71–80 of 177 posts
I'm surprised this article is at the top of HN. 1) It is not the announcement of a research study, rather it is just referencing previous hbr blogs and sleepfoundation.org's general guidelines for sleep. 2) It offers no unique advice. 3) The title is basic linkbait (ie, its not really about food vs sleep). Why the upvotes? is it because everyone is tired?
Heck, breathing is more important than all those things. Go without it for 4 minutes and you're dead. However, many people recommend controlling and slowing your breathing as a way to relax. Is that breathing deprivation?
I was hoping to see some sleep hacks in the comments here. The author cites a few in the article: 1) Naps 2) Go to bed earlier 3) Start winding down at least 45 minutes before 4) Write down what's on your mind Does anyone here have any other sleep hacks to share?
Schools such as Caltech and MIT have rigorous curricula that proverbially requires constant study every day of the week just to stay in the middle of the pack. Naturally, most students cut back on sleep. Proponents of this approach are aware of this, even boast about it, saying that this is the best way to learn the material. On the other hand, numerous studies -- including the link at the top of this page -- conclud…
I find that I need a pretty consistent 8 hours of sleep a night for normal operation. However, I've found that when I'm doing something challenging (say, a startup or a new project at work, or learning a new programming framework), this spikes upwards fast. I need about 9.5 hours when doing something moderately challenging, and up to 11 hours if it's a problem that requires my absolute full attention.
I remember reading somewhere a hypothesis that sleep exists so that your mind can convert short term working memory into long-term memory. Naturally, you would need more of this if your short-term working memory is more filled up with complicated stuff. But this goes at odds with the cultural practices at Caltech or MIT or med school - if it's true, you should structure the curriculum so that students work very hard during the day, but then have enough time to go home and sleep it off before learning the next day's lesson. I wonder if there's any research on this.
I find I also dream very vividly when working on a hard problem, but this could just be correlation, as REM cycles increase in frequency toward the end of the night, and if the night is extended, there ought to be more of them.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even more disconcerting is the sleeping culture/routine throughout medical residency and fellowship; arguably, the most important stages of medical education, where doctors in training learn the hands-on skills to practice medicine. Despite the importance of learning during this stage, individuals are routinely sleep-deprived: "20% of all residents reported sleeping an average of 5 hours or less per night, with 66% a…
To some extent the sleep deprivation is a weeding process/learning experience in and of itself. Being able to perform under stress/lack of sleep is a good quality in a doctor.
The only area that learning how to deal with sleep deprivation would be a benefit is surgery and critical care areas (ICUs). But then again, if you could schedule things better and get more doctors in, maybe these doctors don't have to learn how to function on 5 hours of sleep.
I think you're right to the extent that the current medical service system requires doctors to learn to sleep less and less while functioning on an acceptable level (note that I didn't say satisfactory or even exceptional). But I think that's begging the question. Shouldn't we be able to change the current system and allow doctors to focus on building skills/knowledge, not the ability to function without sleep.
tl;dr: sleep deprivation is not a necessary part of being a doctor if we change the system, so saying that doctors must learn how to deal with sleep deprivation is a circular argument.
I'm surprised this article is at the top of HN. 1) It is not the announcement of a research study, rather it is just referencing previous hbr blogs and sleepfoundation.org's general guidelines for sleep. 2) It offers no unique advice. 3) The title is basic linkbait (ie, its not really about food vs sleep). Why the upvotes? is it because everyone is tired?
I completely agree with you. This place is slowly growing into another Reddit with more junk crowd joining in regularly.
Schools such as Caltech and MIT have rigorous curricula that proverbially requires constant study every day of the week just to stay in the middle of the pack. Naturally, most students cut back on sleep. Proponents of this approach are aware of this, even boast about it, saying that this is the best way to learn the material. On the other hand, numerous studies -- including the link at the top of this page -- conclud…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even more disconcerting is the sleeping culture/routine throughout medical residency and fellowship; arguably, the most important stages of medical education, where doctors in training learn the hands-on skills to practice medicine. Despite the importance of learning during this stage, individuals are routinely sleep-deprived: "20% of all residents reported sleeping an average of 5 hours or less per night, with 66% a…
To some extent the sleep deprivation is a weeding process/learning experience in and of itself. Being able to perform under stress/lack of sleep is a good quality in a doctor.
EDIT: Applied s/two/too
"So how much sleep do you need? When researchers put test subjects in environments without clocks or windows and ask them to sleep any time they feel tired, 95 percent sleep between seven and eight hours out of every 24. Another 2.5 percent sleep more than eight hours." The broken link there is meant to point to ( http://www.sleepfoundation.org/article/how-sleep-works/how-m... ) and I can't spot where it mentions thi…
I was hoping to see some sleep hacks in the comments here. The author cites a few in the article: 1) Naps 2) Go to bed earlier 3) Start winding down at least 45 minutes before 4) Write down what's on your mind Does anyone here have any other sleep hacks to share?