The title pretty much says it all.  I currently sleep 8 to 9 hours
every night.  I also work a job that has me out of the house often for
12+ hours a day.  I've been thinking of how much I could get done if I
just had an hour or two more each day to be productive.  However, if I
sleep 7 or less hours, I feel like a zombie the next day.

So the question is this:  Is there a way to train myself to sleep less
and feel ok doing so?  It doesn't have to be a drastic change - I'd
just like to shorten my sleeping time to 6 or 6.5 hours a night.  Any
help would be appreciated.

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Request for Question Clarification by cynthia-ga on 06 Feb 2006 14:37 PST

I can give you some resources for Polyphasic Sleep:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep
..."Polyphasic sleep is a sleep pattern specification intended to
reduce sleep time to 2?5 hours daily. This is achieved by spreading
out sleep into short naps of around 20?45 minutes throughout the day.
This is supposed to allow for more waking hours with relatively high
alertness..."

This is fairly drastic, at a minimum changing one's sleep schedule is
an upset in your life, however, the return might be well worth it.

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Clarification of Question by freaknell-ga on 06 Feb 2006 16:36 PST

Hmmm... its an interesting concept (didn't Kramer try something like
that in a Seinfeld episode?), but unfortunately, I need to be
(relatively) conscious for an uninterrupted span during my work day...

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Request for Question Clarification by cynthia-ga on 06 Feb 2006 20:11 PST

There's a modified polyphasic method with a night sleep of 3-4 hours
and a about 3 naps --you might want to check that out.

Sleep Less Live Longer
http://health.ucsd.edu/news/2002/02_08_Kripke.html

The book Sleep Less, Live More had the following review on Amazon:

This book, one of only two books I found on trying to get by with less
sleep, makes only one point: reduce your sleep gradually (the same
sole point made by the other book). Unfortunately, although the author
says that we all have different sleep requirements, it doesn't tell
you what you really need to know: how much does MY body need to
function properly? In other words, how can you tell if you are getting
more sleep than YOU need? The fact that the book has been out of print
for 19 years, and that there are seemingly no other books on reducing
your level of sleep, tends to make one worry about the validity of the
subject-matter.

I would think that it is a matter of strict schedule and training.

Sleep is physiologically determined.Sleep requirements may be partly
genetically inherited, so also sleep patterns- larks versus owls.
Individual sleep requirements can vary from 4 to 12 hours/24 hours. We
also know that sleep has vital restorative effects on brain function,
even if the mechanism of action is unclear. Complex biological rhythms
run in tandem, in particular circadian rhythms which are driven by the
light dark cycles.
So while it is tempting to think of an extra half hour/day adding up
to enormous amounts, I think it would be unwise health wise to attempt
altering this, either by deprivation or fragmentation.
Any basic neurology or psychiatry textbook gives a good overview of
sleep in the basic sciences section

caffeine pills
gradually increase dosage

This is not an answer for what you need but is a good advice. You must
sleep all hours that you need, 8 hours is recomended and in some cases
9 that is for adults. I don't say this to you for money :) but you
should ask a qeustion "Why should i sleep 8 hours" and the answer is
because if you don't sleep enought , in time you might have bad
problems. An example of what students make wrong when they study, they
learn day and night and in the exam's day they realise that they don't
know enythink but a student that read 2 hours and sleep good that
student will know what he read.
        Please think about what i sad :)