Sleeping

I would say I am a short sleeper, which is a relatively rare thing. I spent most of my career on 4.5 to 6 hours of sleep and a power nap (17 minutes) or two during the day and evening hours. Even in retirement, I still feel pretty good after 6 hours of sleep.
However, I don't fit the highly driven, energetic, Type A personality characteristics of a typical short sleeper, so maybe not.

I typically wake up once (after 1 sleep cycle) to go to the bathroom and then sleep through the remaining sleep cycles of the night. Last night I decided to not fight the yawns and went to bed a little earlier than usual and slept 6 consecutive hours. I feel good this morning. I am well rested and ready to take on the day.
As a retired guy, I generally say that I get up when I'm finished sleeping. 
This morning that just happened to be at 5:30. 

I've been sleeping out on the deck this past week as it has been really nice weather for that. One night I woke up and saw the constellation of the Scorpion directly in front of me. The back deck faces about 10-15 degrees east of due south and I thought -- Hmmm, must be about 3 o'clock.
I looked at my phone to check the time and it was 2:59!
When I woke up in the morning, the sky was getting light with the rising sun and I thought -- 7 o'clock. It was 6:56.
I was so impressed with myself that I decided to share that here!

I think that sleep is a bigger deal that most people make it out to be. Most people do well on around 8 hours per night, but just as some of us can function well on considerably less there are those that need more. And honestly, most people (at least in the US) don't get enough.
Healthy diets and exercise get most of the dialogue time and good sleep gets very little. 

There are plenty of studies and much has been written about how to get better sleep, but most people pay little attention to that and assume that out bodies will just figure it out. Unfortunately, not all sleep is good sleep. I consider myself fortunate that I am generally a good sleeper as well as a short sleeper. Maybe those two things go together -- I don't know.

How well do you sleep?
Do you get enough sleep?
What can you do to improve your sleep quality and/or quantity?
Do you prioritize getting enough good sleep?

Sleeping well is a very passive part of good health, but it is also a very important part. We should definitely give it more attention than we do.

John