Has there been any word one way or another in the rules about the Trance racial feature and a long rest? I understand that the rules do not say directly that Trancing counts towards a long rest. They do say that a long rest requires an extended period of downtime that lasts 8 hours. Trance does not meet that requirement. But then under Trance it says that the character gains the same benefit as if a human slept 8 hours. One of the benefits ( in fact the only benefit I know of ) from an 8 hour sleep is that you would qualify for a long rest. So why wouldn't it count then?
I know Mearls said something about it not counting in a tweet. I was wondering if the DMG or any new tweets had any contradicting information.
You can trance during a long rest, but doing so does not reduce the duration of the long rest.
jonathonhawke wrote:
Lucas_Blackstone wrote:
Lucas_Blackstone wrote:
jessequentin wrote:
Lucas_Blackstone wrote:
lawrencehoy wrote:
quoted:
"After
resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a
human does from 8 hours of sleep."
regaining spells, features and HD is a benefit of 8hr long rest.
Trance-Zg wrote:
I always thought that the idea was that elves require only 4 hours to have the long rest. Strange.
DDNext is my first DD experience so I don't know how was it worded in previous editions?
One additional question concerning trance:
- is the Elf fully aware of his surroundings?
- if yes than while camping outside city, there's no need for leaving some sentries awake, since the Elf will watch over his team?
Muker wrote:
The last sentence of Trance says "After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep."
That's pretty damn clear. Elves trance for half the time and get the benefit of a long rest.
A wizard can "change your list of prepared spells when you finish a long rest". So an elf wizard can trance for 4 hours and prepare new spells / regain spell slots. The same applies to all other features that refer to completing a long rest.
paulstrait wrote:
+1 for lawrence.
You need to rest for 8 hours, RAW, for a Long Rest. You don't *need* to sleep for any of that time, but a Long Rest requires that.
See Jeremy's Tweet:
A long rest is 8 hours for an elf, but the elf can spend much of it on watch and doing light activity, while others sleep.
1eejit wrote:
It says; 4hr trance = 8hr sleep
now if I go on a limb here and define sleep as rest, we have; 8hr sleep = 8hr rest,
therefore; 4hr trance = 8hr rest,
And it's not overpowered, you can still have only one long rest per 24h, and gives a little flavor to elves.
This is odd to me. Elves are by definition, super-human. Their abilities are above what humans are capable. That doesnt mean super human strength, or anything else. I see no problem in giving elves 4 hr long rest. It even makes sense. An army of elves will cover way more ground then others, given that they have an extra 2-4 hours of marching every day.Hell, they could spend an hour or two every day just keeping their moral up. Singing, drinking elven wine, games. I think its great flavor for an elf, and seems to be how most people in my group feel about it as well.
Why is this even a discussion? The rules are very specific
Long Rest
A long rest is a period of extended downtime, at least 8
hours long, during which a character sleeps or performs
light activity: reading, talking, eating, or standing watch
for no more than 2 hours. If the rest is interrupted by a
period of strenuous activity—at least 1 hour of walking,
fighting, casting spells, or similar adventuring activity—
the characters must begin the rest again to gain any
benefit from it.
There's no requirement for sleep, it's simply listed as one of the things you can do. Add to that the tweet from Jeremy and an extended rest is just 8 hours of downtime during which you can sleep or do other things.
This is about as clear as the rules get.
this is clearly the case of general vs. specific.
As a general rule, long rest is 8hr. Specific for elves is 4hr.
Trance-Zg wrote:
OoftaMeg wrote:
OoftaMeg wrote:
OoftaMeg wrote:
DungeonKrusher wrote:
The problem is that people are saying "Sleep" = "Rest". In game terms, "Sleep" is an ACTIVITY that can be done while resting - just like eating, reading, etc.
Another thing, I dont see how a long rest isnt time(at least the 6 hours) you spend sleeping. I think that is a bad assumption. 8 hours of just sitting around is just an 8 hour "short" rest. I think that the words "short" and "long" when talking about rest. Im not sure what I am thinking about of changing it too, but something.
jessequentin wrote:
cowleymen wrote:
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
I don't see how this is still an issue:
The general rule is that "a long rest is a period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long".
So when a human sleeps for 8 hours, they get the benefits of a long rest (as long as they haven't already done so that day). Sleep is downtime. You can't sleep for 8 hours without having 8 hours of downtime, except in very unusual circumstances.
