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What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep

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Re: What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep

#81

Post by peteretep »

code_duck wrote: post #44
evincarofautumn wrote: post #5

Unless I’m sick, I need about 5 hours a night—typically a few hours after midnight, and another couple after dawn. Like the woman in the article, I also don’t get hangovers beyond a mild headache and tiredness. It doesn’t make me significantly more productive, but it does give me more time to enjoy life, which is not nothing. I like having people over for parties, because I can get up before everyone else and make br…

Hmm, as far as hangovers she says "Does drinking impact your sleep? I don’t get hangovers. If I overdo it and I get a headache, that’s saying a lot. Most people in their 40s are sick for a day and a half. If I drink too much, then I may go to bed at two and get up at six — maybe I get an extra hour’s sleep!" Severe alcoholics often don't get a full night of sleep because they wake up when the depressant effect of the…

    > Severe alcoholics often don't get a full night of sleep
    > because they wake up when the depressant effect of the
    > alcohol wears off ... the same reason people shake in
    > the mornings
I don't think I'd have ever classified myself as an alcoholic, although I used to drink a lot, and now I drink nothing.

For a while, I ran a party-promoting business and held down a job as a programmer at the same time, typically going to bed at 2am having drunk maybe the equivalent of ~20 shots of vodka, 3-4 nights a week, and getting up to be in work by 10am. I was definitely stumbling around a bit by the end of the evening, and I needed some strong coffee in the morning, but seriously impaired I was not (although I imagine driving would have been a bad idea at any point in this cycle).

Assuming I distributed my drinks fairly evenly from 9pm to 1am, and using the British system of "units" of alcohol, peak blood alcohol was at 1am with ~ 15 units. Less 1 unit an hour, means at 9am wakeup time, I have the equivalent of about 3.5 pints of beer in my blood, and the alcohol doesn't properly drop off until about 3pm in the afternoon - which anecdotally was when I used to feel dreadful.

I can't imagine a "severe alcoholic" running out of alcohol in the blood stream overnight.

Re: What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep

#82

Post by bigtunacan »

monochr wrote: post #52
pavel_lishin wrote: post #36

> * “Cells don't sleep,” he said in his most quoted anti-sleep rant. “Fish swim in the water all night. Even a horse doesn't sleep. A man doesn't need any sleep.”* > Yes. Even when my kids sleep crazy amounts of hours I get annoyed. Teenagers can sleep probably for 12 hours straight, and I get so annoyed because I think they are wasting their lives. Why are you wasting your life sleeping? There are so many things tha…

This is the typical great man myth that gets promulgated by their publicists to make them seem more than human. As a rule they are either out right lies or greatly exaggerated, other myths of this type is Kennedy reading 1000 words per minute, Napoleon listening to reports, reading a letter and dictating laws all at the same time, or Stalin single handedly designing the first five year plan.

1000 words per minute doesn't seem outlandish. My 10 year old already reads at over 300 wpm.

Re: What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep

#83

Post by mooreds »

spacehome wrote: post #59
mooreds wrote: post #19

Fascinating. Made me think of 'Beggars in Spain', an SF series that is well worth the read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beggars_in_Spain

Interesting. But the pre-existing variance in people's productivity is already an order of magnitude or more. A 50% bump might be significant, but it's hard to imagine it would be society-changing.

Well, it's actually a 100% bump, right?

'Sleeper': 8 hours working, 8 hours taking care of life (eating, etc), 8 hours sleeping.

'Sleepless': 16 hours working, 8 hours taking care of life.

I agree with your point though: focus, environment, and pre-existing advantage probably cause far more variation in productivity than 100%.

Re: What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep

#84

Post by oh_sigh »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #36

> * “Cells don't sleep,” he said in his most quoted anti-sleep rant. “Fish swim in the water all night. Even a horse doesn't sleep. A man doesn't need any sleep.”* > Yes. Even when my kids sleep crazy amounts of hours I get annoyed. Teenagers can sleep probably for 12 hours straight, and I get so annoyed because I think they are wasting their lives. Why are you wasting your life sleeping? There are so many things tha…

Yeah, it doesn't make much sense. She has a special genetic mutation that lets her get by on less sleep. How does that mean that other people are wasting their time by getting the sleep their bodies need?

