While long-term sleep cessation is a bad idea, there are steps you can take to get short-term sleep short. Take time to prepare your mind and body, gradually reduce the amount of sleep, and return to your normal schedule if you notice any effects on your health or quality of life.
Step
Method 1 of 3: Preparing Your Mind and Body
Step 1. Exercise
If you expect your body to function without sleep, you must build overall body strength. Exercising three or four times a week can build your overall strength and stamina, so you need less sleep.
- Focus on aerobics, such as long or short distance running, as well as light muscle strength training, such as lifting weights, push-ups or sit-ups, and Pilates.
- Exercising in the afternoon is an ideal time as the overall quality of sleep at night improves. This means you get higher quality sleep, which means you need less sleep.
Step 2. Avoid certain substances
Alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine mess up your sleep schedule. If you want your body to function with less sleep, you need to take steps to ensure that your sleep is of high quality.
- Alcohol can help you fall asleep faster. However, when you fall asleep, the sleep is of poor quality. Later, you will need more sleep. Avoid alcohol, drink only at certain times and don't overdo it.
- Caffeine stays in the body for 6 hours after you drink it. Drinking caffeine in the afternoon can affect your ability to sleep at night. It is best to drink coffee only in the morning and not in excess. One or two cups of coffee as much as 200 ml a day is enough.
- Nicotine, apart from causing many health problems, is a stimulant. Smoking all day can make it difficult to sleep at night. In addition, tobacco also weakens the body and immune system, so you need more sleep to maintain body strength. If you want to sleep less, take steps to quit smoking.
Step 3. Have a bedtime routine
Work on improving your sleep schedule before trying to cut back on sleep. Take steps to ensure that you go to bed early and wake up refreshed.
- Go to bed and wake up at the same time every night. The body has a natural daily rhythm that adapts to the usual sleep/wake cycle. If you go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, you will naturally feel tired at night and wake up refreshed in the morning.
- Avoid electronic screens in the hours before bedtime. Blue light that comes from smartphones and laptops has a stimulating effect on the body making it difficult to sleep for a while.
- Perform a ritual before bed. If your body associates certain activities with bedtime, you naturally feel tired in response to those activities. Do something relaxing to do, like reading a book or doing a crossword puzzle.
Step 4. Create a sleep-friendly bedroom environment
Remember, to be able to sleep with little time, you need to make sure you get as much quality sleep as possible. To do so, ensure a sleep-friendly bedroom.
- Check the mattress and pillows. Both must be soft and can support the body and not cause pain. Pillows and mattresses should be free of allergens that can irritate and keep you up all night.
- Keep the room cool. The ideal sleeping temperature is between 15.5 to 19.4 degrees Celsius.
- If you live in a noisy building or area, consider having a white noise machine to block out unwanted sounds.
Method 2 of 3: Reduce Gradually
Step 1. Reduce sleep time gradually
If you try to reduce your sleep time from 9 hours to 6 hours a night, this will backfire. Do it gradually to delay bedtime or wake up earlier.
- For the first week, go to bed 20 minutes later or wake up 20 minutes earlier than usual. For the second week, add another 20 minutes. For the third week, move the bedtime forward or wake up time by about an hour.
- Continue to reduce sleep time by 20 minutes each week.
Step 2. Be patient
You may experience fatigue during the first few weeks. This makes the body adjust to the reduced sleep time. If you experience fatigue, change your diet by adding healthier, more energy-stimulating foods and getting more exercise to improve sleep.
Step 3. Plan to sleep for six hours each night
Sleeping for six hours each night should be your goal. The body can still function relatively well, if you maintain such quality sleep. Sleeping less than six hours can pose a major health risk.
Method 3 of 3: Recognizing the Risks
Step 1. Don't sleep less than 5.5 hours each night
The absolute minimum amount of sleep is 5.5 hours per night. Research on sleep that monitored the effects of sleep deprivation on the brain showed that subjects who slept less than this amount experienced severe fatigue and reduced ability to function in daily life.
Step 2. Watch for diminishing health effects
Sleep deprivation can be dangerous. If you experience any of the following, you may want to consider returning to your regular sleep schedule:
- Increased hunger
- Weight change
- Short term memory loss
- Impulsive behavior
- Decreased motor skills
- Changes in skin condition
- Blurred vision
Step 3. Understand that sleeping with a little time is difficult to maintain in the long term
While you can reduce sleep in the short term, sleeping less than eight hours a night is not recommended in the long term. Later, body functions will decline and you need to sleep.
- The amount of sleep needed varies by lifestyle. However, most people need to get eight hours of sleep every night. Sleeping less than this amount of time on a regular basis is bad for your concentration.
- If you continue to sleep six hours each night, you will result in what is called a sleep debt. Your body will need more sleep than it already does. As a result, you fall asleep exhausted. If you're trying to get little sleep, make sure to only do it once a few weeks before going back to sleep for eight hours each night.
