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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)

#311

Just my 2c Bryan Johnson says you should base your life around your sleep. He’s totally right … but he won’t get young men to sleep in at 8pm New sleep meds are creating a new lever here and serve a real empowering function in a way that culture hasn’t caught up to yet When we think of traditional sleep meds we think of sedatives and it has an identity connotation to it. The new meds coming out, not just in sleep eit…

If you find a good sleep med it can be life changing. I found a natural supplement called muscimol that's a silver bullet for me. Gets me to sleep in 20 minutes every time, gives me great sleep, and isn't habit forming. It can be hard to find because people like to try to take huge doses to trip, even though it's an awful delirious experience(never tried it but read stories).

At low doses though it works by mimicking GABA in the brain, so it actually increases REM sleep time. A lot of sedatives will get you to sleep but give you worse sleep because it's working in a very unnatural way. It totally eliminates the issue of taking a long time to fall asleep.

Now you still have to be able to get yourself to bed in the first place, but that's half the battle already won. My life is so much better using it as I've always had a hard time falling asleep. Hopefully we'll have similar medication available to everyone soon as I really think it can solve a lot of suffering people experience

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

#312
Studies that reach HN and other pop places usually have a lot in common: they link a widespread, modifiable and 'catchy' factor (like sleep, sugar/meat etc consumption, human relations) with a single sensational end point (death), and involve 5/6-figures number of participants. Another common one is a huge confounding spill that makes them useless for practical decisions but valuable for further, more rigorous research design.

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

#313
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…

I’ve read so much on magnesium and believe in the benefits of supplementation, but when I try it (regardless of type) I end up feeling devoid of energy and borderline depressed for three days after.

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

#314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They won’t be prescribed long-term either. Tramadol is routinely prescribed long term where I live. I know someone with a massive bottle good for something like 6 to 12 months of daily use. (I don't know if that's a good thing but it is certainly a thing.)

Tramadol is a pain medication, not a sleep medication. It has opioid effects and can cause drowsiness but would never be prescribed for sleep. It’s also typically a controlled substance. I don’t know where you live but I’d be surprised if anyone was handed a 12 month supply in a bottle.

There are a wild amount of countries where it’s not treated like the opioid that it is, for what it’s worth. Mostly not western ones, though.

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

#315
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are not alone. Recalling from college neuroscience classes and subsequent reading of research, the studies show the ordinary human sleep cycle when unrestrained adds about a half hour per day, so 24.5 hours is 'natural'. Long-term studies with all time cues carefully removed ended up with subjects on a ~50 hour sleep schedule, as in awake 36-38 hours and sleeping 12-14hrs. This is also why it is easier to travel…

I think I'm gonna try and find a study that had the 50 hour sleep cycles

It was a person free-running in a cave. Here's one article about it [0] to get you started, and here's another [1] of multiple 9-day studies showing the fairly immediate shift to 24.5 - 25 hour cycles (we're actually Martians?).

[0] https://howandwhys.com/michel-siffre-time-experiment-body-sl...

[1] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339110740_Living_Wi...

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

#316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a very important paragraph from quern's article > There are few to no side-effects to melatonin use in adults (there is uncertainty about the risks & benefits in children & adolescents28), and it is not addictive or habit-forming like caffeine is. The usual dose for a night is 0.5-3 mg and I take 1.5mg [29]; my dose is highly likely to be too high. High doses may well be responsible for why some people try me…

I've had the same problem finding low-dose melatonin in brick-and-mortar stores, but Natrol sells a 1mg dissolving tablet on Amazon. If I need a sleep aid, I break it in half for a ~0.5mg dose, chew it with my front teeth, then hold it under my tongue for a bit before swallowing what's left. It usually takes 15-30 minutes before I get noticeably drowsy, but I feel no more groggy the next day than if I slept sober.

most bricke and mortar should have at least 1mg tablets, and you can break those in half. or break a 3mg into 3rds. not perfect but should work.

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

#317

As always with a lot of these: it's not saying causation. You might measure the speed of your car by putting your hand out of the window and notice that the wind force on your hand is strong when the car goes fast. Putting your hand out of the window and then blocking the wind with a book doesn't make the car slow down. Keyword: "associated" EDIT: I meant to communicate that it doesn't make the car slow down as much…

> Putting your hand out of the window and then blocking the wind with a book doesn't make the car slow down. Technically the book would add drag and the car would slow down but likely imperceptibly to a mere mortal

Assume the book is the same form and size as the hand (though very thin).

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

#318
post #21

I wonder how much of this is driven by confounding variables they haven't accounted for. They do factor in shift work as a categorical variable, and employment status as a categorical variable not taking into account occupation. But probably occupation (not a variable here) interacts with sleep status. Any job that involves a lot of flying (pilot, crew, people travelling for business) get more cosmic radiation exposu…

The confounding variable I think is most important is that many people have an internal clock that is shifted or lengthened relative to other people in the same house. If others in the house prefer to sleep from 10-6 and you prefer to sleep from 12-6, but others start making noise a 6, your sleep quality in the last two hours is destroyed. Then over time, it just results in poor sleep regularity, as you cycle between…

This describes a lot of people with young kids pretty accurately

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

#319
post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Magnesium supplementation solved my sleep issues. Which type, if you don't mind my asking? And how long did it take before you felt the benefits? I took it for a month once (forget which type) an hour before bed and nothing changed.

Magnesium Glycinate has been a game changer. My legs used to be tense to the point of cramping at night, and they’re now relaxed, enabling better sleep. I also use L-theanine as an additional supplement for a long duration deep sleep, and think it helps.

Interesting about the legs. I wake up with that in the middle of the night and have trouble falling back asleep because of it. Heck, if MC just took care of that, I'd be happy. Thanks for your input!

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

#320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From my experience, it took about a month of 150mg magnesium supplementation per day to see effects, two months for my insomnia to go away entirely. Doing a quick search for magnesium-rich foods, it seems like it would take either an unsustainable focus on eating these foods to see results on a similar timeline or an extremely prolonged timeline to see similar results. That said, I am not a doctor or nutritionist. Bu…

This one: -- take either an unsustainable focus on eating these foods to see results on a similar timeline -- Same as with VitD, seems like - at some point, your level is just that low that you cant restore it by "just eating right", you need more firepower

Aka solar power
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