Ask HN: How to sleep less and yet stay fresh?

Caffeine? Illicit drugs, maybe? The whole being tired is your body telling you to lighten up and catch up on sleep.

Both of us, ( two developer team) we sleep very late after work yet the only thing that keeps us fresh is the exciting work the next day, saying that a wonderful coffee keeps us awake and a little nap also helps to keep fresh.

Deeper sleep, better quality sleep maybe?

There is no replacement - only temporary highs. You can get away with caffeine, drugs, etc in the short term but in the long term there will be some form of a consequence.

My advice would be to practice better time management rather than less sleep.

As others have suggested, you should definitely try Amphetamine. If you have trouble getting to sleep, just take sleeping pills. You'll be fine.

Down a cup of coffee right before going to sleep. I usually get up in 45 minutes feeling alert and ready for the next day

"Early to sleep and Early to rise" is bottom line I try to follow. :)

Lazy way: drugs and caffeine. Hard way: intense execercise, paleo diet, no sugar - balances insulin and hormomal levels to keep mental acuity sharp but you will still need at least 6-8 hours sleep to maintain a sharp mind during work hours.

You can experiment with Polyphasic sleep. The extreme one will let you get away with 2hr sleep per day. But you need extreme discipline.

If you can optimize breakfast, you can get away with 4-5 hours of sleep but not for long. I've noticed that if I do that, the body will catch up with sleep the next day, like make you drowsy earlier. As far as breakfast, nothing beats a protein rich meal like eggs. Been doing it myself for over 2 decades :)

There are a bunch on interesting comments in this quora thread: "How do I get more out of less sleep?" http://www.quora.com/Sleep/How-do-I-get-more-out-of-less-sle...