Live data from Hacker News

Can sleep deprivation cure depression?

nytimes.com

211–220 of 223 posts

Re: Can sleep deprivation cure depression?

#211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But think of the chaos if every person and business had to implement their own alternative to DST. Every business would change it's hours on a different date, and many wouldn't change their hours at all. Everyone would have to completely change their routines ad hocly. It's nice to have a single standard, and only have to change the clock. If it helps, don't think of clock as a measure of the sun. Think of it as a me…

Unless you get up at 3AM, noon isn't the middle of your day.

It's the middle of your workday if you need daylight to work.

Re: Can sleep deprivation cure depression?

#212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With your sleep schedule constantly shifting, how do you manage day-to-day activities? You must have a job with very flexible hours for that to work. But even things like going to the store and seeing a doctor must be slightly more difficult if you might be asleep from morning to afternoon. With 9 months of data, how consistently do you shift your schedule by 1 hour each day? I'd imagine there are fluctuations, but I…

I keep my own work hours and schedule my work around deadlines. If I have a deliverable Friday afternoon and I'm going to sleep in the morning, I have to get it done Thursday night. The beauty of this for me is that I know what my productive hours will be and I can work during them, rather than shoving work into a specific time frame regardless of my circumstances. Things like going to the store I can do any time of…

How does it work socially?

Re: Can sleep deprivation cure depression?

#213

> Most people’s natural cycle is somewhat longer than the 24-hour solar day, which means that, left to our own devices, we would get quickly get out of sync with the external world. I've always had very bad issues sleeping and waking "on time." In school this led to me regularly missing class and eventually dropping school entirely, and with regular work schedules I hardly ever got good sleep. A little while ago, I m…

Interesting, I thought I heard of a 25 hour sleep cycle before so I looked it up.

>>

Over the first two years, 25 subjects stayed in the bunker and were monitored. The researchers noted that the majority of them woke up slightly later every day.

Their average days were no longer 24 hours, but soon lengthened to between 24.7 and 25.2 hours.

However, this length then remained constant, and their bodily functions basically followed this new rhythm.

As this rhythm does not correspond to conventional day and night, it is called the circadian rhythm (lat. circa = approximate, dies = day).

courtesy of the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology

https://www.mpg.de/943613/S003_Flashback_060_061.pdf

Re: Can sleep deprivation cure depression?

#214

I'm sure it works great for some people and very poorly for others. I am disappointed by this headline though. While the story is interesting, 'can X CURE depression?!'is basically clickbaity bullshit, and if the NYT is serious about the value of journalism it should abandon clickbaiting as a strategy, for two reasons. One, it's because of shullshit headlines like this that people in general distrust the media in gen…

Yes, since this isn't the headline of the actual piece, shouldn't this be flagged?

Re: Can sleep deprivation cure depression?

#215

I'm sure it works great for some people and very poorly for others. I am disappointed by this headline though. While the story is interesting, 'can X CURE depression?!'is basically clickbaity bullshit, and if the NYT is serious about the value of journalism it should abandon clickbaiting as a strategy, for two reasons. One, it's because of shullshit headlines like this that people in general distrust the media in gen…

Yes, since this isn't the headline of the actual piece, shouldn't this be flagged?

In general, I'd say no. Make a note of the actual title, and contact a mod to update it (via the Contact link in the footer).

Re: Can sleep deprivation cure depression?

#216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While you are certainly less able to overthink in that state, the euphoria is a discrete phenomenon. The euphoria and poorer high-level cognition seem not to be caused by each other (obviously discounting any cyclical feedback effects once they're both in play), but instead caused by the same process.

>discrete 'Distinct' you mean? If only there was a way to get the euphoria without the reduction in function, huh?

I mean discrete.

Re: Can sleep deprivation cure depression?

#217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've found it somewhat easy to feel very isolated in the same way. A week of freelance work at hours when pretty much the whole of the country is asleep takes some getting used to. I recommend finding some Discord or IRC servers with like-minded individuals that may operate in other timezones, if that interests you. It's always the middle of the day somewhere, and I find that just having that communication available—…

Discord / IRC / Twitch / cytube is pretty much exactly how I deal with it. Funny there is a whole world of us out there.

All of these comments have been extremely interesting to me. Before this, I'd never spoken to anybody that shared my sleep pattern, so I had no way to gauge how uncommon it is.

Re: Can sleep deprivation cure depression?

#218

> Most people’s natural cycle is somewhat longer than the 24-hour solar day, which means that, left to our own devices, we would get quickly get out of sync with the external world. I've always had very bad issues sleeping and waking "on time." In school this led to me regularly missing class and eventually dropping school entirely, and with regular work schedules I hardly ever got good sleep. A little while ago, I m…

Registered an account just to say "Me too". I've been on this rotating cycle for several years at this point (so can't really tell how it might affect depression). It's remarkable how similar the timing is too... I go around the clock about every month or so. Though I don't think I could stay on normal time even if I wanted to. Eventually I'll have a night of insomnia, where I overshoot my usual pattern by probably 6…

I did this in college, every day I wish I could go back. But my workplace has a strict 9-5 mentality with ~2 days to work from home each month.

I'm seriously considering to go freelance just for the hours.

Re: Can sleep deprivation cure depression?

#219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well I don't know if I can say I'm making it work. I do end up in some crazy situations, like during winter not seeing daylight for a few weeks. I still think of it as being in "Well, that can't be good" territory. Then there's the horror of thinking - "If my work situation falls apart and I have to get a 9-to-5, how will I even deal with that?". I sometimes wonder if it'd just sort itself out if I quit caffeine comp…

My stomach protested after being feed copious amounts of coffee during the late 90's. Since then I only drink coffee involuntarily (like if someone already made me a cup before asking so I sip just out of courtesy). Today I stick to drinking mostly red teas. Which are not actually tea I hear. Anyways, my point is did you try to get off caffeine altogether at some point?

True "tea" comes from the camellia sinensis plant. Tisanes, which we in the US like to call "herbal teas" are any number of plant infusions not made from camellia sinensis.

Re: Can sleep deprivation cure depression?

#220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just went to Whole Foods and bought the generics, except for the magnesium, where I bought a type that has good absorption. Many magnesium supplements do not. I tried to avoid mega-dosing, so to ensure that I only supplement every third day. I was more concerned about any deficiencies. And I went to Whole Foods because of that supplement scandal a couple of years ago. Whole Foods may charge a lot but is more truste…

I agree in that I go to Whole Foods or a similar store over mass market choices like Walmart, but even at Whole Foods you're not necessarily getting the best form of supplement in those generics. Differences between bio-availability or effectiveness can be very notable between citrates, acetates, chelates, glycinates, picolinates, etc. I've personally found some good functional medicine sources of information (I've f…

Which is why I used magnesium citrate, as displayed above in a photo.
Post reply on HN