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I keep seeing this defence of Walker that amounts to, "Yeah, so what he's bloviating. What's the harm in recommending more sleep?" But there is a lot of harm i

by cthor 7y ago

I keep seeing this defence of Walker that amounts to, "Yeah, so what he's bloviating. What's the harm in recommending more sleep?" But there is a lot of harm in recommending more sleep. If someone only needs 6-7 hours but keeps trying to force 8-9, they're going to have all sorts of trouble. I personally have an issue with a drifting circadian rhythm that makes it impossible to go to sleep at the same time every day if I sleep a full 8-9 hours a night. The cumulative effects of this gives me very poor quality sleep and negatively affects my social life. Changing to sleeping only 7-8 hours addresses this, and I've been testing the cognitive effects of this change to see there aren't any. I think Walker's overall message is important, but the numerous fabrications and massaging of data he's committed to convey that message is bad science. If you tell a lie (2/3 of people are sleep deprived, if you sleep less than 8 hours you're killing yourself) to dispel another lie (you don't need more than 6 hours sleep, keep hustling and chugging 5 coffees a day), you aren't actually making things better. You're just replacing one problem with another.

prostoalex 7y ago
> they're going to have all sorts of trouble 1) Like what? 2) Is oversleeping even possible with normal sleeping patterns? When I wake up in the morning well-rested, I am woken up. I could spend the next six hours in bed employing all sorts of mental trickery to squeeze another few minutes of sleep, but it's not going to happen.
- AstralStorm 7y ago
  Yes, "oversleeping" is definitely possible. I found it to be well correlated in my N=1 to fighting off a cold or other infection. Typically increases my 6-7h of sleep to some 10h. Unfortunately I do not have the hardware to track sleep quality. Not sure if restriction would help or harm recovery.

by cthor 7y ago

prostoalex 7y ago

> they're going to have all sorts of trouble 1) Like what? 2) Is oversleeping even possible with normal sleeping patterns? When I wake up in the morning well-rested, I am woken up. I could spend the next six hours in bed employing all sorts of mental trickery to squeeze another few minutes of sleep, but it's not going to happen.

AstralStorm 7y ago
Yes, "oversleeping" is definitely possible. I found it to be well correlated in my N=1 to fighting off a cold or other infection. Typically increases my 6-7h of sleep to some 10h. Unfortunately I do not have the hardware to track sleep quality. Not sure if restriction would help or harm recovery.