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Impacts of lack of sleep

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Re: Impacts of lack of sleep

#101

Post by ramoz »

2devnull wrote: post #74

I only need 2-3 hours. I wish I could get more. You learn to use it as an advantage.

I thought the same. I didn’t “experience” any of these things. I’ve always been driven, fit, resilient. Procrastinated about my health, and being better about sleep/all-nighters.

Then I was diagnosed with cancer at 30.

Blessed to have treated it. I don’t take health for granted any longer, sleep is a critical component of my health. Mental and physical state are 10x where they were.

Ymmv. There’s no proof that I directly contributed my cancer, but I suspect I did.

Re: Impacts of lack of sleep

#102

Post by e40 »

madaxe_again wrote: post #79
tayo42 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She sleeps more then 12 hours a day?

Yes. I don’t know how, but she always has - bed at midnight, and she rises anywhere between midday and 4pm. I envy her amicability with Morpheus. I used to be able to sleep a decent amount, but I burned that part of my brain out during my startup days - I get by ok on six uninterrupted hours, but when my night is more like three two hour naps punctuated by stress, I start to disintegrate - as I learned in my startup…

That is 12 to 16 hours, not 12. Something is wrong here. I wish you well.

Re: Impacts of lack of sleep

#103

Post by dgb23 »

xyzelement wrote: post #31
000ooo000 wrote: post #5

For me, I find my sleep suffers because of what some describe as "revenge bedtime procrastination". When my job is shit (i.e. now), I'm more inclined to stay on the PC later doing things that bring me some level of joy, or play games to escape the mind spinning its wheels. I seem to more easily recognise that my job is unfulfilling because I'm staying up later or I'm dreading going to bed. Going to bed early for a go…

Quick advice - see if you can shift that to getting up earlier. You will probably spend the couple of hours in the morning in a way that sets you up for a better day vs staying up late sets you up for a bad tomorrow. I say this as an always "late" person who now tries to get up at 5 to work out and reflect, it's been very helpful.

I agree with this. I struggled the same thing as GP mentioned, and worse. And from my experience it’s a vicious cycle.

I don’t necessarily agree with the specific “get up at T”, but generally working towards getting rid of bad sleeping habits (and nutrition etc.) is incredibly beneficial. Seemingly small improvements can have a positive snowball effect.

Negative circumstances (like “my job is shit”) can be overcome more easily the more energy you have.

Seems trite, but it’s trivially true. My mental state improved gradually and I gathered more courage, got more resilient and more creative.

I’m much happier, helpful and have much more impact on my life and my surroundings than ever before. And it all started with the basics.

Re: Impacts of lack of sleep

#104

Post by TeMPOraL »

plorkyeran wrote: post #62
xyzelement wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quick advice - see if you can shift that to getting up earlier. You will probably spend the couple of hours in the morning in a way that sets you up for a better day vs staying up late sets you up for a bad tomorrow. I say this as an always "late" person who now tries to get up at 5 to work out and reflect, it's been very helpful.

A life changing thing for me was specifically scheduling time to do fun things in the morning before doing the things I have to do. If I wake up at six, I still don’t start my day until eight, and instead spend those two hours on things I otherwise would have done the night before. This broke the feeling of dreading mornings that lead to a negative spiral. Even if I know most of the day will be awful, if I can look f…

Wish this worked for me, but my brain straight up ignores[0] any kind of alarm clocks, music, light, etc. until it's something like 10:00 in the morning, or until a person wakes me up (and checks 5-10 minutes later if I'm actually up)[1]. So, shifting time to morning turned out to be impossible to maintain when I was living alone - I could hold such schedule for maybe a week at most, gradually oversleeping more and more. Still, it was possible then and I wish I tried harder, because now it's strictly not - I have two small kids, and one true thing about them is that they always wake up earlier than you[2]. So there's no space for personal time in the morning.

Also I wonder if I'm the only one here who feels that their mind takes some 2/3 of the day to get into high gear?.It's probably more about emotional balance than cognitive functions, but I feel like I'm best able to focus only from late afternoon onward, making late night the only time that's useful for anything.

