Is sleep overrated? Meet the people getting by on four hours per night

Imagine sleeping for just four hours per night. It was enough for Margaret Thatcher, but humans usually require around seven to nine hours for optimal health and cognitive function. This isn’t a blanket rule – some groups are better served by different sleep durations, such as those who are recovering from illness (who need to sleep more than they normally would) and younger children (toddlers should be having 11-14 hours).

Most people in the UK say they sleep for seven hours per night, and the equivalent figure rises to eight hours in the US. While this means that most of us are getting at least the minimum amount of sleep we need, it also highlights that millions must be sleeping less. In fact, around 4% of people in the UK and 8% in the US claim to sleep for fewer than five hours per night.

What leads to people sleeping so little, and how does this lifestyle affect their health and happiness? We spoke to three people – with very different reasons for only sleeping around four hours a night – and asked sleep expert Dave Gibson, a registered osteopath, hypnotherapist, stress management coach and founder of The Sleep Site for his advice.

Short-sleeping by choice: “Four hours per night is the rhythm that works for my life and work.”

Hailey Rodaer, a marketing director in Reno, Nevada, US, thinks that four hours is just right:

"It may be strange for someone to say they choose to sleep only four hours a night, as this is generally seen as unhealthy. But in my experience, it has become the rhythm that works for life and work.

"I naturally wake up at around 3.30am, and these early and silent periods are the most productive times. I am at my sharpest and complete my strategic work before the world comes to life. It started with a difficult product release where I reduced sleep so that I could meet my deadlines, but I found that my body adjusted.

"However, I still pay close attention to my health and visit the doctor regularly while also engaging in a daily workout. My energy levels are consistent but I have adapted to pay close attention to signs of exhaustion. The largest trade-off is that I need to take short breaks in the afternoon in order to reset mentally, but the upside is a long period of uninterrupted concentration each morning. It gives me time to reflect and be creative, before my team starts work."

The sleep expert’s view:

“Given that she wakes up refreshed and is alert throughout the day, Hailey might be someone with a genetic ability to feel fully rested after just four to six hours of sleep. Certain genes have been discovered which appear to allow this. (Some of these genes are DEC2, ADRB1 and SIK3.)

“The DEC2 gene is associated with a need for around six hours and the SIK3 gene even less in some individuals. Those with these genes would find that they have always been short sleepers and they would have family members with a similar trait.

“The key is that you wake up feeling refreshed and remain refreshed throughout the day. If you wake up feeling tired and groggy, you probably aren't a genetically short sleeper and would need to sleep for longer (typically seven to nine hours).”

Too busy to sleep: “A lot of broken sleep that made up a low number of hours.”

Charlotte Dodds, 35, is the founder of two small businesses and the mother of two young children in Gateshead, UK.

"When the kids were very little there wasn’t much routine. I can’t say exactly when I was going to bed each night, because the timing depended on the babies. It was a lot of broken sleep that made up a low number of hours.

"I started my first business around the same time, in 2020, and I was also in full-time work and working towards a qualification. I was making the most of the hours I was awake, and being busy took my focus away from how tired I felt.

"My sleep pattern is more regular now that my children are nine and five years old. But one of them is still a bad sleeper, so while I can aim to have a regular bedtime, it’s never a full, uninterrupted night’s sleep.

"Now that I’ve started my second business, I’m often working late and I might not go to bed till one or two in the morning, before getting up in time for the school run.

"I think my body has become used to it. When I was in my twenties, I worked in hospitality and could easily have a nap when I was tired. Now, I just wouldn’t be able to nod off because I’m accustomed to running on so little sleep.

"Not sleeping much can impact your mental health. I’ve felt more emotional and had slower reactions when I’ve slept very little.

"My advice to busy new parents who don’t get much sleep is to surround yourself with a community of people who understand your situation. It was difficult with my second child because we were in lockdown, but joining mother’s groups and baby groups helped. There’s always someone there on the WhatsApp group even when you’re awake at 3am."

