How many hours do you sleep ?

[Daniel Pearson]

I like to budget for 8 hours in my evenings, but often only claim 6 or 7. I can function fine on 5 once I'm awake, but I do get drowsy in the evenings.

 

[Filip Orlandic]

My average calculation is around 5-6 hours. It's enough for my age (24).

 

[Björn Benckert]

I used to sleep 8 hours straight no problem, not so much now. Maybe 5 hours is the best I can do plus a 20 minute nap after lunch. Aging is a b***h...

Bjorn, I find the only time I get a full night of sleep is when I am on my boat. Is that true for you also?

Yes that is true. Will live on the boat for a couple of weeks now starting tomorrow. I guess one reason for sleeping well there is my quite slow internet on board... lol.

 

[Andy White]

Just came out of a bad crunch period - 15 days solid, no weekends off (etc) and averaged 18 hours working, 1 eating and 5 sleeping. - a big CGI deadline and a PITA - LOL.

Took a few days to recover, first day slept about 8 hours, next day slept about 10. Then got back to work... had that really 'hollow' feeling - the one you get when you've been so focused that all other things stop and once you deliver, everything is a bit weird

Now my sleep pattern is off. I'm falling asleep at 7am (UK) and waking at 1pm/2pm - so averaging 6 or 7 hours now. Eventually my body clock will revert back to GMT... just in time for the next silly deadline to throw out my body cloak again.

My other half is used to it - she just laughs when I zombie around the place or drag myself to and from the office.

It really depends on what I'm doing - the more intense the work/project and tighter the deadline, normally means less sleep.

And I generally have insomnia anyway... no luck for me

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

I try to get 4 or 5 hours every night, but I think I average around 3... My usual routine is I pass out somewhere between midnight and 1 AM. After 2 to 4 hours, I wake up and that's it. No going back to sleep, doesn't matter what I try or don't try to do... I'm just up. My goal is always to get 4+ hours and I rarely reach that. If I have more than 3 days in a row with less than 3 hours, I really start to feel it and I tend to get worn down. I've noticed when I start getting worn down my body does other funny things like gain weight.

Been like this ever since I can remember. My father is the same way. So I end up telling my wife that she sleeps more than enough for the both of us. Sleeping in seems to be her favorite past-time. It always seems excessive to me, even though I know she doesn't overdo it. She's a 7 to 10 hours per night sort of person. She tries for 10, it's like her goal, but usually gets 7, maybe 8. Personally, I don't care for spending any extra time trying to sleep. Too many other things to do, plenty of time for sleeping after I'm dead.

Also noticed my "internal clock" is pretty commanding. If I miss my window that I normally fall asleep in, I still wake at the same time, regardless. So if I fall asleep at 3AM, I'm still up at 4 with no hope of going back to sleep. If I try to go to sleep early, like at 10PM, or whatever, I just lay there until it's time for my body to do its thing...

I don't have much use for caffeine or a morning coffee or things like that. I mostly drink water. Some fruit juice. I like iced tea, lots of it when it's hot, so there's caffeine there, but it doesn't seem to affect me one way or another. Never been a fan of the morning coffee thing... I prefer a tall glass of OJ.

 

[Christopher Barrett]

Typically 8 decent hours. I do Bikram Yoga 3 days a week and run a few miles as well, that or I'm on my feet 12 hours a day shooting. On intense film shoots I can do a week of 4 hour nights and get by on coffee and adrenaline.

CB

 

[Brett Reynolds]

Sleep or the lack of is like a loan, it must be paid back with interest.

 

[Bob Gundu]

Ever since my daughter was born 3.5 years ago i have been so sleep deprived ever since. My schedule is ridiculous. I can't star work until 10pm and usually pass out at my desk around 3:30am. She then wakes me up at 8am.... so sadly I'm lucky to get 5 hours a night

 

[Phil Holland]

I'm in the 4-6 hour range. I have to put my head to sleep to really get some rest. So sometimes I end up being awake way late. I notice if I'm doing some heavy tech work or writing I may take sporadic nap during a day for a few minutes.

