Anyone else can't cope with less than ten hours sleep?

I've always been a big sleeper, and I find I need ten hours sleep a night otherwise I am cranky, zoned out and exhausted- essentially the equivalent of how the non-mentally ill person feels after 3 hours sleep. It makes it difficult if I have a late night out as I know I'm going to pay for it badly the next day as exhaustion makes me depressed.

I wondered if anyone else found this, and if anyone had any ideas of how to sleep less and be more awake.

I exercise every 3 days, and avoid caffeine...

Am worried about how I'm going to cope when I start working full time and ten hours sleep becomes a distant luxury...


xxxxx

I find that I can average 6-7 hours of sleep during the week, but I need to catch up on it A LOT on the weekends... typically get 9 hours on Fri and Sat nights, and even include naps on Sat and Sun here and there. This past Saturday, I slept an incredible 13 hours! But I'm also very active - I typically exercise at least 45mins a day 6 days a week.

Only thing I can recommend is more exercise and maybe looking into your diet in order to get more energy. You shouldn't need more than 8 hours a night, but then again, if you're in a constant manic/hypo-manic/manic-like state (I'm not sure of your mental health diagnosis) then I know you can need more.

Also, just curious why you avoid caffeine? It might help in this case, but I don't know other details about you....

The only other thing I can say is, at least you know what you need to function well - if you can't tweak anything else, I suppose you should just make it a priority to get 10 hours of sleep a night. Think of it as a healthy thing to do rather than something that's wrong with you.

Thanks for the advice.

I have anxiety and depression, so i reckon it's the anxiety that exhausts me after being on a state of high alert for most of the day, and i know depression includes tiredness symptoms as well.

I avoid caffeine because it makes me go a bit mental now- hyper alert, really fidgety, paranoid thoughts, racing heart, counting... and then i crash and get really depressed. So generally not helpful unless i'm really desperate and cannot stay awake otherwise!

Don't you find doing so much exercise makes you more tired though? I get so exhausted from it even though i do it regularly!!

ah okay, I get the avoiding caffeine thing now - totally makes sense!

actually no, I find that I'm more energized when I exercise... I mean, initially I might feel a little tired and beat up, but usually if I recover well with a protein smoothie or something, I'm fine within the hour. It might be a little hard to drag myself out of bed at first - but I never finish a workout saying "that sucked!" I'm usually really glad I did it. I find that if I don't work out for 2-3 days in a row, I feel more tired and lazy and I eat poorly. But that's just me.

Staying on a schedule is huge for me. It is also what I struggle with the most. Its after 3 AM & here I am not in bed. Regular eating, sleeping and exercise times, actually I have to include meditation too, are so important. I have managed to kick sugar but cannot let the caffeine go all the way yet. I love coffee. Peet's is my fav.

Consistency in my schedule helps more than meds with my moods. I totally rebel against being on a schedule. I guess its self defeating behavior.

-kby-