The cliff notes: According to Michael Breus, the doctor sighted in the article, the old ‘8 hours a night’ thing is just a myth. The magic number: 7.5 hours. Your sleep cycles are actually 1.5 hours long and the average human logs about 5 cycles a night. The point at which you are ending a sleep cycle and beginning another is the best time for you to wake up because it is when you are in your lightest sleep versus trying to wake in the middle of a cycle (which is when your alarm goes off and you think it has actually brought you back from the dead because you are feeling so exhausted).
Guess who tried it. I am here to tell you that this actually works. You are welcome.
Xoxo, The Don