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Impacts of lack of sleep

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Re: Impacts of lack of sleep

#51

Post by oulu2006 »

xyzelement wrote: post #31
000ooo000 wrote: post #5

For me, I find my sleep suffers because of what some describe as "revenge bedtime procrastination". When my job is shit (i.e. now), I'm more inclined to stay on the PC later doing things that bring me some level of joy, or play games to escape the mind spinning its wheels. I seem to more easily recognise that my job is unfulfilling because I'm staying up later or I'm dreading going to bed. Going to bed early for a go…

Quick advice - see if you can shift that to getting up earlier. You will probably spend the couple of hours in the morning in a way that sets you up for a better day vs staying up late sets you up for a bad tomorrow. I say this as an always "late" person who now tries to get up at 5 to work out and reflect, it's been very helpful.

That's some nice advice, thank you.

Re: Impacts of lack of sleep

#52

Post by topkai22 »

p-e-w wrote: post #46

I'm highly skeptical concerning the claimed 'effects' of lack of sleep. I don't doubt those are correlated with lack of sleep, but for many of them, obvious confounding factors exist. As a trivial example, overworked people typically get less sleep than average folks. And excessive work is also correlated with several of the 'effects' from the list, such as "fatigued and demotivated" and "lower libido". This means th…

Some of the effects may not be casual, but there is substantial evidence for many of the cognitive effects in sleep deprivation studies, which just introduce a lack of sleep. There is probably good evidence for the other effects as well, although I’m not immediately familiar with it.

While other issues may be also playing a role or even be the primary cause, the physiological effects of sleep deprivation are likely to make almost any underlying cause worse.

Re: Impacts of lack of sleep

#53

Post by loveparade »

oulu2006 wrote: post #50
000ooo000 wrote: post #5

For me, I find my sleep suffers because of what some describe as "revenge bedtime procrastination". When my job is shit (i.e. now), I'm more inclined to stay on the PC later doing things that bring me some level of joy, or play games to escape the mind spinning its wheels. I seem to more easily recognise that my job is unfulfilling because I'm staying up later or I'm dreading going to bed. Going to bed early for a go…

This^, I'm very much the same. Going to sleep feels like it brings the next day, and if you aren't looking forward to what you have to do the next day....you put it off for as long as possible. I feel you.

I'm the same too. I know it doesn't make logical sense because it starts a bad spiral, but my body (gut?) is trying really hard to procrastinate sleeping because it doesn't want the next day to come. Rationally speaking I know what I should be doing, but it feels like my mind is not strong enough to fight the emotional/gut instinct.

Re: Impacts of lack of sleep

#54

Post by xyzelement »

hnthrowaway0315 wrote: post #44
xyzelement wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any parent will tell you that having kids is not going to help your sleep, but most parents find sacrifice unequivocally worth it on the net. Not sure if this is truly what you meant but I would find it highly abnormal that a child does not bring your sufficient joy and meaning that would offset sleep loss.

I have a few bullet points about this: 1. Most people would never say bad things about parenting because it makes them look like demons. I basically tell my friends and colleagues that it is OK and I'm still not sure whether it worths it or not. That's as far honest as I'm willing, although it is pretty close to truth nowadays. I was a lot more snarky a year ago. 2. Humans are very good at adapting. If you told me 3…

Obviously subjective but I don't agree with the final bullet point.

I believe that human happiness is primarily determined by the amount of meaning and impact we have.

If someone is learning math/physics because they are committed to furthering the world through some breakthrough then yes kids would be deteminetal to that

But if you are just randomly amusing yourself learning topics and one day you are 50+ the ship on family has basically sailed. And you look back on your life as a bunch of short term amusement that gets you to a very depressing place.

Re: Impacts of lack of sleep

#55

Post by jks »

voidhorse wrote: post #11

Melatonin has been a complete game changer for me in this regard. I've struggled to get decent sleep since my late teens. I'm plagued by an overactive brain at night. About a year ago I started taking just 3mg of melatonin before bed and haven't looked back since. I'm sure my particular circumstances were such that it just happened to be my cureall and won't work for everyone, but if you have trouble sleeping and hav…

That dose may be ten times too high: https://slatestarcodex.com/2018/07/10/melatonin-much-more-th...

