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Maybe Your Sleep Problem Isn’t a Problem

nytimes.com

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Re: Maybe Your Sleep Problem Isn’t a Problem

#121

Post by cimmanom »

pg_bot wrote: post #25

I'm the only person I've encountered that naturally runs on a 25 hour clock. I get the same amount of sleep per day (~8 hours) but I follow it with 17 hours of wakefulness so my clock moves forward by an hour every day. To my knowledge there are no adverse health effects, but it's certainly out of the ordinary. I often wonder if more people are like me since sleep problems are so common, but they cannot follow their…

Apparently that’s pretty common when your light exposure isn’t dominated by natural light (insufficient exposure to natural light during the day and/or significant exposure to artificial light at night): https://www.circadiansleepdisorders.org/info/cycle_length.ph...

Re: Maybe Your Sleep Problem Isn’t a Problem

#122

Post by Izkata »

medell wrote: post #43
crazygringo wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> All humans have a hardwired dip in midafternoon alertness. In my personal experience, if you don't have a post-lunch carbs crash and you do have air conditioning, the dip doesn't exist. He doesn't really seem to back up the existence of a biological dip at all that is innate to human rhythms.

Isn't he claiming the opposite? (But I don't have the book to dig into the sources): This brief descent from high-degree wakefulness to low-level alert­ness reflects an innate drive to be asleep and napping in the afternoon, and not working. It appears to be a normal part of the daily rhythm of life.

I've always understood it to be related to the hottest part of the day, not so much a post-lunch thing. Probably why GP mentioned air conditioning preventing it.

Re: Maybe Your Sleep Problem Isn’t a Problem

#123

Post by cimmanom »

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #62

Tangentially related, I am regularly waken up by garbage trucks at ~2am and ~4:30am, and then sometimes again at ~6am. (I live in San Francisco). It's becoming unbearable. Unfortunately there are a couple of commercial activities nearby, and my understanding is that there's no way to force these trucks to come at a more decent time. Any of you have any idea on how to fix this? Sorry if this is a bit off-topic, but no…

Earplugs?

Re: Maybe Your Sleep Problem Isn’t a Problem

#124

Post by jm__87 »

mschuster91 wrote: post #78

I believe a big part of the problem is that the old larks, and with them their belief about lark superiority, simply don't retire as they used to, thus keeping young people and fresh ideas from moving up the "chain of command". Being a hard night owl myself, I'm happy to work at a place with flexible hours, but then again most of my company is <40-50 years of age. People in BigCos often aren't as lucky and to make it…

You realize that as most people age, they tend to sleep earlier and wake up earlier. Maybe one day you too will be an old lark :).

Re: Maybe Your Sleep Problem Isn’t a Problem

#125

Post by jm__87 »

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #62

Tangentially related, I am regularly waken up by garbage trucks at ~2am and ~4:30am, and then sometimes again at ~6am. (I live in San Francisco). It's becoming unbearable. Unfortunately there are a couple of commercial activities nearby, and my understanding is that there's no way to force these trucks to come at a more decent time. Any of you have any idea on how to fix this? Sorry if this is a bit off-topic, but no…

I moved to a very noisy part of the city and found that practicing a different reaction to noise actually helped me. I just decided to treat it as not such a big deal and I'm able to sleep quite well now. White noise helps too.

Re: Maybe Your Sleep Problem Isn’t a Problem

#126

Post by WalterSear »

xvector wrote: post #119
WalterSear wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fwiw, I put my screen in darkroom mode and use nothing red bulbs in my evening lights. It's very easy to avoid bluelight while you work. However, as you mention, that's only half the battle.

My issue with this is that warm light encourages melatonin production so I end up dozing whenever I have red light or f.lux/Night Shift/etc on.

It doesn't.

I'd hazard you are sleep deprived.

Re: Maybe Your Sleep Problem Isn’t a Problem

#127

Post by person_of_color »

cimmanom wrote: post #120
person_of_color wrote: post #107

I'm currently having an issue where I get to sleep on time but keep waking up 1-2 sleep cycles too early. Any ideas why? Help.

I’ve been having this problem too. It’s the worst. Going to bed at 10 and waking up at 3 when your alarm is set for 6; exhausted but weirdly alert too. Then feeling like a zombie all day, collapsing into bed, and doing it all over again.

Do you think it's sleep apnoea? Or poor sleep hygiene?

Re: Maybe Your Sleep Problem Isn’t a Problem

#128

Post by mschuster91 »

nradov wrote: post #90
mschuster91 wrote: post #78

I believe a big part of the problem is that the old larks, and with them their belief about lark superiority, simply don't retire as they used to, thus keeping young people and fresh ideas from moving up the "chain of command". Being a hard night owl myself, I'm happy to work at a place with flexible hours, but then again most of my company is <40-50 years of age. People in BigCos often aren't as lucky and to make it…

This is the worst sort of ageism. In my professional experience there is no correlation between youth and fresh ideas. Big companies with competent leaders are perfectly capable of rapid change when survival is at stake. The classic example is the pivot from desktop software toward the Internet that Bill Gates led at Microsoft.

> This is the worst sort of ageism. In my professional experience there is no correlation between youth and fresh ideas.

Look into politics, no matter the country, or any big corporation - it is usually an old-white-men club (exceptions confirm the rule). And they are hell-bent on keeping the situation so that they benefit, and the younger generations suffer for it.

The social contract was that at reaching ~65 (here in Germany) years, you retire, and someone younger rises to your position. The current situation with people working way past their 80s, either due to stubbornness (rich old white men) or due to economic need (poor old people, PoC), breaks that contract, and young people are locked into lower-paying positions because they cannot rise up.

To provide my claims with data: average age of DAX company boardmembers is 61, with some companies at 70 (!!) [1], only 7% of CxO posts are held by women [2]. In addition, the government commission "Deutscher Corporate Governance Kodex" actually has literally asked for "fresh blood" in boards [1].

1: https://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/article137859180/Zu-viele-Sen...

2: http://www.faz.net/aktuell/beruf-chance/beruf/dax-unternehme...

Re: Maybe Your Sleep Problem Isn’t a Problem

#129

Post by cimmanom »

person_of_color wrote: post #127
cimmanom wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve been having this problem too. It’s the worst. Going to bed at 10 and waking up at 3 when your alarm is set for 6; exhausted but weirdly alert too. Then feeling like a zombie all day, collapsing into bed, and doing it all over again.

Do you think it's sleep apnoea? Or poor sleep hygiene?

I’m waking between cycles, not because of apnea; and apnea shouldn’t prevent getting back to sleep afaik - it just prevents deep sleep and leaves you less rested. I think my sleep hygiene’s been ok. The one cause that seems most likely to me is a decrease in exercise (due to an injury).

Re: Maybe Your Sleep Problem Isn’t a Problem

#130

Post by pitaj »

trts wrote: post #116
Bartweiss wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. I spent high school thinking I was exceptionally prone to getting songs stuck in my head. It turns out that I just get them stuck in my head when I'm extremely tired, and that state was so continuous that I never noticed there were times…

Interesting that you wrote this. I find the more sleep deprived I become, the more intense are my earwigs (and also, the worse they become in terms of what I'd rather not hear). I also am stuck with keeping an 8a to 6p schedule in a city with bad traffic. Because of the detriment to my motor functions, I sold my motorcycle as it didn't felt safe to ride anymore. No matter how little sleep I've had, by five or six in…

Pretty sure they're called "earworms". Earwigs are the insect with a pincer on their behind.
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