And the specific rule for elves is that "After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep."
So when an elf trances for 4 hours, they get the same benefit, aka. they benefit from 8 hours of rest, which is 8 hours of downtime, which is a long rest. They can't trance, cast some spells, and trance again to regain the spells because you can only get the benefits of a long rest once a day. But they certainly can go adventuring at full capacity on only 4 hours of trance per night.
That's how the RAW works, plain and simple. If Jeremy Crawford tweeted to the contrary, then the RAI is obviously different.
I personally like the RAW better because it gives trance more ways to actually be used in the game.
SilentSin wrote:
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
SilentSin wrote:
SilentSin wrote:
OoftaMeg wrote:
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
SilentSin wrote:
If trance does not equate to a long rest what is its game benefit? The elf doesn't sleep and meditates/'trances' for 4 hours instead of 8 but so what? My take on the trait is that it allows your struggling low-level elf magic user to be useful again after a break of about as long as the others in the party take to get their hit points back (short rest). Otherwise, I don't see much point to it.
On a side note, the wording "you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep" is a bit strange because those benefits are not articulated anywhere in the rules. The benefits of a long rest are not restricted to humans. It is inviting us to apply real-world standards and ideas to the game, it seems to me.
OoftaMeg wrote:
OoftaMeg wrote:
SilentSin wrote:
Sleeping does not = long rest.
Trancing does not = long rest.
These are things you can do during a long rest.
A long rest is at least 8 hours of extended downtime, during which a character sleeps OR performs light activity.
Nothing anywhere in the book modifies the 8 hour minimum.
Just because elves don't need sleep does not mean their long rest becomes shorter. A long rest is defined as at LEAST 8 hours.
Under trance it does NOT say, "After resting in this way you gain the benefit of a long rest." It says, "you gain the same benefit a human does from sleeping 8 hours."(NOT long resting 8 hours)
To further illustrate, you can rest for 8 hours WITHOUT sleeping, gain the benefit of a long rest, and then sleep for 8 hours after that.
Sleeping does not = long rest.
Sleeping = something you can, but not must, do during a long rest.
Long rest = a least 8 hours.
DungeonKrusher wrote:
There is no benefit to sleep aside from possibly avoiding exhaustion(I thought I saw that somewhere in the book, but sleeping may actually have NO benefits). Sleep is not the same thing as a long rest as defined by the book.
Edit:
Looking at the exhausted condition, you don't ever NEED to sleep. You just need to rest for at least 8 hours. So trance seems to be more for flavor and tradition than for anything mechanical.
bonethug0108 wrote:
You are taking something that can be done DURING a long rest and making it the long rest. That is NOT how it works. A long rest is defined as at least 8 hours and does NOT need to be sleep. Thus sleeping is NOT a long rest. It is done DURING a long rest IF desired. Therefore trancing is also NOT a long rest.
bonethug0108 wrote:
Sleeping 8 hours does not COMPLETE a long rest. It is something you CAN do DURING a long rest. A long rest is 8 hours of downtime. It is not 8 hours of sleep. You are literally taking something you can do during a long rest and making it the long rest. That is NOT how it is defined.
If a long rest was 8 hours of sleep they would not have bothered to go into any more detail about what entails a long rest. Sleep is simply ONE of the things you CAN do DURING a long rest. Sleep is not the actual long rest itself. That is defined as 8 hours.
bonethug0108 wrote:
Let me come from another angle. It NEVER says you sleep for 8 hours during a long rest. All it says is that you can sleep or perform other light activities. It NEVER puts a time period of how long you can actually sleep. Thus, since sleeping 8 hours is not the definition of a long rest, trancing for 4 is also not the definition for a long rest. Those are merely things you can do during the 8 hours required for a long rest.
A long rest is at least 8 hours. There is no way around that and the rules guru who helped make the game says the same thing.
bonethug0108 wrote:
bonethug0108 wrote:
I'm envisioning a party of three humans and an elf. Elf Trances, player says "Cool! It's been four hours, so I get my hit points back".
Rest of party gets angry that elf woke them up, and goes back to sleep.
Four hours later, the party wakes up and gets on their way.
