I ask because, for the last decade or so, I find myself needing less and less sleep.  Never was one of those people that loved to sleep for 10 or 12 hours every night.  As a kid, my mom hated sleeping in and highly discouraged napping since she saw both as equating to being lazy and unproductive.  “Why would you sleep when you can read a book!” Something I heard often as a kid.  She got that from her mother, and though it didn’t stick with my younger brother (he often slept for 12 hours or more when we were under the same roof), it did for me.  I rarely if ever nap. In fact, I can’t stand it for me.  Others, I have no problem but I personally hate a nap.  

As an adult, however, I regularly slept for 8 hours or slightly longer per day.  But in recent years wherein I had bosses at production companies who didn’t care when I started and ended so long as I got my work done on time, I shifted my schedule from PST to EST such that I regularly woke at 4 AM so that I could start work between 5-6 AM.  Originally, I made that choice so that I could avoid (as best as I was able) horrific LA traffic.  Now it seems that I’ve reset my clock, so to speak, so that I normally fall asleep around 9 PM but wake between 3:30-4 AM.  So my new normal is 6-7 hours.  

I am cursed with both loving to stay up late, which is why I often do my most prolific posting here on “non-school nights”  like late Friday and Saturday, while also loving to see the sunrise.  I am often perfectly fine and totally functional with five hours sleep, so anything more than seven feels like a luxury of which I rarely take advantage.  As I fast approach 60, I have heard this is a function of age and that people often sleep less as less as they get older.  Curious if people here have put any thought into their sleep and, if so, what those thoughts are.  

I too do not nap, if my eyes close for 5 minutes while on the recliner mid-day weekend so be it but I don't consider that a nap.

I'm up during the work week by 3:30am to be to work by 4:30 so I try to get in the bed by 9pm and hopefully fall asleep within a half an hour. I absolutely have to use the TV to fall asleep to. Laying there with thoughts racing thru my head keeps me up. Lately it's been TOS or Godzilla movies to put me out. Something that I already know the outcome of, just need the background noise at low volume.

I have always been a short sleeper, but I am sensitive to impaired sleep.. My greatest cognitive time is as soon as I wake up. I mean it! If I am busy with complicated projects I can be up and productive is just the time it takes to dress and brew a coffee.

I find naps are necessary for my productivity when I am short of 6 hours sleep. I always set an alarm to restrict the duration of my naps. 15 or 20 minutes is all I need to get my mental acuity to proper levels.

The added background level of stress during COVID was affecting my sleep, which after the above started to alarm me.

Luckily, I am extremely susceptible to ASMR (always have been, even before it had a name), so I have a 10+hr playlist on YouTube of videos guaranteed to put me right out in about 15 minutes and keep me out.

Since retiring I've been staying up prettu late (1 or 2 in the morning), but if I sleep in past 8 or 9 I feel like I'm wasting a big chunk of the day.