For production days I try get a good night of sleep ahead of a shooting day. If it's a really physical week I certainly have a "crash day" and konk out for about 8ish hours. Sometimes 10. Depends on the week. Anytime I do work that's production oriented I do my best to get some rest in to make sure I'm physically able to handle the days and mentally able to keep things moving and not kill anybody if I have to rig anything.

Overall it's pretty weird. My sleeping schedule is all over the place. I tend to be awake if I have something to do. Today was a good example as I only landed 3 hours of sleep and I'm working on 3 things that require a great deal of my brain this week. This week I'll likely take a few naps along the way to rest my noggin. Don't want to blow a gasket or anything. Last week I had a 27 hour day and hammered out a solid 8 hours of sleep Thursday night. Woke up, felt reborn.

Back when I was colorist I had my own office and what I found was the most important thing that helped with my productivity was to rest when my body/mind told me to rest. If I tried forcing the issue I became vastly less efficient and my thinking process to me felt like I suffered a blunt force trauma to the head. However, a rested mind feels almost like a super power sometimes. So a quick nap or even laying down in a dark room seems to rejuvenate it.

I'll second Jeff's comment. I drink a fair bit of water.

The one real thing I've noticed, and perhaps it's because we're mammals, out here in LA I just tend to sleep a lot less during Spring and Summer. However, I'm not really feeling any more tired or anything. I'd even say I wake up a bit fresher.

Production hours are largely all over the place, but for content creation I do my best creative work during the evening through early AM. It's peaceful and I know I can get more work done undisturbed. Sometimes I'll have a good late night think and wake up and plow through 8am-8pm without blinking because I've loaded up the brain battery with a good amount of charge.

It's different strokes for different folks though. I used to be fascinated by other creatives sleep habits. All I've found over the years is that it's all over the board. Physical activity and eating habits play an interesting role. Water seems to be really useful. Most people I know don't drink enough of it.

 

[Paul Russell]

sometimes 3, sometimes 6, sometimes none at all for days on end. When I've got stuff to think about sleep is impossible.
I frequently have to use a self-hypnosis technique which involves counting backwards in 7s from 700 (or any random number), gradually slowing the breathing with each calculation. Most times it works.

 

[Peter Majtan]

There is sleep and then there is sleep. It's not about the quantity for me, but rather the quality...

Over the years in this crazy industry I have completely shed any sleeping patter what so ever. I frequently do projects where I go 2-3 days with next to no sleep and extremely rarely have a day "off" when I can lay down for 6 or 9 hrs. What I did adjust to is to sleep in 3-hrs blocks. If I know I can only sleep 4.5 hrs before I have to wake up - I prefer to sleep just 3 and feel much more rested. I can sleep at any time of the day and as a consequence almost never suffer from a jetlag... ;o)

But if I had to summarize - I would say I sleep on average 3 hours of solid sleep (my 2-year old can be literarily jumping all over me and I don't wake up) substituted with 2-3 short (30 min) naps spread through out the day...

I know this is "not healthy" according to most doctors, but then again this is our peak productive age when we can do amazing things and achieve the seemingly impossible. I'd much rather live a super productive life till 60, then keeping "healthy" pass 80 not be able to do the things I can do now...

:sifone: Peter

 

[Nick Morrison]

I work the night shift cutting promos, so in general, my sleep schedule is FUCKED. I don't get home till 3-4am. I watch a shitty movie till 5 or so (and ask myself..."what filters are they using?"), and then crash till 11am. So about 6hrs usually. I can't sleep past noon, ever anymore. I also can't sleep 8hrs anymore, except on weekends when I need to catchup. But even then...only if I've gone to bed at 2am and padded in some rest. Because once noon rolls around, I'm wide awake.

In general, my goal is to sleep 6-7hrs. That's pretty good for me. I'd like to have a more regular sleep schedule. I'd also like to get off the fucking night shift eventually, but I get so overbooked running a ton of projects at night, it's unlikely.

I keep my days open also for shoots. Those days are the best/worst. Best because I'm on a shoot (favorite thing ever). Worst because when shoot is done (around 4pm-ish, promo interviews aren't super long generally), I almost always have to then run into edit for another 10-12hrs. Also I most likely only slept 4hrs then night before, so those days can catch up with me.

