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Sleep regularity is a stronger predictor of mortality risk than sleep duration (2023)

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Re: Sleep regularity is a stronger predictor of mortality risk than sleep duration (2023)

#111

My problem is that I'm always sleepy throughout the day and when I have to go to bed at nigh, then I feel so active and energetic, as if my body tries its best to avoid sleeping.

I was in the same boat as you and it seems I solved it.

What I did :

- LSD (microdosing + a semi dose one year ago) did absolute wonders on my anxiety (which was what kept me energetic). I would then describe myself as having a general anxiety disorder and I now describe myself as chill af. It's amazing. I'm still stressed out by things but that's normal and not my default mode anymore.

- Prolonged-release melatonin keeps me asleep for the whole night

- Took the habit of reading in the bed. I'm so tired that most evenings, I have a really hard time to read 5-10 pages, I must fight to keep my eyes open.

Re: Sleep regularity is a stronger predictor of mortality risk than sleep duration (2023)

#112
post #77
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Couldn’t this effect be classic cause vs correlation? Sometimes changing the correlated item, also affects the cause, through a link of causual changes. E.g.: "Night visits to the fridge linked to high cholesterol". Now, that's just correlation: it's not the visiting of the fridge, it's the snacking. But if you read that and stop visiting the fridge, you likely reduce your snacking too as a side effect, and thus lo…

I feel like your example is flawed, I just can't put my finger on it. Maybe it's because I don't see how sleep regularity is a factor you can change as willingly as visits to the fridge, or maybe its because I don't see why people wouldn't just eat more before heading to bed. It could also just be that I find a treatment of symptoms to be less desirable than causes.

>I don't see how sleep regularity is a factor you can change as willingly as visits to the fridge

In some cases it might be hard (e.g. insomnia), in others it might be as easy as e.g. changing your schedule, or stopping binge-watching/gaming/doomscrolling late, or some such change.

>It could also just be that I find a treatment of symptoms to be less desirable than causes.

It is more opaque.

But the point is not that it's necessarily easy. It's rather than even if X -> Y is mere correlation, by forcing yourself to fix X (even if hard), the resulting changes might also help with Y.

And technically "bad sleep" here isn't necessarily a symptom either. It can be a co-effect of the same symptom.

Re: Sleep regularity is a stronger predictor of mortality risk than sleep duration (2023)

#115
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you take a blood test for magnesium level?

Blood tests are pretty useless for magnesium. The deficiency is in cells, magnesium level in blood is not a good test for that deficiency.

They have blood tests for both (serum or RBC):

The Magnesium RBC Test measures magnesium inside red blood cells, providing a more accurate assessment of magnesium status than serum tests.

Re: Sleep regularity is a stronger predictor of mortality risk than sleep duration (2023)

#116
post #82

Magnesium supplementation solved my sleep issues. I have seen many doctors, including sleep specialists, regarding insomnia. They all pointed to one source as the reason for the sleep issues: stress. And they all wanted to put me on prescription sleeping pills. I said no to that. Sleeping pills can cause dependence, and they often treat the symptom rather than the underlying cause. As a software developer, I am used…

Magnesium is a great supplement in general. You can definitely have too much in your system and that is undesirable, but a bit before bed time along with 1-3mcg of melatonin work well for me. It is nice after workouts. I use magnesium glycinate in powder form, which is more bioavailable than some forms as well. I also find sauna before bed is good. I have a bed chiller so I can crank up the sauna before bed and not s…

Mg or melatonin have 0 effects on me, Mg helps if I over-exercise but thats for muscles regeneration.

I dont have problems normally, just cant sleep in high altitude, 3000m is already showing mild effects. Guess what, I do/did quite a bit of mountaineering, its easy to get above 5000m in himalayas, highest I've been in tent attempting to sleep before summit push was 6000m on Aconcagua. Tried both Mg and melatonin up there over multiple nights, 0 improvements. I had highest O2 blood level measured in 5500m by doctor (mandatory there) from whole group.

Physical effort makes better sleep for literally everybody, thats age old knowledge and I havent met a single exception yet.

Re: Sleep regularity is a stronger predictor of mortality risk than sleep duration (2023)

#117

Couldn’t this effect be classic cause vs correlation? Perhaps someone who has a consistent schedule is hypothetically more likely to make healthier choices on average?

The article never says anything about causation. It says sleep regularity is a predictor of mortality. That means if you find someone who already has poor sleep regularity they're more likely to die sooner, not that if you force someone into a bad sleep schedule they will become more likely to die sooner.

Re: Sleep regularity is a stronger predictor of mortality risk than sleep duration (2023)

#118
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you take a blood test for magnesium level?

Blood tests are pretty useless for magnesium. The deficiency is in cells, magnesium level in blood is not a good test for that deficiency.

what is a good test for magnesium deficiency?

Re: Sleep regularity is a stronger predictor of mortality risk than sleep duration (2023)

#119
post #82

Magnesium supplementation solved my sleep issues. I have seen many doctors, including sleep specialists, regarding insomnia. They all pointed to one source as the reason for the sleep issues: stress. And they all wanted to put me on prescription sleeping pills. I said no to that. Sleeping pills can cause dependence, and they often treat the symptom rather than the underlying cause. As a software developer, I am used…

For me glycine helps amazingly. It's an amino acid that the brain needs during sleep. I take about 5 grams in water about an hour before I go to sleep. I'm not sure how much the glycinate in magnesium glycinate has the same effect.

Oddly, it has the opposite effect as sleeping pills on me, it doesn't make me sleep more but I'm more rested when I wake up. It even happened a few times that I only slept 5 hours but still could focus well at work and bike intensively for an hour in the evening, without glycine that was impossible.

At 20 euro/kg I think I'll take it for the rest of my life, and it probably will add a few years to my life.

Re: Sleep regularity is a stronger predictor of mortality risk than sleep duration (2023)

#120

My problem is that I'm always sleepy throughout the day and when I have to go to bed at nigh, then I feel so active and energetic, as if my body tries its best to avoid sleeping.

My doctor said "you have to earn your sleep". I had the same problem until: - two pieces of fruit per day - two portions of vegetables per day - half an hour of outside sunshine per day - twice per week exercise until you sweat - no sleep during the day - get out of bed every morning around the same time - no processed food!

Kinda funny seeing this reply side to side with the "I just took LSD" one
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