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Eight hours a night isn’t enough, according to a leading sleep scientist

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141–150 of 163 posts

Re: Eight hours a night isn’t enough, according to a leading sleep scientist

#141

If 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…

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'm the opposite as far as vivid dreams go, I have no dreams during a nap at all, and it feels like someone actually scrubbed my brain of any thoughts altogether. Feels like waking up with a clean slate.

But the rejuvenation effect is the same.

Re: Eight hours a night isn’t enough, according to a leading sleep scientist

#142
But is it worth the time?

I've seen the studies showing how people who get more sleep live longer, but I always wonder, if you were measuring "total number of waking hours lived", would they come out to more or less equal?

(My curiosity has never been strong enough to make me actually do the calculation.)

Re: Eight hours a night isn’t enough, according to a leading sleep scientist

#143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really doesn't. If anything German is a fairly soft, camp-sounding language. The whole shouting thing seems to be based on World War II stereotypes.

> It really doesn't. If anything German is a fairly soft, camp-sounding language Not for us non-Germans listening to it (though the video exaggerates of course). There's a reason behind the stereotype, and that's not WWII. Even the mere written form of the words is more somber and threatening looking: schmetterling vs butterfly or farfala for example, or Wissenschaft vs science. Can't compare with something like Ital…

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Re: Eight hours a night isn’t enough, according to a leading sleep scientist

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I've seriously considered a vibrating alarm, though I'd always looked into models that shake the pillow or mattress.

I use an Amazfit Bip wristwatch, and now I don't use sound for alarms, just the watch vibration. It wakes me right up.

Re: Eight hours a night isn’t enough, according to a leading sleep scientist

#145
post #3

Great 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…

I used to habitually play bullet and blitz chess online, which confirmed the necessity of sleep for me. After a 6 hour night of sleep I noticed my rating would drop significantly the next day, and after several low sleep nights in a row it would take days to recover completely. A graph of my bullet rating over time clearly showed the periods of low sleep. Most people don't have a measurement that objective. After I s…

Speaking a foreign language is that meter for me. If I don't get proper sleep, my tongue doesn't do what I want it to. I slip up more in my pronunciation and I forget words that I need. More sleep has always equalled higher fluency for me.

Re: Eight hours a night isn’t enough, according to a leading sleep scientist

#146
post #58
post #52

The article claims that catching up on sleep during the weekend doesn't work. This is most likely wrong information, as shown in this very recent study [0]. [0] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/jsr.12712

As far as I can tell your linked study says that "possibly, long weekend sleep may compensate for short weekday sleep" in terms of mortality but says nothing about qualify of life. You can catchup/reset but the days you don't sleep enough you'll do worse.

Yes, different priorities lead to different results. If you are looking at life satisfaction, then 8 hours a day is claimed to be optimal [0].

[0] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12232-016-0256-1

Re: Eight hours a night isn’t enough, according to a leading sleep scientist

#147

Sleep 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 residen…

> completely K.O. and unproductive after lunch

That's totally me. At that point I have no choice than to entirely skip lunch to be productive in the afternoon. Even eating a little can make me dramatically less productive.

> you should solve the right way.

What's the way to solve this?

Sleeping more helps me but only a bit and I still get K.O. after lunch.

I've researched this many times but never found any solution. Would love so much to fix that.

Thanks!

Re: Eight hours a night isn’t enough, according to a leading sleep scientist

#148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to habitually play bullet and blitz chess online, which confirmed the necessity of sleep for me. After a 6 hour night of sleep I noticed my rating would drop significantly the next day, and after several low sleep nights in a row it would take days to recover completely. A graph of my bullet rating over time clearly showed the periods of low sleep. Most people don't have a measurement that objective. After I s…

I use online chess tactics problems to assess how good my brain is that day. I estimate there's a 300+ ELO variance, perhaps even more, in my performance between when I'm tired and when I'm rested. 300 ELO points between 2 players means that the higher rates one wins about 9 out of 10 games against the lower rates one. A huge difference in performance.

First thing I do at my computer if I am groggy is to do chess tactics. Based on the results, I take a break or continue with my actual work. I should probably be looking at ELO as well, I just go by numbers at this time !

Re: Eight hours a night isn’t enough, according to a leading sleep scientist

#149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What time do you go to sleep that your body wants to sleep until 11 or 12? You might be staying up too late and not getting enough sleep.

I'd like to point out that I'm about a month shy of 40 next month, so none of this represents a phase or age. When I was a child, I actually refused to wake up for Santa's presents on christmas morning, choosing instead to go to grandmother's house and open Santa gifts when we got home later in the day. When I follow a natural sleep/wake cycle, I sleep around 3 or 4 and wake around 11 or 12. I can get good quality sl…

i feel i am in the same boat. any tips that have helped ?

Re: Eight hours a night isn’t enough, according to a leading sleep scientist

#150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 stori…

You seem like a great manager.
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