--

[0] - I tried all kinds of things. Music blaring from the speakers at 06:30 sharp? Within a week, I've mastered getting up, hitting the power button on the amplifier, and falling back to bed in one, smooth move, with ballet-like fluidity. Got an alarm clock that requires you to solve math problems to turn it off? I quickly realized I must've mastered the art of multiplying 2-digit numbers in memory while unconscious, because I would wake up at 11:00 to discover multiple such alarms disabled, with no memory of doing it, or even hearing them ring.

[1] - Yes, that means business trips are especially hard for me. When traveling alone, I rely on wake-up calls from my wife (and check-ups afterward). Even with that, I still almost missed a plane once.

[2] - Except when there's an important appointment coming up that we need to get up unusually early for - on those nights, they're near-impossible to wake up.

Re: Impacts of lack of sleep

#106

Post by noufalibrahim »

xyzelement wrote: post #31
000ooo000 wrote: post #5

For me, I find my sleep suffers because of what some describe as "revenge bedtime procrastination". When my job is shit (i.e. now), I'm more inclined to stay on the PC later doing things that bring me some level of joy, or play games to escape the mind spinning its wheels. I seem to more easily recognise that my job is unfulfilling because I'm staying up later or I'm dreading going to bed. Going to bed early for a go…

Quick advice - see if you can shift that to getting up earlier. You will probably spend the couple of hours in the morning in a way that sets you up for a better day vs staying up late sets you up for a bad tomorrow. I say this as an always "late" person who now tries to get up at 5 to work out and reflect, it's been very helpful.

Was going to suggest the same thing. A great way to break the cycle is to somehow wake up early one day and force yourself to not sleep. You'll feel very sleepy early in the night and will fall asleep.

Re: Impacts of lack of sleep

#107

Post by TeMPOraL »

J_cst wrote: post #72
oulu2006 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This^, I'm very much the same. Going to sleep feels like it brings the next day, and if you aren't looking forward to what you have to do the next day....you put it off for as long as possible. I feel you.

I also procrastinate bed time. I've always linked it to anxiety (non necessarily in strict medical terms/meaning). That's my rationale: In the evening the day's over and 'nothing can happen' anymore for that day, so I feel I can chill out. On the contrary, tomorrow 'anything has yet to happen' and I can have a feeling of worry. That's the reason I've given myself to procrastinate bed time. Not sure of that's the case…

This is me. For me, it's not about the next day, but exactly about that "nothing can happen" feeling - everyone is finally asleep, no one has any expectations towards me, nobody will be calling me (it's night, it's rude to call people at night), nor will they be texting me (they're normal people, they're already in beds, sleeping). It's the only time my body is able to relax a little. It's the only time I can think about things, without interruptions and the nagging feelings I should be doing something else.

I tried, I tried really hard to give it up, but I can't. Now, with small kids in the mix, the mornings are not even an option.

This is what "revenge" in "revenge bedtime procrastination" is about. That feeling that it's the only time that's actually yours, the only moment of actual autonomy in your life. Everything else is driven by others - working a job, running errands, being there with your loved ones. When it starts feeling like an unending stream of obligations, those few hours late at night are a form of defiance, showing the middle finger to the universe, reclaiming some time for yourself.

Re: Impacts of lack of sleep

#108

Post by starbugs »

I successfully trained myself to fall asleep using deep brown noise.

This obviously is not a cure-all against sleep deprivation, but it's easy to try out and, at least for me, it made falling asleep so much easier.

Re: Impacts of lack of sleep

#110

Post by [deleted] »

madaxe_again wrote: post #88
desmosxxx wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have 3 kids and it was never as hard as you're describing, so that probably has something to do with people wanting to have more than one kid. I don't want to overstep, but you guys are doing it wrong. Your wife sleeping 12 hours doesn't sound right to me. We took shifts, but my wife was going to bed very early (9pm) and waking up around 5 or 6pm and then I'd sleep. She did this so we had a solution that worked fo…

I dunno - single parents manage it somehow. Probably doesn’t help that we live off-grid in total isolation, in a country where childminding doesn’t really exist, as most folks here have multi-generational households, so there’s no demand.

[deleted]
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