Sleep in Banking

Amidst reading the book Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, every turn of a page frightens me more knowing that I'm working in a field heavily reliant on long nights and low rest. As most of us know, over a prolonged period of time, less than 8 hours of sleep a night contributes to decreased cognition, focus, creation of memories, and emotional control and over the long-term increases the risk of cancer, alzheimers, dementia, etc.

I'm curious to know what everyone has experienced in terms of their sleep schedule and how it has changed throughout the years of working in finance. Are there any habits you've developed to fit more rest into your schedule? In your current position, is attaining 8 hours of sleep really possible if you try hard enough, or are you bound to fall into a lifestyle where you're lucky if you get 6 hours? I understand that in a "work hard, play hard" culture there is little time to "waste" sleeping when you could be doing a million other things.

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Unless you are getting slammed, you can get 7-8 hours a night. Personally, I don’t care if I finish at 8pm or 5am, I need 30-45 minutes to go on YouTube or Instagram so I know I’m trading some sleep but it keeps me balanced. I only need 6 hours to feel okay during the day but I know some people who need 8 and they’ll make sure they get that. IB isn’t as bad as people make it seem, it’s just annoying cause the work that you’re working on at night, usually doesn’t mean anything 

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