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How much can an extra hour's sleep change you?

bbc.co.uk

21–30 of 90 posts

Re: How much can an extra hour's sleep change you?

#21
post #10
post #2

I will. As soon as my son becomes a teenager I have every intention of remaining asleep beyond 7AM. Until then, I'm at his unlimited, energetic mercy.

I'm right there with you. Thanks to my infant and a merciless cat, it's been a couple of years since I've slept past 4:30am. I try to get to bed early as often as possible, but it's hard to simply 'give up' and go to bed at the end of a long day when you've finally got a moment to yourself.

Kick the cat out of the bedroom. Best thing I did to improve sleep quality.

Re: How much can an extra hour's sleep change you?

#22
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am with you. In my neighborhood, the trash collecting on Sundays takes place (for whatever "reason") at, believe it or not, 6:15AM. Then the recycling people appear later on, at 8:15AM. I guess they are trying to get people motivated during the week-end?

More likely, they have a finite number of trucks and staff, and any reasonable arrangement of them is going to result in someone's neighborhood getting hit at 6:15AM on Sunday, and you just got lucky.

I doubt it: Sunday is not the only day of trash-collection, there are plenty of cleaning stuff in this city. The problem is we (well, the city council) are obsessed with cleanliness to absurd levels. You will be amazed at the number of gardening stuff we have for a city like mine...

Re: How much can an extra hour's sleep change you?

#23
post #4

Doesn't matter for me. I hardly get much deep sleep due to anatomical issues essentially blocking my airways. I can't afford the surgery (even though I have insurance) nor will my government contribute to it (even though it would increase my productivity multiple times over, meanwhile they throw trillions at universities offering useless degrees). But yes, we have a culture that doesn't value sleep. I know of people…

You can really feel the anger in your comment and it resonates with me. I am a light sleeper and constantly amazed at what we as a society deem acceptable when it comes to noise at certain hours. Why does the fire truck needs to blast its horns at 3am on a Tuesday going down a large empty street? There is no need and in some countries that would be against noise pollution laws. Doesn't seem to matter here. Leaf blowe…

> There is no need and in some countries that would be against noise pollution laws.

Emergency vehicles are exempt from those laws, as they should be. Safety is more important than your sleep. Trains blow their horns at crossings for the same reason.

Also, I have to laugh at your indignation at someone mowing their lawn at 7am because they are awake but you aren't right after complaining about an empty street at 3am because everyone is asleep.

Re: How much can an extra hour's sleep change you?

#25

I don't believe all of this claims about sleep. I sleep 10 to 12 hours a night and I always feel like shit. Even when I had to go to school, I used to sleep 8 hours a night and I was drowsy for most of the day.

> I don't believe it when research claims X because of personal experience.

That's a horrible way to look at any research conclusion. Have you considered you are possibly oversleeping? 7.5 hours might be a magic number (exactly 5 rem cycles) as opposed to 6.5 which will put you waking up in the middle of a rem cycle. Studies can be faulty for a whole bunch of reasons but dismissing a body of work because your little n=1 experiment didn't sync up with their conclusion is just willful ignorance.

Re: How much can an extra hour's sleep change you?

#26
post #9
post #2

I will. As soon as my son becomes a teenager I have every intention of remaining asleep beyond 7AM. Until then, I'm at his unlimited, energetic mercy.

Oddly, our teenager did the "sleep in" thing for about six months, now he bounces out of bed at 6:45 most mornings and 6:00 when he is going to rugby training!

Probably a pretty girl in his first class :)

Re: How much can an extra hour's sleep change you?

#27
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Particularly when aircraft noise is correlated with heart disease risk: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131009100602.ht...

That said, there is a special place in hell for people who move next to an airport and then complain about the noise. The special place next to hell's airport.

I laughed at this, but to be fair, property is cheaper where it's noisier, so some people may not feel they have the choice.

Re: How much can an extra hour's sleep change you?

#28
post #4

Doesn't matter for me. I hardly get much deep sleep due to anatomical issues essentially blocking my airways. I can't afford the surgery (even though I have insurance) nor will my government contribute to it (even though it would increase my productivity multiple times over, meanwhile they throw trillions at universities offering useless degrees). But yes, we have a culture that doesn't value sleep. I know of people…

> I hardly get much deep sleep due to anatomical issues essentially blocking my airways. I can't afford the surgery (even though I have insurance)

I have snore-caused sleep apnea, are you referring to that? If so, a CPAP device could help you. It's a small cube you put on your nightdesk with a tube and a face (or nose) mask attached to it that allows you clear breathing, but increases pressure in your respiratory system so you won't snore as easily. I live in germany and my insurance covered it, but even if yours doesn't, 1k$ isn't too much for such a thing:

http://www.thecpapshop.com/resmed-s9-autoset-cpap-machine-wi...

Re: How much can an extra hour's sleep change you?

#29

I don't believe all of this claims about sleep. I sleep 10 to 12 hours a night and I always feel like shit. Even when I had to go to school, I used to sleep 8 hours a night and I was drowsy for most of the day.

Have you talked to a doctor about that? Specifically an expert in respiratory issues might be able to help.

Re: How much can an extra hour's sleep change you?

#30
post #4

Doesn't matter for me. I hardly get much deep sleep due to anatomical issues essentially blocking my airways. I can't afford the surgery (even though I have insurance) nor will my government contribute to it (even though it would increase my productivity multiple times over, meanwhile they throw trillions at universities offering useless degrees). But yes, we have a culture that doesn't value sleep. I know of people…

Have you had a sleep study done? It's 2 doctors office visits, 2 nights in a funky hotel room type lab, and they will often prescribe a machine called a CPAP if you really do have obstructive sleep problems.

http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/cpap/

They're a little uncomfortable at first, but they get the job done.

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