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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

#131

Post by agumonkey »

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…

Similarly pauses allow for other skills to grow (stop playing music for a week, a month, and you'll often feel more apt when you return). We're probably full of phasors and delays. And letting time for everything to mature/settle seems to matter.

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#132

Post by Zarath »

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…

While I understand why you'd write something like this, I think that this sort of thinking is the reason people get poor sleep nowadays anyway. This obsession with "efficiency" and "productivity". Even if it is more productive to get sleep, I believe that thinking about it in terms of hygiene or in terms of quality of life is much healthier.

Maybe you disagree but not every minute of life should be devoted to doing the most productive thing you can. Sleeping for sleep's sake or because it makes you feel good should be enough reason. I'd rather turn my attention away from all these life-hack, min-maxing ways of thinking and just listen to my body telling me what it wants.

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#133

Post by dwd »

dplgk wrote: post #114
theatraine wrote: post #11

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…

On a related note, I wear a fitbit and if I sleep from say 12-8, you'd think this would be 8 hours of sleep (as recommended) but I usually have about 1 hour awake or restless (according to the fitbit). So fitbit says I got 7 hours of sleep. The question is do these studies account for this supposed awakeness that seems to be part of everyone's night of sleep? Surely nobody that reads them thinks they need 8+1 hours w…

I think most recommendations are to get 4-5 sleep cycles a night, so the actual elapsed time will vary for individuals.

The problem with chronic sleep deprivation is that you miss one or more cycles, It's like if you washed your clothes but skipped the rinse and/or spin cycles. Skipping a whole night of sleep and you're still wearing yesterday's clothes.

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#134

Post by brainless »

There are some comments here pointing out that some effects in the article (post 30 hours of sleep deprivation for example) seem out of proportion.

If you are comparing to times when you did not sleep and "felt" you performed well, please keep in mind that your "feelings" are also affected by the same lack of sleep.

You might be thinking you are driving great, but compared to how your drive when fully rested, you are probably not. But you brain does not process or acknowledge this fully since it is deprived of sleep.

Your mileage with lack of sleep will surely vary, but to think you are not affected (without formal tests) will be the exact result of lack or sleep - thinking/reasoning is impaired.

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#135

Post by ssttoo »

mantap wrote: post #84
nashequilibrium wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just had one of these moments two days ago, the only other thing that comes close is when I go for long walks.

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.

Haha, interesting theory. For some it’s a cigarette break, for others (all of us?) it’s bathroom break, shower (showerthoughts, anyone?), nap, meditation. A break of any kind, if we may generalize.

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#136

Post by carokann »

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 so true. I had spent a long time analyzing a chess puzzle, gave up and slept. Boom, i "see" the answer. It was so stimulating that i woke up.

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#139

Post by toast0 »

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've hit 24 hours twice on accident shortly after coming home with a newborn child, and was seeing pulsating walls and other weird visual stuff and generally feeling pretty shitty. The first time, it took me until much later to realize I had been awake so long. So definitely some YMMV.

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#140

Post by pmikesell »

harikb wrote: post #127
numlock86 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I noticed in grad school that your sub-conscious is passively working on the problems you encountered even if you are not actively thinking about them As other comments already mentioned, this works amazing for problem solving related jobs as well. As an engineer I use this actively on almost a weekly basis. To make this work you just gotta really think about that problem and understand the actual parameters very w…

Lucky you. In my case, I end up thinking about the problem in my sleep, come up with solutions that are a mix between reality and fantasy within the dream and usually end in a horrible loop of the above while I desperately try to break out of it. In short, spoils my whole night sleep ( at least how I feel about it next day ). Rarely have it actually produced a successful solution!

I secretly suspect this is everybody, and the people who claim to be coming up with real solutions in their sleep are back justifying what happened when they had enough time to sleep well and felt nice.
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