Anecdotally, since reading Guzey's post a month ago, I cut down my sleep from ~7.25 hours (5 nights 7.5 hours + 1 night 6 hours) to around 6.33-6.5 hours (1 night 7.5 + 2-3 nights 6). I found that doing just 6 hours 4+ days in a row led to noticeable tiredness, although I never tried just pushing through and seeing if I can get used to it.
Regardless, with the current sleep load, I feel pretty good, and I plan to continue it. However, I have noticed some rare working memory slip-ups, maybe one per day or every other day, that I don't think were as common before I dropped the sleep, although this isn't severe enough to make me want to stop.
I had trouble initially understanding the level 2 vs 4 distinction. It read as if level 2 was a willingness to lie about object-reality to bring about specific consequences, while level 4 involved similarly lying about object-reality to bring about specific, selfish consequences.
This didn’t seem like the most meaningful distinction, so I wondered what I was missing. These comments seem to describe level 4 as also being concerned with lying about social-reality, which feels elegant? However, we should be thinking of level 4 as being concerned with both object- and social-level reality?
In either case, this piece felt easier to digest to a total newbie than your initial links, so thanks for that!
I feel good. I'm about 3 years in now, and I still try to keep my sleep at around 6.5 hours/night (going between 6 hour [4 REM cycle] nights and 7.5 [5 REM cycle] nights). Going up to 7.5/night daily doesn't feel like it produces noticeable benefits, and I plan to keep up this 6.5-hour level. It doesn't feel forced at all. I haven't woken up to an alarm in years. I will stock up on 7.5 two days in a row if I know there's a risk of me only getting 4.5 hours (e.g., if I need to wake up for a flight).
However, despite me feeling good and I think performing well in my general life, I may have some tiredness in me. I fall asleep very quickly in the evening. After a 6 hour sleep, the next night, I can't really read on my phone or watch a show when I'm in bed or I'll fall asleep automatically. This isn't the case if I have a 7.5-hour sleep the prior two nights in a row, especially if it's also linked to me sleeping in rather than sleeping early. Falling asleep automatically could be seen as a downside, but alternatively, it also means I don't struggle to sleep, so that's even less time in bed.
I still advocate to my peers: "You've got many decades of life left. Explore sleeping less. Maybe your body can operate on 6 hours. Try intentionally getting less than 7.5 for a month, and see how you like it."
(I am admittedly not a LW regular, so please excuse this slow reply)