5 ms·

Taking some time to reflect on and consider my own thinking behavior has been interesting. Just like exploring any other system, subjecting myself to sleep stre

by nxc18 10y ago

Taking some time to reflect on and consider my own thinking behavior has been interesting. Just like exploring any other system, subjecting myself to sleep stress (in order to meet aggressive deadlines) has allowed me to see what happens when certain things fail, revealing functional boundaries. I see it as kind of analogous to when you starve a circuit/device of power - it behaves in unexpected ways, revealing implementation details. Some examples that I remember: after a particularly long all nighter (I was a freshman in college and wanted to try it while I could still do it by choice and not necessity) I was editing an article I was writing for the school magazine. I was starting to fade and realized that I couldn't read and comprehend well-formed, meaningful sentences that I had just written. I've noticed that when sleep deprived I notice different things and have a more diverse set of emergent thoughts/recall events. For example, today I noticed the plug for an electric oven at a restaurant I have not only been to at least 100 times, but have worked at for months. I randomly remembered the lyrics to China's five-year-plan song walking home from class. I will suddenly remember and think fragments in Spanish, despite not touching it for years. Truly, it appears the nature of effective cognition is restricting all of the many responses to stimuli to those that are useful and relevant, and I think the parts of the brain that do that may have 'fallen asleep' in all those instances.

posterboy 10y ago
That's the "sound" of your braincells dying. At least that's what I heard relating to tinitus.
- narutouzumaki 10y ago
  What? Can you elaborate?
  - NPMaxwell 10y ago
    Tinnitus may be like phantom limb: when receiving no input from a group of sensors, the system fills in for the missing information. It's like a microphone with compression: when the speaker stops talking, white noise becomes louder. Your neural system does a lot of filling in for missing sensations, most obviously in tests of what happens when bits of spoken words are removed from a recording: people perceive that the bits were in the recording by triangulating from other information that the bits had been said. Similarly, when hearing loss prevents certain frequencies to be signaled by your sound sensors, the system fills in for the lack of signal in that range. There is still research and some doubt about this theory of what is going on: https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/tinnitus https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/tinnitus
- pjc50 10y ago
  Not sure of that. A relative of mine had tinnitus which was cured by hearing aids; the theory offered there was that tinnitus was effectively the brain turning the automatic gain control on hearing up too far.
noonespecial 10y ago
I have migraines and every once in a blue moon I get a very interesting symptom along with it. Fully awake and cognizant I simply lose the ability to read. Even Dick and Jane become nearly insurmountable. It happens even before the pain and aura arrive, I'm fully functional, just suddenly illiterate. Its the damndest thing. It's only for a few minutes but I know what it's like to be a fully grown adult with a relatively high IQ who can't read.
- mdrzn 10y ago
  This is interesting. Does it happen before every migraine, or just sometimes? Have you got yourself checked out? Hope everything is fine but that shit would scare me like hell at least the first couple times.
  - noonespecial 10y ago
    Almost never. Once every two years or so. But it first happened when I was 15 and I thought I was dying! Turns out it runs in my family. When I told my mom she did the whole "there's something you should know..." It was like a superhero backstory, except it sucked instead.
- malux85 10y ago
  That's interesting! I have a similar but not nearly as severe symptom caused by lack of sleep - the first thing to go for me is spelling. Weirdly I can still code easily, even keeping in my head high level module interactions and abstractions, to low level implementation details, but I'll occasionally stop, stare at a word, convinced that it's spelt wrong, google it and see its correct, and go back and stare at it - because it just feels wrong. When I've reached this point, I know it's time to break!
- vorotato 10y ago
  I have the same thing when I have migraines. Apparently it can be a symptom? It's like I can see the words but I can't make sense of what they mean.
  - 10y ago
drzaiusapelord 10y ago
>I've noticed that when sleep deprived I notice different things and have a more diverse set of emergent thoughts/recall events. Focus and sleep are clearly related. When my sleep apnea goes untreated, I feel like I suffer from ADHD. In fact, I was certain I had it until I received treatment for SA. Its incredible what poor sleep can do to us. The list of things that go wrong with poor sleep is pretty long. If you're getting this often, I would get checked for SA.

by nxc18 10y ago

posterboy 10y ago

That's the "sound" of your braincells dying. At least that's what I heard relating to tinitus.

narutouzumaki 10y ago
What? Can you elaborate?
- NPMaxwell 10y ago
  Tinnitus may be like phantom limb: when receiving no input from a group of sensors, the system fills in for the missing information. It's like a microphone with compression: when the speaker stops talking, white noise becomes louder. Your neural system does a lot of filling in for missing sensations, most obviously in tests of what happens when bits of spoken words are removed from a recording: people perceive that the bits were in the recording by triangulating from other information that the bits had been said. Similarly, when hearing loss prevents certain frequencies to be signaled by your sound sensors, the system fills in for the lack of signal in that range. There is still research and some doubt about this theory of what is going on: https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/tinnitus https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/tinnitus
pjc50 10y ago
Not sure of that. A relative of mine had tinnitus which was cured by hearing aids; the theory offered there was that tinnitus was effectively the brain turning the automatic gain control on hearing up too far.

noonespecial 10y ago

I have migraines and every once in a blue moon I get a very interesting symptom along with it. Fully awake and cognizant I simply lose the ability to read. Even Dick and Jane become nearly insurmountable. It happens even before the pain and aura arrive, I'm fully functional, just suddenly illiterate. Its the damndest thing. It's only for a few minutes but I know what it's like to be a fully grown adult with a relatively high IQ who can't read.

mdrzn 10y ago
This is interesting. Does it happen before every migraine, or just sometimes? Have you got yourself checked out? Hope everything is fine but that shit would scare me like hell at least the first couple times.
- noonespecial 10y ago
  Almost never. Once every two years or so. But it first happened when I was 15 and I thought I was dying! Turns out it runs in my family. When I told my mom she did the whole "there's something you should know..." It was like a superhero backstory, except it sucked instead.
malux85 10y ago
That's interesting! I have a similar but not nearly as severe symptom caused by lack of sleep - the first thing to go for me is spelling. Weirdly I can still code easily, even keeping in my head high level module interactions and abstractions, to low level implementation details, but I'll occasionally stop, stare at a word, convinced that it's spelt wrong, google it and see its correct, and go back and stare at it - because it just feels wrong. When I've reached this point, I know it's time to break!
vorotato 10y ago
I have the same thing when I have migraines. Apparently it can be a symptom? It's like I can see the words but I can't make sense of what they mean.
- 10y ago

drzaiusapelord 10y ago

>I've noticed that when sleep deprived I notice different things and have a more diverse set of emergent thoughts/recall events. Focus and sleep are clearly related. When my sleep apnea goes untreated, I feel like I suffer from ADHD. In fact, I was certain I had it until I received treatment for SA. Its incredible what poor sleep can do to us. The list of things that go wrong with poor sleep is pretty long. If you're getting this often, I would get checked for SA.