have we ever chatted about...

[houseelf]

sleep?

Are you a good sleeper? How much sleep do you need? What do you require to be functional? With a newborn in the house, precious sleep has been on my mind.

Kelly

[houseelf]

I'm a decent sleeper so long as I don't engage in stressful activities like looking at the checkbook before bedtime. Unfortunately, I need a full 8 hours or more to function or I am just not one of God's happy children. I marvel at DH's ability to get by on so little sleep. The best piece of furniture we own is our matress, a wonderful king size comfortable bed.

What about you?

Kelly

[Michele]

I'm a sleeper! I like at least 10 hours per night! I know it's a little excessive, but I'm a grumpy bear when I get less...I can survive on 7 or 8 but only for a day or two...then I need even more to catch up. If I get less than 6 I'm completely useless and I won't remember much of anything I've done during the day. I'm going to be a crappy intern huh?

[fluffhead]

I was always somebody who needed a good nights (8 hrs) sleep. After several days of bad sleep I'd be toast. But since this last baby, I've been getting by pretty well on 4 or 5 hours a night for the past few months. No major ill effects - just things like putting 2 different shoes on my daughter's feet, nearly driving up on the curb....

[Auspicious]

I can do fine on 7 hours a night for long periods of time. If I don't set an alarm (like on weekends) I'll usually sleep for 9, and if I get less than 6 I'm just going through the motions--miserably--all day.

I'm a pretty good sleeper in that once I get in bed I usually fall right asleep, I don't have trouble staying asleep, I don't have very picky requirements for my sleeping environment, and if something does wake me up I don't have trouble falling right back asleep. None of that is true of FH--he is a terrible sleeper, and when he's under stress, insomnia is the first symptom to appear. I feel so bad for him, because it really is a significant problem.

Where I run into trouble myself is that I have a bad habit of procrastinating going to bed for any little reason I can. Too happy, too sad, too anxious, too content--anything. Late evening is hands-down my favorite time of day, so I'm very reluctant to cut it short or skip it.

[mommax3]

I am a very good sleeper who loves to sleep! I usually get 7 to 7.5 hours a night, and would be happier if it were 8 hours, but like Julie, I hate to cut my late evenings short.....the only peaceful hours of my day.

When I had little babies, the lack of sleep made me MISERABLE. There is no other way to express it. At least with the first one, I could nap during the day while he was asleep. That privilege disappeared with the second and third babies. I hated that feeling of going through the day while my eyes felt like sandpaper.

When I am asleep, I sleep heavily and VERY WELL. I can sleep through the pager, no problem, and if the kids cry out, DH usually hears them before I do. Sometimes I do have trouble falling asleep, because I am going 100 miles an hour before I get into bed and I need to talk or watch tv to wind down a little bit, and if DH falls asleep immediately, I have trouble turning my mind off.

Sally

I need a lot of sleep: 9-10 hours. I envy people who can function normally on 6.

I'm a very sound sleeper and usually have to set at least 2 alarms in case I don't hear one. I'm pretty sensitive to light, though.

Like Julie, I like being awake at night and I have a hard time winding down and making myself go to bed. A lot of times I can't turn my mind off when I'm lying in bed.

[HeartRN]

Pre-child, I LOVED sleeping in and napping. Naturally, this ended rather abruptly, but for whatever reason (umm...perhaps that there was always a little human attached to my chest? ) now I can fall asleep virtually anywhere at anytime (e.g. at red lights while driving the car :auto: )
I still feel best with at least 7 hours, but I can get by on less, especially if I drink a lot of water, eat right, exercise, and stay away from stressful situations....so basically, I need 7 hours all the time!

[SueC]

I'm good on 6 hours a night. Sometimes if I get too much sleep (8 or 9 hours) I feel like crap the next day! I'm a fairly sound sleeper--I rarely hear my dh's pager anymore and sometimes I don't even hear the baby crying. If I get woken up in the middle of the night, I'm often very disoriented and I start yammering on about something that doesn't make a bit of sense.

[Rapunzel]

I need lots of sleep. Eight to nine hours every 24 fulfills my sleep needs most of the time. When I'm pregnant (such as now) I have to get 12 to 14 hours every 24 or I'm absolutely miserable and don't function very well.

