Sleep (not the spell)

[Dog Faced God]

I can't seem to find a rule how much a character needs to sleep at night. I see where elves only require 4 hours of meditation. What about a human? What are the consequences of not sleeping? How long can one stay awake?

 

[dcollins]

The only rule in the core rules relating to sleep is the "sleeping in armor" rule on PH p. 105 (which makes you "fatigued" the next day).

 

[Coredump]

So.... if you stay up all night in your armour instead of sleeping.... you should be fine.

Spellcasters need 8 hours straight. I would say most characters need about 8 hours total; and if they are consistently not getting it, add in some circumstance negatives for the day.


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[Rel]

Refer to the rules on forced marching as a starting point. Sorry, I don't have a page number for you but it is in the PHB in the section on overland movement.

 

[Xaynar]

I would say that if you're human you must rest 8 hours in a 24 hour period. Failure to do this makes you "fatigued" (pg.84 of DMG). If you do anything else that would make you "fatigued" you become "exhausted". You could probably stay awake for more than 24 hours but a Con check of DC 10 + 1/hour awake or take 1d6 subdual (just like Forced Marching on 143 of PHB).

Xaynar

 

[Rel]

I'm not sure that I agree with the general sentiment that a human needs 8 hours of sleep per night or else they take some sort of penalty. I guess if you need some kind of rule of thumb, 8 hours works as well as any other number. But anecdotal evidence is rife with tales of people who get by just fine on 6 hours of sleep per night or even less.

Maybe I'd use 8 hours as a base requirement and modify it by 1/2 hour per point of Con bonus. So the character with 18 con only needs 6 hours of sleep and the one with the 6 con needs 9 hours.

 

[Valmur_Dwur]

I like that Rel I'm going to use it. I know for a fact that I'm lucky to get 7 hours of sleep a night and I really beleive I need 8. But whatcha going do? I got nothing

 

[Xaynar]

I'm not sure that I agree with the general sentiment that a human needs 8 hours of sleep per night or else they take some sort of penalty. I guess if you need some kind of rule of thumb, 8 hours works as well as any other number. But anecdotal evidence is rife with tales of people who get by just fine on 6 hours of sleep per night or even less.

Maybe I'd use 8 hours as a base requirement and modify it by 1/2 hour per point of Con bonus. So the character with 18 con only needs 6 hours of sleep and the one with the 6 con needs 9 hours.

True, I get along pretty good with only 6 hours of sleep a night. But at the same time, I'm not trudging through dungeons with 100 lbs. of gear on my back, getting into combat and taking severe wounds, or hiking several miles a day and sleeping on the ground at night. If I did, I think I'd need more like 16 hours of rest a day and 8 hours of activity Then again, I don't have an 18 Con either. But, you have to have to draw the line somewhere.

Xaynar

 

[FANGO]

For some "real life" information on sleep deprivation:

http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/p980301b.html

I would by no means make people start taking penalties simply for not getting 8 hours in one night. It would have to add up over a few days of not getting 8 full hours. There are also exceptional people who get along fine (well, at least somewhat fine) with very little sleep...I believe there is a woman who lived with getting 45 minutes of sleep a night on a regular basis for many years.

All this being considered, just have your players get 8 hours a night and don't worry about it, and if you feel they are doing a lot of strenuous things and are not getting enough sleep, start giving them the 'fatigued' condition, but only after a while and don't go too far with exhausted/disabled/etc. (also, the force march and running rules and all that are probably good places to look for more ideas if you dont like the fatigued idea).

 

[Rel]

True, I get along pretty good with only 6 hours of sleep a night. But at the same time, I'm not trudging through dungeons with 100 lbs. of gear on my back, getting into combat and taking severe wounds, or hiking several miles a day and sleeping on the ground at night. Xaynar

Xaynar, have you ever seen the Eco-Challenge? If not, it is an adventure race wherein the contestants endure circumstances that are probably about as close to what D&D adventurers go through (minus the combat) as anything else you'll find in the real world. Most of the time, they don't even consider stopping to sleep for the first 36-48 hours of the race. Even then, they don't usually stop for more than a couple of hours at a time, maybe 4 hours max.

Of course, you don't see them doing a lot of arcane spellcasting either.

I guess it all depends on the question. If you are talking about what characters need on a daily basis, I'd stick with 8 hours as a base and allow some leeway from there. The arcane casters can't get away with less than that anyway if they want to be able to prepare new spells.

But if they want to occasionally go for longer periods without sleep, I would be fairly flexible about it.