;o)~
DungeonKrusher wrote:
OoftaMeg wrote:
OoftaMeg wrote:
SilentSin wrote:
A long rest is not defined as 8 hours of sleep. It is defined as 8 hours of downtime. You CAN sleep during this downtime. You CAN trance during this downtime. This downtime must still be 8 hours.
Or another example(good one by the way), we must take a 30 minute lunch. It takes me 30 minutes to eat my sandwich. It takes you 15 minutes. You are still on lunch for another 15 minutes.
bonethug0108 wrote:
bonethug0108 wrote:
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
bonethug0108 wrote:
bonethug0108 wrote:
bonethug0108 wrote:
bonethug0108 wrote:
What is the benefit of Trance, then? It doesn't seem to have any useful game function.
bonethug0108 wrote:
bonethug0108 wrote:
El_Condoro wrote:
El_Condoro wrote:
There are two things that humans can do during a long rest:
- You can sleep for 8 hours.
- You can do light activity for up to 2 hours, and sleep for the remainder of the 8 hours.
Elves can trance for 4 hours. If that doesn't fully complete their long rest, then what?
- They can spend at most 2 hours performing light activity. Nothing even tries to contradict this.
- So what do they do with the last 2 hours?
- The only things they can do are go to sleep or trance.
- Going to sleep doesn't make sense because they already have the benefits of 8 hours of sleep, so why would they need to make it 10?
- Trancing also doesn't make sense because the rules specifically say that they trance for 4 hours. Why would it say that if there was literally no benefit to a 4 hour trance since they have to trance for 6 to complete the rest anyway? It could have just said they can meditate instead of sleeping and remain semiconscious, with no mention of time spent.
The game doesn't make sense if a 4 hour trance doesn't complete a long rest.
SilentSin wrote:
SilentSin, your opinion on how long an Elf must rest to have a long rest doesn't matter. The Rules Lawyer said, very plainly, that a long rest for an elf is 8 hours. 8. Not 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 or 7. 8. You may not like the rule, but it is the rule. And if you don't like the rule, don't play with it when you DM. All your obsinancy shows is that you don't seem to be able to comprehend a simple sentence - "A long rest for an elf is 8 hours". Why is this basic English sentence so hard to understand?
guachi wrote:
guachi wrote:
SilentSin wrote:
Not sure that a tweet aquates to a rule, but even if it does, doesn't mean it can't be discussed.
{Edit]: *e*quates - too many beers.
El_Condoro wrote:
DungeonKrusher wrote:
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
Maybe a better analogy would be my high school study hall. Every afternoon, I had a one hour study hall. During study hall I had one hour where I could study, read a book, get a hall pass for up to 10 minutes, doodle or plan my next dungeon.
But, because I was fast at completing homework (it had nothing to do with being lazy) I could get all of my studying done in 1/2 hour instead of the normal hour it took most. Does that mean I got out of school an hour earlier? Of course not. Study hall was still one hour. Getting the benefit of an hour's worth of study in a half hour didn't change that. Studying was just one of the things I could do during study hall.
As far as "trance has to buy you something" argument ... why? Do the fact that elves also have pointy ears buy them anything mechanically?
Stu
OoftaMeg wrote:
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
SilentSin wrote:
If a long rest literally equated to sleeping they would have said so. The specifically did not. Specific beats general.
I'm not arguing the common sense of it all. As a rule a long rest is not the direct result of sleeping. You can pass the 8 hours by sleeping or by doing other things. It still must total 8 hours no matter what you do. Nothing in the game rules changes that, not even trancing.
bonethug0108 wrote:
Also, like I said, you could just as easily read it as you can do ANY light activity for two hours EACH. I can read for two hours and I can talk for two hours. That is just as valid a reading as JUST being on watch is two hours and the rest of the activities can be any length of time, or that you can only do two hours of other activities period.
Also, you are breaking your own argument because a human can gain the benefit of a long rest with only 6 hours of sleep by what you're saying. So then does an elf only need 3 hours of trancing?
No. A long rest is at least 8 hours period.
Edit:
Also, if a trance reduced the long rest for an elf to 4 hours they would have just specifically said so instead of specifically not saying so. Again specific beats general. Sleeping does not specifically equal a long rest, so reducing the "required" "sleeping" time of an elf does not reduce the long rest time. If that was the intent it would have just said so.