In an ideal world, I'd go to bed at 1-2am, and get up around 7-9am. I hate the mornings, but I also know I love them when I use them.

My father is Spanish, and our shared Iberian blood has the same affect on both of us, and in fact on my entire Spanish family: we all like to stay up late. My dad's a film-maker, and he's always written all his screenplays and crap at night. He goes to bed at 2-3am regularly. So it's in my blood. I know that. But still, I'd like to be on different schedule, and not be up so late.

But regarless of WHEN I go to sleep, I'm generally good with 6-7hrs. That's my sweet spot.

5hrs makes me feel a little cracked out, but I can deal with it (with a bunch of coffee).

4hrs I can handle, but a lot of adrenaline needs to crank in.

6hrs is fine.

7hrs I find myself looser, more fun, and my sense of humor kicks in a whole other gear. I see more jokes and "threads" and "connections". My brain is definetly on a higher functioning plane at 7hrs.

When I oversleep, I start to get sluggish, and it's almost a bad as sleeping 4-5hrs. That's generally when I've slept like 10hrs, and stayed in bed even after I'd "woken up" an hour or two previously. But I rarely oversleep anymore. Don't have time.

The only advantage of sleeping 3-4hrs is sometimes it gives me a false sense of confidence and I can write and say a whole bunch of shit I'd never do otherwise (because I'm too tired or stupid to know otherwise), but generally peaking...I'm also really distracted and short-circuited and I'm sure I'm as irritating as I think I am entertaining. I know my wife HATES this part pf me, and is quick to tell me to shut the fuck up. So there you have it.

Haha.

Good thread.

 

[paulherrin]

even elephants have dreams

even elephants have dreams

i like sleep.

sometimes i'll be up all night if i've got an intense focus (when i get a focus eating and sleeping are secondary) and some days i'll need to nap, i basically just sleep when i can whenever i feel tired. most of the time when i'm 'producing something tangible' it's after 5pm. i seem to be in bed anywhere from 6-12 hours, but i'd say 8-10 is normal for me.

usually i go to bed sometime between 10&2 and who knows when i'm actually asleep or how much of my time in bed is spent sleeping, that probably fluctuates a lot with seasons or whatever's going on. it's very difficult for me to get out of bed in the morning unless i have pressing business, i'll wake up and go back to sleep pretty often and go right back to dreaming, sometimes the same dream. dreams are really important to me, (i think) whether i 'remember' them consciously or not. [everyone dreams, you just don't always realize you have been unless you wake up during/because the dream, but it still affects your neural network, but so does everything you and your brain experience.]

course, at this point i'm in school and (trying to) do a bit of freelance/personal work now and then, which gives me a much more flexible schedule usually. a large portion of my time is spent ingesting information and ideas, plus i think 'too much'. so, i think my brain likes sleep... and dream.

very cool discussion. do you guys ever get inspiration or creative vision from dreams?

 

[Pablo Moreno]

I work the night shift cutting promos, so in general, my sleep schedule is FUCKED. I don't get home till 3-4am. I watch a shitty movie till 5 or so (and ask myself..."what filters are they using?"), and then crash till 11am. So about 6hrs usually. I can't sleep past noon, ever anymore. I also can't sleep 8hrs anymore, except on weekends when I need to catchup. But even then...only if I've gone to bed at 2am and padded in some rest. Because once noon rolls around, I'm wide awake.

In general, my goal is to sleep 6-7hrs. That's pretty good for me. I'd like to have a more regular sleep schedule. I'd also like to get off the fucking night shift eventually, but I get so overbooked running a ton of projects at night, it's unlikely.

I keep my days open also for shoots. Those days are the best/worst. Best because I'm on a shoot (favorite thing ever). Worst because when shoot is done (around 4pm-ish, promo interviews aren't super long generally), I almost always have to then run into edit for another 10-12hrs. Also I most likely only slept 4hrs then night before, so those days can catch up with me.

In an ideal world, I'd go to bed at 1-2am, and get up around 7-9am. I hate the mornings, but I also know I love them when I use them.

