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

Sleep duration is associated with brain structure and cognitive performance

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 336 posts

Re: Sleep duration is associated with brain structure and cognitive performance

#211

Post by rapind »

forgotmypw17 wrote: post #115

I'd like to share my sleeping practice which I've developed after several years of focusing on it and trying to recreate the pre-industrial (and possibly pre-farming) sleep patterns my ancestors had for millions of years before the last few thousand. Whenever I feel tired, I lay down to rest. Whenever I am sleeping, I allow myself to sleep until I am "fully slept", meaning I can lay there for a while, still physicall…

I did something very similar for a few years before I had kids. It was great! (So is being a father of course) unfortunately I can’t find a way to make it work as a Dad, as everything is so scheduled now. Hopefully when they’re older I can get back into it. It definitely worked well for me too.

Re: Sleep duration is associated with brain structure and cognitive performance

#212

Post by maskedinvader »

forgotmypw17 wrote: post #202
rubicon33 wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm interested in hearing more about you, your life, where you were, why you changed, and how it's affected you. I'm guessing you were in a situation like many people I know (including myself). Well off, couldn't really reasonably ask for much more, yet still chasing happiness like a carrot on a stick. Tired, unmotivated, and forever looking for the next thing to feel better. Diet, sleep, and exercise are all "in che…

I'm a creative person by nature, blessed with being allowed to figure out how things work by taking them apart when I was a child. I didn't hear "No" very often. Eventually, I found myself working on software maintenance at a bank, a job I become attached to because I thought I wasn't worth much without a degree. I worked there for 5 years. In corporate, my three role models have been Wally, Costanza, and Gibbons, so…

thanks for sharing, had a quick couple of follow up questions, how do you unsubscribe from paying monthly rent ? also did you get married and have kids ? if yes how did they factor in to your life ?

Re: Sleep duration is associated with brain structure and cognitive performance

#213

Post by hermitmaster »

hutzlibu wrote: post #200
rajinikantham wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have children? If yes, how on earth is this doable?

I have small children and I try to live and sleep the same style. Which is of course now much harder, but it still somewhat works with taking shifts with the mother. I still lack sleep though, but I heard this is normal with small kids...

While I can’t categorically say it gets better with time, it has for me. I have an 18 month old and an almost three year old. I’m back to quasi-normal sleep now. I do wish we had kids when we were younger (I’m 37), but we weren’t planning on having any.

Re: Sleep duration is associated with brain structure and cognitive performance

#214

Post by zachd1_618 »

pulkitsh1234 wrote: post #5

I have a very weird problem/issue, maybe someone can help. In my school days I used to maintain a dream diary, where I would note down every dream I had after waking up. I stopped doing that when I got into college, but dreams never stopped and I never stopped analysing and trying to remember the dreams. Fast forward to present time (10 years from school), whenever I want to wake up i.e. after 6-7 hours of sleep I ca…

If it helps, I’m the same. Generally I’ll have to allocate 10-12 hours in order to get 6 or 8 of actual sleep. Always been the case.

My savior has been audiobooks. I listen a lot, but put a book I know and love on when I wake up 4x/night with a timer and that helps me focus on something new and not stressful (dreams, “I need to go to sleep” etc) while still being something that my brain is familiar with and can naturally drift away from into sleep.

Works 80% of the time. Been a life saver for me

Re: Sleep duration is associated with brain structure and cognitive performance

#215

Post by doitLP »

forgotmypw17 wrote: post #166
lqet wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It takes considerable effort to "allow yourself to sleep until you are "fully slept"" if you are woken up by a 2 year old sitting on your head and trying to get you to look at a book with him.

Having kids changes many things. Certainly, your opportunity to sleep fully will be hampered. However, if the responsibilities are shared between multiple adults, you can still get it done some of the time, and be well-rested and comfortable for when it's your turn to watch the kids and let other adults do their sleeping.

No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.

Re: Sleep duration is associated with brain structure and cognitive performance

#217

Post by maskedinvader »

rubicon33 wrote: post #184
pulkitsh1234 wrote: post #5

I have a very weird problem/issue, maybe someone can help. In my school days I used to maintain a dream diary, where I would note down every dream I had after waking up. I stopped doing that when I got into college, but dreams never stopped and I never stopped analysing and trying to remember the dreams. Fast forward to present time (10 years from school), whenever I want to wake up i.e. after 6-7 hours of sleep I ca…

I have a completely different problem - I almost never dream. If I do, they're very short, and very difficult to remember.

Thats me too, I almost never dream , although I am sure I do dream every night, just that when I wake up I have no recollection, perhaps if it was an intense dream then I may sense if it was a sad dream or a happy dream, but rarely do I remember anything specific. I've always wondered if this is normal.

Re: Sleep duration is associated with brain structure and cognitive performance

#218

Post by lazyasciiart »

bigwavedave wrote: post #104
jooize wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried switching places with the snake? You may want to set up automation first as you could find the snake not pushing the light button reliably every morning. Gradually dimming the bedroom light with a warm color temperature helps me get tired in the evening, and fading it in to a cold color temperature in the morning helps me wake up.

While I understand the point you want to make, the temperature in her tank is the same whether I flip the switches or not- so worst case scenario if I'm dead and don't flip the switches, she has to make do with ambient light from my window instead of light from a bulb directly overhead. This is in fact very safe for the snake, but still enough of a motivation for me.

"temperature" in that comment is referring to the light - different colored lighting can affect your mood and energy levels. An introduction to color temperature here - https://drawpaintacademy.com/what-is-color-temperature/

Re: Sleep duration is associated with brain structure and cognitive performance

#219

Post by nradov »

forgotmypw17 wrote: post #193
stevewodil wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, the body has a mechanism to tell us when it needs water. You don't pee when you don't feel the urge to, so I don't drink water when I don't feel the urge to in most cases. I drink some when I first wake up just so I don't forget to drink some, and if I'm exercising I drink a lot

I've heard many wise teachers advise drinking a glass or two of clean water in the morning, so you're on the right track. On the subject of peeing, I've come to the conclusion that it's unhealthy to hold it in more than on the rare occasion, and I aim to pee within a few seconds of having the urge. Actually, I believe it should be a human right to pee within 30 seconds of wanting to, and I'll do it, too.

How do you know whether those teachers were actually wise or just repeating bullshit that sounded good?

Re: Sleep duration is associated with brain structure and cognitive performance

#220

Post by nradov »

aeyes wrote: post #177
forgotmypw17 wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are correct, though at some point we figured out how to carry it, stay close to it, and establish access. I've been told by a few wise people to wait to drink until I'm done trekking, by the way. I don't think we should blindly do anything, and abandonining millions of years of evolution and wisdom especially.

> I've been told by a few wise people to wait to drink until I'm done trekking, by the way. I'm not sure what distance we are talking about but doing any kind of sport (even light exercise) you should start to drink after at most 1 hour. If drinking wasn't necessary, long distance runners or athletes of other endurance sports wouldn't drink. You need to stay hydrated or you'll face fatigue, muscle problems and genera…

Hydration actually isn't very important for endurance athletes in events up to a couple hours. The real benefit comes from carbohydrate supplementation. The water just acts as a convenient delivery channel to get the carbs into the athlete's body quickly.
Post reply on HN