When I start to feel like I'm not performing like I used to, I worry that my sleep patterns are the culprit. Then I worry that worrying about sleep patterns is causing performance problems...
Maybe Your Sleep Problem Isn’t a Problem
11–20 of 163 posts
Re: Maybe Your Sleep Problem Isn’t a Problem
#12TL&DR: Some people have different circadian sleep cycle and that's okay.
Re: Maybe Your Sleep Problem Isn’t a Problem
#13Based on the title, I was hoping it was about something else, something I talk about frequently with people who think they have sleep problems: human sleep is naturally biphasic. I know a lot of people who think waking up in the middle of the night means they have a disease, insomnia. When the truth is that before electric light, normal sleep was going to bed when it got dark, being awake for a while in the middle of…
Insomnia probably isn't limited to a simple reflection of a biphasic sleep-related problem. As an example, someone with naturally high anxiety could get on the most biphasic sleep schedule possible and still suffer from insomnia due to their anxiety about what tomorrow brings, etc.
Re: Maybe Your Sleep Problem Isn’t a Problem
#14Love this article! There is some really interesting research on the sleep patterns of indigenous tribes. Researchers found that while studying the tribe for like a 3 month period there was only around 30 minutes where the entire tribe was asleep. Humans are built to live together in communities to create the greatest likelihood of survival. Its most advantageous for someone to be awake to make sure that lion doesn't eat us after all. So while industrialization and the workaholism of Americans has pushed us to all wake up earlier - based on our chronobiology - its probably pretty unhealthy for many.
I'm trying to get companies to realize this.
Just my 2 cent.
Dan Gartenberg, PhD, CEO of Sonic Sleep Coach
Re: Maybe Your Sleep Problem Isn’t a Problem
#15The author's experience is very similar to my own–my parents called me 'the sleepless wonder' when I was a kid, and by high school getting out of bed for morning classes was excruciating. In college I mostly chose classes that started later in the day and wound up doing much better academically.
Since college I've made a point of taking jobs that offer flexible hours, which thankfully seems to be increasingly common. I have no interest in going back to having that conflicted feeling around midnight, knowing that if I stay up much later the morning will be torture, but feeling wide awake, productive and creative.
In recent years I've found myself tending to wake up earlier in the morning, but regardless of when I wake up my brain is still fuzzy until 10 or 11am. It turns out that this makes the mornings an ideal time for me to get some exercise, which I've discovered to be a great way to start the day.
Re: Maybe Your Sleep Problem Isn’t a Problem
#16TL&DR: Some people have different circadian sleep cycle and that's okay.
Well, it's only okay if you are able to function from 9-5, otherwise it's probably a huge issue.
Re: Maybe Your Sleep Problem Isn’t a Problem
#17Based on the title, I was hoping it was about something else, something I talk about frequently with people who think they have sleep problems: human sleep is naturally biphasic. I know a lot of people who think waking up in the middle of the night means they have a disease, insomnia. When the truth is that before electric light, normal sleep was going to bed when it got dark, being awake for a while in the middle of…
I recently listened to an interview with Matthew Walker (author of "Why We Sleep" book mentioned in article). Dr. Walker stated the scientific consensus is now trending toward historical biphasic sleep being a social trend rather than how we're "supposed" to sleep.
Re: Maybe Your Sleep Problem Isn’t a Problem
#18As someone who also has atypical sleep patterns ( late sleeper, early riser ), there were some interesting points in here. I know there's been research done as well on the number of hours of sleep required rather than 'when' it occurs, but those haven't seem to have reached a consensus yet. I will say some of these articles sometimes read satirically. Notably, they have a diagnosis for people who can't sleep at 'norm…
I also get a little eye-rolly when they went into the whole "we see things differently" bit. The whole "I'm so special and unique thing" just grates after a while. If you're like roughly 30% of the population, that whole "seeing things differently" means you see things like 30% of the population. Which ain't too shabby.
Being in a 30% doesn't make you an oddball, maverick, or outsider. (Words used to describe 'nightowls' in this article)
Re: Maybe Your Sleep Problem Isn’t a Problem
#19The author's experience is very similar to my own–my parents called me 'the sleepless wonder' when I was a kid, and by high school getting out of bed for morning classes was excruciating. In college I mostly chose classes that started later in the day and wound up doing much better academically. Since college I've made a point of taking jobs that offer flexible hours, which thankfully seems to be increasingly common.…
> In college I mostly chose classes that started later in the day and wound up doing much better academically.
Those are the only days of my life I can remember not feeling jet lagged. I should follow your lead and get jobs with flexible hours.
Re: Maybe Your Sleep Problem Isn’t a Problem
#20Based on the title, I was hoping it was about something else, something I talk about frequently with people who think they have sleep problems: human sleep is naturally biphasic. I know a lot of people who think waking up in the middle of the night means they have a disease, insomnia. When the truth is that before electric light, normal sleep was going to bed when it got dark, being awake for a while in the middle of…
My night time wakings have a very clear and strong association with those periods of time when I’m working on my side-project/startup. The bbc article mentions ‘meditating on your dreams’ as an activity for this time, however I’m likely to have a mind racing with all permutations of technical problems that I’ve evidently not managed to clear from my brain. Does anyone have experience-based advice on whether it’s better to try to do a few hours work at 3am vs. getting out of the bed and e.g. reading fiction (which I believe is the best advice to break the cycle of negative association that can build up if you are lying in bed awake and annoyed)