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

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361–370 of 427 posts

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

#361
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…

> As a software developer, I am used to finding and fixing the underlying problem instead of relying on the quick fixes these doctors were offering me.

Your body isn't a piece of software.

It can get easily get stuck in conditions that we aren't used to happening in computers. Eg, some injury causes inflammation and pain in a different part of your body, and even after the initial injury heals itself, the inflammation and pain in another part of your body continues of its own accord, and a "quick fix" of some NSAIDs can cure it within hours.

I'm glad you are feeling better, but reading all that great stuff about magnesium could have primed you to think that supplementing it would work, therefore it worked. The placebo (and nocebo) effects are very powerful.

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

#362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sleeping pills can cause dependence, and they often treat the symptom rather than the underlying cause. I found gwern's take on Melatonin interesting: https://gwern.net/melatonin A small excerpt: > One might object that they do not wish to tamper with their natural sleep, even if melatonin is a normally-secreted hormone. > Sad to say, I would point out to such readers that they are already profoundly tampering with…

The evidence that humans would naturally be designed to sleep “multiple times a day” is quite mixed. “Multiple” does a lot of heavy lifting here, when basically most evidence points to two batches, following either of these patterns: - a long uninterrupted night cycle and a short (20-60 mins) afternoon nap. Around 2pm. - a night cycle split into two halves. With a 1-2h break (maybe up to 3h) starting around midnight…

An article exploring research and citations of "first sleep" and "second sleep"

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/geneveith/2013/08/first-sleep-...

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

#363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

For low dose melatonin, try liquid melatonin. Around here Sprouts carries it, but you gotta look a bit to find it. The bottle says 30 drop equal 3mg. So you can take small doses easily, and it absorbs under your tongue pretty quickly.

Yes. I agree. Liquid melatonin is the way to go for micro dosing. I also have good experiences with micro doses of 0.1-0.2 mg when waking up too early and having difficulties of falling asleep again. Taking a full 1 mg leaves after 3 or 4 am you very croggy in the morning.

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

#364
post #205

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…

Natrol makes a 1mg gummy and Vitafusion has a peach flavored 1.5mg gummy (sold as “3mg” but the dose is “two gummies.” My kids use these. I get them on Amazon.

Way too high in my experience. Can leave you croggy and dependent. Micro dosing using drops is more effective for me without feeling groggy in the morning. Anything above 1mg is way above the natural melatonin level of our body.

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

#365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I take melatonin to sleep on a redeye, but otherwise don't use it. I find the effect is similar to taking a weed edible to fall asleep— basically, my wearable registers a lengthy period of deep sleep but instead of waking up feeling refreshed and ready for action, I'm groggy and fog-headed for several hours, or dependent on coffee to reverse the lingering effects. As someone who has never been a regular coffee consum…

This sounds like you may be taking a very high dose. What dose do you take?

This. Try with smaller doses starting from 0.1 mg (liquids are best for this) and work your way upwards to reach the optimal dosage. Tablets are often overdosed which leaves you drowsy in the morning.

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

#366
post #285

Sleep is a predictor of poverty and poverty is a predictor of mortality. But i suspect if you hop over the second part there will be more funding in telling poor people to sleep there way to longevity.

> Sleep is a predictor of poverty

Curious. Any sources for this. How does this work? Feel like many high paying, stressful jobs are actually bad for your sleep.

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

#367
post #199
post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Holy Dunning–Kruger effect... As a software developer, I am a much better doctor than actual trained doctors, and am definitely immune to any placebo effects.

> Holy Dunning-Kruger effect… Do you know they’re wrong? Please don’t invoke Dunning Kruger like this, it’s cliché and also wrong to do. There’s no indicator for whatever it is Dunning & Kruger showed, you cannot know if it applies to a single person. Their main plot showed a positive correlation between confidence and competence. Their paper has problems, their methodology has been rightly questioned, and some attem…

The claim is anecdotal and entirely possible that it's a placebo effect. But the author is making it sound like a definitive root cause to their issue. This is so typical of the software dev community.

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

#368
post #201
post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you did read the paper, you'd have noticed that people who slept more regularly in this research were also wealthier, and more physically active. They did say they adjusted for these variables, but who knows. Maybe they didn't adjust them enough, maybe there are more covariates they didn't consider.

I don't know if they can have controls for "specific activity that changes their sleep schedule". In the past few years I went from having relaxed 11AM daily meetings to rigid 8AM meetings, and my sleep has suffered immensely. But nothing else in my life has changed, so it wouldn't show up in my socioeconomic data.

If you die younger than you otherwise would have, let them know because that will help normalize the rest of the data as well.

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

#369
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

okay, I'm curious, have you build an addiction? or do you think you can keep on reducing the dose and stop using it but still have the benefits. I've read somewhere that LSD can kind of re-wire your brain

LSD is not addictive. Actually it’s the opposite, I take it way less than I would because I just forget regularly or I don’t want to take it at all. I take it (microdose) maybe once a week instead of once every three days.

I do want to take a bigger dose again because of the healing effects it had the first time but I’ve been procrastinating it for the last 6 months. So I’m stuck with irregular microdosing.

Also the effects are really long, like 12 hours. While it’s not an issue when you microdose (because you barely feel anything), it’s extremely complicated to find the right time to take anything bigger than that.

You need a full day free of any responsibility, in a good place and you need to want to dedicate the day to it. I have a job and I’m a dad so let me tell you that those days never happen :D

And the only time I took a biggest dose (half a tab), I felt very good after it but, hard to describe, I was was satisfied/happy with my experience and with the effects but still I just didn’t want to redo it for multiple months, not because it wasn’t good but because I felt I didn’t need it anymore.

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

#370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sleeping pills can cause dependence, and they often treat the symptom rather than the underlying cause. I found gwern's take on Melatonin interesting: https://gwern.net/melatonin A small excerpt: > One might object that they do not wish to tamper with their natural sleep, even if melatonin is a normally-secreted hormone. > Sad to say, I would point out to such readers that they are already profoundly tampering with…

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…

It’s wild to me you’re able to shut your brain down that fast!
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