I'm really jealous of my husband sometimes - he actually functions best on SIX to eight hours at a time. He can go for months getting 6 hours a night and he is normal and happy. He only runs into trouble when he starts having stretches of five hours or less for a number of days in a row. His "theory" is that as long as his numbers of hours asleep is in multiples of "3" then he's OK. Gotta love 'em.

But, yes, I am a heavy user of sleep. Something I've observed about myself is that the more sleep deprived I am, the more likely I am to over-eat. I actually gain weight when I hit periods of time where I can't get much sleep! Go figure!

Jennifer

[migirl]

During the week I tend to get around 7-8 hours, on the weekends it's usually a bit more. I'm not a very good sleeper, so I don't usually get a solid night's sleep. If I'm not tired enough I have trouble falling asleep, if I'm awakened for any reason (trip to the bathroom, DH's pager, nothing at all sometimes ) I often have trouble falling back asleep, and if I have a lot on my mind I turn those issues over and over and have trouble sleeping at all. DH, on the other hand (more than likely because he's pretty sleep-deprived) falls asleep at the drop of a hat and will sleep like a log through the night. I complain a lot about not being able to sleep well, and he usually just makes a joke that I "need to practice more".

[spotty_dog]

Good timing. I'm slogging along on 6 hours today and feeling the effects.

I'm sort of a night owl by nature, but life with hubby has turned me into a modified early bird -- our bedtime is anywhere between 9:30 and 10:30, 11 is for a special occasion! So when he's on call (like last night) I take the opportunity to stay up late.

Unfortunately, he's also the coffee maker in the family. (Mine always tastes like ass so he is the one to grind the beans and set up the maker and program it each evening.) So when I stumbled out of bed this morning at 6:30ish I didn't even have my requisite 3-ish cups of coffee. I am only now getting my head on straight, and it's 1:30pm!

I used to get 10 hours if I didn't set the alarm, now I'm good on 8-9.

-Alison

[DCJenn]

When I am home, I am a night owl who requires 8 hours of sleep. Go to bed at midnight, wake up at 8 (ish) and I'm golden.

On the road, I rarely sleep well the first night in the hotels, usually it's because I'm too hot. I have a difficult time managing temperature controls in hotel rooms for whatever reason- they end up either too hot or too cold. Also when I'm on the road, it's a rare facility that has their heavy medication pass in the afternoons, so we have to observe the morning medicaiton pass- which is usually at some god-awful time of the morning- like 6:30 AM- yup, nothing like watching some nervous staff person attempt to administer meds at 6:30 AM! Usually that's also Day Two and that's usually the day we leave, so chances are we've also already checked out of the hotel and have not yet had breakfast. So, I get to be hungry and sleepy, which usually = grouchy!

This past week, we stayed at possibly the nastiest hotel, ever. I kept socks on the ENTIRE time I was in the room (and they ended up BLACK). Needless to say I stayed up as late as I could as I didn't want to think about what would emerge when I turned the lights off. Yuck.....

But home- a large king-sized bed with hubby, my puppy and all three kitties and I'm raring to go today! (and to think we used to have one more cat, plus the dog in a double bed....) Luckily everyone has assigned spots- Darla shares my pillow, Nicki sleeps at my feet, Trouble sleeps at Ricks feet and Petey usually ends up between us.

Jenn

Jenn

More than I've been getting, that's for sure! Between a sick baby and preschooler having nightmares, it's been a tired week.
8 hours at least, 9 hours is heavenly. I used to be a night owl but since everyone in my house gets up so damn early, I got to bed early to get the necessary 8.

good questions, I am sleeping as I type this :thud:

The athlete in me needs a solid eight hours. I have been raised as an early riser, up at 6a. Still can't shut that off, and I am not a napper. Naps screw up my falling asleep in the evening. I am a light sleeper as well. Add in two kids, one with medical problems that might occasionally require rides in the local ambulance and my sleep patterns are shredded.

DW has a gene in her family(I swear) that allows them to fall asleep, anywhere when they are about six inches from the pillow. Needless to say when the kids are crying out in the night, I come running and DW is still dreaming.

To function, I can get by on three hours...one night only. The next better have more or I am not nice. I have fallen asleep while reading books to my kids. :disappointed:

Usual nights are something along the 6-7 hours, but NEVER all at once.....maybe 3-4 in a row, the rest comes as I can get it until it is to light outside or someone won't go back to bed and I can't go back to sleep.