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Good article. Quality of sleep is important for me too, not just quantity. I was sleeping 8 - 9 hours but still felt mega tired in the morning.

Changing my diet has helped enormously with this.

I sleep a lot and still feel tired. Have a hard time waking up. On those rare days that I sleep less I actually feel better. But I am not sure how to sleep less on a daily basis. Any thoughts on how to sleep not too long and feel good?

James,

Aside from diet (light in the evening), exercise, and other considerations...

Going to bed earlier (before 10) in the evening gives a better quality of sleep. Then I can get up earlier and feel fresher.

YMMV

James,

You are underslept. I used to suffer the phenomena of "too much sleep". If I slept only 6 hours, I felt great. But if on the weekend I slept 9 hours, I would feel groggy all day. What was going on for me was that my body adapted to the 6 hours of sleep, because my determination and control forced it to (plus the use of stimulants). But if I was generous with the sleep on the weekend, my body kept asking for more.

What I found is that when I went long enough without addressing the sleep debt issue, I ended up with significant acute fatigue. Fortunately, this is easy to address. Clear out your schedule for a few weeks (or perhaps a few months if you were like me), and just sleep as much as possible. For me, I slept 16 to 18 hours a day the first month. Each month I was able to to reduce the number of hours I slept by 2 months.

The other thing that is necessary to to remove all stimulants from the diet. This include the standard ones like caffeine, cigarettes, chocolate, etc. But also flavor enhancers in the diet, like salt, pepper, chilies, spices, vinegars, etc are digestive stimulants, and they also stimulate the body.

The other thing that helps is to place yourself in a state of low stress. For me, I took a four month leave of absence from work. I also took this time to go on retreats and to visit the tropics. Having to deal with the mental stimulation of work and stress reduced my ability to get really deep sleeps.

In the sidebar of the sleep article was an article called "Sleep Is the New Sex". Give yourself the gift I gave myself with the indulgence of all that sleep, and give yourself the best sex ever!

P. S. I agree with Bryan on this point wholeheartedly and have experienced the same thing several times in my life. After being sleep deprived for a bit it can take weeks of sleeping a lot to catch up.

Thanks all.

Bryan, after dramatically increasing the amount of sleep in your lifestyle (especially in the beginning), and then reducing that amount, how many hours of sleep did you reduce the sleep to? Because ideally, shouldn't we be able to sleep less than the average person, because of our raw food diet and combination of other healthy lifestyle choices? I'm referring specifically to the typical comment, "you need 8 hours of sleep a night." Thanks allot :-)

I like 9 hours of sleep. I don't always get it, because sometimes I am up late stimulating my mind on the internet or watching a DVD or reading a book. But when I get behind, I start taking naps. I love it when I don't need to wake up to an alarm clock. But for me, no alarm clocks is only 3 days a week. I am viewing this sleep issue like I did with my fat intake, that is, I will not try to overly control it, but allow for a process of moving towards balance. Right now, my mind loves stimulation. However, the level of mental stimulation I have now versus before I was raw 6 years ago, or even just 2 years ago, is much lower.

On my no-alarm clock days, I sleep 10 to 11 hours. On my alarm clock days, I'll sleep 6 to 8 hours. When I go on vacation, with no alarm clocks and I am caught up on sleep, 9 hours is fine.