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What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

outsideonline.com

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Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#21

There seems to be quite a lot of information about why =8 hours is associated with increased mortality. See for example https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29790200 (an interesting study in itself). I read "Why We Sleep" but unfortunately it didn't answer this question. The association could be correlational but it's been replicated too many times for me to believe that there's not something more fundamental. Perhaps…

Correlation vs causation leaves a lot open, chronically sick with a number of illnesses people may sleep more. Their mortality risk is also higher. I'd wish we could see controlled studies that randomly assign people to different sleep durations. You also have to control for gene mutations that affect sleep requirements https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/genetic-mutation-...

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#22

There seems to be quite a lot of information about why =8 hours is associated with increased mortality. See for example https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29790200 (an interesting study in itself). I read "Why We Sleep" but unfortunately it didn't answer this question. The association could be correlational but it's been replicated too many times for me to believe that there's not something more fundamental. Perhaps…

I read the original article and the abstract of your linked study.

First, I'd like to see a breakdown of 8 hour vs 9+ hours instead of grouping them. Someone sleeping a healthy 8 hours and someone sleeping 12 hours are very different.

There might be issues like, people who sleep 12 hours are sick, and that's WHY they sleep 12 hours and they die due to their illness.

Overall I'm guessing people who sleep a lot per day aren't very active, both career wise and going out/excising (just my guess) - and people who don't have jobs and are poor, they live less than people who do have jobs and have money. Also people who are depressed sleep more. So not all sleep is equal.

It's hard to approach health from a cybernetic point of view, but I think that's what's missing to make these studies less unidimensional. The key is how to make science more cybernetic. That I don't know.

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you ever do strenuous exercise? If so, how does it affect your insomnia?

Exercise doesn't have an effect for me. In high school I played two varsity sports and in college I played in some club/recreational leagues. Now I swim and weightlift, but I wouldn't say any of these activities improve my quality of sleep or ability to induce it. This is because, for me, "sleepiness" is not the same as "tiredness." I can be extremely exhausted, both mentally and physically, but I'll still never feel…

That's not from a lack of sleep. If you want to build strength and muscle, do less aerobic exercise and eat more - a lot more. You need to be in a caloric surplus for a while.

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#25
post #9

In case you feel sleep is a waste of time, it could actually be surprisingly productive to sleep. Once thing I noticed in grad school is that your sub-conscious is passively working on the problems you encountered even if you are not actively thinking about them. And often I would "dream" up a clever solution to a homework problem during my sleep. J.P. Serre, one of the most brilliant mathematician still living today…

I’ve learned to love the expression “let me sleep on it”

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#26

Obligatory "Why We Sleep" link https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZZ1YGJ5 . Writing is ok, but content is great. In short, sleep impacts many more aspects of your health than most realize and is well understood in many aspects. For instance, I was surprised to learn that poor sleep the week after learning something can significantly reduce your recall of it. When slowly learning something over a few months, it's the differ…

Here's the first part of Peter Attia's three part interview with Matthew Walker (6+ hrs total listening time!). Most of the content of the book is covered; it's very motivating insofar as prioritizing sleep quality. https://peterattiamd.com/matthewwalker1/

Matthew Walker's main site: https://www.humansleepscience.com/

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#27
post #9

In case you feel sleep is a waste of time, it could actually be surprisingly productive to sleep. Once thing I noticed in grad school is that your sub-conscious is passively working on the problems you encountered even if you are not actively thinking about them. And often I would "dream" up a clever solution to a homework problem during my sleep. J.P. Serre, one of the most brilliant mathematician still living today…

Any tips on how to enact problem solving during sleep?

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious if you've done in-lab sleep studies and if so, what the treatment has been like?

I've done two, but I didn't find them very helpful. They take several months to schedule, which is quite inconvenient, and they require dedicating a lot of time staying overnight in clinics with wires strapped to you. The end result is the same, too. Current medical advice is a mix of sleep hygiene and meditation strategies (some insomniacs feel extremely anxious when they can't sleep, which makes things worse) and m…

This was my exact experience as well with the studies. We are similar in our sleep patterns.

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#29
I've had sleep issues since I was a child and I have been interested in the area of sleep for a long time. One of the biggest challenges in this is that I know lack of sleep is very unhealthy in a number of dimensions AND the more I focus on trying to sleep and how bad it is to miss sleep WHEN I'm having sleep issues, the less likely it is I'll be able to sleep.
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