For anyone interested, there's an interesting fact that adenosine build-up due to sleep deprivation improves depression briefly, in many cases [1]. It's not a treatment, obviously, personally I have used it as an immediate relief technique.
Impacts of lack of sleep
151–160 of 254 posts
Re: Impacts of lack of sleep
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
Relieving my sleep apnea has been - by far - the biggest impact to my health and well-being. It's like a new lease on life. Just took a $60 retainer from Walgreens (this won't work for everyone). Memory, word recall, mood, energy - you name it: just much better than before. It was a slow process to get below what I would call normal (to say nothing of, "optimal"). It snuck up on me and I just never understood how ter…
For me it has been nasal strips. That and not sleeping on my back (where my jaw relaxes and closes my throat).
I'm trying nasal strips for snoring. The results so far are mixed - the strip reduces my snoring... while it's on. Problem is, it tends to unstick from my nose in 30-60 minutes. Even if I clean/de-oil and dry my nose immediately before application (in fact, I feel this makes the problem worse). Is there some trick to those nasal strips to ensure they stay on through the night?
Re: Impacts of lack of sleep
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I find your comment unhelpful. We have no indication that the person being responded to has a hard limitation vs suboptimal habits. Not giving him advice because it might not help someone is the worst because it guarantees that it will not help him.
Fair point, but I find the kind of advice given goes beyond being unhelpful into being actually damaging. It's exasperating at best and makes the 'patient' feel as if no one understands them, or worse that the world is against them.
On balance I weigh the damage of that as more negative than the absence of advice that might help.
Re: Impacts of lack of sleep
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
Could devices to trigger other senses work? Like an aromatic diffuser on a timer switch that pumps out a scent, or a SAD lamp that simulates sunlight. A vibration device for the bed
Waking up is solved for me now - I'm married, my wife is an early bird (and our kids are the worms, they get up even earlier, or am I getting that adage wrong?), and she makes sure I get up (and stay up). Right now, the bedtime is a problem - revenge bedtime procrastination + everyone getting used to me doing extra work overnight during some more busy times (I work remotely, so sometimes I handle kid emergencies duri…
I find when in those situations Power Nap works decently - for awhile. Luckily I only have to do it once in awhile.
I slam something high in caffeine (ice tea, soda, energy drink) and then immediately pass out. It only works if I’m already fighting staying awake.
An hour or so later I’m up again and can complete the day.
Re: Impacts of lack of sleep
#155The caffeine trap can be particularly insidious, especially for those of us who metabolize it slower. Its half-life can range from as low as 1.5 hours all the way up to 9.5 hours. So on the high end of that scale, if you drink 3 cups of coffee, containing say 300mg of caffeine, between 7 and 10 AM then you still have around 100mg of caffeine kicking around in your system when 11pm rolls around, clogging up your adeno…
I'm probably your complete opposite on this lol. I don't know how tolerance plays into this, but I drink like 1L or more of coffee a day, and have done so for more than a decade, and I have never felt any difficulty falling asleep. Well, besides some reluctance during weekdays because I just don't want the next day to arrive, because of work, so I sometimes just go to sleep later and suffer the consequences for the n…
Do you have an attention disorder? I know from some people they experience caffeine differently. Although the mechanisms are beyond me.
Re: Impacts of lack of sleep
#156The post is mostly covering "mind" and "metabolic" things, but the effect extends to "body" things: - more likely to avoid hurtful situations (lower attention, zone out events, micro sleep events, reflexes diminished). - more likely to hurt yourself when such accidents occur - once hurt, physical recovery is severely hampered Car accidents are the obvious ones here but it extends to simple things like accidental cuts…
I've notice I'm more prone to pimples and canker sores when I'm sleep deprived.
Re: Impacts of lack of sleep
#157I'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…
I've felt the impacts of sleep deprivation on mood, thinking, speech, etc because of gaming late into the night, so stress/overwork wasn't a factor in that case.
Re: Impacts of lack of sleep
#158Resonates with anyone that has had children. Biggest impact for both my wife and I was overall sleep quality/quantity and sacrificing sleep for a modicum of personal time at the end of the day.
My wife still manages 12+ hours per day - I get about 4-6. She wonders why I am gradually becoming irrationally irritable, as in her view being overtired is something that is easily controlled. Easily said when you get to sleep in to 1pm or later every day. I find myself picking fights with anyone and everyone, even inanimate objects. I know it’s crazy. We don’t have time together any more - I just fall asleep the mo…
> My wife still manages 12+ hours per day
If she didn't start sleeping those number of hours until after having the baby, this sounds like it could be postpartum depression. I'd recommend she gets evaluated by a psychiatrist to confirm, of course.
Re: Impacts of lack of sleep
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I envy those for whom this is the case. For me, I might be dead tired during the day, but I will spontaneously regain energy in the evening - enough to delay my bedtime a couple hours again. It's absurd and somewhat dangerous - if I ever pull an all-nighter on something, it's really important I force myself to go to sleep early the next day, because I will suddenly become full of energy again come 21:00 - 23:00, go t…
Like jet-lag it can take some time to adjust. But, also like jet-lag, you have to push through.
Re: Impacts of lack of sleep
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
I find your comment unhelpful. We have no indication that the person being responded to has a hard limitation vs suboptimal habits. Not giving him advice because it might not help someone is the worst because it guarantees that it will not help him.
Fair point, but I find the kind of advice given goes beyond being unhelpful into being actually damaging. It's exasperating at best and makes the 'patient' feel as if no one understands them, or worse that the world is against them. On balance I weigh the damage of that as more negative than the absence of advice that might help.
This is where you and I disagree. I find that a chance at tangible improvement is worth having to deal with the risk it cannot be accomplished.