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Association of sleep duration in middle and old age with incidence of dementia

cnn.com

131–140 of 173 posts

Re: Association of sleep duration in middle and old age with incidence of dementia

#131
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coffee causing dementia is a pretty shocking claim that I haven't heard previously. Do you have more reading on this?

I've always wondered if coffee studies are just something they give bored grad students to do. I've heard about what seems like hundreds of them in my lifetime and they contradict each other in cycles over long stretches of time.

The behavior of drinking coffee or not is also very socially mediated-- portrayal of coffee drinkers in movies, coffee as a common activity for preliminary dates, or to meet someone new at a cafe...

All of this means that coffee drinkers are going to self select for various other features that add confounding factors. Imagine you were doing a study on marriage patterns: I wouldn't be surprised if "Drinks their coffee in the cafe itself" was more highly associated with being single. And the headline will read "Dedicated coffee drinkers less likely to find a partner"

Re: Association of sleep duration in middle and old age with incidence of dementia

#133
post #125

Many forms of dementia destroy dopaminergic neurons, and this process begins much earlier than symptoms of dementia itself manifest. From what I’ve gathered from reading studies across the years, less dopaminergic capacity seems to be associated with less restful sleep. The conclusions of this study seem to have it backwards. It’s not lack of sleep that causes dementia, it’s early dementia that causes insomnia. Edit:…

Please don’t upvote this nonsense. Harmala alkaloids are found in tobacco, not coffee.

I'm pretty sure harmine and harmaline are found in coffee too. I thought it was common knowledge but all I found were two papers so maybe not.

1. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00243...

2. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S03088...

Re: Association of sleep duration in middle and old age with incidence of dementia

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's leaning hard into the stimulants...

People with amphetamine habits typically look very skinny and unhealthy because amphetamines suppress appetite. Same for cocaine, ritalin and all other dopaminergic stimulants. They can also have facial scabs because of obsessive picking/scratching, and tend to be very twitchy and hyper. He doesn't come off that way at all during interviews. My personal experience leads me to believe that there is no way Elon Musk co…

Sporadic, restricted use of amphetamine tends to retain full effect over the long-term. With regular use, the subtle change in perception it causes tends to persist longer than the physical stimulation. The appetite issue can sometimes be addressed simply by actively choosing to eat more.

I do think that, in the long run, it at best averages out between the unavoidable highs and lows. Some people benefit from being able to time when those periods happen. Probably net loss in many cases. Still, the behaviour you're describing represents the end stages of escalating use and loss of control where they have fallen into dependency and/or addiction. That's not inevitable. Some people do seem to be able to self-regulate their use of strong stimulants.

But you're right. It's clear some people are just innately more driven. In the worst case they're like Elon Musk, always flitting around, perpetually alternating between chipper and enraged, and always with coffee in hand and at most four hours of sleep the night before. I find such people infuriating, but that is probably just envy.

Re: Association of sleep duration in middle and old age with incidence of dementia

#136
post #7

Unless it's an emergency, I've ALWAYS prioritized sleep. It's just too important for health regardless of these latest findings. I'd call in to work if I didn't get a full nights rest in the past, it's not worth feeling like shit for the rest of the day. The culture of glamorizing working longer and harder till early hours of the mornings on zero sleep, has always been nonsense. Musk is notorious for bragging about t…

Heck yes. When I first started in tech, I was all about the working into the wee hours. I wanted to be hardcore. I was listening to a podcast and someone mentioned what you just said, “A major culture problem in the tech industry is glamorizing lack of sleep.” Hearing that gave me the slap of reality I needed. Just because I’m present at the computer doesn’t mean I’m doing my best work. There would be times I was so tired, I’d open an application to do something then sit staring at it for a few moments because I couldn’t remember what I was going to do. Now, I evangelize sleep to all my friends and coworkers. Especially the younger ones. I want to break that cycle.

Re: Association of sleep duration in middle and old age with incidence of dementia

#137

Many forms of dementia destroy dopaminergic neurons, and this process begins much earlier than symptoms of dementia itself manifest. From what I’ve gathered from reading studies across the years, less dopaminergic capacity seems to be associated with less restful sleep. The conclusions of this study seem to have it backwards. It’s not lack of sleep that causes dementia, it’s early dementia that causes insomnia. Edit:…

Just coffee or anything with caffeine? I'm really curious for a source on this, considering how much coffee I drink weekly.

If caffeine does it for you and need lots of it, eating just caffeine is probably safer than drinking a lot of coffee. Coffee beans have a lot of of other stuff and it varies from bean to bean and eating a lot of some of that stuff may not be good for your gut/brain/whatever.

If you are "addicted" to coffee sometimes you will crave it if you do just caffeine, but this goes away after a while.

Be aware also that if you want the antioxidants and other stuff in coffee beans eating just caffeine won't give you that.

Re: Association of sleep duration in middle and old age with incidence of dementia

#138
post #66

I'm screwed then. Due to a mental issue and my sleep paralysis I'm lucky if I sleep 3-4 hours a night as much as I would like to sleep more.

That little sleep has way more possible dire consequences that just dementia. There's literature all over the place about it, I don't even know where to start. How old are you? I don't know anyone that can live with getting that little sleep unless they are also on amphetamines.

Re: Association of sleep duration in middle and old age with incidence of dementia

#139
post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>My personal experience leads me to believe that there is no way Elon Musk could have been dosing stimulants for the last 10-20 years and look as good and as relatively calm as he does. Looks can be deceiving :P Years ago Elon was balding hard and now he has a full head of hair.

the man is overweight

Nah he's just bulking. It's all muscle under there.

Re: Association of sleep duration in middle and old age with incidence of dementia

#140
post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not more accurately at all; you're still insinuating a causal relationship. "More accurately, people with yellow-stained fingertips are more likely to get lung cancer." The actual study's own title puts it more accurately: "Association of sleep duration in middle and old age with incidence of dementia"

I don't think it insinuates a causal relationship. I interpret "30% more likely" as the same as "associated with a 30% increase," which is what the article claims.

I would say that "People who do X are 30% more likely to get X" is commonly understood to imply causation.
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