My father is Spanish, and our shared Iberian blood has the same affect on both of us, and in fact on my entire Spanish family: we all like to stay up late. My dad's a film-maker, and he's always written all his screenplays and crap at night. He goes to bed at 2-3am regularly. So it's in my blood. I know that. But still, I'd like to be on different schedule, and not be up so late.

But regarless of WHEN I go to sleep, I'm generally good with 6-7hrs. That's my sweet spot.

5hrs makes me feel a little cracked out, but I can deal with it (with a bunch of coffee).

4hrs I can handle, but a lot of adrenaline needs to crank in.

6hrs is fine.

7hrs I find myself looser, more fun, and my sense of humor kicks in a whole other gear. I see more jokes and "threads" and "connections". My brain is definetly on a higher functioning plane at 7hrs.

When I oversleep, I start to get sluggish, and it's almost a bad as sleeping 4-5hrs. That's generally when I've slept like 10hrs, and stayed in bed even after I'd "woken up" an hour or two previously. But I rarely oversleep anymore. Don't have time.

The only advantage of sleeping 3-4hrs is sometimes it gives me a false sense of confidence and I can write and say a whole bunch of shit I'd never do otherwise (because I'm too tired or stupid to know otherwise), but generally peaking...I'm also really distracted and short-circuited and I'm sure I'm as irritating as I think I am entertaining. I know my wife HATES this part pf me, and is quick to tell me to shut the fuck up. So there you have it.

Haha.

Good thread.

Four words:

Yo soy como tu..

 

[Bob Gundu]

Some of my best work has come to me during a hot shower.

i like sleep.

sometimes i'll be up all night if i've got an intense focus (when i get a focus eating and sleeping are secondary) and some days i'll need to nap, i basically just sleep when i can whenever i feel tired. most of the time when i'm 'producing something tangible' it's after 5pm. i seem to be in bed anywhere from 6-12 hours, but i'd say 8-10 is normal for me.

usually i go to bed sometime between 10&2 and who knows when i'm actually asleep or how much of my time in bed is spent sleeping, that probably fluctuates a lot with seasons or whatever's going on. it's very difficult for me to get out of bed in the morning unless i have pressing business, i'll wake up and go back to sleep pretty often and go right back to dreaming, sometimes the same dream. dreams are really important to me, (i think) whether i 'remember' them consciously or not. [everyone dreams, you just don't always realize you have been unless you wake up during/because the dream, but it still affects your neural network, but so does everything you and your brain experience.]

course, at this point i'm in school and (trying to) do a bit of freelance/personal work now and then, which gives me a much more flexible schedule usually. a large portion of my time is spent ingesting information and ideas, plus i think 'too much'. so, i think my brain likes sleep... and dream.

very cool discussion. do you guys ever get inspiration or creative vision from dreams?

 

[paulherrin]

Some of my best work has come to me during a hot shower.

yeah, i tend to go into a meditational zone in the shower and collect a lot of thoughts and ideas there.

i guess it's kind of like a bathing ritual. i wonder what would happen differently with a cold bath in an outside spring...

 

[Vithya Sharma]

Ha Ha HA nice post...
bt
3-4AM I go to bed wrk up 6-6:30AM
I try to gt 6-8 Hrs bt I can't get

 

[Jesper Sichlau]

Between 7 and 8 hours, preferably 7.5 hours. My eyes are probably the most important reason why I need so much sleep. They start to irritate and get really heavy if I don't get enough sleep. But then again I don't drink coffee or any other kind of drinks to help me stay awake.

 

[Antony Newman]

I've found that Autogenic Suggestion allowed me to :
+) fall in a deep sleep within 1 to 2 minutes.
+) have dreams where I fly
+) need less sleep to feel refreshed
+) get into lucid dreaming (where you wake up in yours dreams, and can be über creative)

I love the honesty of dreams, and their lateral inspiratons; I at usually set my alarm 1 hour earlier than I need so that I can wakeup, drink water, fall asleep for another eternity (of 8 minutes) over and over again...

AJ

 

[Saumene Mehrdady]

Some of my best work has come to me during a hot shower.

Same here. It's not so much for cleaning myself as it is to sit under the hot water and brainstorm for stuff