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Impacts of lack of sleep

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Re: Impacts of lack of sleep

#111

Post by randomcarbloke »

p-e-w wrote: post #46

I'm highly skeptical concerning the claimed 'effects' of lack of sleep. I don't doubt those are correlated with lack of sleep, but for many of them, obvious confounding factors exist. As a trivial example, overworked people typically get less sleep than average folks. And excessive work is also correlated with several of the 'effects' from the list, such as "fatigued and demotivated" and "lower libido". This means th…

for sure, I set the Set Daily Puzzle world record during a time of my life when I had been subsisting on an average of 1-2 hours sleep a night, if that.

It's also the fluffiest thing I've seen on HN in a while.

Re: Impacts of lack of sleep

#112

Post by jmkd »

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 wish people would understand that "just get up early" simply does not and cannot work for a significant portion of the population (20-50% depending on which study you choose).

Therefore it is aggravating advice to constantly receive, from those for whom it worked, to those for whom it won't.

Re: Impacts of lack of sleep

#113

Post by m463 »

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…

I created a bedtime nag program and it really helped, especially with hard deadlines like driving someone in the morning.

2 hours to bedtime, 1 hour to bedtime, 30 minutes, etc....

Re: Impacts of lack of sleep

#114

Post by abdusco »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #104
plorkyeran wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 m…

Did you try sleeping earlier? If you regularly sleep at 01:00, then you won't be able to wake up at 06:00. If you go to sleep at 22:00 then it's not as impossible as you think.

Re: Impacts of lack of sleep

#115

Post by Zenul_Abidin »

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.

These days I sleep at around 8, and it made it much easier for me to get up at 5 and still get 8 hours of sleep. And then I have energy to do basically anything in those early hours.

If I even get just 6 hours, I immediately feel crankiness the next day.

Re: Impacts of lack of sleep

#116

Post by c7DJTLrn »

Reading this after staying awake all night.

I wish I had control over my sleep like others seem to. It would be awesome if I could pass out at 10pm and wake up 8am. That kind of schedule is just impossible for me though. Night time is when my brain kicks into gear and then when I finally do sleep, I find it extremely difficult to wake up.

These days I'm sleeping between roughly 7am to 4pm. Recently I slept 18 hours. If I could fix it somehow I would. It's completely out of my control.

Re: Impacts of lack of sleep

#117

Post by iagooar »

If I could go back 10 years and talk to myself from the past, I would definitely tell myself: get away from that screen from time to time, especially on weekends. Buy a cheap 4x4 and GET OUT THERE. Get exercise, get fresh air, get to see the world through your own eyes instead of through a 2D screen, get physically tired, AVOID if possible any alcohol intake (this is a whole different topic, but alcohol might destroy your sleep, even if you only drink occasionally).

I wish I had done it 10 years ago, when my sleep quality and quantity were just depressingly low. These days even with small children I have better quality of sleep than I used to have back then when I would spend hours and hours in front of a computer screen (at work and after work as a hobby).

Re: Impacts of lack of sleep

#118

Post by l5870uoo9y »

c7DJTLrn wrote: post #116

Reading this after staying awake all night. I wish I had control over my sleep like others seem to. It would be awesome if I could pass out at 10pm and wake up 8am. That kind of schedule is just impossible for me though. Night time is when my brain kicks into gear and then when I finally do sleep, I find it extremely difficult to wake up. These days I'm sleeping between roughly 7am to 4pm. Recently I slept 18 hours.…

I find difficulty sleeping also depends on what I read before going to sleep. If I read books I sleep much easier and deeper than if I browse Reddit. I think the alarmism, sensationalism, and aggression triggers the nervous system and fills the mind with worthless thoughts which in turn prevents the falling a sleep.

Re: Impacts of lack of sleep

#119

Post by jesterson »

c7DJTLrn wrote: post #116

Reading this after staying awake all night. I wish I had control over my sleep like others seem to. It would be awesome if I could pass out at 10pm and wake up 8am. That kind of schedule is just impossible for me though. Night time is when my brain kicks into gear and then when I finally do sleep, I find it extremely difficult to wake up. These days I'm sleeping between roughly 7am to 4pm. Recently I slept 18 hours.…

> It's completely out of my control.

It is not. I have been in your shoes not once and lots of recommended things failed, some have not. This will require deep dive into reasons and mitigations, but I suggest you to proactively explore it and hopefully - fix.

Re: Impacts of lack of sleep

#120

Post by iagooar »

c7DJTLrn wrote: post #116

Reading this after staying awake all night. I wish I had control over my sleep like others seem to. It would be awesome if I could pass out at 10pm and wake up 8am. That kind of schedule is just impossible for me though. Night time is when my brain kicks into gear and then when I finally do sleep, I find it extremely difficult to wake up. These days I'm sleeping between roughly 7am to 4pm. Recently I slept 18 hours.…

Maybe a good start could be not giving your brain what it wants, when it starts getting that active. Just let yourself become bored.

And if possible, get outside, walk, run, hike, enjoy nature, build something with your hands, get TIRED.

Reduce blue light and if possible remove any screens past 7-8pm (books, podcasts and audiobooks help a lot here!).

In the morning, get as much sunlight as possible.

Do not stress over your current schedule too much. Try to wake up early in the morning for a few consecutive days, even if you do not go to bed early enough. After some time, your body might adjust again to a normal rhythm.

Good luck

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