Replacing an hour of sleep, with a 1 hour nap?

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I'm a healthy adult male.
Since the recommended is 7-8 hours of sleep per night, can I safely get only 6 hours per night (going to bed at 11pm, up at 5am), and supplement that time with a 1 hour nap (taken at approx 4-5pm?)? This would be everyday, indefinitely.
Any replies are appreciated.

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@atomik,

It's really individual. There isn't one set number of hours that works for everyone -- some people need more, and some less, in an approximately 7-9 hour range.

Part of what is needed is REM sleep, which is hard to get if you break things up too much.

Have you actually tried napping yet?

When I have tried that in the past, I have a much harder time going to sleep at night. (So in your example, I'd wake up at 5 AM, nap 4-5 PM, then try to go to sleep at 11 -- and fail. Then I'd eventually go to sleep at midnight say, wake up at 5 AM, be wrecked, then make it to the naptime at 4 PM and pass out. Either I then stay asleep, ignoring the alarm, and wake up at 8 bright-eyed and bush-tailed but not ready to go back to sleep until 2 AM, or I successfully wake up at 5 PM but am still wrecked. Etc.)

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If I wake up early, I am ready for a 45 minute nap around 4 p.m.

Then I can stay up late and read, 'til about midnight.

If I miss my nap, I go to sleep when I am tired, about 10:30.

The thing is to listen to your body. It will tell you what you what you need to do.

(But I am semi-retired, so I am really spoiled about sleep. I just sleep when I feel like it. the hell with anything else.)

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@atomik,

Or you can try to train yourself to do this:

Quote:

#5.
Think You Got a Good Night's Sleep (After Only Two Hours of Actual Sleep)

So you just picked up the night shift at your local McDonald's, you have class every morning at 8am and you have no idea how you're going to make it through the day without looking like a guy straight out of Dawn of the Dead, minus the blood... hopefully.

What if we told you there was a way to sleep for little more than two hours a day, and still feel more refreshed than taking a 12-hour siesta on a bed made entirely out of baby kitten fur? No more sneaking naps at the fry station for you!

Holy ****! How Do I Do It?

It's called the Uberman Sleep Schedule, and besides having a totally badass name, it's a way to get the maximum amount of essential sleep for your body without wasting hours of precious time you could be using to work or drink or farm for World of Warcraft gold. The schedule consists of taking six, 20-30 minute power naps, every four hours during the day. Of course, this new sleep pattern blows donkey-dick to get used to, but it's a price you have to pay to basically extend your waking life by several years.

The best way to start it off is to just jump right in. Get to sleep at 8pm, set your alarm for 8:30. Get up, play some Call of Duty, sleep again at 12, alarm at 12:30, and so on. After three or four days of this you will start to get high as **** because of sleep deprivation, and might just want to kill yourself, but don't do it! That would be absolutely counter-productive.

By day 10 or so, your brain will say, "****! FINE, we'll do it your way," and will adapt to your new superhuman sleep schedule.

How Does It Work?

When you sleep normally, your body gets only about an hour and a half of REM sleep, the kind of sleep that is thought to be the most important to keeping your brain sharp. While other stages of sleep help your body to heal and grow, the REM sleep is what makes you feel rested.

The first few days of adjusting are tough because your body isn't getting ANY of this REM sleep, and your brain hates you for it. After the third day, or so, your brain figures out that you mean business, and every time you lay down for one of these naps, dives directly into REM sleep in an attempt to compensate for the deprivation. Do some quick math and that's two full hours of REM sleep, while those who are sleeping normally are only getting an hour and a half.

Before you know it, while the rest of the world snores away, you'll be up and drawing dicks on their faces.

I got this from an article on Cracked.com. Here's the link:
http://www.cracked.com/article/127_5-ways-to-hack-your-brain-into-awesomeness/

I haven't tried this myself, so I don't know how well it actually works.

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Get back to us after you try this out . . .

I never knew the brain could "figure' such things out.

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@PUNKEY,

The first time I read that article, I was blown away by some of the things you could do.

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@RexDraconis111,

A former colleague tried to do this. He thought he could time-shift his life this way.

It's why he's a former colleague. Napping at work didn't work out - he was half-asleep all of the time.

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The human body hasn't evolved much in the whole time we've been upright. Circadian rhythms are pretty much set in stone. The body's temperature lowers at night, regardless of your work schedule. We all need so many hours of REM sleep too. It's also why we need so many hours of sleep a night, optimally.

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@Ceili,

Well, they do say at the end of the introduction:

Quote:

We can't vouch for any of these, either their effectiveness or safety.

But apparently it is possible, if not exactly recommended.

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I'm like Punkey, semi-retired and get home at 1 pm from a part time job.
Sometimes I'll nap for a couple hours and then read til midnight. I don't think nap time is as satisfying as a continuous 8 hours but it lets me stretch my day.

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@sozobe,

Should at least get 7 hours.

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You try it on you as it differs from body to body. This might be OK for some to replace his or her sleep by an hour nap.

So need to try it first. If every thing goes well you may continue it for time you want.

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@atomik,

This is a tough question to find a solution to because everybody's body is different. I need at least 9 hours of sleep for me to function throughout the day, But the suggestion to listen to what you body is telling you is probably the best advice.

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Replacing an hour of sleep, with a 1 hour nap?

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