Re: What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep

#85

Post by Retra »

NobleLie wrote: post #34
Retra wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a general rule, when somebody says "nobody knows X", they are almost certainly wrong. There are 7+ billion people on this planet. Someone probably knows something you don't, for just about any common language X you could form. (They just haven't told you about it!) For instance: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6156/373 Scientists don't just sit around twiddling their thumbs all day...

I've heard of both of these theories (cleanse and consolidation) but it's kind of strange how the first sentence of the abstract is "The purpose of sleep remains mysterious." If the researchers have any confidence in their work, why are they using this language? Why not "sleep is not as mysterious" or "sleep is no longer mysterious"?

My point was more that somebody very likely knows the truth (and believes it to be the truth,) even if we don't know who that person is.

Re: What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep

#86

Post by MagnusVonBlack »

ashark wrote: post #31
NathanKP wrote: post #13

I really wish I had that trait, but instead I have the exact opposite. I often need about twelve hours to feel fully rested, and even then usually require a coffee or two to feel productive. Some people suggested recently that maybe I have sleep apnea, so I'm planning to try a sleep study sometime soon.

I rarely sleep well if I know I have to get up at a certain time (say, if there's an alarm set). The slightest disturbance is magnified—a moment of wakefulness can turn in to half an hour, followed by another hour of half-sleep half-waking before I'm finally back under (maybe, if I'm lucky). Going to bed early just increases the chances that this will happen at 2AM and I'll be unable to go back to sleep at all, which…

Do you exercise and eat healthy? I find that when I am getting enough physical exercise and nutritious food to support it, I am so tired in the evening that I go right to sleep. I used to have similar sleep patterns as yours, before I got serious about physical fitness.

Re: What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep

#87

Post by juliangregorian »

monochr wrote: post #52
pavel_lishin wrote: post #36

> * “Cells don't sleep,” he said in his most quoted anti-sleep rant. “Fish swim in the water all night. Even a horse doesn't sleep. A man doesn't need any sleep.”* > Yes. Even when my kids sleep crazy amounts of hours I get annoyed. Teenagers can sleep probably for 12 hours straight, and I get so annoyed because I think they are wasting their lives. Why are you wasting your life sleeping? There are so many things tha…

This is the typical great man myth that gets promulgated by their publicists to make them seem more than human. As a rule they are either out right lies or greatly exaggerated, other myths of this type is Kennedy reading 1000 words per minute, Napoleon listening to reports, reading a letter and dictating laws all at the same time, or Stalin single handedly designing the first five year plan.

It's almost certainly a myth in Edison's case. Seems like he considered it his brand in a way. Reports from his contemporaries are that he slept much more than he would have liked to admit.

http://www.supermemo.com/articles/polyphasic.htm#Thomas%20Al...

Re: What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep

#89

Post by [deleted] »

oh_sigh wrote: post #84
pavel_lishin wrote: post #36

> * “Cells don't sleep,” he said in his most quoted anti-sleep rant. “Fish swim in the water all night. Even a horse doesn't sleep. A man doesn't need any sleep.”* > Yes. Even when my kids sleep crazy amounts of hours I get annoyed. Teenagers can sleep probably for 12 hours straight, and I get so annoyed because I think they are wasting their lives. Why are you wasting your life sleeping? There are so many things tha…

Yeah, it doesn't make much sense. She has a special genetic mutation that lets her get by on less sleep. How does that mean that other people are wasting their time by getting the sleep their bodies need?

[deleted]

Re: What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep

#90

Post by monochr »

Immortalin wrote: post #71
monochr wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the typical great man myth that gets promulgated by their publicists to make them seem more than human. As a rule they are either out right lies or greatly exaggerated, other myths of this type is Kennedy reading 1000 words per minute, Napoleon listening to reports, reading a letter and dictating laws all at the same time, or Stalin single handedly designing the first five year plan.

For speed readers, 1000 wpm is actually pretty standard.

Yeah, no: http://www.slate.com/articles/briefing/articles/2000/02/the_...
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