The sleep expert’s view:

“It’s great that Charlotte has found support with a group of parents facing a similar challenge.

“I’d hope that she has night-time filters on her mobile phone to prevent the blue light which it emits from keeping her awake. Blue light delays the production of melatonin which is regarded as our sleep hormone.

“It's important too that she doesn't go on social media at this time, nor doom scroll or binge watch a series, as these actions tend to stimulate the brain and can delay you getting back to sleep.

“For those with babies and broken nightly sleep, I would always recommend that the parent tries to catch up on sleep when the baby takes a nap. And for those who expect a broken night's sleep with older children, a similar nap around the siesta period (between 2 and 5pm, when we feel naturally tired) would be good to add to their sleep routine.”

The shift worker: “It’d be 3am and I’d think, ‘Oh no, here we go again!’”

Michael Oddie, 31, from Manchester, UK, is a former IT night shift worker.

"My last job in technical support demanded 12-hour shifts. I’d be working either from 7am-7pm or 7pm-7am, and I had about a 30-minute walk to work. Ideally, I was expected to get there 15 minutes early, so I would often wake up at around 5.30am and leave the house at 6.15am.

"After getting home at 8pm, I’d try to cook a meal and would end up feeling like I had no time to relax, so I’d sacrifice sleep so that I could enjoy some time to myself – in theory, about three hours. But then I’d look at my clock, it’d be 3am and I’d think, “Oh no, here we go again!”

"It’s hard to describe how it made me feel, because my lifestyle was all go. I was tired at the end of the shift but always attributed it to the work, not the lack of sleep. Coffee got me through, and on days off I’d have a big sleep binge.

"I moved to working nine to five when I started running my own business full-time, and it’s a much less arduous schedule. I can wake up at half-past-eight to start work at nine. But when I first made the switch, I still wanted to sleep for only four hours, and I had to train myself out of it. I was going to bed at 4am for no reason. As time has gone on I’ve made more time for sleep, and I now get six or seven hours per night.

"I definitely feel much healthier. That’s probably related to diet and exercise too, but maybe improving on those aspects of life is easier when you’ve had better sleep. I still don’t feel like I need more than six hours – if I have eight, I feel drowsy."

The sleep expert’s view:

“For those doing night-shifts, the challenge of changing the body clock is very hard as this natural rhythm is designed for us to go to bed and wake up at the same time each day. It can adjust by one hour, max (such as when the clocks change), but will struggle with longer.

“With a night shift, you are essentially doing a similar pattern to someone travelling long haul and creating a jet lag effect. One of the keys to doing a night shift is to try to plan ahead and move your body clock towards the bedtimes you plan to have in smaller steps. This would mean trying to get to bed later before the start of a night shift and earlier towards the end of the night shift (ideally over a few days) to help the body clock adjust.

“Getting a nap before the start of the first night shift would be a good plan too as it puts some sleep in the bank. Caffeine is okay to use early in the night shift, but I'd avoid it later in the shift as it would tend to keep you awake once you get home.”

Is four hours of sleep ever really enough?

Sleep is personal, and these three interviews alone have demonstrated how individuals can respond differently to short sleeping – and take different steps to live with it. This doesn’t detract from the fact that most (but apparently not all) people may experience impaired cognition and health impacts when they don’t get enough sleep.

“Whilst being under-slept on an occasional basis leads to short term cognitive loss, such as decreased concentration and even increased anxiety, sleeping for less than six hours habitually is linked to conditions such as cardiovascular disease and stroke, type 2 diabetes and obesity,” says Gibson.

“If you are regularly sleeping less than six hours per night you should reach out to visit your doctor.”

Above that six-hour threshold (or perhaps below it, for a minority of people), sleep quality is all about finding the routine that works for you.

“When you sleep in line with your sleep preference you get both an increased quantity and quality of sleep,” Gibson advises.

“You’ll know that you’re getting enough sleep when you wake up feeling fully refreshed without needing to use an alarm. At this point your body is waking you up with the optimum level of rest.”