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What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

outsideonline.com

171–180 of 324 posts

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#171

If sleep is so important. Why didn’t we evolve to have our newborns and toddlers not destroy our sleep? Are parents sacrificed for the well being of the kiddos? sleep deprived and frustrated father

I actually thought about that exact same thing last year when my daughter was born. As frustrating as not getting enough sleep is, what irritated me more is that apparent lack of ANY evolutionary advantage to sleep depriving your parents.

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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'…

On the other hand, while Walker may be right about everything he says (anecdotally I'm extremely aware of how important sleep is day-to-day), I found his book to be very poor evidence of what he's trying to persuade us of. His writing is that of one who has bought unquestioningly into a cult. The evo-psych digressions about "wise Mother Nature" are nothing short of ridiculous; the one that sticks in my memory is that…

I think that was a hardcore scientist trying to reach out to the wider audience.

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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'…

On the other hand, while Walker may be right about everything he says (anecdotally I'm extremely aware of how important sleep is day-to-day), I found his book to be very poor evidence of what he's trying to persuade us of. His writing is that of one who has bought unquestioningly into a cult. The evo-psych digressions about "wise Mother Nature" are nothing short of ridiculous; the one that sticks in my memory is that…

As alecco says in this thread, it is indeed a hardcore scientist who studied sleep for twenty years trying to communicate to a wider audience. I'll cut him a lot of slack.

Also, not sure if you've seen Walker speak (do check out on YouTube), he's one of the most brilliant public speakers. Very few scientists can manage to hold your concentration like Prof. Walker does.

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#176
post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

As I also experienced this, the trick is that you keep your mind focused around the problem, even when you go to sleep. I already mentioned you need to make trying to solve the problem your big thing of the day. Of course if you try to solve a problem and at the same day got almost robbed or were close to having an accident (or something really nice happened) your brain is most likely to process that instead at sleep or mix things up.

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#178
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…

Few years ago I spent quite some time learning Haskell, failing to understand the concept of Monad. One day I just woke up, with the concept understood. It was like magic.

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#179

If sleep is so important. Why didn’t we evolve to have our newborns and toddlers not destroy our sleep? Are parents sacrificed for the well being of the kiddos? sleep deprived and frustrated father

Hey I feel you. A lot of people might not like my answer, but here it goes. I have a 2,5 month old daughter, and my wife breastfeeds her. During the night, I don't wake up because she immediately gives her milk when she wakes up. There are a few things evolution gave us for support (correct me if these 'facts' are wrong): - When women breastfeed, they get some hormone that can put them into REM sleep way faster. - Me…

Not sure why people wouldn't like this answer. We've had great success with this approach and co-sleeping even after the breastfeeding period.

Would be interested to hear negative experiences.

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#180

A lot of the stuff mentioned in this article -- microsleeps, immune weakness, irrational thoughts and behavior -- sure rings a bell from my university days when I would, either for work or school "reasons," routinely pull all-nighters. Ended up with some very bad results. Also: Schools in general in my area, including elementary, are starting waaaay earlier than they used to, and the kids aren't getting enough sleep,…

Oh boy, the university I'm attending right now has lectures starting at 8am, which is earlier than usual for my country, and ca. 36 hours of lectures per week. This means that you usually go 8am/6pm in uni multiple days a week, then you obviously have your assignments and catching up on the lectures to do, and all the random stuff that comes with living alone (laundry, grocery, cooking, cleaning, etc.) - this means t…

What I hated even more about 8 am lectures is I lived an hour and a half away from the university, so from the time I left the house to the time I got home again took like 13 hours every day. And the real knife in my guts is I was paying for the privilege of this.

Now I work from home, and saunter in to work at 8 in my pajamas with a bowl of fruit loops. I put in my 8 hours of work, and then I walk 3 feet to my left and flop down on my couch and start playing video games. And they pay me for this!

Universities are so damn dysfunctional.

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