DungeonKrusher wrote:
OoftaMeg wrote:
bonethug0108 wrote:
bonethug0108 wrote:
bonethug0108 wrote:
DungeonKrusher wrote:
I can agree that you can read the rules as written different ways, and you can read that sleeping is not required. I don't agree that trancing is in any way directly related to a long rest(there is no mention of it under trance, and reading long rest ANY way still doesn't say sleeping IS a long rest, just that it can be done DURING a long rest). It is something that can be considered light activity or "sleep" that is permitted during a long rest, but that rest must still be 8 hours in length minimum.
The fact that 6 hours of sleep(with two other hours of light activity) can get you through a long rest also proves that 8 hours of sleep does not equal a long rest(it just gets you through it), so 4 hours of trance also does not equal a long rest(it just gets you half way through it). That is why I said that argument is broken(though I did word my previous post poorly). The rest MUST last at least 8 hours no matter what you're doing. That part is the RAW and cannot be read differently.
bonethug0108 wrote:
Poor phrasing on my part(now clarified). The 6 hours of sleep + 2 hours of other light activity gets you to the 8 required hours(it doesn't equal a long rest, it just passes the required time), just as 8 hours of sleep gets you to the 8 required hours. 4 hours of trancing only gets you halfway to the 8 hours.
Its funny that some people just can not get past the whole sleep is not the long rest. Stop replacing Long rest with the word sleep. As I read it, and as the Devs point it out. You can sleep during your long rest, be it 6-8 hours for humans or 4 hours for elves, then do relaxing things for the rest of the time (or guard for 2 hours). You can not say Long rest is general and the Sleep rules for elves is a specific for them. Sleep rules is for sleep and Long rest rules are for the long rest.
K-Ray
Q: if you sleep for 8 hours, what happens?
A: you receive the benefits of a long rest (once per day).
Q: if an elf trances for 4 hours, what happens?
A: they receive the benefits of 8 hours of sleep. See above.
Again, SilentSin, I suggest that you entertain the idea - since the guy in charge of the rules says that the official rules disagree with you - that a long rest is not a benefit of sleep, it is it's own thing with a list of valid actions you can take during, and that takes 8 hours to complete.
Such that your Q & A would look like this:
Q: If you sleep for 8 hours, what happens?
A: You do nothing for 8 hours. You might dream. Your DM can assign other benefits of sleep, and probably will - such as this one DM named Aaron that will have characters begin to hallucinate, create false memories, and eventually go insane and then die if they do not sleep, and thus has assigned reseting the count-down on such events as a benefit of sleeping for 8 hours.
Q: If an elf trances for 4 hours, what happens?
A: You do nothing for 4 hours. You also gain any benefits your DM has assigned to sleep - such as that one DM named Aaron and his benefits as listed above.
Mostly you are attributing the answer (you benefit from a long rest) to the wrong question (If I perform valid activities for the prescribed amount of time, what happens?) by gettting hung up a coincidence (that a long rest could be nothing but sleeping).
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
SilentSin wrote:
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
The phrase "8 hours of sleep" is defined by two parts: 8 hours passing, and being asleep.
Elves don't get the benefit of 8 hours of sleep as if no time had passed. They get all of the benefits of 8 hours of sleep.
When you get "the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep", you get all of the benefits. You get the benefit of being asleep, such as dreaming. And you also get the benefit of 8 hours passing, such as a long rest.
Let's look this:
"A long rest is a period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long, during which a character sleeps or performs light activity: reading, talking, eating, or standing watch for no more than 2 hours."
If you interpret that to mean that you can only do a maximum of 2 hours of ANY light activity, then how would you interpret the very next sentence?
"If the rest is interrupted by a period of strenuous activity—at least 1 hour of walking, fighting, casting spells, or similar adventuring activity—the characters must begin the rest again to gain any benefit from it."
Obviously that means you can do up to 1 hour of fighting before it counts as interrupting your rest. Cool... How many battles last an hour?
The PHB editors did a poor job on that whole paragraph.
I'm pretty sure that the "no more than 2 hours" only applies to standing watch. And the "at least 1 hour" only applies to walking.
jessequentin wrote:
SilentSin wrote:
OoftaMeg wrote:
jessequentin wrote:
Is anyone able to say what the game benefit of Trance is, if it doesn't give the benefits of a long rest in 4 hours, please?
