Live data from Hacker News

Sleep habits may have long-term benefits

acc.org

131–140 of 150 posts

Re: Sleep habits may have long-term benefits

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

isn't sleep apnea usually related to another problem, like diet (most of the time), or smoking/drinking, another is the position of your jaw (the teeth shouldn't touch)

It's a blanket term that describes a condition where your airway collapses while you sleep, but there are lots of causes. Smoking, drinking and other substances can cause your muscles to relax and bring on apnea, as can being overweight. Lots of body builders suffer from it as their necks become developed. The biggest "cause" once you remove factors like alcohol is heredity. You get the shape of your face from your p…

oh shape right, like for bulldogs (artificially created by humans)

Re: Sleep habits may have long-term benefits

#132
post #126

Sleep has been my biggest issue for the last 10 years and I don't know what to do about it. Even after this time, I still have not much of an idea regarding the cause. I'm in my thirties. Falling asleep or staying asleep is not an issue, with rare exceptions. However, how I wake up is a whole other story. I hardly remember the last time I woke up truly relaxed, that happens maybe 10 times a year. It's a huge spectrum…

I'm really sorry to hear that you're struggling so much. I've been dealing with sleep issues for the last ~7 years, but it's not as bad as what you are having.

I do relate to that state of barely getting any sleep and then having a lost day. 2022 Dec was my worst month so far when it comes to sleep. I had a few weeks when I'd sleep for 1-5 hours for many consecutive days and then I couldn't function on those days at all. My performance at work really dropped. I took a sabbatical with the main goal of improving my sleep.

In January I went for 1 week to Morocco (I'm originally from Northern/Eastern Europe) to visit a friend, and my sleep was dramatically better there. I did take my sleep medication on a few nights, but still the quality of sleep was very different. It might have been a combination of psychological (foreign place, less stress) and physical (sun, movement/walking) factors, but the main lesson for me was that improvement is possible.

After going back to my home country my sleep returned to baseline (terrible), but over the last several weeks it's been improving. It'd take a lot of text to describe all the things I've tried during all those years.

One of my recent discoveries was that I probably wasn't consuming enough protein (I'm fairly physically active) and consuming too much fat. Changing that improved my sleep ~15%. Just being on a sabbatical and having no work related thoughts/stress improved my sleep maybe 20%. I'm also currently experimenting with Magnesium L-Threonate and Apigenin (I only started those, but I do seem to notice that I feel better the next day).

Your situation might be very different, but with this comment I wanted to say that your solution might be somewhere out there. Just don't lose hope.

Re: Sleep habits may have long-term benefits

#133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eating fruits and vegetables is not typically good medical advice when we’re talking about acute issues. Advice for a healthier lifestyle, more energy, longevity, etc? Yes of course. Advice for sleep apnea that’s already set in and affecting a patient nightly? Not at all.

I wasn't aware that sleep apnea is an acute issue, I could have sworn that's chronic

I am not a doctor so it’s entirely possible I am misusing a term here. But afaik chronic is something that cannot be cured. This is not the case with sleep apnea. It just can’t be cured with vegetables.

Re: Sleep habits may have long-term benefits

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wasn't aware that sleep apnea is an acute issue, I could have sworn that's chronic

I am not a doctor so it’s entirely possible I am misusing a term here. But afaik chronic is something that cannot be cured. This is not the case with sleep apnea. It just can’t be cured with vegetables.

A condition is described as acute when the onset is sudden and duration is short, a condition is chronic when it persists over a long period of time. It has nothing to do with curability

One of the major causes of sleep apnea is being overweight, so it can definitely be helped with a change in activity levels a diet modification

https://medlineplus.gov/ency/imagepages/18126.htm

Re: Sleep habits may have long-term benefits

#135
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's because nobody listens, doctors have more or less given up. People want meds, they always want a quick fix not to exercise and eat better

that isn’t true. i’ve never received nutritional advice from a doctor, and if i did i doubt it would be much more than “eat fruits and veggies and exercise” the “official” food pyramid put out by the government still tells people to eat mostly refined grains and carbs.

> the “official” food pyramid put out by the government still tells people to eat mostly refined grains and carbs.

Apparently this isn't true anymore. The Food Pyramid was replaced with the current "MyPlate" model in 2011 [1]. That said, grains still feature prominently on the plate and the details say up to half of those can be refined [2], which still seems high.

[1] https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/crumbling-confusing-food...

[2] https://www.myplate.gov/eat-healthy/grains

Re: Sleep habits may have long-term benefits

#136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's because nobody listens, doctors have more or less given up. People want meds, they always want a quick fix not to exercise and eat better

Maybe in part. But it’s also because medical practices are for profit enterprises and don’t make any money by telling patients to stop drinking alcohol, but make a bunch of money charging out CPAP machines to insurance companies. Doctors “have given up” implies there was a time when doctors would dish this stuff out as a treatment plan. At least in the US, I don’t know if that’s ever been true.

Believe it or not, most doctors don't own their own practice and don't make more money for giving out treatments. Most of them did get into the field because they want to help people and it's a pretty small minority that profits off handing out treatments

Re: Sleep habits may have long-term benefits

#137
post #26

I'll keep saying it: sleep apnea is vastly underdiagnosed and undertreated. I had so many weird symptoms for so long, which all gradually started to disappear as I started to get my sleep apnea treated. Unless you're fat, doctors will rarely even consider the possibility. And once you do get a polysomnogram, the usualy course of action is to throw a CPAP machine at you and send you on your way, without much followup.…

>Trying to lock down machines and preventing patients from accessing their data (and settings) is plain evil.

Which means it's profitable and they will double down on it

Re: Sleep habits may have long-term benefits

#138

I've wondered if my kids will literally kill me through sleep deprivation.

Sleep deprivation prevents memories from forming, that's my theory on why people have more than one kid. They actually don't form memories for most of the first year or so. The only memories they have are the pictures they took of the happy moments. Nobody takes a video of their kid screaming their lungs out at 3am with snot running from every orifice because their favourite toy fell off the bed or the pillow is the…

Haha, it's a funny theory even if not true!

Re: Sleep habits may have long-term benefits

#139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe in part. But it’s also because medical practices are for profit enterprises and don’t make any money by telling patients to stop drinking alcohol, but make a bunch of money charging out CPAP machines to insurance companies. Doctors “have given up” implies there was a time when doctors would dish this stuff out as a treatment plan. At least in the US, I don’t know if that’s ever been true.

Believe it or not, most doctors don't own their own practice and don't make more money for giving out treatments. Most of them did get into the field because they want to help people and it's a pretty small minority that profits off handing out treatments

Believe it or not, I am not blaming doctors. I respect doctors, and go to them frequently. But it's useful to go in with open eyes.

Even doctors that do not own their own practice are incentivized by the people who do own the practice. In the same way that a store clerk is incentivized to sell high margin items over low margin items. Or a Facebook engineer is incentivized to get users to engage in unhealthy social media addiction. There's nothing wrong with the individuals, its the incentive system that they are operating within.

Re: Sleep habits may have long-term benefits

#140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sleep deprivation prevents memories from forming, that's my theory on why people have more than one kid. They actually don't form memories for most of the first year or so. The only memories they have are the pictures they took of the happy moments. Nobody takes a video of their kid screaming their lungs out at 3am with snot running from every orifice because their favourite toy fell off the bed or the pillow is the…

Haha, it's a funny theory even if not true!

It actually has some science behind it:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2010/dec/17/sleep-p... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7170365/

Basically by not getting REM sleep after a traumatic event your brain doesn't get the time to actually form and store the memories of the event.

Post reply on HN