I'm amazed by how thoroughly he wrote up the experiment.
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The effects on cognition of sleeping 4 hours per night for 12-14 days
11–20 of 368 posts
Re: The effects on cognition of sleeping 4 hours per night for 12-14 days
#12Back in the 1980s this was expected of MIT undergrads. Took me over a decade and some difficult effort to extract myself from chronic lack of sleep. I feel likeI was a lot smarter and more productive when I get 6 hrs minimum. I am a lot healthier on other metrics as well.
Perhaps this shows that a coupled weeks is OK. Certainly it helped me in my 20s — I could hold down a job and still spend evenings at clubs with my gf and then wife. So in that way I was a good spouse(!)
A broader study would be interesting too — according to my pediatrician mother I didn’t sleep much even as a baby / toddler.
Re: The effects on cognition of sleeping 4 hours per night for 12-14 days
#13I'm amazed by how thoroughly he wrote up the experiment.
yeah, with a sample size of 1 and the subject at a prime point in maturation. What's the lesson learned from this? Disclaimer: this experiment would destroy me (but I'm old enough to be the author's father).
Haha, this is exactly what I was thinking reading this. I'm a single parent of 2 kids and the sleep-related impact on my cognitive ability is, uh, marked ;)
Re: The effects on cognition of sleeping 4 hours per night for 12-14 days
#14This study can lead one to conclude that at least some people can function well for short-term periods of sleep deficit, at least when performing stimulating activities.
However, we also have studies showing that people are very poor at recognizing when they are being affected by sleep deficit, so you would need to run this experiment on yourself first before concluding it applies to you!
Re: The effects on cognition of sleeping 4 hours per night for 12-14 days
#15Anecdotally, playing a high-intensity video game like an FPS or RTS, wakes me up and allows me to fend off sleep for a long period of time.
Re: The effects on cognition of sleeping 4 hours per night for 12-14 days
#16"Why We Sleep" by Matthew Walker summarizes quite a lot of research on sleep. It leaves little doubt - we currently know of no safe way to significantly cut down sleep.
I haven't seen the research presented in that book being refuted.
Re: The effects on cognition of sleeping 4 hours per night for 12-14 days
#17"Why We Sleep" by Matthew Walker summarizes quite a lot of research on sleep. It leaves little doubt - we currently know of no safe way to significantly cut down sleep. I haven't seen the research presented in that book being refuted.
https://guzey.com/books/why-we-sleep/
For those interested in someone who created a refutation to Matthew Walker's "Why We Sleep"
Re: The effects on cognition of sleeping 4 hours per night for 12-14 days
#18"Why We Sleep" by Matthew Walker summarizes quite a lot of research on sleep. It leaves little doubt - we currently know of no safe way to significantly cut down sleep. I haven't seen the research presented in that book being refuted.
This 100%. I've read the book twice, coming back to certain chapters more than twice, because it's dense with information. It's scary really. The single most impactful thing you can do as a human for your life is to prioritize 8 hours of sleep per night, full stop.
Re: The effects on cognition of sleeping 4 hours per night for 12-14 days
#19A properly constructed experiment wouldn't alert the subjects sleep is being measured and instead simply prompt them for how much time they slept in a questionnaire taken after the tests, or better yet have them wear a tracking device prior to the study to measure their regular sleep pattern, and only select subjects for testing that have deviated from their regular sleep pattern.
My theory is that a sudden change in sleep habits is what causes the cognitive decline.
Re: The effects on cognition of sleeping 4 hours per night for 12-14 days
#20"Why We Sleep" by Matthew Walker summarizes quite a lot of research on sleep. It leaves little doubt - we currently know of no safe way to significantly cut down sleep. I haven't seen the research presented in that book being refuted.
https://guzey.com/books/why-we-sleep/ For those interested in someone who created a refutation to Matthew Walker's "Why We Sleep"
This refutation is authored by the same person who conducted the study to which these comments are attached :)