El_Condoro wrote:
OoftaMeg wrote:
El_Condoro wrote:
That didn't stop a 3 page discussion (after post #15) about sleep and rest so I figured a question about Trance was OK.
OoftaMeg wrote:
bonethug0108 wrote:
El_Condoro wrote:
Doesn't sound like a benefit to me. 
Get to stay on watch longer. But if that's all, then I guess that's it.
El_Condoro wrote:
I'm making an effort to understand the usefulness of a *racial* trait. I just went through every racial trait (bold, italicised name, not the descriptive text of a race) and found all of them useful in certain circumstances - even speak with small animals. I cannot think of a use for Trance in game, aside from allowing the elf to do more guard duty. Every other racial trait affects skills, saves, even combat but Trance affects sleep and sleep effects are not articulated in the rules. I undertand not everything in the books have utility but all the racial traits seem to, except this one.
Call it flavor. Call it artifact. They've just always had trance. They're elves. Just because it may not have a real mechanical function in 5e doesn't mean anything.
And yes speak with animals is useful in limited circumstances, but that is also more flavor than mechanic.
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
bonethug0108 wrote:
It's not 5e RAW, of course, but that 4e Eladrin description of Trance is much more elegant (e.g. mentions benefits that "other races" get, instead of "humans") and 4e extended rest has the same effect as 5e long rest. It's a house rule but that's what I will be going with and what my DM's table is already doing with Trance.
El_Condoro wrote:
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
bonethug0108 wrote:
I've never been in a situation where somebody was trying to squeeze every possible minute out of a day, and so looking to take "half-length full rests" to maximize his time.
If you want to get into this, expect an experienced NE Elven Wizard to pull the same stunt to get the jump on you: Spell Duel in the afternoon followed by rest at night and an ambush at first hint of daybreak, because he's got all his spell slots ready to go again but yours aren't prepared until after breakfast. Or an Elven Army that can march on foot at a blitzkreig pace.
When I have played an Elf, I offer to Trance early and take the later watches so my companions can Rest. Or vice versa since some characters are "morning people". This gives them a reason to enjoy having Elves along in the party, without actually cramping my style.
In theory, two Elves = 8-hour rest (not 10-hour) for the group, then back to the hard work. It's a nifty reason to want Elves along, not a game-breaking cheat machine.
BRJN wrote:
It's not that powerfull, its still 1/day effect. And it's still 4× longer that short rest. If it were 2hr long, there could be a problem.
This with racial proficiency in perception give elves an alert theme.
SilentSin wrote:
bonethug0108 wrote:
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
SilentSin wrote:
Personally, I think that there should be mechanical affects for sleep.
I think that the exhaustion rules should incorporate "8 hours of sleep", instead of "finishing a Long Rest", as the requirement to reduce exhaustion by 1 level (in additioni to the food & drink requirements).
I also think that successive 24 hour periods that don't include actual sleep should increase exhaustion by an increasing amount (exhaustion increases by 1 level after three days without sleep; 1 additional level after two more days without sleep; 1 additional level for each successive day after the fifth without sleep); 8 hours of sleep also resets the "days without sleep" status by one category (from daily to two days or from two days to three days).
Those are going to be my house rules for sleep.
One of the benefits in the game of an 8 hour sleep is that a Long Rest has been acheived.
It is, in the end, up to the GM if they take that to be a benefit that accrues due to the time spent, or the effect of the sleep.
The way Trance is written, there is legitimacy for either argument and it is hardly a game breaker if an Elf can acheive it.
Argue about it all you want, but both interpretations have some merit, so you won't acheive anything definitive...
lawrencehoy wrote:
SilentSin wrote:
lawrencehoy wrote:
SilentSin wrote:
Too many pages to digest here, but I wonder if this question has been asked yet. How come the rules of how much sleep a human needs are listed under an elf special rule? Second question, as they aren't a human and don't have Trance, according to the rules, how much sleep must a Dwarf have?
-------------
My take on it is this. A Long Rest is 8 hours. A character can sleep for as much or as little of that 8 hours. As long as the character spends 8 hours doing Light Activity, they get the benifits of a Long Rest. If the GM decides they don't sleep enough (even if the Long Rest(s) are spent doing non-sleeping Light Activity) then he can call for Con checks to give some game effect. Elves have a special rule that states the minimum they need is 4 hours. Which means that a GM cannot call for a Con check for not getting enough sleep if an elf "only" gets 4 hours of Trance a night.
