Sleep duration is associated with brain structure and cognitive performance

Though the subjective measure of this study is better than nothing, in the coming years we'll be able to use sleep data for more concrete evidence.

At https://soundmind.co, we're building a headband focused on improving Sleep Performance, by monitoring your sleep state and using sound to alter sleep state. There is amazing research around improving sleep quality, by improving sleep maintenance (aka reducing waking during the night), increase occurrence and amplitude of sleep spindles, and more.

In initial trials, we've lowered average time awake from 1hr 41 minutes to 32 minutes, using a sample of 4 nights without stim, and 4 nights with. I need to do a blog post about that soon. We're still gathering more data.

If this is an area of interest, you can sign-up for the waitlist on our website, or happy to answer questions here.

It sounds to me like you're conflicted about whether the dreams are worth analysis. If I were in that position I'd analyze my full history of dream analysis. What has paying lots of attention to my dreams gotten me? How has the experience changed over the years? Am I different now as a result? In what ways am I better, in what ways worse?

The solution to many addiction problems (which you suggest this might be) can be to simply be more context-aware. In the heat of a game, of course you want to keep playing the game. But the more you think about your entire life's context, who you are vs. who you want to be, what you need to get done vs. what you're getting done -- the less focus the object of addiction is able to retain.

(Fun related fact -- more than half of drug addictions in the US are simply "outgrown", with no intervention to blame.)

I'd like to share my sleeping practice which I've developed after several years of focusing on it and trying to recreate the pre-industrial (and possibly pre-farming) sleep patterns my ancestors had for millions of years before the last few thousand.

Whenever I feel tired, I lay down to rest.

Whenever I am sleeping, I allow myself to sleep until I am "fully slept", meaning I can lay there for a while, still physically resting, and not fall asleep.

Sometimes this means only a couple hours, and sometimes it's 16 or more. Whatever it is, if I am tired and want to keep sleeping, that's what I do.

A couple of times I think I was coming down with something, I slept for more than 24 hours with only pee breaks. And I woke up feeling fresh as a cucumber, as they say.

Those flus and colds which I used to get once or twice a year and which would sometimes drag on for weeks? I can't remember the last time I've had that happen, but it's been several years now. (Of course, I have several other practices to thank for this, in addition to the sleep.)

I also practice what I call "dog sleep" or "cat sleep", meaning I lay down and close my eyes and fully rest my body, without necessarily losing all alertness or consciousness.

My rewards have been improved cognition, better health and overall feeling, and still being able to do occasional coding marathons like I used to when I was half my current age.

We've been conditioned to think of sleep as laziness and sloth, but nothing could be further from the truth on the cellular level. When you rest, your cells go to work cleaning, rebuilding, and renewing your body. Your mind also does sorting and self-analysis, and returns the results in the form of remembered dreams.

How does only 2 hours sleep a night affect you? For example at work, or studies / learning new things? Or when together with others?

(Personally I get upset at the computer more easily, if I'm tired. Hmm maybe I should stop working now)

My experience is I'm more likely to remember my dreams if I got woken up unnaturally, so maybe it's the other way around? You only remember your dreams when you wake up tired?