Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Sleep regularity is a stronger predictor of mortality than sleep duration (2023)

academic.oup.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 262 posts

Re: Sleep regularity is a stronger predictor of mortality than sleep duration (2023)

#161

Post by noduerme »

deergomoo wrote: post #77
atomicnumber3 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone whose natural sleep cycle seems to be closer to 26-28 hours, and whose preferred sleeping hours in a 24-hour cycle are 6am to 2-3pm... I commend you. Sincerely, someone forced into a "normal" schedule by kids school start times and, well, everything else too, I suppose.

I really hoped I’d grow out of wanting to sleep ~3-11am but it’s just never happened. No matter how tired I am during the day, I get a second wind around 8pm and have to force myself to go to bed at a reasonable hour during the work week because I won’t get sleepy, even if I stay away from screens. Unfortunately I really enjoy night time, so I regularly completely fail at that task. I can’t remember the last time I w…

If you're going 3-11, that's 8 hrs...

I'm the king of getting a second wind, but it's usually alcohol-driven. Curtailing food and booze about 3 hrs before sleep, watching a little Mentour Pilot or reading a book, I'll conk out before I planned to. Avoiding the second wind is a discussion in itself.

Re: Sleep regularity is a stronger predictor of mortality than sleep duration (2023)

#162

Post by noduerme »

lucb1e wrote: post #89
deergomoo wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really hoped I’d grow out of wanting to sleep ~3-11am but it’s just never happened. No matter how tired I am during the day, I get a second wind around 8pm and have to force myself to go to bed at a reasonable hour during the work week because I won’t get sleepy, even if I stay away from screens. Unfortunately I really enjoy night time, so I regularly completely fail at that task. I can’t remember the last time I w…

Getting up at 11 sounds workable though. I have a colleague that regularly starts at 11, may be having sleep issues (they mentioned something but I don't know if that's always the reason), nobody seems to mind. My problem is that, during holidays, 13:37 seems to somehow be a very common time for me to get out of bed (suspiciously often around that minute, making me think it's a bias rather than coincidence)... so mor…

Looking back, I think that I was chronically exhausted as a teenager. I was always on 5 or less hours of sleep. At that age, you have the metabolism to wake up and have a full day without feeling sleepy. But I've always wondered about why militaries deprive their recruits of sleep, except right before battle, or why school systems do - and I think it's simply that people are more malleable when they're chronically tired. Yes, you can get used to it, and your adrenaline will still kick in when necessary. But you're not performing as a fully cognizant human being. Teenagers, however, don't need to be fully cognizant of anything anyway... so it all works out.

Re: Sleep regularity is a stronger predictor of mortality than sleep duration (2023)

#163

Post by noduerme »

deergomoo wrote: post #81
MengerSponge wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you drink any caffeine?

Usually just one cup of coffee on weekday mornings, but in general caffeine does not seem to perk me up, keep me awake, or have any noticeable effect besides jump starting my digestive system. I could (and have done, in the past) have a coffee at 2am and go to sleep around 3 no problem. In my adult life I have ranged between 5-6 cups a day when I used to go into the office and none at all during periods where I just…

>> besides jump starting my digestive system

lol. Same here. Keeping your digestive system on track with your sleep cycle deserves a whole separate discussion. For those of us who've discovered coffee and cigarettes, usually the sight of one or the other is enough to get ya goin'

Re: Sleep regularity is a stronger predictor of mortality than sleep duration (2023)

#164

Post by left-struck »

thimabi wrote: post #87

I found the best way to ensure sleep regularity is by having a fixed wake-up time. If you don’t have one and you begin to set your alarm clock to early hours, the first weeks doing so will feel like hell. But eventually all will be worth it. The sleepiness during the day will disappear and, at night, your body will naturally want to get some rest early. Another strategy is to fill your day with deep work and exercise…

I agree with this except for the early part. At least personally waking up at about 8 works for me, that way I’m not waking up before sunrise in winter which makes me unhappy quite reliably.

A lot of people are weirdly proud of how early they wake up, and I’ve literally been shamed for waking up late, called lazy etc in a casual sense but that’s nonsense. I just work later.

