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Productive on six hours of sleep? You’re deluding yourself, expert says

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Re: Productive on six hours of sleep? You’re deluding yourself, expert says

#91

Post by sethrin »

LogicX wrote: post #35
frozenport wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point is that people who claim to function on six are unable to correctly judge their capabilities and are most likely wrong about that claim.

Anecdote is not data, but I have not set an alarm for many years - I sleep 5-6 hours (only 5 since I went vegan) and I wake up on my own, refreshed. Occasionally I’m tired, I take a nap. I don’t do coffee, I have unsweetened tea but don’t go nuts on caffeine, social drinking. I don’t feel any need to ‘sleep in’ on weekends. Yes, I work from home and own my own company, so I have the luxury of taking a nap in the midd…

I'm in the same boat, working from home to no one else's schedule, but probably with a worse habit of body. I have no idea when I might last have slept for more than seven hours, and I very rarely nap. I'm considering acquiring a 'real job' again, but I'm probably not willing to ever compromise my sleep habits for an employer. I don't think anyone else should either, but I suspect that's not likely to be a popular opinion.

Re: Productive on six hours of sleep? You’re deluding yourself, expert says

#92

Post by ztjio »

lutorm wrote: post #25
_qbjt wrote: post #17

This is one of the reasons I hate the eight-hour work day. Between that and all of the other shit you have to do in a day (commute, chores, eating, exercise etc.), it seems like there's little to no opportunity to just have a life. I know it sounds like first world problems (people used to work 100 hour weeks), but I think our culture needs to change before we can really put the onus on people to improve their sleepi…

Actually, studies have shown that hunter-gatherer societies spent much less than 40h/week "working" and had more leisure time than we do. It's just recent history that's an anomaly...

Studies on same people suggest 6-6.5 hours of sleep per day was the norm, though. It questions the recent claims that adults "need" more.

Re: Productive on six hours of sleep? You’re deluding yourself, expert says

#93

Post by bsenftner »

What is it about those that need less? I personally have been sleeping 5-6 hours per night for decades. In my mid-30's I stopped my youthful partying and found I did not need to sleep as much. Now, at 52, more than 6 hours feel like too much and I'm groggy.

Re: Productive on six hours of sleep? You’re deluding yourself, expert says

#94

Post by mietek »

wmil wrote: post #39
lutorm wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, studies have shown that hunter-gatherer societies spent much less than 40h/week "working" and had more leisure time than we do. It's just recent history that's an anomaly...

Not only that, but the 40h/week ignores commutes. For some people that's an additional 15h/week. Also hunger-gatherers lived right beside the people they knew. They just had to step outside to meet up with friends to socialize.

> Also hunger-gatherers lived right beside the people they knew. They just had to step outside to meet up with friends to socialize.

Outside of what, the ministry of hunting and gathering?

Re: Productive on six hours of sleep? You’re deluding yourself, expert says

#95

Post by milesvp »

rightos wrote: post #29
oliveshell wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because you’re doing long-term damage to your brain? Now, it’s possible that you’re not, and the brain can heal itself, but that’s why I try and get enough sleep. It disturbs me to think that the impossibly complex biomechanical machine in my head is slogging through excess waste products to try and crank out acceptable performance.

Most of these studies tend to be focused on temporary effects, including this one. Most of that "damage" can be undone with a good nights sleep. But even if some amount is permanent, so what? Does my brain need to be in mint condition? If the cost of getting more enjoyment out of life is a little brain damage, so be it. I hold no ego about my brain being perfect. Performance is only one aspect of life and not one I s…

My personal experience is that long term sleep deprivation took me several months of recovery to even approach the mental capacity I had previously. Having kids really fucked up my sleep schedule, and I was not getting enough rem cycles for about 2 years. It wasn't until my first was sleeping through the night consistently that I began to recover.

Re: Productive on six hours of sleep? You’re deluding yourself, expert says

#96

Post by KGIII »

njarboe wrote: post #51
ksk wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it important that studies have shown a particular result?

