Daisuke Hori, a 36-year-old man from Japan, has spent the last few years training his mind and body to function on as little sleep as possible. He claims to get just 30 minutes of sleep a day and not get tired at all.

Do you ever feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day, and that you’d rather shun sleep so you can do the things you like? Well, that’s probably most people, but few of us actually go through with that idea. Daisuke Hori is one such man. He claims to have lowered his daily sleep time from about 8 hours a day to just 30 minutes, without suffering any of the severe side-effects associated with sleep deprivation. He is the chairman of the “Japan Short-sleeper Association” and now teaches others how to lower their daily sleeping time so they can enjoy life more.

Daisuke Hori was recently featured on a popular Japanese TV show, where he talked about his controversial sleep schedule. Apparently, he was always felt that 16 hours of up time was simply insufficient to do all the things he wanted every day. At one point he started researching and experimenting with lowering his daily sleep routine, and over several years managed to go from 8 hours to just half an hour of sleep, while still remaining healthy and energetic.

Because 30 minutes of sleep hardly sounds sustainable over long periods of time, the TV show producers challenged Hori to showcase his daily routine on camera for a period of three days. He accepted to have a TV crew follow him around and managed to get by on just 30 minutes of sleep, sometimes even less than that, a day.

On the first day, Daisuke got up at 8 o’clock in the morning. He first went to the gym, then read books, wrote some articles for a weekly column, played video games, and then went out to meet some friends for dinner. After eating, he made some short video clips about sleeping routine, for his YouTube channel. After recording, he had another meal, did some chores around the house, and chatted with people online.

At around 2 am, it finally came time for sleep, only he got about 26 minutes of shut-eye before waking up without even requiring an alarm clock. He got dressed and went surfing with some friends in the middle of the night, before hitting the gym and finally returning home.

During the three-day test, Daisuke Hori spent his nights playing video games and mahjong, going surfing and hanging out with friends, who, funnily enough, are all short-term sleepers. They all trained together to shorten their daily routine, so they could enjoy more quality time together.

Viewers were most curious how the 36-year-old managed to fight off sleepiness after eating, as most people struggle to resist the drowsiness caused by insulin spikes. Hori said that he did in fact get sleepy himself, but made sure to consume caffeine to avoid falling asleep until the insulin level dropped to normal again.

Even after showcasing his unusual sleep routine on national television, many were still not convinced that he had been sleeping just 30 minutes a day for the last 12 years. He did mention that he shortened his daily sleep period gradually over many years, but still, it’s a hard thing to believe…