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Sleep duration is associated with brain structure and cognitive performance

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Re: Sleep duration is associated with brain structure and cognitive performance

#71

Up to 30% of people may have sleep apnea. I recommend everyone to get at least an at-home sleep test. In-lab is much more difficult to get insurance to cover, but you could pay $1,500+ out-of-pocket. It is a horrendous condition that will ruin your life.

If you don't have insurance, you can get a cheap data-logging SpO2 meter off Amazon for like $150. You can even set it to sound an alarm if your SpO2 drops too low.

Apnea is serious though. It hit me when I was relatively fit at 43 and took a chunk of my youth with it. Ever since, I have more of an "old man" brain(like getting overwhelmed by stimulus, especially when driving). I've been on CPAP for over 2 years and my apnea is well controlled, but some things just don't seem to come back.

Re: Sleep duration is associated with brain structure and cognitive performance

#72

I have a very weird problem/issue, maybe someone can help. In my school days I used to maintain a dream diary, where I would note down every dream I had after waking up. I stopped doing that when I got into college, but dreams never stopped and I never stopped analysing and trying to remember the dreams. Fast forward to present time (10 years from school), whenever I want to wake up i.e. after 6-7 hours of sleep I ca…

> I know for sure I am not lucid dreaming.

Have you made reality checks? In lucid dreaming the blur between dreams and reality fades fast. Reality checks become non-reliable very fast. One has to make sure to invent constantly reality checks when the old ones stop being reliable.

Re: Sleep duration is associated with brain structure and cognitive performance

#74

I'm bipolar so I've gone through periods where I sleep 18 hours a day and periods where I sleep 2 hours a night if at all. Caffeine intake doesn't seem to matter. Medication and good mental hygiene helps a lot with this issue.

Lately my body seems to be waking me up after around 4.5 hours of sleep. I'm alert and well rested, but if I wake up I'll be tired in an hour or two. If I push myself to sleep more, I wake up around 7-8 hours feeling more tired, and I can easily sleep to 10 hours at that point. It's really frustrating, because there doesn't seem to be a perfect amount of sleep for me anymore. I'm 45, Bipolar type II. Ever since tryin…

I feel for you. I've been through all these problems including sleep apnea, which seems to have mostly gone away, but I have a cpap just in case. I take a low dose of Quetiapine (25mg) which means I can sleep 5 to 6 hours and wake up fairly refreshed (after a cup of coffee) and can write code without getting obsessed about it.

Re: Sleep duration is associated with brain structure and cognitive performance

#75

I have a very weird problem/issue, maybe someone can help. In my school days I used to maintain a dream diary, where I would note down every dream I had after waking up. I stopped doing that when I got into college, but dreams never stopped and I never stopped analysing and trying to remember the dreams. Fast forward to present time (10 years from school), whenever I want to wake up i.e. after 6-7 hours of sleep I ca…

> I know for sure I am not lucid dreaming. Have you made reality checks? In lucid dreaming the blur between dreams and reality fades fast. Reality checks become non-reliable very fast. One has to make sure to invent constantly reality checks when the old ones stop being reliable.

Did I walk into an editing session of inception 2?

Re: Sleep duration is associated with brain structure and cognitive performance

#76

Interesting. I found after some trail and error that I'm more rested and perform better on less than recommended 8h of sleep. My sweet spot is somewhere around 7h. Fitbit "magic" sleep score also seems to confirm that (better sleep score on less sleep). I also found that stress is the biggest factor in getting good night sleep. When stressed I can sleep 8h and still feel bleh. I wonder if 8h of sleep is the cause of…

The amount of sleep required depends on the person and their living situation. I normally feel best on 7-8 hours of sleep. When training hard I require 9 hours. There are genetic outliers who require less sleep (google it). Anecdotally: I have a friend who performs like anyone else, but only requires around 5-6 hours of sleep. I've known him for over a decade now, he seems to be doing fine.

I just watched Iron Lady last night and Margaret Thatcher slept 4 hours a night almost every night for her entire life, and lived well into her 80s.

Re: Sleep duration is associated with brain structure and cognitive performance

#78

I have a very weird problem/issue, maybe someone can help. In my school days I used to maintain a dream diary, where I would note down every dream I had after waking up. I stopped doing that when I got into college, but dreams never stopped and I never stopped analysing and trying to remember the dreams. Fast forward to present time (10 years from school), whenever I want to wake up i.e. after 6-7 hours of sleep I ca…

This is just my opinion, and I know it's an unpopular one.

I believe any kind of conscious dream processing is unhealthy. Our dreams is already the results of some kind of processing, so feeding them back as more experiences that need to be analyzed is confusing and tiring for your brain.

You said that you've been doing it since your school days, so perhaps you don't remember, but dreams are made from a different material then regular memories: they are usually very "slippery" and hard to hold on to. I think it's important in this case to go with our default behavior and to forget them as fast as possible. And yes, it means that all lucid dreaming practices are damaging your brain functionality IMO.

To break the loop you're in, I think you need to re-learn how to not mess with dreams. Give yourself the time you need, and if you're tired the best thing to do is to go back to sleep. But avoid doing so while thinking about any dream, or anything that is related to a dream, or even the abstract concept of dreams. When you catch yourself doing do, dismiss the thought with "oh, that isn't important" and then switch the topic to anything else, anything at all. You can follow the line where the wall meets the ceiling, for all your brain cares. The dismiss part is important, don't skip it. It prevents your brain from re-saving the thought. This trick can also be applied to that embarrassing moment your brain keeps popping at random times. Just "not important" wave, and a quick change of subject. Works like a charm.

Good night, sleep well and wake up :)

Re: Sleep duration is associated with brain structure and cognitive performance

#79
post #52

A few years ago, I stopped setting an alarm clock on a regular basis. Now, I just sleep as long as I need, which is usually 8-9h a day. I struggled with sleep for years, but now I sleep good.

Slightly different experience. Stopped using an alarm clock when we had kids. Seem to always wake up between 6 and 7am and often tired during the day ;)

Re: Sleep duration is associated with brain structure and cognitive performance

#80

I'm bipolar so I've gone through periods where I sleep 18 hours a day and periods where I sleep 2 hours a night if at all. Caffeine intake doesn't seem to matter. Medication and good mental hygiene helps a lot with this issue.

Lately my body seems to be waking me up after around 4.5 hours of sleep. I'm alert and well rested, but if I wake up I'll be tired in an hour or two. If I push myself to sleep more, I wake up around 7-8 hours feeling more tired, and I can easily sleep to 10 hours at that point. It's really frustrating, because there doesn't seem to be a perfect amount of sleep for me anymore. I'm 45, Bipolar type II. Ever since tryin…

Try taking melatonin when you wake up too early (0.3 mg, from NootropicsDepot). Taken in the morning it pushes your wakeup time later. Won't make you fall asleep, but in a few days it shoulx be noticeable.

I'm managing the same insomnia with very low dose of mirtazepine (1mg per evening) and the occasional ambien when I wake up.

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