May 11, 2026
You don't usually blame poor sleep for your problems, but let me tell you why you should:
You are nerfing yourself. And killing your future self.
Even if you think you have a solid sleep schedule with enough (8+ hours) quality (no supplements/drugs or detrimental activities) sleep, I suggest keeping an open mind for this blog post.
Why We Sleep
I thought I already knew enough about sleep until I read Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, and now I admit I will never know everything about it.
I'll give you some brief points from the book that I found most impactful. If any of these pique your interest, read the book (just the relevant parts if you want) or look up more online.
No specific sources because you gain more by confirming doubts yourself than through my references
Low/poor sleep decreases brain efficiency and causes cancer. Short term, you're less productive, make more mistakes, act more emotionally, and are weaker (physically and in resistance to illness). Long term, you compound the effects of being in a state of stupidity and very very significantly increase your chance of becoming a cancer patient.
You might think that you can sacrifice sleep sometimes. "Just two hours, I can make it up later," you tell yourself. But sleeping 6 hours instead of 8 causes a 50+% loss of REM sleep which is critical and tied to learning and cognitive performance.
I hope that knowing sleep is not linear changes your decision next time.
Also, people think that they need less sleep because they are no longer young. People thought this because comparing reaction times of sleep-deprived people of various ages showed not as much change for the older people. Problem is that seniors' reaction time is already so bad that if it fell even more you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between them and a zombie. It's an unfortunate oversight.
Older people also generate less sleep naturally, so we think that's okay. If you don't see the logical flaw in that, let me give you some more examples of things that happen to older people (these are not usually not seen as desirable):
- weaker bones
- wrinkles
- vision/hearing loss
- dementia
- more cancer
Lastly, you can't determine sleep-deprivation severity when you are sleep-deprived.
Unfortunately, neither can anybody else.
My dad
One of the most diabolical things I heard was my mom saying that because my dad was 'used to' sleeping just 6 hours, it was okay. Really it just means a permanent inefficient state and his mental and physical health tanks.
You don't get used to sleeping less
Usain Bolt sleeps 9-10 hours a day and the goat LeBron 12 hours.
Although I still notice cracked people near me not prioritizing their sleep which I can't really explain. My running theory is that these are outliers - these people are much more common in good sleep lobbies.
Sleep is the miracle solution
You wonder why people have headaches or feel tired randomly, maybe you ask them about their sleep and health habits and it's not hard to uncover the reasons.
Plus you get cancer with poor sleep. In 40 years, when you get cancer, you could say you're unlucky. Or you could sleep better now and earn a different outcome.
Sleep is free and needs no effort once you're out cold.
Build sleep
Skipping/delaying sleep by a couple minutes or hours doesn't provide instant feedback, which makes it challenging to change.
Getting a dimmable lamp and dimmable washroom lights, on the other hand, is a quick fix that has a clear impact. Control over lights in the morning and evening is that low-effort improvement that'll do more good than coffee.
Build on with real sunlight. I went on a nice Monday morning run and followed it with 15-minute morning walks on the following days, and it was no time before I started every morning with happy songs, beating my alarm.
Building habits like this help keep you on track and get you back on track in case you really can't hit your sleep. Peel one layer away, and there's still more defense (e.g. lights, timing, sound, activity level).
Pin the blame
I don't have the time to sleep
You are in a negative feedback loop. You need to take the leap of faith; sleep well for a bit and you will unlock a fresher mind that can find a way. That evening hour is better spent sleeping than studying.
It's routine to blame simple mistakes on lacking practice or just "brain lapses", but you have to pinpoint something you have the power to change. You forget a formula on your test and you can't focus. You keep dropping the discs in your ultimate frisbee game and make bad decisions.
Blame sleep, and from there, the research to improve yourself is abundant.