I operate best on no sleep

Pretty much all my life I have struggled with going to bed early and as such it's rare I get much more than 6 hours sleep a night. Often it's a lot less. I sometimes wonder how my life would have been if I'd gone to bed by 11 every night. What sort of person would I be? Would I look or feel different or would I have a different personality? The other day I went to bed early and woke up 9 hours later feeling like a crisp ten pound note. My eyes felt different - they didn't have the familiar sagginess I've become so accustomed to. But I also felt strange - sober, lucidly nulled like a TV on high contrast.

This week has taken the piss. It's been so hot and I've been pretty stupid and just stayed up til 3am prattling around or reading or going online every night. But today I can safely say that despite being so tired I can barely see straight, I managed to achieve and excel in things that I never knew were possible, in and outside work. When I'm tired I feel like my mind operates on a different level. I make associations and come up with ideas I don't believe I'd be able to if I'd had requisite sleep. I'm wittier, more creative, more daring in some ways. Some things I'm admittedly shit at, but I wonder if I'd trade these for the things I'm good at.

I'm sure some of you Ilxors must feel similarly. How many hours sleep do you get? Do you worry about it? Can you operate okay on no sleep? So many people I know say that unless they get their 8 hours they 'can't function'. I'm sure I can't, but I sometimes wonder if being tired is like an addiction for me; something I've become desensitised to over the years and now find myself embracing.

sleep is for losers

I do ok on 6 or so hours, I prefer more but rarely have the willpower to go to bed early enough to get it becuase I love staying up late

I am terrible on anything under 5 hours. Like crying-toddler terrible.

I have a serious answer for this thread but I am too wired atm. I have probs with tiredness. Will expand tomoz

oh and I like getting 6 hours of sleep because then I feel tired enough later in the day to justify MOAR COFFEE

Ive struggled with irregular sleep patterns since forever, once or twice a week i will get ~2hrs. After one of these nights i vary between synapses-blazing and complete drone shutdown, often from one moment to the next.

If you're up until 3 and presumably sleep until, say, 7 then you're hitting a natural sleep cycle:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16964783

It took some time for their sleep to regulate but by the fourth week the subjects had settled into a very distinct sleeping pattern. They slept first for four hours, then woke for one or two hours before falling into a second four-hour sleep.

Though sleep scientists were impressed by the study, among the general public the idea that we must sleep for eight consecutive hours persists.

Also in the Balkans and a lot of Southern Europe people doing agricultural or some manual work could start work stupidly early (like 5ish), work until mid-morning and then sleep when the day's at its hottest. They also work into the evening and then stay up later afterwards.

It's probably not getting that daytime four hours or so that's knackering you out.

I have sleep issues - sometimes severe to the level of going to work without having slept at all. The worry is that I am able to function to a level where nobody notices or realizes I haven't slept. I have issues getting to sleep but if I do get to sleep reasonably quickly I will wake after around 4 hours or so. I may then sleep another block of time or I may not