Some people feel that humans have evolved over millions of years to do well in hunter-gatherer tribes and we have not genetically adapted yet in 6,000? years of civilization. If we think returning some habits of hunter-gatherer tribes would be beneficial, then we need to know what they are/were and not just wild-ass guess based on the Nobel Savage myth.

Because of your question mark, I decided to look it up.

Agriculture began about 12,000 to 10,000 years ago. It's not much different than 6,000 years and I only mention it because of your question mark.

Here is a link, if you're curious:

https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/development-of-ag...

It's worth adding that there were still some nomadic traits, initially. They'd plant and move on, hunting as they went, and would come back to where they planted when it was time to harvest. The speculation that I'm familiar with suggests that they did this with naturally growing crops before they began to cultivate them.

This isn't my domain, I just like documentaries.

Re: Productive on six hours of sleep? You’re deluding yourself, expert says

#97

Post by jhgjklj »

lutorm wrote: post #25
_qbjt wrote: post #17

This is one of the reasons I hate the eight-hour work day. Between that and all of the other shit you have to do in a day (commute, chores, eating, exercise etc.), it seems like there's little to no opportunity to just have a life. I know it sounds like first world problems (people used to work 100 hour weeks), but I think our culture needs to change before we can really put the onus on people to improve their sleepi…

Actually, studies have shown that hunter-gatherer societies spent much less than 40h/week "working" and had more leisure time than we do. It's just recent history that's an anomaly...

As the technology advances we should be working less but its the opposite. Here's an essay by Bertrand Russel http://www.zpub.com/notes/idle.html

Re: Productive on six hours of sleep? You’re deluding yourself, expert says

#98

Post by zipwitch »

jasonmp85 wrote: post #84
smallnamespace wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> with friends to socialize Or, sometimes, rival tribes to fight with and kill -- not everything is (necessarily) hunky-dory in every tribal society.

I have little knowledge about the truth here but I'd heard that this sort of warring stuff only ramped up after agriculture became common, no? Why kill other tribes' members unless they have a hoard of food? I suppose "to reduce competition" is one answer, but if everyone can hunt/gather for enough food, the motivation seems reduced. OTOH if I can ignore preparation for winter and just raid your village for grain sto…

I am not an anthropologist, but I believe that's a popular misconception. Many technologically primitive tribal cultures have low absolute numbers of violent deaths, but they also typically have very low populations compared to agricultural societies. Their per capita casualties from intra- and inter-tribal violence are quite high.

Re: Productive on six hours of sleep? You’re deluding yourself, expert says

#99

Post by chiefalchemist »

I think the headline is misleading. Let's say I stay up late to do X, Y and/or Z. These things to mean have meaning. In doing them I feel a sense of accomplishment. I've been productive.

Now I show up to work the next day. Certainly less sleep has some effect on me. But that doesn't devalue the increased productivity from the previous evening.

The brain is a limited resource. There might be occasional short term hacks/cheats. But on average you'll have X gallons in the mental tank. This is true. If you spend that at home then yes you will be "less productive" at work.

Re: Productive on six hours of sleep? You’re deluding yourself, expert says

#100

Post by r00fus »

wmil wrote: post #39
lutorm wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, studies have shown that hunter-gatherer societies spent much less than 40h/week "working" and had more leisure time than we do. It's just recent history that's an anomaly...

Not only that, but the 40h/week ignores commutes. For some people that's an additional 15h/week. Also hunger-gatherers lived right beside the people they knew. They just had to step outside to meet up with friends to socialize.

The commute and school dropoffs are the real lifestyle killer I think.

Imagine having an extra 5-15h a week to hang out and do things. Imagine having that much more sleep (if you happen to be burning the midnight oil a lot).

I used to remember my parents letting me walk to the school bus stop (near our apartment) and then walking to work or taking the bus themselves.

Nowadays we pack the kids into the car drop them off at 2 different schools, and both drive to work 30+m away. We also pick them up. That's got to be 3h a day per parent. The picture complicates with after school activities. It's a wonder I don't WFH more often (which reduces my back/forth for kids to 40m total).

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