Re: Sleep regularity is a stronger predictor of mortality than sleep duration (2023)

#165

Post by left-struck »

noduerme wrote: post #28
atomicnumber3 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone whose natural sleep cycle seems to be closer to 26-28 hours, and whose preferred sleeping hours in a 24-hour cycle are 6am to 2-3pm... I commend you. Sincerely, someone forced into a "normal" schedule by kids school start times and, well, everything else too, I suppose.

Hah. I've often thought that my actual rhythm is for a 25-26 hour day. I was going to write that but it seemed like too much to explain. As I go to bed later and later, eventually I find myself awake past sunrise, which is usually the day when I'll intentionally have a short sleep and snap back to an early bedtime that night. Kids would definitely screw up this aspect of my lifestyle lol. But kids give you immortalit…

I used to do this as well sort of, my schedule would shift by a few hours every day. I found that it had a significant impact on my mental health when I was sleeping through the day though, and it made it difficult to participate in various aspects of society like work, education and in person social things. I was eventually able to “fix” it by taking melatonin as a supplement to fix a short term schedule and being super anal about not letting people pressure me into playing games late or staying out late. I basically reframed sleeping hygiene as a primary health concern and that worked for me.

Anyway if your schedule doesn’t impact you in a negative way then go for it

Re: Sleep regularity is a stronger predictor of mortality than sleep duration (2023)

#166

Post by aaron695 »

snitzr wrote: post #79

Sleep is like drinking water. No one says, "I'm gonna get dehydrated right now and then drink a lot more water later so it's OK." But people do this for sleep. You need to sleep right when you're tired, because being tired is a stress that will need more time to heal the longer it goes. Sleep timing is underrated but it is just as important as quality and amount.

[dead]

Re: Sleep regularity is a stronger predictor of mortality than sleep duration (2023)

#167

Post by fastball »

My problem with regular sleep is that the sum of "good night sleep" + "energy for the day" is > 24 hours. Realistically I think it is about 26 hours on average. If I sleep for a normal amount (7-8 hours) I will generally have about 18 hours of energy. So if I just sleep when I'm tired my schedule is constantly shifting. If I go to bed when not tired I just stair at the ceiling for hours, which feels like a waste.

Re: Sleep regularity is a stronger predictor of mortality than sleep duration (2023)

#169

Post by ratedgene »

kitchi wrote: post #151
styyyaaa wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Any statistics buffs here who can tell me: Is 500k brits for 1 week as good as 5k brits for 100 weeks. Effectively with so much data aren't you getting a superposition anyway.

A superposition of? In statistical mechanics there's a concept of "ensemble average" and its provable that if you have a system, the average state of the system over say a 100 realisations ("ensemble average") run for 1 second each, is equal to the the average of one system run for a 100 seconds - under some assumptions of course. I don't know enough a about human biology to make a statement about whether any of thos…

I would also say it's geospecific. Like if there is a nationwide trauma of sorts (politics, etc) it could influence a group to not be representative of the population at large.

Re: Sleep regularity is a stronger predictor of mortality than sleep duration (2023)

#170

Post by gexla »

deergomoo wrote: post #77
atomicnumber3 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone whose natural sleep cycle seems to be closer to 26-28 hours, and whose preferred sleeping hours in a 24-hour cycle are 6am to 2-3pm... I commend you. Sincerely, someone forced into a "normal" schedule by kids school start times and, well, everything else too, I suppose.

I really hoped I’d grow out of wanting to sleep ~3-11am but it’s just never happened. No matter how tired I am during the day, I get a second wind around 8pm and have to force myself to go to bed at a reasonable hour during the work week because I won’t get sleepy, even if I stay away from screens. Unfortunately I really enjoy night time, so I regularly completely fail at that task. I can’t remember the last time I w…

I think everyone gets a second wind in the late hours.

I used to have a schedule where I would start nodding off at 8PM and had to sleep, then wake up within 10 minutes of 4AM the next morning. My whole day was on such a routine, I never had to check the time. I could tell by temperature, sun, what I was doing, how I felt (hungry, tired) what time it was. I would be at my highest energy for the first hours after waking up. Then my energy would plunge during midday. Then it would build back up leading into the evening until I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore. Maybe 4 to 8PM I would be at good energy until I hit the abrupt cliff. I guess I was sort of a morning AND night person. I had to train my body to get on this schedule.

Post reply on HN