This is what an elf can do during a Long Rest. A Long Rest is 8 hours. A Trance is 4 hours. If the elf is on watch for 2 hours, they have 2 free hours to do other light activity, such as reading, talking, or eating. They can do things like cook breakfast for the group. Enjoy a longer nip of Elven wine before bed. Enjoy a quiet coffee and watching the sun rise while the rest of the party sleeps. Heck, a GM might even consider the time it takes to prepair spells as light activity, which saves the party a couple of minutes in the morning.
The above are mechanical benifits to a 4 hour Trance during an 8 hour Long Rest. They are minimal and easily glossed over, but there are game effects.
With that being said, I believe that playing with a 4 hour Trance being enough to fulfil the Long Rest requirement would be a common house rule that isn't game breaking. Have fun playing the game however you want to play it.
Lucas_Blackstone wrote:
SilentSin wrote:
Jamwes wrote:
DungeonKrusher wrote:
DungeonKrusher wrote:
transcendantviewer wrote:
Pretty much, I think an elf gets a little bit of a bonus that becomes almost inconsequental on account of A - you can only get one long rest per day, B - unless you're in a party of elves, you won't really gain any time, and C - odds are the character will simply be straddled with extra guard duty. :o)
This is how eladrin trance was phrased in 4e and how I will use it in my 5e games:
Trance: Rather than sleep, eladrin enter a meditative state known as trance. You need to spend 4 hours in this state to gain the same benefits other races gain from taking a 6-hour extended rest. While in a trance you are fully aware of your surroundings and notice approaching enemies and other events as normal. 4e PHB p.38
Extended rest: regain hit points and hit dice; powers (spells etc. in 5e); action points. 4e PHB p.263
DungeonKrusher wrote:
@JeremyECrawford seems to be saying in this Tweet that the intention is that a Long Rest is 8 hours for an elf and any other character.
Jamwes wrote:
DungeonKrusher wrote:
Hope you don't mind in-line replies!
Jamwes wrote:
Apple: An elf trances for 4 hours vs. sleeping for 8 hours.
Orange: A "long rest" is 8 hours long.
These are unrelated features of the game. Trancing for 4 hours just means you don't feel tired. It doesn't explicitly reduce the time required for a long rest, it just adds some old school flavor to the elf. How can we know? Besides the tweets from the 5E devs stating as much, the 4E text was explicit in the relationship between the elven trance and the "long rest". 5E's text failed to achieve that same level of explication on purpose.
Besides, if elves got all their HP and spells back in 4 hours instead of 8 hours, there would be no orcs or goblins left in existence. Elves would just attrition them into oblivion because they can replenish their front lines 4 hours faster than every other mortal humanoid enemy in the world.
The way I read it:
LR takes 8 hours; you must spend it doing any mix of sleep/read/eat/talk. Up to two of those 8 hours can be spent standing watch.
OTOH, I don't really see it ever being much of an issue, since most folks will need to sleep anyway.
ModusPonens wrote:
Horwath wrote:
DungeonKrusher wrote:
ModusPonens wrote:
Horwath wrote:
ModusPonens wrote:
Jamwes wrote:
ModusPonens wrote:
I think the problem is that there are no rules for sleep. It is just assumed that everyone sleeps for part of their day. The "four hour meditation" for elves is just fluff, no actual effect.
I also think that a better question about trance is not its effect on long rests but its effect on downtime activities. If they have an extra four productive hours a day, compared to other races, elves should get a reduction in time spent crafting and learning.
So, my suggestions:
Long rest: 8 hours. For everyone.
Elf Trance: Because elves only need four hours of rest, they can do more with their day. Each day spent crafting, you can craft one or more items with a total market value not exceeding 6 gp. The time spent researching is reduced by 20% (something that would take a human 20 days, takes an elf 16 days). IF an elf is training another elf then the training only takes 200 days.
On the other hand, elves spend 80 years becoming full adults. What the heck are they doing during that time? One poster on these forums suggested that elves are chaotic and prone to distraction, which is why it takes them so long to be considered adults oooh shiny thing......
Perhaps we could be mean and say that because elves are so easily distracted then learning or crafting takes longer? *evil laugh*