Stanley says that a lot of people with sleep issues actually don’t have any problem sleeping, instead they have an expectation that they need to sleep for a certain amount of time. Some people need very little sleep, others need 11 or 12 hours to feel their best.” In fact, the amount of sleep you need is genetically determined as much as your height or shoe size. “There’s this social view that short sleeping is a good thing and should be encouraged – we’re always hauling out the example of Margaret Thatcher and top CEOs who don’t need much sleep. You could also do yourself a favour by ignoring society’s views on sleep, he says. Your body craves regularity, so if you chop and change your sleep pattern, your body hasn’t got a clue when it should prepare to wake up or not.” “Studies show that your body prepares to wake up one and a half hours prior to actually waking up. Stanley says that when your body gets used to the time it needs to wake up, it can use the time it has to sleep as efficiently as possible. Until then, are there any shortcuts to a more efficient night’s sleep for the rest of us? Neil Stanley, an independent sleep consultant, says yes: “The most effective way to improve your sleep is to fix your wake-up time in the morning.” “I can get up and do my exercise before anyone else is up and then it’s done, out of the way,” she says. She slowly increased the time she ran, finally completing not one, but 37 marathons – one a month over three years – plus several ultramarathons. The following day she did it again, running a little further. For example, just three weeks after giving birth to her first son, Ross decided to use one of her early mornings to attempt to run around the block. Her short sleeping patterns allowed her to complete university in two and a half years, as well as affording her time to learn lots of new skills. I wish more shops were open at that time, but I can shop online, or I can read – oh there’s so much to read in this world! Or I can go out and exercise before anyone else is up, or talk to people in other time zones.” It’s so peaceful and quiet and you can get so much done. “Those hours in the morning – around five o’clock – are just fabulous. She has been living on four to five hours sleep every day for as long as she can remember. “I always feel great when I wake up,” she says. It’s very common for them to feel like they want to cram as much into life as they can, but we’re not sure how or whether this is related to their mutations.” “Anecdotally,” she says, “they are all very energetic, very optimistic. A positive outlook is common among all of the short-sleepers that Fu has studied.
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