I thought I could survive on 5 hours of sleep. My 30s disagreed

In 2023, the “bed rot” was presented as a revolutionary form of personal care against a culture that encourages productivity. By 2024, “Sleepmaxxing” – the continuation of a perfect sleep – was trendy on Tiktok. Research has identified generation Z as the most stressed demography, with an alarming increase in mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. Perhaps sleeping is their way of recovering a certain control in a world where the chances are stacked against them. Hotels also rush to obtain a slice of pie, marketing sleep programs that promise high energy levels, a stronger immune system, improved memory and, in six Vana senses, even “a young light in your eye”. At the Antanta Udaipur, “silence pillows” made from duck feathers are shaping up to the guest’s heads to facilitate better quality sleep. Ananda in Himalayas offers a 21 night’s sleep improvement program that combines lifestyle changes, food corrections, therapies by Ayurveda and traditional Chinese medicine. Last year, the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group appointed Malminder Gill as his “sleep concierge” of burial, each consultation followed by a tailor -made inductive hypnosis session.

For my part, fortunately, I never had trouble adapting. Every night, I went to bed in bed, I was on my own will. Dr. Nupur Jhunjhunwala, based in Mumbai, warns me that it will be my loss as I get older. “How long does you need to fall asleep?” She asks during our consultation at the Somniawise Sleep Clinic in Kemps Corner. “Barely two minutes, once I finished what I look at at 3 am,” I said with a sly smile. “It’s not good,” she reprimands. “Sleep is the time we need to support us once we have been going to bed.” Apparently, our body must enter the different sleep stages – N1, N2, N3 and Rem – slightly and in the correct proportions of quality sleep. “Going falling asleep immediately after watching a screen or reading online, it’s almost like numb your mind in unconsciousness rather than putting them to sleep,” continues Dr. Jhunjhunwala. Fortunately, she shows the leniency in her attempt to reclassle my brain.

My first task? Sleep at 1 a.m. instead of 3 a.m. I was ready to try. The non -negotiable did not end at 11:30 p.m. – the moment when my creative console begins to shine the brightest – to reduce my sleep latency. During my first attempt, I was so wired that my partner had to tell me a story at bedtime. The second evening, I tried to visualize a monster at the foot of my bed, in the hope that fear would force me to sleep. Strangely, it worked. However, I relapsed on my third and fourth attempts, and I calmed down with my Kindle.

On the eighth day, I woke up without the trille of my alarm clock. On weekends, I shocked my older friends by suggesting that we meet for breakfast at 7 a.m. It was like a fever dreaming of seeing their faces lit by the sweet morning sun rather than by the stroboscopic lights of a bar. All this does not mean that I have turned a night bird into a morning lark. The moon has invaded writers and poets for centuries, but I am starting to see the shared charm of wakeing up with the rest of the world, ready to take the day together. What do you know? Let me sleep on it.

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