During most of my 40s I was working graveyard shift, and my apartment was in a noisy neighborhood in Manhattan. I slept maybe a few hours a day, or even less, with constant sleep deprivation. I think my sleep cycle became permanently altered then, even after 20+ years.
It’s been a hell of a long time since I pulled an all-nighter, so I have no idea how I’d hold up after one anymore.
But I have noticed that I need less sleep, on average, than I used to. When I was in my 20s, I still needed 8 hours a night, give or take. Now, at age 60, it’s more like 6.5 hours. I don’t think there was a drop-off at any one point in time, but rather a gradual decline.
I think it’s mixed for me. I lost my willingness to pull all-nighters and my enjoyment of staying up late in general. On the other hand, I also lost my desire to laze around in bed and sleep in. I tend to get up and go to bed at about the same time regardless of the day of the week. I’m not sure if it’s all due to age or partly due to habits formed when my kids were young.
Anecdote: No, my capacity/resilience for low/no sleep in my 50s is pretty much what it always was.
In my 20s and 30s I used to be able to function perfectly well on three hours (or less) of sleep, even for consecutive days. I’m 56 now. Somewhere in my 40s I lost that ability, although I can still push through when necessary - but it’s an effort.
Contrary to what several people have posted, when I was younger I really benefited from naps if I needed a re-charge. I don’t think I’ve had a nap in a decade or more; not sure if I can. I envy people who can power-nap! But as long as I have at least seven hours of sleep I have plenty of energy for the rest of the cycle.
This is similar to my pattern, with the caveat that I have very bad idiopathic insomnia. When I was in my teens, 20s, and early 30s, I could have a bad night, and be OK the next day. I could even have a couple of bad night, but as long as I was averaging about five hours a night, I could power through for about four or five days, then I really needed to get at least eight hours. Ideally, I needed 8-9 hours a night at this time in my life, and that’s when I felt my best. Sometimes after several bad nights, I would oversleep, and sleep like 12 hours straight, and feel pretty crappy for several hours.
When I got to my mid-30s, I couldn’t power through after my bad nights anymore, and had to see a doctor. I started taking a very low dose of an anti-seizure medication (about 1/4 of what diagnosed epileptics take) every evening, about four hours before I went to sleep, and 3mg melatonin 1/2 hr before bed. I started sleeping really well after about a week of that. I also have Ambien for the occasional night that I just have a really bad night, or my sleep schedule is messed up because I’m traveling, or I had some kind of emergency the night before. I just need 5mg (half the usual adult dose) of it.
On this regimen, I typically get 7-8 hours of sleep, and that’s enough.
The days when I had a newborn were awful, though. I couldn’t take my meds when I was pregnant, but I actually slept pretty well then; however, after the baby was born, It was a couple of months before I got more than three hours of consecutive sleep.
I did lose it in my 40s. I’m not sure exactly when but suddenly a few years ago my mild insomnia went away and my ability to pull all-niters or function after 3 hours diminished greatly.
I’m in my fifties, and so far I’m doing OK. Six hours a night is pretty much the norm for me, and I can function for a while on less, if I have to. I can’t miss whole nights of sleep like I used to, though – I’ll definitely feel that.
Huh. I guess I reached “40” by the time I was 18. Call me precocious.
Or lazy.
I’m 43, and my experience is the same.
This precise thing hit me the year I turned 28. Before that I could do 5-6 hours a night, “catch up” over the weekend, and be fine. Now, 6 is the bare minimum, and if I go under 8.5 for more than a couple nights in a row I’m really feeling it.
Really messed up my ability to raid in a MMO and hold down a professional job at the same time.
Wow, I didn’t even see this thread. I did the opposite…after hitting forty I’m now sleeping 4-5 hours a night, tops. I used to be able to easily do 8 hours when needed.
So…really the amount you need, or just the amount you get? I’m 37 and I struggle to sleep more than 6 hours a night on weeknights and 7 on weekends (lifelong sleep-maintenance insomnia - bad enough all my life that my parents brought me to the dr. over it at age 4). I hope aging won’t make it even worse. I wouldn’t mind being able to function on 4 hours sleep, but if I couldn’t sleep more and still needed to…
Good fuckin’ hell, yes.
Teens: could completely forego a night’s sleep with no ill effects. Routinely slept over with friends on a Friday night, slept not at all, and functioned fine the next day.
Twenties: found I needed AT LEAST 4-5 hours sleep, or I would pay for it, if not the next day, the day after.
Thirties: needed 6-8 hours sleep per night, and this unfortunately coincided with the phase in my life when I had multiple small children.
Forties (and I turn 41 next month): I GO TO BED AT 10 ON WEEKNIGHTS, AND FUCK YOU IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT. Also, hangovers are now three-day ordeals, so now alcohol has lost a bit of its sheen.
Never really had to go without sleep in my 20s, 30s or 40s. I could’ve been a gold medallist in the sleeping department until my late 40s. I wish I’d appreciated that while it lasted.
This pretty much describes me, except that I had to pull a couple of all-nighters recently (one 26 hours, the other just shy of 32) as part of a project rollout. I did sleep a little more than usual afterwards — my normal ration is 4-5 hours — but I was functional and survived.
For the record, I’m “sixteen going on seventeen” (just add fifty years).
I’m 57, and doesn’t seem to be any difference. If I miss sleep, for work, I seem about the same as when I get a full night’s sleep. I think that it’s a motivatio thing. If I work extra, I know I’ll have extra money to spend when I’m through, so, I get energized.
Me too. I can get by on 4 hours sleep, and thrive on 6.
For me, in a way it’s the opposite if the OP. Physically, sure, it’s harder to function, most noticeably after two consecutive nights of insufficient sleep.
BUT it wasn’t until I was about 40 that I more consistently applied the MENTAL resolve – the self-discipline – to just get up and function regardless of what my body is asking me to do.
This comes with having more responsibilities than before – as a husband, as a professional, and especially as a father.
Yeah, I used to almost never sleep but now I can’t hardly function if I do that. I assumed it’s because I’m way more heavily medicated than I was twenty years ago but maybe I’m just getting old.