People definitely vary quite significantly in the amount of sleep they need. I have some friends who can happily get by with 6 hours of sleep on a permanent basis. Whereas I need at least 8, and would happily take 10 or 12 if the time was available.
I thought I could get by on 6, but then I started sleeping naturally and I was sleeping much longer and now I feel like I operate better. I had been sleeping short hours my whole life so it was just the norm.
It wasn't energy or thought capacity either, I have always been fine with that even on 6 hours. But longer term thinking, sense of continuity and ability to remember, to think more broadly about time and my place in it were all drastically improved. Things I used to do a lot I do far less now and don't feel a need to, stimuli like video games and reddit are not nearly as appealing when I sleep longer.
I feel no different moment to moment but there are what feel like auxilliary mental capacities I didn't realise I was missing. Resistance to stimuli, temporal thinking and memory being the key ones.
