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What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

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Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#51

Post by klenwell »

motivic wrote: 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…

This is also covered in Matthew Walker's Why We Sleep where he cites several controlled studies demonstrating the role of sleep in learning and outlines the neurobiology behind it:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34466963-why-we-sleep

I used to see sleep as a waste of time. A few years ago I started to recognize its importance in overall well-being and adjusted my schedule and commute accordingly.

Reading Walker's book led me both to take sleep more seriously still and to take more pleasure in it.

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#52

Post by canucker2016 »

from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6112797/

"...Relative risk of injury by Poisson regression showed that the strongest predictor of injury was <8 hours sleep per night. The results reported that 65% of athletes who reported sleeping <8 hours of sleep per night experienced an injury over the 21 months of monitoring. It was also reported that athletes who slept on average <8 hours per night had 1.7 times greater risk of being injured than the athletes who obtained ≥8 hours of sleep per night."

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#54

Post by spking »

jeffshek wrote: post #17
motivic wrote: 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 think the different stages of sleep play a part here ... Salvadore Dali apparently liked to keep an object/pen in his hand that would drop and wake him up. Still can't find enough real examples of polyphasic sleeping working, but love to know how well people of that retained content.

Thomas Edison too: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1649850

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#55

Post by Denzel »

cgh wrote: post #23
o10449366 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Nope, GP post is correct. Your body dramatically increases muscle synthesis and nervous system improvements while you’re asleep. A caloric surplus is one piece of three-part puzzle: progressive overload, caloric surplus, and sleep.

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#56

Post by apfsx »

eyegor wrote: post #50

I'm sure that it must be true based on how other people act on little sleep, but for me the effects this article claims are blown way out of proportion (or just seem wrong). > longer than 48 hours and you’re looking at behavior that mimics psychosis—incoherent rambling, disconnection from reality, prone to outbursts Does anyone else here have experience staying awake this long? In college I frequently stayed awake fo…

All articles on topics like this blow way everything way out of proportion.

I also used to do 48 and 72 hours regularly during my college days and it really wasn't too big of a deal for just getting through a lot of work but creativity/reaction times definitely suffer.

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#57

Post by ravenstine »

eyegor wrote: post #50

I'm sure that it must be true based on how other people act on little sleep, but for me the effects this article claims are blown way out of proportion (or just seem wrong). > longer than 48 hours and you’re looking at behavior that mimics psychosis—incoherent rambling, disconnection from reality, prone to outbursts Does anyone else here have experience staying awake this long? In college I frequently stayed awake fo…

I stayed awake two nights in a row during college and, while I felt miserable and perhaps somewhat dilirious, I don't believe I had such disassociative effects. I could believe incoherent rambling after maybe 4 or 5 days, but that seems extreme for 2.

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#58

Post by hiram112 »

o10449366 wrote: post #20
karanbhangui wrote: post #7

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…

Just curious if the medication was a benzo or z-drug (e.g. Ambien). If so, did you take it nightly during your 6-9 month cycles? Did the tolerance reset after a few months' break?

I've tried pretty much everything. Of course Melatonin and Benadryl don't work much. Klonopin and Ambien both work well, but I try not to use it more than 1x a week to avoid a tolerance.

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#59

Post by minism »

kvark wrote: post #40

I often find myself mote productive after a mildly bad night. The brain stops anxiously looking for nuts to crack, and instead can easily focus on a single problem for a long time. Isn't best for all scenarios, but definitely superior in some, e.g. implementing a large chunk of logic that was designed earlier.

This has been my experience as well, but I'm starting to worry that its an unhealthy habit.

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#60

Post by ggm »

Microsleeps are amazingly weird. you are there and then you are .. somewhere else, and what happened inbetween is unclear. (for some value of 'there' and 'somewhere else')

Anasthaesia, you at least know you're going out to lunch. Microsleeps, its random. And very dangerous (driving)

The hallucinations were quite a jolt too. I've had the drug induced ones, these were qualitatively different.

I don't recommend it. Sleep is good. Stick to a good sleep regime, and if you have problems sleeping seek help (note: waking up in the night and getting back to sleep is fine. waking up and not being able to get back to sleep, or not being able to get to sleep in the first place, is not fine)

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