I did a couple sleep studies and on the second one the doctor said I seemed to be as fatigued as someone through hiking the Appalachian trail getting 4-5 hours of sleep a night which always stuck with me, and immediately recommended me to go see a specialist that was more knowledgeable than he was. I’ve been on stimulants ever since and often struggle without them. The best thing is avoiding caffeine after a certain time of night (this is going to vary on your sensitivity to it), and being very diligent with sleep hygiene. Wear a sleep mask, keep your room dark, and get something that makes low level noise like a fan or whatever to avoid small noises in the night from disturbing you. Go to sleep bed and wake up around the same times every night and day, every night and day. Avoid doing anything in your bed that isn’t sleep.
The amount of hours you needs varies, but is also somewhat flexible. The ideal amount of sleep is the amount that has you waiting up right at the end of a cycle. Unless you have devices taking biometrics on you at night, you’re not going to know how long your cycles last, but if you start sleeping a consistent schedule your body is smart enough to sync up your cycles so the end of a cycle lines up with your alarm. If you do this successfully, you wake up feeling good every single day. The issue is most of us suck at doing this.
