathy in NY (hrnofplnty@yahoo.com), May 07, 2001.

I long for 8+ (I could sleep 24/7 sometimes, lol), but usually settle for 5 - 6. The longer I keep the schedule, the more my body won't let me sleep any longer. Mom used to go on 2 - 4.... Never could keep up with her. She'd laugh and tell me how much younger I am than her, but I couldn't do it if they paid me!!

-- Sue Diederich (willow666@rocketmail.com), May 07, 2001.

Hey I thought I was the only one that dreamed in technicolor with real time sound.

If there is something exiciting going on I can get by on 6 hours But if its Same Ole S**t and Garbage then I need 8. May sound crazy but I need one of those sweat producing "reality" technicolor dreams per week or I get so tense I can't sleep.

The wife needs 7 hours. Preferably 11:p.m.-6:a.m. HAH with new job (just over broke) thats out she has to hit the dirt road by 5:35 a.m.

Hmmmm its a fact that several of my dreams became movies. It used to be a running gag from my friends They alledge that I have a evil twin in California. He steals my dreams and makes big bucks. My oldest friend actually kept a log of my dreams for a year. Out of the some odd 25 dreams 9 plots were scene in movies, 18 of my sci-fi gadgets (that i thought only my twisted mind could produce) hit the big screen.

If my evil twin is reading this HEY I want my 50%. LOL (really :)

-- Kenneth in N.C. (wizardsplace13@hotmail.com), May 07, 2001.

7 hrs give or take 30 min. 6 hrs. is too little, 8hrs. is too much. When I sleep I'm deader'n a hammer. I've slept through a tornado, 2 direct hit hurricanes and more hailstorms/thunderstorms than you can shake a stick at. No naps. A nap will throw me off my internal sleep cycle so bad I can't get to sleep until 2:00-3:00 a.m.

-- StevenB (thicketyrowfarm@aol.com), May 07, 2001.

I slept soundly like that until I had my first child(lol). Funny how the slightest thing wakes me up now. I say that, but I've learned to sleep through the neighbor's peacocks courting(lol). 8 or 9 hours, preferably 9. I know that's wimpy, but that's the way it is;)

-- mary, texas (marylgarcia@aol.com), May 07, 2001.

For the past several years I have been having real sleep problems.I will stay awake for 24-72 hours sometimes and then sleep for 14 hours.I have been known to sleep for 40 hours but this has been after exhaustion and sleep deprivation.This might be a hold over from when I was a medic.We had odd schedules.Most days I guess I get about 6-8 hours sleep.I can also work indefinately on cat naps caught when I can get them.The problem with the cat nap thing is I get a little intense as time goes on.My big problem is my spouse snores and I can't fall asleep until I am exhausted.Just when I am reaching REM sleep she is awake and insists on talking to me.(She says that I have begun to snore too)I have lived through a number of traumatic events (who hasn't) and It seems that they all come back in a rush when I lay down to sleep.I have very vivid dreams and YES they are in color and I remember them in color.I feel bad for my wife because I am not the sort of person that you can shake awake or touch when I am sleeping.I have never hurt her but I have scared the hell out of her when I was still disoriented from being asleep and she chose to wake me up the wrong way.I'm not saying any of this to be a whiner.Any of you that are able to fall asleep and not have nightmares and flashbacks should feel lucky.

-- greg (gsmith@tricountyi.net), May 09, 2001.

Greg, have you guys tried those breathe right strips?

I hardly dream anymore, probably need more B complex in my diet. It's good to dream and I miss remembering them. I sleep like I'm dead most of the time and that's one reason why I HAVE to have dogs.

There have to be some things that are natural to help you all with your too vivid dreams....I don't know them right now, but I know I have read of calming teas that will "tone down" night terrors.

-- Doreen (bisquit@here.com), May 10, 2001.

I've tried the calming teas and many other things, nothing works. It may be good to dream, but it's not good not to get enough rest. I'm not sure I'd wanna go without dreaming at all. I can give specific details of dreams I had when I was 3 or 4 years old. I don't like to have good dreams, because it's extremely disappointing to wake up and find they're not real.

-- Cindy (SE In) (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), May 10, 2001.