Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ Beyond Human How to reduce my sleep time?

I just recently went on a quest to reduce sleep in my life forever, and I ended up spending a lot of time and money on this subject and I'd love to save you that hassel! I was sleeping about 8-10 hours a night which means I was sleeping through 1-2 14 hour days a week! AHHH!

Loughborough Sleep Research Centre (they're on google) Says "Many people can easily sleep more than their usual amount. Whilst many sleep researchers, particularly in the USA, believe that people need this extra sleep, we advocate, with supporting experimental evidence, that this is largely superfluous ('optional') sleep." They say that 6 hours is ideal.

I found that many things effect the amount of sleep you need, 4 important ones are:

1. Amount of light your eyes recieve. Our circadian rythem and therefor melatonin levels are linked directly to the amount of light your eyes recieve (ever been in a class that turned out the lights for a slide show?)
Quality may also play a roll. (Quality = Full spectrum vs. regular incandescent) interestingly enough studies have shown that chickens live 50% longer when put under full spectrum fluorescents vs cool white fluorescent lights). Daylight (which is full spectrum. Daylight is around 10,000 lux and it is recommended that you recieve at least 1 hour a day of 10,000 lux light to maintain proper melatonin levels, (I went to the hardware store and bought 4 24inch ballasts then 4 Full Spectrum bulbs from the pet store and put them around my computer).

2. Another Factor is stress levels, water intake, diet in excercise (keeping your body in good health will help energy overally energy levels)

3. Sleep pattern (an example would be when you go overseas and you can't sleep because you're body clock is thrown off). Having a rigid sleep pattern helps you to fall asleep faster and wake up more refreshed (ever wake up at the same time long enough to where you wake up 5 seconds before your alarm goes off?)

4. Taking a nap mid day. Studies have shown, and I think it's pretty self evident that you have a dip in your energy levels about mid day. (this is caused by your circadian rythem, your body temperature actually drops durring this time same as when it's your bed time but not as dramatic) If you get in the habit of sleeping a good 30-45 minutes(too long and you'll mess up your whole sleep cycle)it should be much easier to sleep less at night and have more energy durring the day (I know in my experience it has). Hope this helped!

Since the subject is sleep, I'm going to ask a related question.

I'm prone to hypnogogic/hypnopopic halucinations. I wonder how safe they are. It feels like I'm not breathing, and that if I stay in state, I'm going to die. I'm wondering if that's a real problem, or if I'm just unaware of the fact I am breathing. I can vaguely remember reading somewhere that during these experiences some people think that they're not breathing, but they are.

I'd like to use this state as a springboard for lucid dreaming and/or out-of-body adventures.

I'm a nine-hour a night sleeper, and if I had my druthers I'd do ten. My record is 13 hours, and I could have gotten more if my mother didn't insist upon waking me. I get muscle spasms in my left eye if I cut my sleep to even seven hours for more than a day or two.

Rather than trying to sleep less so that I'm more productive each day, I'm going to look into longevity so that I have more days to be productive with.

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Originally posted by Kaiden:
I'm prone to hypnogogic/hypnopopic halucinations. I wonder how safe they are. It feels like I'm not breathing, and that if I stay in state, I'm going to die. I'm wondering if that's a real problem, or if I'm just unaware of the fact I am breathing. I can vaguely remember reading somewhere that during these experiences some people think that they're not breathing, but they are.

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You have those too, eh?
Yes I have experienced hypnogagic hallucinations for ten years. Have been unable to determine whether I am really breathing or not, although sometimes there is definitely a sensation that I am going to suffocate if I don't take a breath.

A couple of techniques I have found useful for pulling out of this state: doing a very shallow hyperventilation -- my impulse when these experiences arise is to take a deep breath, but that is usually impossible...I find if I am able to take small breaths, my brain seems to oxygenate and I quickly wake up.

Also, try staying still for a moment and then turning your head from side to side, with as much force as you can...that is another good way to pull yourself out.

As far as using these for astral projection etc., I don't know.
Back when I was reading Castandeda I thought of trying to use these states as a springboard into another dimension etc, but then I decided against it because some of these experiences were rather frightening to begin with, without pushing the envelope any further.