I was prescribed melatonin by a doctor, and the dose went up little by little from 3mg to 10mg before we decided it didn't work for me. Sure it helped me fall asleep, but then I woke up a few hours later and couldn't sleep again. Years later I have started taking 0.5mg (1mg is the smallest pill I could find, and I split them in two) and it's much better that way.

Low-dose doxepin (3mg) has also helped, but I find that I have to take breaks from it, because it stops working after a while. This dose is much lower than the usual dose for depression, but a local pharmacy manufactures the pills based on a doctor's prescription.

Re: Impacts of lack of sleep

#56

Post by quickthrower2 »

000ooo000 wrote: post #38
SoftTalker wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An ounce or two of bourbon works for me. Not enough to get intoxicated but just enough to feel warm and sleepy.

I hope I don't come across as the "well ackshually" guy, and I'm not definitely telling you to change, but maybe this could be useful to you: the alcohol episode of Huberman Lab podcast mentioned briefly at about 1:02:40 that in a discussion with a UC Berkley sleep researcher, it was said that having any alcohol at all on board interferes with sleep to the point that those in the field call it pseudo-sleep because it…

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DkS1pkKpILY

1:06 on this video

Re: Impacts of lack of sleep

#57

Post by abrichr »

justinator wrote: post #41
hannofcart wrote: post #32

A key thing to note is that if you have sleep apnea, even if you think you're getting 7-8 hrs of sleep, you likely aren't. If you (or likely your partner) suspects you have apnea, talk to your doctor. Doing a sleep study/test and getting treatment for apnea will likely transform your life for the better.

Relieving my sleep apnea has been - by far - the biggest impact to my health and well-being. It's like a new lease on life. Just took a $60 retainer from Walgreens (this won't work for everyone). Memory, word recall, mood, energy - you name it: just much better than before. It was a slow process to get below what I would call normal (to say nothing of, "optimal"). It snuck up on me and I just never understood how ter…

Can you please clarify which retainer?

Re: Impacts of lack of sleep

#58

Post by topkai22 »

mmanfrin wrote: post #3

I'd wager most people here who don't get enough sleep aren't doing so out of some sort of grindset mentality, but because they simply cannot. I find it very hard to fall asleep, nearly impossible to sleep in (a consequence of getting older?), and more interrupted sleep. I'm reticent to try drugs to enable sleep because I've heard that the sleep they provide is not true sleep.

You may want to consider a short course of sleep aids to see if it can help adjust your schedule. This is unscientific, but I’ve found that if I’m dealing with persistent insomnia, taking something to help me fall asleep when I want to can lead me to “readjust” to the new schedule.

I used this the most when traveling and dealing with jet lag, but I still occasionally find it useful to take an OTC sleep aid when my schedule gets “off.”

Interrupted sleep is tougher. I’ve had some success by just accepting that if I haven’t fallen back asleep in 15-20 minutes I probably should get up and walk around for a bit and maybe try the couch instead, but it’s not great.

Re: Impacts of lack of sleep

#59

Post by totetsu »

this post for the same author about their decent into madness and loss of sens of self is an interesting read. Specifically its interesting how a universal experience of ego destruction is made send of afterwards in such a way that is so individualized to that persons age and culture. https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/L9q5iFJAggvoWNrRf/that-time-...

Re: Impacts of lack of sleep

#60

Post by 000ooo000 »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #56
000ooo000 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope I don't come across as the "well ackshually" guy, and I'm not definitely telling you to change, but maybe this could be useful to you: the alcohol episode of Huberman Lab podcast mentioned briefly at about 1:02:40 that in a discussion with a UC Berkley sleep researcher, it was said that having any alcohol at all on board interferes with sleep to the point that those in the field call it pseudo-sleep because it…

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DkS1pkKpILY 1:06 on this video

Cheers - I misremembered that it was a Stanford researcher. Updated my comment.
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