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Sleep is essential – researchers are trying to work out why

nature.com

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Re: Sleep is essential – researchers are trying to work out why

#131

Post by Melatonic »

proee wrote: post #79

Running improved my sleep quality dramatically. Now the problem is, that if I take a day off running, my sleeping suffers. Curious if people that do weight lifting (which I'm considering) get great sleeps? Maybe I can alternate between cardio and weight lifting each day?

Definitely - anything that physically tires me out enough helps a lot. I would say weight lifting actually might help more for personal insomnia.

I mostly do distance running though - shorter interval training or sprints kills me and probably also is better for sleep. Or I'm just less used to it

Re: Sleep is essential – researchers are trying to work out why

#132

Post by matthest »

qwerpy wrote: post #109
matthest wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Walking. Walk 3 miles a day. It gives you a drastically different set of benefits from running, and you can walk all day without worry of overtraining. Running is great too. But be careful of doing it too much. Overtraining can break down your immune system and make you more susceptible to disease.

I wonder if it only works for a dedicated walking time (e.g. walk for 3 miles nonstop) or also for bursts of short walking during the day. I consistently get 3-5 miles of walking per day due to chasing kids around, taking short breaks during work, and doing chores, but rarely actually have a 30+ min sustained walk.

Benefits to both I think.

A sustained walk maximizes digestion and subconscious problem-solving benefits. Short bursts, especially w/ kids involved, maximizes spiritual fulfillment.

Both are probably great for metabolic health.

Re: Sleep is essential – researchers are trying to work out why

#133

Post by ShakataGaNai »

lxgr wrote: post #119
ivraatiems wrote: post #112

Tangentially related, but very important to me and hopefully helpful to others here: I have sleep apnea. So do most of the men in my family. Though I am overweight, I haven't always been, but I have always had the condition, as have they. For those who don't know, sleep apnea is a condition where you stop breathing in your sleep, wake up slightly to fix that and start breathing again, and then fall back asleep. It so…

Do you know if fitness trackers with integrated pulse oximeters can detect sleep apnea? My Apple Watch has an oximeter (I bought it before that feature was pulled in the US), and there's a "sleep apnea notifications" section in the "Health" app, but I'm not sure if the absence of notifications implies an absence of a problem. Would sleep apnea always be visible as a lower blood oxygen level when sleeping, or can ther…

Lower blood ox could just be you sleeping on your arm. Among other things.

If you're concerned with Sleep apnea testing is very easy these days. You goto a sleep specialist, they give you a little kit you take home, you put it on for one night, they look at the data. Done! It's not like even a decade or so ago where it's "goto sleep lab", most of it's done at home now for the initial investigation.

Re: Sleep is essential – researchers are trying to work out why

#134

Post by tinyhouse »

disgruntledphd2 wrote: post #61
dodongobongo wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iirc, biphasic sleep is the “usual way” people sleep without the advent of electricity, yes? “the waking hour”, and all that. I wonder if there was an increase in dementia-related disorders once lightbulbs kept people up longer.

> iirc, biphasic sleep is the “usual way” people sleep without the advent of electricity, yes? “the waking hour”, and all that. I honestly believe that this is not "natural", but rather an adaptation to the absurdly long European winter nights. Note that we didn't evolve there, so it seems unlikely that bi-phasic sleep is the most primal way.

Everything is an adaptation to something. The one 8 hours sleep a night is also an adaptation for the life style we adapted for in the last 100+ plus years.

Re: Sleep is essential – researchers are trying to work out why

#135

Post by amadeoeoeo »

matthest wrote: post #99
api wrote: post #17

Whatever sleep does, it's something nature has had a tough time optimizing out despite the extreme vulnerability it creates and the sacrifice of a little under half an organism's waking time. That should tell us it's something incredibly important that's hard to do any other way. Edit: on the other hand... if Earth had two suns and rarely had periods of darkness, you wonder if maybe there would have been more evoluti…

Yeah. Nature is the ultimate form of science. At any moment, it's incorporating an infinite amount of science, most of which we likely haven't discovered yet, and may not discover for millions of years - if ever. Nature developed over millions of years of trial and error.

That is like saying God is the ultimate form of religion

Re: Sleep is essential – researchers are trying to work out why

#136

Post by koolba »

anktor wrote: post #113
schwartzworld wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Easy to get, hard to get used to for many. It’s common for doctors to offer little to no support after prescribing the machine.

How would support look like in this situation? Honest question I simply don't know

At the extreme end of concierge medicine I could see the doctor getting into bed with you.

Re: Sleep is essential – researchers are trying to work out why

#137

Post by vkou »

ivraatiems wrote: post #112

Tangentially related, but very important to me and hopefully helpful to others here: I have sleep apnea. So do most of the men in my family. Though I am overweight, I haven't always been, but I have always had the condition, as have they. For those who don't know, sleep apnea is a condition where you stop breathing in your sleep, wake up slightly to fix that and start breathing again, and then fall back asleep. It so…

So, it's not all sunshine and flowers. It sounds like your calibration process was successful, but when its not, you end up with a range of problems, including the ever-fun one of 'my stomach has been pumped full of air overnight and I feel like a balloon ready to burst' - every single morning.

Re: Sleep is essential – researchers are trying to work out why

#138

Post by vkou »

swah wrote: post #120
ivraatiems wrote: post #112

Tangentially related, but very important to me and hopefully helpful to others here: I have sleep apnea. So do most of the men in my family. Though I am overweight, I haven't always been, but I have always had the condition, as have they. For those who don't know, sleep apnea is a condition where you stop breathing in your sleep, wake up slightly to fix that and start breathing again, and then fall back asleep. It so…

Is there any chance that Apple Watch or wife would not notice a severe apnea condition?

A severe condition is very noticeable. The sleeping person stops breathing for up to a minute or two, and then does a sudden gasp for air.

And this repeats all night long.

Re: Sleep is essential – researchers are trying to work out why

#139

Post by vkou »

anktor wrote: post #113
schwartzworld wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Easy to get, hard to get used to for many. It’s common for doctors to offer little to no support after prescribing the machine.

How would support look like in this situation? Honest question I simply don't know

It needs extensive calibration, if you don't want it to either be ineffective, or wake up in the morning, with your stomach pumped full of air, like a balloon.

The latter is quite painful.

Re: Sleep is essential – researchers are trying to work out why

#140

Post by amai »

"In a 2023 study, researchers in Brazil found that fruit flies that were sleep deprived showed overexpression mostly of genes that affected metabolism, glucose, triglyceride and levels of the hormone dopamine"

"After just one day of restricting sleep in mice, Rogulja could see fats in the animals’ intestines that weren’t entering circulation. After five days, their guts were filled with fat although their bodies were starved of nutrients."

This is interesting. People with Autism and ADHD often have gut issues and problems with dopamine etc. Maybe these deceases are caused by constant sleep deprivation.

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