Here’s How You Can Go for So Long on So Little Sleep.

Here’s How You Can Go for So Long on So Little Sleep.

Have you ever wondered how you can go for so long on so little sleep?

You might be going weeks, months, or even years on little sleep. I had insomnia for close to 30 years. I used to sleep every other day with just 2-4 hours of sleep, sometimes even longer, before I slept again.

Yet we somehow make it through. It’s not easy, and it sucks, but we do it.

This is all thanks to something called “core sleep.”

We all need a certain number of hours to feel rested, refreshed, and great. However, there is a minimum amount of core sleep that we need to get through the day, and it is usually around 4-hours.

There aren’t any randomized trials about core sleep, but there are data models to show that, on average, we need about 4-hours of core sleep to be able to get through the day.

Now, this obviously isn't a goal we want or where we want to be in the end, but it's helpful to understand that you are okay right now. You are likely getting that core sleep even if it doesn't feel like you are getting four solid hours of sleep.

For example, if you're laying in bed for 7 hours and you have fragmented, low-quality sleep, but they add up to four hours, that is enough to give you that core sleep, believe it or not. But because it was so fragmented, your sleep quality sucked, and it can feel like you only got two hours of sleep.

So you believe you only got two hours of sleep, but in reality, you could be getting four hours or more. It doesn’t need to be four solid hours, and most people are getting their core sleep.

Your body is keeping you in a lower-quality state of sleep because of a survival mechanism. Your brain is trying to keep you safe.

So back in the day, when you were in a tribe, and you were sleeping outside, there could be an enemy tribe nearby or some kind of an animal like a bear, cougar, wooly mammoth, or whatever they had back then that was a threat to the tribe.. 😜

The brain experiences some fear and knows that there are threats out there to be careful of. Your brain tries to keep you safe by making it, so you wake up easier and sleep less. If you are in a deep long sleep, you probably aren’t going to be able to react to a threat as quickly and get to safety.

The brain actually decreases your sleep needs for those nights so that you can wake up quickly. 

This is what happens when you have insomnia.

You have been reacting to sleeplessness with fear and trying to escape and fight it with different supplements, CBD oil, medications, meditation, and whatever else.

Your brain is confused and thinks there is a threat out there. So you end up with a night of fragmented light sleep and do not get as much as you usually would.

This is only temporary. Once you can show your brain that you are safe, you will slowly start to sleep more again.

I wanted to share this core sleep concept with you because it can help you to understand how you have made it this long on so little sleep and bring some comfort in knowing that you are likely getting that.

Not to minimize what you are going through because, obviously, it’s very challenging. It’s a terrible place to be, and I have been there too.

But it can also help you to understand that you're going to be okay. As tough as it is, as challenging as it is, you are OK. Even if you aren’t getting the minimum core amount, you just need to rest occasionally during the day.

And if you are worried that you may get some kind of disease or have a health risk from not getting enough sleep, there aren’t actually any studies that prove a correlation between lack of sleep and health risks.

If you want to read more about this, I’ll post a link below to a blog post where I talk about this.

So hopefully, that helps reduce your worry and confusion about how you've gone for so long on so little sleep.

If you have any questions, please post them below. 

If you want to understand why you don't need to worry about health risks associated with lack of sleep, check out my blog post “Why you shouldn’t worry about health concerns associated with insomnia.”