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Sleep Scientist Warns Against Walking Through Life 'In an Underslept State'

npr.org

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Re: Sleep Scientist Warns Against Walking Through Life 'In an Underslept State'

#21

Post by guiambros »

I've read a lot about sleep over the years (and wrote a bit [2]), but I just finished reading the book mentioned in the article ("Why We Sleep" [1]) and found it fascinating.

The author presents a vast amount of scientific evidence amount pretty much every corner of why we sleep, from its evolutionary roots thousands of years ago, to the importance of dreams and REM sleep for your memory, reasons and impact of insomnia, to what happens in the neurochemistry in your brain when you drink coffee, alcohol or sleep pills, and much, much more.

If read only one book this year, let me strongly recommend you consider this one.

ps: if you prefer audio, the narrated version from Audible is also very good. There are just a few non-essential graphs, that you can download from their side in PDF.

[1] Why We Sleep, by Matthew Walker - https://smile.amazon.com/Why-We-Sleep-Unlocking-Dreams-ebook... [non affiliate link]

[2] Quora - How do CEOs who sleep for only 4-5 hours daily manage to function and run multi-million dollar companies for years? http://qr.ae/TUpOrd

Re: Sleep Scientist Warns Against Walking Through Life 'In an Underslept State'

#22

Post by jstimpfle »

Puer wrote: post #4

I'm currently in my 20s and I've been a type 1 chronic insomniac my whole life. Physically, I'm healthy and fit and I have been my whole life, but mentally my mind feels slower and foggier than my peers and I struggled through high school and college because of it. I know this might sound morbid, but I am fully expecting to die early despite doing everything in my power to live a healthy, balanced lifestyle. I can't…

Have you checked your testosterone levels? Low testosterone can cause sleep disorder and significantly impact short-term memory.

Re: Sleep Scientist Warns Against Walking Through Life 'In an Underslept State'

#23

Post by andor »

Apart from quantity, quality of sleep is also important.

I just realized how much a little light can disturb sleep. My blinds are opaque but hung 1-2 cm from the window frame, letting in just a few unwanted photons. I temporarily taped the blinds to the frame, leaving the room in almost complete darkness. I haven't felt this rested in years. Do try this at home!

Re: Sleep Scientist Warns Against Walking Through Life 'In an Underslept State'

#24

Post by HyperTalk2 »

Puer wrote: post #4

I'm currently in my 20s and I've been a type 1 chronic insomniac my whole life. Physically, I'm healthy and fit and I have been my whole life, but mentally my mind feels slower and foggier than my peers and I struggled through high school and college because of it. I know this might sound morbid, but I am fully expecting to die early despite doing everything in my power to live a healthy, balanced lifestyle. I can't…

Have a doctor perform a sleep study examination.

Re: Sleep Scientist Warns Against Walking Through Life 'In an Underslept State'

#25

Post by hugja »

haskellandchill wrote: post #16
hugja wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious have you ever tried working out in the early hours after waking up? This alone determines if I'm getting good sleep or not. I'll end up staying up way later into the night unless I worked out that morning.

People with chronic insomnia have generally tried everything and it’s unhelpful and annoying to offer your suggestions, I realize you’re trying to help but yeah.

I wasn't actually trying to help per se. I was just wondering if it was something he's/she's tried is all.

Re: Sleep Scientist Warns Against Walking Through Life 'In an Underslept State'

#26

Post by coldtea »

haskellandchill wrote: post #18
coldtea wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, unless you live to work, you should demand your right to a balanced life without having to point to scientific literature on the benefits of sleep. Even if it wasn't stolen sleep (say we needed no sleep, and the day had only 16 hours), constantly overworking would still be lost time (with family and friends and me-time) that you would never recover.

We work to live. It’s not our employer’s fault we are broken people.

It is when its imposed upon people. It's not like everybody self-elects to "work to live". Especially when they're just a cog doing a BS job just to pay the rent and feed their family, not full-filling their entrepreneurial or creative or other dreams through it...

(And the culture and glorification around working to live has a lot of employer influence in it).

Re: Sleep Scientist Warns Against Walking Through Life 'In an Underslept State'

#27

Post by Puer »

HyperTalk2 wrote: post #24
Puer wrote: post #4

I'm currently in my 20s and I've been a type 1 chronic insomniac my whole life. Physically, I'm healthy and fit and I have been my whole life, but mentally my mind feels slower and foggier than my peers and I struggled through high school and college because of it. I know this might sound morbid, but I am fully expecting to die early despite doing everything in my power to live a healthy, balanced lifestyle. I can't…

Have a doctor perform a sleep study examination.

I have. I was diagnosed with Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder and Type I Chronic Insomnia.

Re: Sleep Scientist Warns Against Walking Through Life 'In an Underslept State'

#28

Post by eigenspace »

coldtea wrote: post #3

> Sleep is not like the bank, so you can't accumulate a debt and then try and pay it off at a later point in time. And the reason is this: We know that if I were to deprive you of sleep for an entire night — take away eight hours — and then in the subsequent night I give you all of the sleep that you want, however much you wish to consume, you never get back all that you lost. You will sleep longer, but you will neve…

What is meant is that there are long term health consequences of sleep deprivation and you can’t cancel those effects by oversleeping the next couple days after an all nighter.

Re: Sleep Scientist Warns Against Walking Through Life 'In an Underslept State'

#29

Post by jmartrican »

I'm no expert but I thought that the whole 8 hour a night thing was not true, at least not for everyone. If I force myself to get 8 hours of sleep, by forcing myself to stay in bed after I wake up, I get a headache. If I let myself wake up on its own without an alarm, it averages around 6.5 hours. If I get below that, then at some point I will sleep more than the 6.5 hours, and maybe even 8 hours.

So from personal experience it seems like some of the things in this article do not mesh well with personal experience. I'm just confused at this point as to what to do. Am I suppose to stay sleeping for 8 hours even though I am awake? If for some reason I can't sleep at night and get less hours of sleep than expected, am I suppose to call in late to work and miss my morning meetings? You want to do the right thing here but getting 8 hours of sleep for some people just seems unpractical and there must be countless people who never get 8 hours and live long fruitful lives (I have no evidence for this but it seems like it would be true due to me not remembering anyone who told me they get 8 hours of sleep). I guess I require more evidence that 8 hours is what everyone should be getting. If maybe some people need 8 and others do not, then maybe they need to word it that way.

Re: Sleep Scientist Warns Against Walking Through Life 'In an Underslept State'

#30

Post by Puer »

jgh wrote: post #15
Puer wrote: post #4

I'm currently in my 20s and I've been a type 1 chronic insomniac my whole life. Physically, I'm healthy and fit and I have been my whole life, but mentally my mind feels slower and foggier than my peers and I struggled through high school and college because of it. I know this might sound morbid, but I am fully expecting to die early despite doing everything in my power to live a healthy, balanced lifestyle. I can't…

Have you tried thc? My wife has sleeping problems and thc really helps her a lot.

No, I've never really used any recreational drug, including alcohol. I don't mean to sound judgmental, but for me personally the long-term effects of THC aren't understood well enough for me to try it yet. If you don't mind me asking, does your wife have to take it on a consistent (ie nightly) basis to sleep well?

Maybe when I'm older with less to lose I'll experiment more and see if things like that work.

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