I’d rather stay up anyway

I get ten hours of sleep. I wake up feeling tired and have to go to work.

I get three hours of sleep. I wake up feeling tired and have to go to work, but I got an additional 7 hours of gaming in and extended my free time. Win.

Probably not a win in the long run though. But I'll take it too.
- The "long run" sounds like a future me problem, not a right-now me problem. Therefore, no problem!
And then people complain that “you’re not healthy”. I feel way healthier and happier with more free time thank you very much.
- I mean, I still average out to 7-8hrs of sleep over the entire week... I just make it up on Friday thru Sunday nights.
- I know right? I feel better when im drunk but when I try to stay up all night drinking I get lip from everyone!!

The trick is a consistent sleep schedule. Consistently getting sunlight within the first hour of waking up helps a lot too, and taking time to wind down, dim lights, like an hour before bed

How am I supposed to get sunlight when I start work at 6:00 but sunrise isn't until 8:00
- Get a sunrise alarm, I bought one half a year ago and it works wonders, waking up is so much easier. (I also have to wake up before 6)
Also have a bottle of water in your bedroom near you that you can drink in the morning, it helps you wake up
- And another bottle you can heat up so you can sit on a hot water bottle. There are few pleasures like a warm butt. Also another bottle for pissin.
- Try telling that to my cats
Graveyard shift let's go woohoo!

Why ia this a thing can anyone sciency answer ?

It's a matter of timing your waking up with the right part of your sleep cycle. If you sleep through the "wake up window", which I think is right after REM sleep, then your reenter deeper sleep which is harder to wake up from.
- What is REM ?
Yeah, it’s about getting enough REM and SWS cycles. The effect decays over time, though. If you time your wake up to a full sleep cycle (around 2.5-3 hours) one night, you may wake up feeling fine. If you do this multiple nights in a row, however, you will build up a REM/SWS debt. So on day one it feels fine, on day two it feels less fine, and on day three you’re dragging.
- I have no idea what you are talking about can you ELI5 it a bit
- Could you explain a little more ?

That's what happens to me when I don't shove enough water into my throat before bedtime. Your body flushes all the bad stuff out and has no water left in the morning. You can either stop eating salty foods (or food in general) before bedtime, or split your sleep into several parts.

I have a window of perfection. If I sleep less the 4 hours I'm dead tired in the morning, if I sleep more then 7 hours I am dead in the morning, but for some reason if I get 5, 6 or 7 I'll be up and at em no issue at all

Yeah, for me it's 6 the perfect amount (altho i sleep more on the weekends)
Finally someone else who acknowledges this

Have you tried 12 hours?

I did 18

Yeh but if I wake up tired after 2h sleep, I have limited energy and an more quickly exhausted. And I'll likely suffer the more for it the following day.

If I wake up tired after 10h sleep I actually have more reserves of strength, and can do better that day - or more (I think), can do better the next day.

The illusion of choice

The only time I get 10 hours and wake up tired is after a lot of drinking, so maybe you have other issues.

I do pretty much always wake up tired, but I also can't make myself stay awake past 9 most of the time any longer. Not since I hit 40 or so (46 now). I used to be able to stay up all night if I wanted to. This is the first year in a while I was able to stay up until midnight to see in the new year. And just barely.

10 hours is too much. I find 7 is the sweet spot for me.

My sweet spot really seems to be 6hrs. I feel most alert and functional. At least for the past 5 years or so.

Prior to that I worked 2 x 24hr shifts, many times 3 x 24hrs, per week. My sleep was a significantly different pattern.