I highly reocmmend Jmes Maas' book Power Sleep. He's a Cornell professor who's studied sleep for decades. This book opened my eyes to just how important enough sleep is. http://www.amazon.com/Power-Sleep-Revolutionary-Prepares-Per...

I recommend the book "Power Sleep" by Cornell professor James Maas.

http://www.amazon.com/Power-Sleep-Revolutionary-Prepares-Per...

Exceptional book that really transformed my college experience.

Or even 15 minutes (or 5!). (See Power Sleep, by James Maas http://www.amazon.com/Power-Sleep-Revolutionary-Prepares-Per..., or the Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_nap).

When you bike or take public transportation to work, you can't sneak a nap on your lunch break in your car. A nap room would be oh so helpful, and would dramatically aid productivity for sleepy employees benefiting from a power nap.

Power Sleep, by Cornell sleep researcher Dr. James Maas, transformed my idea of naps. I highly recommend the book. He recommends short "power naps" to quickly get in some rest. The key is to wake up before your body goes into a deep sleep cycle. For me, this means approx. 15-20 minute naps when needed. It truly is astounding how much this rejuvenates you. These naps were insanely helpful back when I was in college.

Buy on Amazon: http://amzn.to/bvumKg

WorldCat (library catalog search): http://bit.ly/c3NMpF

I just wish naps were more accepted in the corporate world. When I have a startup again, I'd love to have a "nap" room for employees. Google has sleep pods: http://www.businessinsider.com/google-sleep-pods-2010-6

It doesn't work. You can't change the amount of sleep you need by any significant amount. If you consistently shortchange yourself by a small amount each night, you may be able to convince yourself that you're getting more done ... but you'll actually be less sharp, less productive, less healthy, and much less happy (seriously -- it has big effects on your mood).

Read a book like Maas's Power Sleep :

http://www.amazon.com/Power-Sleep-Revolutionary-Prepares-Per...

I'd recommend a better book but I don't know of one yet. I spend my time sleeping rather than hacking sleep.

You can tinker with when you sleep (using naps, etc.) to try and improve the quality of your sleep and adjust the times of day when you are most awake for maximum productivity. Just realize that you're basically rearranging your sleep and not magically reducing it.

If you can't find time to sleep the 8.5 hours that you need, you need to fix something else. Find a partner. Hire an assistant. Outsource. Prioritize. Postpone unimportant features. Get a better paying job with fewer hours. Play less World of Warcraft. Kill your television. Read David Allen or Tim Ferriss. Set noprocrast to numbers like "1024".