Sleep patterns

[AirToob]

Two survivors have just gone to sleep at 15.00, in the early stages of their afternoon work shift. This is understandable because of an overnight attack that has left them exhausted. But the "work" activity says that it forbids sleeping, so I'm wondering if the game has been sensibly changed so that a survivor can go to sleep when exhausted even if their activity is "work" rather than (say) "anything".

Conversely, one of my survivors (Jack) will wake up at 02.00 or 03.00, after ~6 hours sleep and be idle. Do different survivors have different sleep needs? Is there a recommended minimum sleep period? I have been experimenting but because of different things going on it's hard to come to any conclusion.

As always, any help gratefully received.

[Jaggid Edje]

The tooltip explains why they are sleeping when assigned "to work", in the last sentence. if their needs are serious enough, they will nap. What they won't do is sleep.

The difference between the two is that when they "nap" they will get up before their rest need is full, whereas when they "Sleep" they will sleep until it is entirely full (unless their schedule interrupts the sleep with activity that forbids sleeping, such as "work").

Different survivors do have different sleep needs, but that is trait based, so you'd know it (assuming you read their traits). Beyond that, the main reasons for a difference in when survivors wake up are:

1. They don't all go to sleep at the same time, Even if you have it on their schedules at the same time, different survivors doing different tasks get around it to it at different times.
   
2. They rarely have exactly the same rested needs values when they go to sleep in the first place, so the total sleep needed for each is different.

What I do for sleep is schedule all survivors with a hard 4 hours of sleep on their schedule. Then make sure to have "anything" scheduled for at least 3 to 4 hours after that. So that they can stay in bed as long as needed to get their rest need to full. Once I research Sleep Training, I change that 4 hours to 3 hours.

For survivors with the trait that makes them need less sleep, I cut it by one hour. For those that need more sleep, I up it by one hour.

The above works fantastic for me, and I never mess with it. Other people have different strategies. There are people who just leave their survivors scheduled for "anything" for the entire day so that they can just sleep whenever they need to. So there's really no "best way", i don't think. Just "whatever way works best for you".

[AirToob]

Thanks, very helpful as always.

Couple of things:

I can't find "Sleep Training" as a completed or uncompleted research.

I have looked at all the information in game about my survivors, and can't find the "trait" that gives info about sleep needs.

Apologies for missing what must be obvious...

[Jaggid Edje]

Sleep training is a breakthrough tech. If you don't start the game with it already available to research, you need to "find" it, via explore expeditions.

Or use a mod that unlocks breakthrough techs some other way. There are several (including two of my own).

Edit: And I don't think it's obvious at all! The traits are special traits. If you don't see them, it means none of your survivors have them. So their sleep needs are normal. Check out Connor's traits for an example of one of them.

[AirToob]

Thanks!

[Paraleo]

if you are playing on a desert map its a good strategy to put them to sleep while it is cold outside (around 3 am to 8-9 am), you reduce the clothing issues to a minimum that way.
They can work outside in the cold if you wake them at 7 am let's say, 2 hours in chilly weather will be nothing to them.

[AirToob]

Originally posted by Paraleo:

if you are playing on a desert map its a good strategy to put them to sleep while it is cold outside (around 3 am to 8-9 am), you reduce the clothing issues to a minimum that way.
They can work outside in the cold if you wake them at 7 am let's say, 2 hours in chilly weather will be nothing to them.

Thanks!