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Eight hours a night isn’t enough, according to a leading sleep scientist
101–110 of 163 posts
Re: Eight hours a night isn’t enough, according to a leading sleep scientist
#102If there is one thing in this world I'd like to see, it's the worker's right for an afternoon nap: I really would become highly anxious if deprived long-term of my siesta. I've been lucky in most of my environments to find somewhere to close my eyes and sleep for 10-15 minutes - I just need somewhere to lie down or recline and something to block the light: if I'm tired enough sound doesn't bother me. Some people tell…
Since I've worked remotely (from home) for years I can't possibly conceive how most workers are forced into a chair through the entire day. I had the luxury to lay down pretty much any time I wanted. No wonder back problems are so common. Now running a small office and I put a couch in a separate room specially for resting. Everyone seems to enjoy it for 10-15 minutes a day, nobody abuses it. Whoever thinks people ca…
As a manager, if I had a weird feeling that someone was "abusing" the couch (by sleeping on it too much), huge red flags would go up for me that I've missed something massive. Like a death in their family, undisclosed problems with a coworker or management, something medical, or general job apathy.
I think I would read "abusing" as something more than just laying on the couch a lot. Like laying on the couch but storing old sandwiches under it. Kicking off shoes with unlaundered smelly socks. Just a general disconnect from the office environment, more than just needing a nap. I would ask the person out to lunch and ask them if they are happy. I think that's always a good place to start to discover/solve complex human problems.
Also, developers are strange compared to normal clock punch jobs. Some of us can't "turn it off" when we get home. This is a work/life balance thing.... but if you've gotta sleep on the couch for a week because you got in a groove where it makes sense, I'm not going to complain. I would probably still quiz on happiness and maybe suggest taking a nap somewhere more comfortable or even taking a few days off and making sure their responsibilities are covered. They might not feel like they could relax because "no one else can solve it" or something. And that in itself is a problem, so time to find a hammock for a few days and come back refreshed with less tickets.
Re: Eight hours a night isn’t enough, according to a leading sleep scientist
#103In addition to this, the JRE podcast with Matthew Walker has tons of fascinating insights into sleep (and how essential it is for health, longevity, etc.). Highly recommend just about everyone listen to it: Joe Rogan Experience #1109 - Matthew Walker https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwaWilO_Pig
The bit that really stuck with me from this podcast was how overworked some medical professionals are, especially those in residency. Which ends up contributing to them making mistakes with their patients, including deadly ones. Shift work is already extremely taxing on the human body, on top of the large amounts of stress nurses and doctors are already under; but on top of that , we're working the newbies 80 hours a…
Medical residents do stupid work hours, and medicine is the one profession ought to know better. Pilots and truck drivers are legally restricted in the number of hours they can work, and doctors should be also. We know the effects of sleep deprivation, but doctors are 'special'.
There is no reason for it that I can see, apart from a general shortage of cheap, early-career doctors, due to their stupid guild-like methods of limiting inputs. That and their stupid machismo of proving themselves, as you say.
Re: Eight hours a night isn’t enough, according to a leading sleep scientist
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
I freelanced through college and continued doing that after I graduated. Since I was working from home, I was used to taking afternoon naps. When I finally did join an office, I was surprised that afternoon napping wasn't a thing. My 20-30 minute naps completely re-energize me and drastically improve my focus. And for some reason, I have extremely vivid dreams during these naps.
I also have increasingly vivid, utterly nonsensical dreams when taking an afternoon nap. I do feel more focused and the random dreams are often a funny bonus.
Half the time I'm worried that I'm mumbling something stupid during my naps. My wife did catch me talking about kicking a football when I was taking my afternoon nap at work!
Re: Eight hours a night isn’t enough, according to a leading sleep scientist
#105Great article. Sleep is important. I liked that the article went out of its way to dispel several of the "but four hours is fine" myths. Two of my favorites: >some people are short sleepers: You can do a test to find out if you have genetic makeup that makes you a short sleeper. That’s rare, though, so by and large, people are not getting enough sleep. Blunt and effective. The outliers who really do fine with just a…
> The outliers who really do fine with just a few hours are just that: outliers. Or you could look at them as people at the forefront of evolution, leading us to a future where we need less sleep.
I wouldn’t be surprised if needing more sleep is a competitive advantage. Increased brain activity leads to increased garbage collection and resetting.
Re: Eight hours a night isn’t enough, according to a leading sleep scientist
#106Sleep is a twilight zone where personal problems get either amplified so that they become tangible or even get solved. He's right about one thing: it's not only 8 hours minimum you need, you should care about the quality of sleep you get. Especially that tendency of some people being completely K.O. and unproductive after lunch is a thing you should solve the right way.
Though, the facts that he's a TED talks resident and that he's selling apps doesn't do much damage to his actual research, but it definitely explains why he's "the most talked about sleep scientist". I must admit that I don't trust a scientist who deliberately draws attention to their work instead of being just that good to generate buzz.
Re: Eight hours a night isn’t enough, according to a leading sleep scientist
#107> Bose just released an earbud that you can sleep with, for example Wait, what? These are 249.95$. Why not just use simple earplugs? In Germany, we have Ohropax, made from wax, which sell for less than 3€ for a set of 12: http://www.ohropax.de/en.html
Because earplugs also tune out the sounds of an alarm clock. This isn't an issue if I never have to wake before 11 or noon. A 6am waking time means I continually run the risk of simply not hearing the alarm, even with good sleeping habits and not sleeping in on weekends. Of course, most of the earbuds that say they are designed for sleep only hold a charge for an average of 6 hours, and at the most 8. These actually…
I use a “silent alarm” on my Pebble (you also have something similar on Fitbit models). It basically vibrates on your wrist until you wake up. No sound needed.
Re: Eight hours a night isn’t enough, according to a leading sleep scientist
#108> There’s this new finding where playing sounds at a certain frequency when your brain is in deep sleep actually increases the percentage of time spent in deep sleep. We’re publishing this paper in Society for Neuroscience Conference in a couple of weeks, and it’s basically what my TED talk is about. Playing these pulses at the same frequency as your deep-sleep brainwaves primes more deep sleep. Scientifically speaki…
Do you use phone speaker or sleep with headphones?
Re: Eight hours a night isn’t enough, according to a leading sleep scientist
#109Great article. Sleep is important. I liked that the article went out of its way to dispel several of the "but four hours is fine" myths. Two of my favorites: >some people are short sleepers: You can do a test to find out if you have genetic makeup that makes you a short sleeper. That’s rare, though, so by and large, people are not getting enough sleep. Blunt and effective. The outliers who really do fine with just a…
Itsy probably a valuable adaptation tool. When my son was born in went from 8-9 a night to 4-5 for a few months. At a certain point it started feeling like I adapted. I wasn't really miserable. I wasn't dragging myself through the day anymore. Then when my sleep went back up as my son got older, I had that moment of, "holy crap I forgot what rested felt like. This is amazing. I actually want to go for a pointless wal…
It almost sounds like, if-when I were to hear my significant other is pregnant, I should start decreasing my sleep. That way, in eight months, I'd be closer to 'adapted' than if I have to develop the new habit of responding to a human alarm _and_ less sleep.
Re: Eight hours a night isn’t enough, according to a leading sleep scientist
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The outliers who really do fine with just a few hours are just that: outliers. Or you could look at them as people at the forefront of evolution, leading us to a future where we need less sleep.
I wouldn’t be surprised if needing more sleep is a competitive advantage. Increased brain activity leads to increased garbage collection and resetting.
Perhaps the short-sleepers have a concurrent garbage collector ;)