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Getting too little sleep can have serious health consequences (2013)

theatlantic.com

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Re: Getting too little sleep can have serious health consequences (2013)

#61

Post by meej »

icehawk219 wrote: post #36

Sleep is something I've kind of battled with for some years now. I have a job with a long commute and long hours but like to still be able to come home and make dinner and watch an episode or two of some of my favorite shows but when I do I end up awake instead of tired. If I do that I get 4 - 5 hours of sleep at night but if I get the full 8+ I basically have no life but work and sleep. Basically everyone I know alw…

It sounds like you might be a short sleeper.

http://www.sleepeducation.com/sleep-disorders-by-category/in...

Re: Getting too little sleep can have serious health consequences (2013)

#62

Post by [deleted] »

icehawk219 wrote: post #36

Sleep is something I've kind of battled with for some years now. I have a job with a long commute and long hours but like to still be able to come home and make dinner and watch an episode or two of some of my favorite shows but when I do I end up awake instead of tired. If I do that I get 4 - 5 hours of sleep at night but if I get the full 8+ I basically have no life but work and sleep. Basically everyone I know alw…

[deleted]

Re: Getting too little sleep can have serious health consequences (2013)

#63

Post by stordoff »

otherusername2 wrote: post #5

I once, involuntary, went without sleep for around 72 hours. I was at a music festival and we were either pulling through the night or I couldn't sleep because of the noise. When the time came to go home, I really felt pretty good. At that time I had been awake for around 60 hours. My body was tired and my thinking was a bit sluggish, but nothing too bad... Until I got home and tried to sleep. By then I was feeling d…

I once worked for 100 hours solid (only breaks were to use the loo or fetch food; total waking time was about 110 hours) and once I got past the hours 24-40 I felt fine most of the time - no hallucinations or similar, didn't feel particularly sleepy or experience micro-sleeps, and the quality of the work was OK (not my best by any stretch, but passable).

The wierd part came when I hit the deadline for the project (10am) and had to submit it - pretty much as soon as I stopped working, I felt _awful_, barely coherent, and had to take a friend with me to submission as I wasn't sure I could find the venue despite going there five plus times a week for a couple of years. It was a pretty shocking experience to go from working OK to barely functional in a matter of minutes. Not an experience I'm in any rush to repeat either! Despite that, I ended up staying awake for the rest of the day and played Risk with friends that evening, because I just couldn't get to sleep.

Re: Getting too little sleep can have serious health consequences (2013)

#64

Post by dm03514 »

jamongkad wrote: post #59
otherusername2 wrote: post #5

I once, involuntary, went without sleep for around 72 hours. I was at a music festival and we were either pulling through the night or I couldn't sleep because of the noise. When the time came to go home, I really felt pretty good. At that time I had been awake for around 60 hours. My body was tired and my thinking was a bit sluggish, but nothing too bad... Until I got home and tried to sleep. By then I was feeling d…

Your experience really resonates with me. I too suffer from occasional panic attacks. What techniques do you use to suppress them?

Mindful deliberate diaphragmatic breathing has allowed me to completely overcome panic attacks.

A simple exercise to learn diaphragmatic breathing is to lay down on your back and put a textbook on your stomach. Place your hand on your chest. Focus on each inhalation only moving the book, your hand/chest should not move at all :)

Re: Getting too little sleep can have serious health consequences (2013)

#65

Post by dm03514 »

Fritsdehacker wrote: post #14
otherusername2 wrote: post #5

I once, involuntary, went without sleep for around 72 hours. I was at a music festival and we were either pulling through the night or I couldn't sleep because of the noise. When the time came to go home, I really felt pretty good. At that time I had been awake for around 60 hours. My body was tired and my thinking was a bit sluggish, but nothing too bad... Until I got home and tried to sleep. By then I was feeling d…

I had a similar experience when my child was born. The birth took about two full days, the last 36 hours of which I didn't sleep. And the first week I slept about 3 hours a night with maybe a few naps during the day. The strange thing was, I could still function. I couldn't do anything complex, but basic tasks where not much of a problem. However, when I finally had a moment to really sleep. I couldn't. It felt like…

We just had our first child 4 weeks ago. Relationship with sleep has completely changed. Before I'd need ~8hour of straight sleep to feel completely rested, anything less I felt like my brain was very sluggish.

4 weeks later that number is 5-6 hours.

Also relationship with coffee has completely changed. 4 weeks ago drinking a strong ~16 oz of coffee in the morning would keep me up all night. Now I drink multiple cups throughout the day and can pretty much sleep at will :)

Sleep has been very light and dreams not super vivid, every now and then will fall into a vivid dream but not lucid

Falling asleep is instantanous

Re: Getting too little sleep can have serious health consequences (2013)

#66

Post by cgriswald »

athenot wrote: post #35
Qantourisc wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more about why/what _exactly_ ? What is taking place during maintenance ?

We don't fully know, and I'm not a neurologist. But it appears that sleep is when memories of the day get consolidated. There's also some garbage collection that runs, for the well-being of the system.

There's also, possibly, the flushing out of toxins in the brain:

http://www.nih.gov/news/health/oct2013/ninds-17.htm

Re: Getting too little sleep can have serious health consequences (2013)

#67

Post by vasilipupkin »

TheBeardKing wrote: post #58
nsgi wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But on the other hand, getting less sleep gives you more time when you're young.

And since your future self is like a totally different person, fuck that guy.

oh, the naivete of the young !

Re: Getting too little sleep can have serious health consequences (2013)

#68

Post by jameshart »

The headline is, of course, tautologically true. Too much|little anything can have serious consequences, because "too much" or "too little" is defined by its negative consequences. "Getting enough sleep" can't have serious health consequences, because... it's enough not to. Too little sleep is "too little" precisely because it has health consequences.

Re: Getting too little sleep can have serious health consequences (2013)

#69

Post by anon4 »

musha68k wrote: post #19
yAnonymous wrote: post #6

"Spending 25% more time sleeping increases your life expectancy by 25%." Awesome.

"Why a long night's sleep may be bad for you" http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31928434 "Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical Science" http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/11/lies-dam...

If the baseline for the parent quote is 6 hours, 6 hours plus 25% is 7 hours 30 minutes, which is about the ideal amount in the study you linked. So yeah.

Re: Getting too little sleep can have serious health consequences (2013)

#70

Post by anon4 »

darkFunction wrote: post #26

This reminds me of a programmer and very talented blogger who wrote a book ("And Then I Thought I Was A Fish") about his experience of staying up for many days under the influence of LSD, and who is also committed to an institution as a result of his delusions. Very interesting and entertaining read. http://www.stilldrinking.org/the-episode-part-1

He is still in the institution? If he's still crazy, how did he write the book? Or did he half-coherently narrate it to someone who then posted it for him?
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