Why You Can Stop Worrying About Getting 8 Hours Of Sleep Per Night, And What to Do Instead

An elite sports sleep coach’s approach to sleep

Do you struggle to get your recommended 8 hours of sleep per night? Do you worry about it?

If you are like many people in our hustle-and-bustle society, your answer to both questions is “yes.”

Maybe you are trying to squeeze in social activities between your day job, family obligations, and household chores. Perhaps you are side-hustling in the evenings to make your wildest dreams come true. Or maybe you simply want to squeeze in extra time for exercise or meditation.

Whatever the reason for your worrying about getting the recommended 8–10 hours sleep during the night, your worries might be unwarranted.

Here is why.

Monophasic Nocturnal Sleep Is An Invention Of The Modern Day Human

When researching polyphasic sleep for my own sleep experiment, I found various sources and scientific investigations that showed that humans are inherently polyphasic sleepers.

That means humans historically have been breaking up their sleep in distinct phases rather than sleeping in one large chunk throughout the night.

Most hunter-gatherer tribes still sleep polyphasically and don’t restrict their sleep times to the night. In Medieval Europe, it was common to segment the night into two phases. People would sleep around dawn, wake during the night, stay up for a few hours, and then return to sleep.

That’s all fine and dandy, you might say. But how does that help me in today’s modern world? Simple.

By taking cues from history and modern-day hunter-gatherers, we can optimize our sleep without stressing over the amount of sleep we get each night.

The elite sports sleep coach Nick Littlehales outlines how to do this in his book: “Sleep. The Myth of 8 Hours, the Power of Naps…and the New Plan to Recharge Your Body And Mind.”

An Elite Sports Sleep Coach Approach To Sleep And Optimum Performance

Nick Littlehales went from mattress salesman to the go-to sleep coach for top performers. He has advised pro athletes of football clubs like Manchester United, the British Sky Cycling Team, and Olympic Medalists.

His book urges us to think beyond the dogmatic “get 8 hours of sleep per night” recommendation and think about sleep and recovery more comprehensively.

If you want to read a book that blends science with tons of practical advice on optimizing your sleep so that you can perform at your highest levels, then this book is for you.

Here are my 5 key takeaways:

1. Think About Sleep In 90-Minute Cycles

When you start thinking about sleep as 90-minute cycles, you begin to think differently about the concept of sleep. One sleep cycle is 90 minutes. Why? Because that is the time, your body needs to go through all the sleep stages.

The second important idea you should adopt regarding your sleep is that of “controlled recovery periods” (CRP). CRP’s are periods during a day where we have natural dips in energy and use those dips for scheduled recovery. You can use them to get extra sleep or simply lay down and rest. Naturally, these times are between 13:00 and 15:00 pm and between 17:00 and 19:00 pm.

Littlehales suggests that you start by picking a constant wake-up time and then decide how many cycles you can or want to spend sleeping overnight.

Experiment to find out what works for you.

You could start with 6 cycles. If you are like me and tend to do best on less continuous sleep, you might pick 5 or even 4 or 3 cycles to start with.

I prefer to wake up at 04:00 am to get my most important tasks done before the rest of my world wakes up. I feel more refreshed after 6 hours of sleep than after 8, so I go to bed around 10 pm.

This gives me 4 sleep cycles — or 6h of sleep per night. I then add in one or two CRP’s during the day. How much additional CRP time I schedule depends on my current training load as a runner, family events, work commitments, etc.

Rarely will I get 8 hours of sleep in a 24-hour cycle. However, I found that I am more alert and need way less caffeine to get me through my day when I spend fewer hours in bed during the night and add one or 2 naps during the day.

2. Know Your Chronotype And Use It To Your Advantage

Are you a morning person or a night owl? When you naturally wake up early, love the mornings, and are ready to go as soon as you open your eyes, you are what Littlehales calls an AM’er.

On the other hand, you know you are a PM’er if you like to sleep long and stay up late, having your most creative and productive time in the late evening.

Knowing which chronotype you belong to can help you set up your days for maximum energy.

This is especially important for PM’ers since our world with early morning starts at work and school is set up for AM’ers, and PM’ers are forced to adapt to this rhythm. They can help themselves by using daylight lamps as soon as they wake up and sticking to a consistent wake-up time.

3. Understand And Honor Your Circadian Rhythm

Human wake-sleep cycles are intricately linked with nature’s dark-light cycles.

Since your internal 24-hour body clock is aligned with your natural environment, it naturally changes whenever you spend extended periods in other climates. Living in Norway has a different effect on your circadian rhythm than residing in Ecuador.

The circadian rhythm is primarily to blame for your varying energy levels throughout the day. It dictates the optimal napping times that I mentioned in the section about 90-minute cycles.

Because the circadian rhythms are heavily influenced by light, Littlehales suggests that we use daylight lamps or get outside as soon as we wake up. We should also get daylight on our bodies during the day and reduce artificial lights and technology before bed.

Ideally, we’d also use a pre-and post-sleep routine every day.

Littlehales describes how you can minimize jet lag by shifting pre-adapting your circadian rhythm before you travel. If you are working night shifts, you will find tips to reduce its negative impact on your health in this book.

4. Optimize Your Sleep Environment

Optimizing your sleep environment is not about buying the priciest mattress. Instead, it is about setting up your room for maximum quiet and tranquility.

The bedroom is an extended living space for many people — cluttered with electronics, drawers for clothes, books, and other “stuff” not necessary for sleep.

This is a mistake in Littlehales’ opinion. According to him, you should keep only the basics in your “recovery room,” as he likes to call it. Those basics are your bed, which shouldn’t be too small, a light — ideally a dawn simulator, and an alarm clock.

You need a double bed, and if you are sharing it with a partner, you’d ideally have a king-sized bed. Ideally, your mattress fits your body type so that you don’t need a pillow. Your room should be dark and cool.

5. Use Caffeine Like An Elite Athlete

If you are drinking coffee, chances are you are using caffeine the wrong way — according to Littlehales. Many of us get too much caffeine in one shot and too much caffeine overall.

Instead of drinking coffee or tea habitually, we should see caffeine as a performance enhancer and use it accordingly.

The best time to have some caffeine is 15 minutes before you need to perform. Keeping in mind that caffeine has a half-life of between six and seven hours, you should opt to have small doses of 100 to 200 mg in the morning and then every 3 to 4 hours so that your levels stay constant.

That is not to say that you need coffee, of course. Living caffeine-free is an excellent health choice 😉.

Rethink How You Think About Sleep

If you want to sleep better, you need to start optimizing your day from the moment you wake up.

A constant wake-up time, daylight or daylight simulation, and going easy on caffeine are habits that promote a healthful slumber. It also helps to look at your week in advance and decide when you can add in additional “controlled recovery periods” — also known as naps 😁 .

The most important thing for me has been to stop worrying about a bad night’s sleep and simply going on with my day, knowing I can add in a nap or two later if I need it.

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