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What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

outsideonline.com

201–210 of 324 posts

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#201
post #70

Do we still allow medical staff and ER doctors to work 20 hour days?

I live in Israel. Doctors work 26 hours shifts 6-8 times a month. In practice, in many departments it's worse. When needed it will be 28-30 but without pay for the extra hours because it's illegal (doctors are expected not to leave when it people are at risk...but it is illegal to stay so they just sign off and continue working) During recovery time after long shifts, doctors may be waken by phone call (when things a…

Why is the system knowingly risking human life?

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#202

> Push yourself longer than a few days without sleep, and the effects can be lethal. The above statement in the article links to a story on Reuters about one case of an intern who stayed up for 72 hours and died for unknown reasons. Hardly proof. This is so overblow. Many people have stayed awake for more than 72 hours and not died. In fact, there is no evidence that sleep deprivation causes death in humans. If you d…

Actually sleep deprivation results in death and is one of the reasons it is used as a torture method. Some neurological conditions which degrade sleep significantly result in death. Among the failures observed are things like loss of thermoregulation. Guinness book of records stopped recognizing sleep deprivation records because of the dangers of going too long without sleep. Sleep deprivation has been more extensive…

What about stimulant abusers who stay awake for > 10 days?

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#203
post #34

I achieved what I can only describe as pure euphoria while going without sleep for extended months in my 20s. I've actually been thinking about doing it again recently. It really should only be done if you don't need to drive and have no worry about failing deadlines at work.

Cocaine would be a better choice than chronic sleep deprivation to achieve that. Just saying.

> pure euphoria

Probably MDMA would be a better choice.

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#204
post #200

Sleep is very very important, and I've learned this the hard way. Sleeping well has been a challenge, and I am glad I'm not alone. Articles like this one and books like Why We Sleep however make me very anxious, since all they seem to do is point out how bad it is if one doesn't get enough sleep. I know that. How can I fix it? I had CBT based sleep therapy last year, and things have since improved, but not much. Then…

Truth is the solution to your problems is a 2 page bullet pointed list of actionable items that work. For which you wouldn’t even pay $1 because there’s no way to verify the information before buying and once it’s out it’s out so there’s no profit in creating it.

Solve it yourself or throw real money at the problem if you actually care.

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#205
post #204
post #200

Sleep is very very important, and I've learned this the hard way. Sleeping well has been a challenge, and I am glad I'm not alone. Articles like this one and books like Why We Sleep however make me very anxious, since all they seem to do is point out how bad it is if one doesn't get enough sleep. I know that. How can I fix it? I had CBT based sleep therapy last year, and things have since improved, but not much. Then…

Truth is the solution to your problems is a 2 page bullet pointed list of actionable items that work. For which you wouldn’t even pay $1 because there’s no way to verify the information before buying and once it’s out it’s out so there’s no profit in creating it. Solve it yourself or throw real money at the problem if you actually care.

I have just such a 2 page bullet point list here:

https://til.secretgeek.net/sleep/Getting_to_sleep_and_stayin...

Also recommend Meditation, PMR (progressive muscle relaxation) and listening to binaural beats (via Spotify).

And wish you well :)

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#206
post #200

Sleep is very very important, and I've learned this the hard way. Sleeping well has been a challenge, and I am glad I'm not alone. Articles like this one and books like Why We Sleep however make me very anxious, since all they seem to do is point out how bad it is if one doesn't get enough sleep. I know that. How can I fix it? I had CBT based sleep therapy last year, and things have since improved, but not much. Then…

Something that helped me with my insomnia was to fix my waking schedule.

I rigged up a low power beside light on a timer, a radio alarm clock and an alarm clock. I set each to come on about 5 minutes after the one before, with the radio tuned to BBC Radio 4 which is a speech station. That made my waking up routine much more gentle, I felt better when I woke up, and subsequently seemed to sleep better.

Now I have one of those Philips Lumi wake up lights/radios which does the same kind of thing.

People make the mistake of just focusing on going to sleep, and not enough on the fact that sleep is just one part of a whole daily cycle, and looking at the whole day, at things like what and when you eat/drink, can really help. Recently I've been eating too late in the evening and it's been screwing up my routines.

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Israel. Doctors work 26 hours shifts 6-8 times a month. In practice, in many departments it's worse. When needed it will be 28-30 but without pay for the extra hours because it's illegal (doctors are expected not to leave when it people are at risk...but it is illegal to stay so they just sign off and continue working) During recovery time after long shifts, doctors may be waken by phone call (when things a…

Why is the system knowingly risking human life?

The short answer would be money and politics. But to be fair keep in mind that compared to the US Israel's public healthcare is very subsidized and may be better for the average person. (Israel has less variance in the level of care, US may put people at risk by limiting access to hospitals)

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#208
post #9

In case you feel sleep is a waste of time, it could actually be surprisingly productive to sleep. Once thing I noticed in grad school is that your sub-conscious is passively working on the problems you encountered even if you are not actively thinking about them. And often I would "dream" up a clever solution to a homework problem during my sleep. J.P. Serre, one of the most brilliant mathematician still living today…

>"does all his best work in his sleep"

So do I, but I haven't been able to convince my boss yet...

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#209
post #50

I'm sure that it must be true based on how other people act on little sleep, but for me the effects this article claims are blown way out of proportion (or just seem wrong). > longer than 48 hours and you’re looking at behavior that mimics psychosis—incoherent rambling, disconnection from reality, prone to outbursts Does anyone else here have experience staying awake this long? In college I frequently stayed awake fo…

Yep, I was a chronic insomniac. During the worst period (about 15-18yo) I had a few times where I'd start seeing things, getting paranoid or just generally really disordered thought pattern.

If you generally sleep well, then the occasional period of 48 hours of wakefulness is probably fine, but chronic lack of sleep (whatever that constitutes for you) can really mess with your brain.

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#210
This might be a longshot given the age of the post, but does anyone have anything to say about OVERsleeping? This is anecdodal but over the years I've internalized how important sleep is and have been able to regularly get 8+ hours of sleep. What I've noticed is that I get more "emotionally" lethargic - level-headed when something should be stressful, which is a good thing, but also very calm and collected when something should produce euphoria.

If anyone has any relatable experiences or links to articles about oversleeping I'd love to read them.

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