91–100 of 177 posts
- To turn short term memory into long term memory, to consolidate long term memory, and prepare the brain to learn new things.
- To clean the brain of harmful waste products (which is what this article says. By the way, it is old and from 2013).
- An evolutionary artifact of energy conservation in resource-low ecosystems.
Are there some other theories too?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
because you're taking on significant health risks ("toxin" buildup as mentioned here among other things) by not sleeping, health risks that normally wouldn't be there because of the natural fatigue and lethargy that would force an unmedicated person (however dedicated) to drift off
Sure, but not everyone is taking them to avoid sleep. Regular users primarily use them to boost productivity during the day, followed by normal sleep.
Ballard I presumed was just speculating. But based on his relatively high level of scientific knowledge I imagined it was rooted in some sort of real world science.
That story was written in the 1960s...so has the state of research on this remained slow or was Ballard just making a lucky guess?
My alma mater has a saying: "sleep is for the weak". If you go to a university with that slogan, here is one more reason why it is foolish. If you want to learn effectively and work efficiently, take care of your body and take care of your brain.
Hey, my alma mater has that slogan too... oh, hi, afarrell.
(Of course, you could justly ask why oh why my sophomore-year-self didn't exercise discipline and cut myself off trying to improve my beta.)
The actual research is quite interesting. Sleep disorders themselves are fascinating. There is evidence that TBI (traumatic brain injury) can cause lasting sleep cycle disruption. Perhaps sleep disruption and TBI is a much bigger factor in the lasting impact of TBI than previously thought. ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3482689/ ). Article review: This is pretty good science reporting, actually provid…
Are you sure scientists don't use the term? Consider: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&q=toxins+brain&btnG... I don't have more information. I just typed that in based on your comment.
It's interesting that in almost every sleep related article I've read on HN, the overwhelming majority of people who respond about their personal life say that they hate getting up 'early'-for various definitions of early. Surely there are programmers who like getting up early?
It always amazes me to read articles like this. How come I don't need more than 3 hours of sleep a day and its been like that for over 15 years now? I sleep "late hours". I go sleep around 8am and wake up around noon. I don't eat breakfast just coffee. I work most of the day on different projects, eat quite large dinner at 8pm, then every day go for 45 min to the gym, around 10pm and then 20 min walk. After that its…
It's interesting that in almost every sleep related article I've read on HN, the overwhelming majority of people who respond about their personal life say that they hate getting up 'early'-for various definitions of early. Surely there are programmers who like getting up early?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, "toxic" and "toxins" are incredibly vague. I loathe the use of those words, as they are both scary and nearly meaningless.
When I see "toxins" I just stop reading. I assume the article is an ad for a juice cleanse.