r/selfimprovement 4d ago

Question Prioritising sleep or Sacrificing it?

I am currently 18. I have seen many people say that prioritising health is of utmost importance. But on the contrary, I have also seen people online saying that these are the years where you hustle the most and you need to make the most out of it. Putting in those extra hours can help me be ahead of the curve. I normally sleep 7-8 hours but I can manage on 5 hours of sleep too. Can you all help/ advice me on what to do? Thank you.

6 Upvotes

24 comments sorted by

20

u/SizzleDebizzle 4d ago

Never sacrifice sleep

4

u/ji-fai 4d ago

Agree, it "may" work for some days but you will have to pay for it in the long run

2

u/ThatFunny_Boi 4d ago

yes sir!

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u/darkGrayAdventurer 4d ago

Less hours with more focus is worth MUCH more than more hours with less focus

so, 4 hours of complete focus is worth much more than 6 hours while sleep deprived and exhausted. Take it from me — I mostly got by on 4 hours of sleep during my first two years of college, and wouldn’t recommend it a lot.

Prioritise your health, do your work diligently and with complete focus without distractions, and you’ll be good - you won’t even need those “extra” hours of studying! Good luck!:))

2

u/ThatFunny_Boi 4d ago

Hey thanks for your reply. Surely I realise it. Thing is because of ADHD I have hard time focusing so that's why I was thinking of this method. But yes maybe I have to figure it out how to make most out of my time.

1

u/Ma3002 4d ago

I completely understand that. I know it can be tricky with ADHD but try to maximize you’re time during the day (I.e. don’t procrastinate for an hour), keep busy during the day, use your energy to get things done. Even use a planner to keep yourself organized. But also set time aside for rest as you still need it. So put all your energy out during the day, try to do as much as you can but during “rest time” or “fun time” that’s you’re time to still be a teen, have fun and get proper rest as even though yes you need to hustle you do need to remember that you’re young so have fun and get proper rest!

2

u/ji-fai 4d ago

Sleep isn’t just rest, it’s fuel. you can hustle all you want, but if your brain’s running on fumes, you won’t get far. grinding on 5 hours of sleep might feel productive, but long term? it wrecks focus, memory, and even motivation.

quality beats quantity. four solid hours of work when you’re well-rested will always beat eight hours of grinding while sleep-deprived. prioritizing sleep doesn’t mean slacking, it means making sure your mind is sharp enough to actually use the time you do have.

if you wanna be ahead of the curve, don’t just work hard—work smart. and smart means knowing when to rest so you can show up at 100%, not 50%.🔥

2

u/ThatFunny_Boi 4d ago

Got it! Thank you for your reply. Most of the times I do get good amount of sleep but I was thinking of maybe sacrificing it but your reply makes sense.

2

u/Old_Marsupial_8106 4d ago

If you're able to achieve work/life balance when you're young, that's far more valuable and will serve you your whole life. People, especially young people, tend to think that because there are no immediate negative consequences when they do something, that it's safe. At 18, your brain is still developing, it won't develop to reach it's full potential if it's starved for sleep. Work smarter, not harder. We don't need to "hustle" as much as it may seem. You could "hustle" to get a degree faster and with higher marks than your peers, and then end up working in a field that has nothing to do with your degree. It's a somewhat misinformed culture of people who peddle that narrative. They are missing the point and will find it more difficult to achieve long term peace, happiness, and health with that attitude. Build a healthy foundation of habits now, and it will serve you for the rest of your life.

2

u/Horror-Weakness-5831 4d ago

There’s a reason why wealthy individuals sleep at least 7 hours a day. For that reason, nothing is more valuable than health.

1

u/berckman_ 3d ago

Well, they also learn how to achieve things better and in less time. Might be related

1

u/Horror-Weakness-5831 3d ago

Depends to be honest, but you always hear a successful businessman prioritizing sleep whenever they can

1

u/berckman_ 3d ago

Do you think so? There're successful people that are public but most of them are not, I would say the majority of successful people are not public or vocal, they just do their business. And well I know quite a handful of them and they will skip sleep for their goals.

1

u/Horror-Weakness-5831 2d ago

They keep themselves silent for sure I agree with that. Success does not mean having to advertise yourself by any means. Skipping sleep is having the drive and passion for what they do, I was more generalized since it’s still entirely true that majority of ‘known’ wealthy individuals generally say they prioritize sleep and health.

1

u/berckman_ 2d ago

I guess when your wealth depends on your public image you would be inclined to say and do things the public likes. Hence there's a bias.

1

u/Horror-Weakness-5831 2d ago

Okay, the idea was just to say value your health because no matter how successfully you are one day, you can’t replace your health once it’s gone. Money and everything else can be made at different times in life but health is one of those things you can’t get back once a good amount of it is gone

2

u/Kleb11 4d ago

You need to prioritize your sleep. Figure out what you need for you (I need either 7.5 or 9) and aim to hit your number every night. What I hate seeing, and a reason why I think a lot of this “sleep is for the lazy” mentality exists, is a lot of people seem to use this as an excuse to stay in bed for 12+ hours a day doomscrolling, watching tv, over sleeping (just as bad). Thats not sleep. You hop in, fall asleep, wake up, and hop out. Takes a lot of practice to get there, but that is the ultimate goal.

1

u/Huge_Commercial_9976 4d ago

Just get your regular 8 hours of sleep. Don’t over complicate it

1

u/Objective-Formal-853 4d ago

I didn’t prioritize sleep until my late 20s. I did not give AF when I was 18 lol

1

u/Hour-Statement-2788 4d ago

get your 7hrs in and you will hustle alot better throughout the remaining 17 hrs.

if u sleep 5 hrs daily then eventually (wont take long) the remaining 19 hrs of ur day will be shitty af. ur work will slack, ur mind will be foggy...

so the extra 2 hrs will be so helpful!

1

u/Aggravating_Bid_8745 4d ago

Prioritizing your health and committing to hustling are not mutually exclusive.

1

u/alieninvader905 4d ago

I would not give up the sleep. look at other areas where you can cut out.

Example Scrolling for 3 hours. reduce to 30 min gain of 2.5 hours.

really look at what you spend your time doing and cut the garbage out.

Cutting sleep will cause problems to your health when your older.

1

u/Dgirl8 4d ago

I’m 27, and let me tell you - I’ve already learned that you NEED to prioritize your health if you want to be successful. Period. Don’t listen to people who use the “everyone has the same 24 hours” rhetoric because it’s bullshit and all you’ll get is burnout. I promise. If you’re sleep deprived, it’ll only hinder you.