I think we often emphasize the importance of exercise and diet for healthy living which are definitely essential, but sleep should also be added to that list.
What Happens to the Body on No Sleep
101–110 of 324 posts
Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I tried a whole slew of them. Zaleplon was actually the one that worked the best for me and the one I took for the longest. The tolerance would reset after a few months break, but it would always get back to the point where it was ineffective. I've also never noticed melatonin to have any effect, even when taken correctly.
Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep
#103I'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.
4 or 5 days? I'm not convinced a healthy person could make it that long. I've asked hundreds of classmates and grad students over the years for their records and have yet to meet anyone that claimed over 72 hours. Personally my body was almost completely non functional around 65 ish hours -- stumbling and slurring words, no concept of time, incapable of focusing. The only reason I was awake long enough to reach that point is because it took hours to finally fall asleep. Honestly I'd love to hear what happens if someone could get to 72+ hours.
Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep
#104Another thing not mentioned, which I'd noticed recently after a couple of very poor nights, was feeling very dehydrated. Drinking a lot of water didn't seem to help, and it all went straight through. Some surface level research indicated that it could be a lack of vasopressin, so it makes me wonder if taking a small amount of desmopressin (with sufficient hydration electrolytes) would help take the unpleasant edge off the next day.
Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep
#105In 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…
One day I could not compile something. After fighting it several hours I decided to go sleep. A few minutes before waking up I dreamed that the solution was to set an environment variable. I even saw the specific variable and which value I had to set. I woke up and immediately tried it. It worked.
That's the exact reason why we should have beds at work and not have regular working hours. People should just work and sleep whenever they want as long as they make meetings and project deadlines.
Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep
#106I went a period of several weeks with little sleep (2-3 hours per day). At first I was really tired. Then that started to go away and my head was numb. After that the numbness went away and I had a persistent headache.
The reason why I got so little sleep initially stopped after about 10 days (sleep regression in twin babies). The rest of the time was because it became very difficult to sleep. Any noise would wake me up - wide awake. It would take me hours to fall asleep. I continued to only be able to get 2-3 hours per day. Even with over the counter sleep aids.
Eventually I got some Ambien, which let me actually fall asleep for more time. That helped me get to the point where I could actually feel tired again when I needed to sleep.
It was an interesting experience.
Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep
#107This is an amazing gem: > on the Monday after spring daylight saving time, when we lose an hour of sleep, there’s a 25 percent increase in heart attacks > Conversely, in the fall, when we gain an extra hour, there is a 21 percent reduction in heart attacks. So daylight saving kills an extra 4% people by heart attacks. Light Yagami approves. I wonder whether it's because of the sleep itself, or because when people don…
The article linked there (https://www.acc.org/about-acc/press-releases/2014/03/29/09/1... ) is a bit more nuanced. The heart attacks are shifted from the rest of the week to Monday, looking at the week it is about the same as other weeks.
(also, those heart attacks are not necessarily lethal)
Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do you know you are healthy? Edit: This isn't meant to be accusatory, I'm just curious
To be frank most people with sleep apnea aren't.
You’d be surprised. A friend’s 11-year-old daughter who is athletic and slim just got diagnosed the other day, and she is getting a CPAP. Frankly, I think there’s a lot of confirmation bias because fat people who snore are much more likely to go in for a sleep study.
Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have many epiphanies on the toilet. I'm not sure if it's extra blood flowing to the brain or what but the throne seems to add extra IQ.
I noticed extra inspiration on bathroom breaks as well, but as a control I tried just getting up and walking outside and back, and that seemed to have the same effect for me.
There's something going on during that context switch.
It feels like because all of the data about a problem is being unloaded into long term memory, when you return to the problem, you parse the entire data as once instead of adding to it in pieces.
It almost feels like a puzzle except the second time looking at it, you're looking at the whole thing you've solved versus just the piece you last added.
Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Ask your dr about hydroxyzine. It's an anti-anxiety medication but is useful as a long term sleep aid in higher doses.
No pills ever worked for my insomnia but hydroxyzine made me much more comfortable while trying to sleep.