If you're having trouble sleeping, see my previous comment on the issue:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5672023
I used to never be able to fall asleep before 5am.
Sleep as a Competitive Advantage
91–100 of 183 posts
Re: Sleep as a Competitive Advantage
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure! It took me a decade as a neuroscientist to realize that sleep is the inverse of stress. That's physiologically speaking - stress is the sympathetic system; sleep is the parasympathetic system. We're seeing a type of high stress sleep. We don't know what it means or why. But the aim is to continue to drill in - a kind of citizen science of how sleep and stress interact. What questions would folks what to see ans…
What do you mean by "we're seeing a type of high stress sleep"? It sounds counterintuitive.
I mean that people report (and their activity data suggests) sleeping but that the sympathetic response - "fight-or-flight" - didn't seem to turn down significantly from being awake. The best analogy, I think, is that your body should flip to idle during sleep, but we see that you're still running very hot.
Re: Sleep as a Competitive Advantage
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
On an unrelated note: May I suggest getting a second travel CPAP even if you're not going to nap at the office? You can use it for travel and vacations, but the best reason to have one is as a backup. Trust me when I say that you don't want to wait a month for a replacement when your existing CPAP fails (and it WILL fail). Also, it's worth noting that many travel CPAPs have 12-volt car lighter adapters so you can run…
Thanks for the suggestions. I'll definitely look into it.
My dad had a top of the line cpap that my mother just threw out.
Prior to that I had found a site that specialized in used cpaps and they were going to buy it (apparently they had so much inventory they wanted to wait to make an offer on it).
You can probably source a good used one through respiratory therapists either privately or at a hospital. When someone passes away these are typically thrown out. (After a certain amount of time they don't get returned to medicare or something like that.)
Re: Sleep as a Competitive Advantage
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
>' You just don't remember how different is it to sleep longer.' Exactly. Not too long ago the combination of child, work and school forced me to completely re-evaluate how I was spending my time and what is actually important to me. One big change I ended up making was getting to bed at the same time every night and clocking a consistent 8 hours. Within a week or so the difference was remarkable in both my mood and…
> At least 8 ounces per waking hour for me. That's 3.8L per day [(24 hours - 8 hours sleeping) * 8 fl oz = 3.8L]. Recommended intake is 2-3L[1]. Just be careful of water poisoning... [1] http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/nutrition-and-healt...
This is all dependent on your level of exercise and rate of perspiration. A 72kg person would have to drink around 6.5L of water for it to become dangerous[1].
Re: Sleep as a Competitive Advantage
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
The first step is to kick a caffeine habit if you have one. That means no coffee, no tea, no caffeinated soda.
Is there a second step...?
My suggestions:
2) Follow a consistent schedule. 3) Follow a consistent routine to prepare for sleep. 3a) Turn off screens well before bed. 4) Learn and follow relaxation/self-hypnosis scripts.
I've learned a lot about sleep from observing my baby daughter. Good sleep is easiest on top of good sleep; a tired brain usually has more, not less, trouble falling asleep. If my daughter misses her nap, she is more hyper and harder to settle down at bedtime. If she gets a nice long nap, she also is calmer at bedtime and falls asleep more easily.
I've had terrible sleep habits most of my life, and it's only now that I'm a parent that I can appreciate how powerful a consistent schedule and routine can be.
Re: Sleep as a Competitive Advantage
#96Too bad the body is often pretty lousy at honoring requests for quality sleep even when we make the time.
The first step is to kick a caffeine habit if you have one. That means no coffee, no tea, no caffeinated soda.
I never had a problem falling asleep but I kicked my daily morning cup of coffee and I can't believe how much energy I have. I used to feel a little fuzzy when I first woke up until I had my coffee but now I wake up so full of energy and feel great. I never realized just how negative caffeine is on your energy level.
Re: Sleep as a Competitive Advantage
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
What do you mean by "we're seeing a type of high stress sleep"? It sounds counterintuitive.
I mean that people report (and their activity data suggests) sleeping but that the sympathetic response - "fight-or-flight" - didn't seem to turn down significantly from being awake. The best analogy, I think, is that your body should flip to idle during sleep, but we see that you're still running very hot.
It would be interesting if you could correlate that to what the person is doing physically during each sleep type. By way of a video device (similar to what is done with that part of a sleep study) that captures and can be played back or analyzed. I was actually going to set this up for a person with sleep apnea but they passed away before I could get the solution cobbled together.
To summarize: Get a normal video capture (baby monitor etc.), capture video, analyze and play back video and see the differences..
Re: Sleep as a Competitive Advantage
#98I wish I could take naps during the day when I get fatigued, but unfortunately I have severe sleep apnea, so unless I sleep with a CPAP machine, I don't actually get any rest. And my CPAP machine isn's something I can bring to work.
If you're in the US, I think the ADA means your employer needs to accommodate you in this regard.
(To be clear, I'm not suggesting you get "all lawyered up" and obnoxious. Just ask for a meeting with HR, to discuss ways to make it work for both of you. Pointing out that you use a medical device should help get across the point that this isn't a frivolous request to doze.)
Re: Sleep as a Competitive Advantage
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
Strangely I feel dizzy without alarm clock and it takes a bit too much time to get to high energy. With alarm clock there's a certain rush to jump into action. I wish I had the same rush without an alarm clock.
I know I'm going to state something obvious, but have you tried going to bed earlier? I've honestly met people who try to get up earlier, but don't realize the easiest way to get up early (in the longer term, of course) is to catch sleep early.
My wakeup time is flexible so I have tried the whole spectrum, going to bed earlier (10pm) or later ~12am, ~2-3am.
Waking up without alarm for all these sleeptimes feels roughly the same so I'm not sure if I'm a "lark" or "owl".
My focus is definitely the best in the evening, just hate the slow fogginess in the morning and would like to switch to "lark" mode, unsuccessfully.
Waking up with alarm makes me more sharp than without alarm but as the wakeup time is flexible it feels stupid to do so and I fallback to dizzy mornings and late-night work against ma inner will.
Re: Sleep as a Competitive Advantage
#100The key takeaway is this: > The research is overwhelming that the vast majority of us require seven to eight hours of sleep to feel fully rested, and only a small percentage require less than seven. I'm sometimes envious of people I meet that can function well with little sleep, but I resign myself to the fact that I wasn't dealt that particular card. You can't compete with those folks by simply trying to ape their h…
rayiner, My ex husband often went to work on 4 to 6 hours of sleep. He was career military and he had some sleep issues. On weekends, he would stay up late and by Sunday night he could not sleep before midnight or 2:00 am. And by Wednesday, it was not at all uncommon for him to fall asleep on the couch either right after eating dinner or in the middle of eating (or, sometimes, before eating) because he was so short o…
Actually there was an article a couple years ago about "super sleepers" in the NYTimes. People who only need, at most, 6 hours sleep to feel completely refreshed. I believe they had their genome copied hoping to find why they can do this. Who knows, there might be a gene therapy or pill to need less sleep one day.