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

bbc.co.uk

71–80 of 90 posts

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

#71
post #58

Deep sleep sounds restful, but during it our brains are actually working hard. One of the main things the brain is doing is moving memories from short-term storage into long-term storage, allowing us more short-term memory space for the next day. If you don't get adequate deep sleep then these memories will be lost. Compacting garbage collection.

Yeah, if I drink any form of caffeine, this deep sleep is less effective. I can tell if I am on a caffeine binge working all the time, my days blur into one.

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

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I am also a light sleeper. I lived in the centre of the city for almost three years. I used to get woken up at all hours. I started off with earplugs, but those hurt my ears. Eventually I started shutting my windows and curtains and putting a powerful fan on and it really works well. Edit: a bonus one gets with the fan is that it also cools you off during summer when a shut window might have caused problems otherwise…

i use a fan too. don't go too modern with your fan or might not be loud enough.

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

#73
post #18

With our technologies for stress monitoring, I've been amazed at how much naps seem to reduce stress. You go from being pretty high to pretty low within twenty minutes.

Naps usually leave me feeling like crap with a headache; especially on hot, dry days or if I had just eaten.

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

#74
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.

I'm in the same boat. Two children both under four and two cats. I used to be a real night owl. Now I'm in bed at 9:30 pm almost every night.

Cats are better now. We have confined them away from our bedroom At night and we used a water spray (fine mist) which put them off scratching at the door. After a week or so of getting wet they stopped scratching.

Tried the old water spary trick on our oldest child when she kept waking me up at 5 am. Didn't work. Made her cry.

Just kidding! :-)

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

#75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I am also a light sleeper. I lived in the centre of the city for almost three years. I used to get woken up at all hours. I started off with earplugs, but those hurt my ears. Eventually I started shutting my windows and curtains and putting a powerful fan on and it really works well. Edit: a bonus one gets with the fan is that it also cools you off during summer when a shut window might have caused problems otherwise…

Yes, when I lived on Powell street in SF (right on the cable car tracks) ear plugs were essential but they can become a crutch too. I've also come to the same conclusion as you about having a fan in the room.

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

#76
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

My city cites noise rather reliably (Atlanta). 12am grinder during the week? ticket 8am chain saw on the weekend? ticket.

Is this in all of Atlanta and the suburbs too? I've heard it's a nice place to live and this makes it sound even better!

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

#77
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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.

I'm not sure what you mean here? I was saying I don't think emergency vehicles need to use their sirens on a quiet street at 3 am in the morning. I was also bemoaning the use of leaf blowers at 7am on a Sunday. Both of those things are annoying yet "technically" I'd say 7am is probably a good time to consider as the start of the day and therefore removal of any noise restrictions. In fact, I think in the UK noise pollution restrictions apply from 11pm - 7am most nights.

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

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have an automatic feeder for the cat? I use the Crown Majestic (search on Amazon) and it works pretty well--my cat stopped sniffing my face at 6am...

I bought the same feeder in the hopes that this would occur, but it seems my cat just can never get enough. So I run into the trade off between health (my cat's) and sanity (my own). I would still suggest the feeder to everyone to try however, it really is a well made product that could easily fix bad habits in your animals feedings.

My threshold for the number mornings the cat on a diet begins the wake-up call is rapidly approaching the point at which I get around to building some sort of time-release RFID tag access-controlled (two cats, only one on a diet) feeder.

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

#79
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My city cites noise rather reliably (Atlanta). 12am grinder during the week? ticket 8am chain saw on the weekend? ticket.

Is this in all of Atlanta and the suburbs too? I've heard it's a nice place to live and this makes it sound even better!

Just in the city. The exurbs and suburbs are still very much the south in all the ways the south is stereotyped (poor govt services, anti govt rhetoric, tons of gun culture, overly accepting of racism if not racism itself, bevy of fundamentalists in local and state govt, etc). Also hideous commutes for suburban living. While some people would feel at home there (especially if white and Christian), many others would not find it as normal as places in other regions of the country.

Atlanta (the city, not the region) is basically the freaks and geeks vacuum for the South (and also a middle class black mecca too). The city is great. The metro area is far more questionable. Tons of affordable homes in the city, tons of trees (we're literally "The City of Trees"), and lots of little pockets of whatever you like.

Some of the close in suburbs are more like Atlanta than it's suburbs, but honestly, it's go with a home in the city or go home IMO.

(Fulton county too, not DeKalb...it's complicated but important).

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

#80
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When i'm awake i don't either. But when asleep it turned out i was sometimes not breathing for up to a whole minute.

That's fucking terrifying.

Depends on how old you are, really. For a young guy like me it's no issue, i just didn't get much rest, since during the night my blood oxygen level was like that of an 80 year old. Once you're elderly though it can easily lead to an untimely demise.
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