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Sleep duration is associated with brain structure and cognitive performance
- mcguire 6y ago"Our findings demonstrate that reported sleep duration, but not subjective sleep quality is associated with both cognitive performance, especially in language subdomains, and white matter integrity of the SLF irrespective of age, sex, or BMI."
- georgewsinger 6y agoOversleep can also be bad along some dimensions: > For cognition only, associations shift to a negative association of sleep duration and cognition for participants sleeping more than 8 hr a day. Though looking at the charts from the study I can say that Nassim Taleb would not be pleased with how weak the correlations seem to be: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/cms/asset/545fd00f-8924-4047-ab1c-857da083cc60/hbm25132-fig-0001-m.jpg https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/cms/asset/545fd00f-8924-4047...
- vanderZwan 6y agoGiven that one of (emphasis one of) the reasons for long sleep duration is having poor quality of sleep, that doesn't surprise me. And if that is the only cause of negative correlation while other causes are harmless, that could also explain why this correlation is weak, no?
- blackbear_ 6y agoFrom table 1, the largest significant correlation coefficient is 0.135. This study can be safely ignored.
- aouyang2 6y agoagreed. this seems far too low and smells more of p-hacking.
- icelancer 6y agoI get extreme headaches if I sleep > 9.5 hours. They're brutally bad. Sweet spot for me is > 6 but < 8.5 hours per night w/ earplugs and a sleep mask on. Quality > Quantity, at least for me. I average 7 hours of sleep per night and do quite well on it. Used to do 5-6 hours/night and it eventually caught up to me in my 30s, but improving quality via ear plugs + mask + mattress went a lot further than an extra hour of sleep.
- brigandish 6y agoAny recommendations on which ear plugs and sleep mask to get? I've moved to an incredibly noisy area and I'm finding my ability to phase this out isn't as good as it used to be.
- pulkitsh1234 6y agoI have a very weird problem/issue, maybe someone can help. In my school days I used to maintain a dream diary, where I would note down every dream I had after waking up. I stopped doing that when I got into college, but dreams never stopped and I never stopped analysing and trying to remember the dreams. Fast forward to present time (10 years from school), whenever I want to wake up i.e. after 6-7 hours of sleep I can't stop myself from thinking about the dream. It's like I am in a half-awake and half-sleepy state and I can't control myself to get fully awake, I know for sure I am not lucid dreaming. I wake up to turn off the alarm, but my mind rushes back to thinking about the dream (because 99.9% of time it is very interesting and it seems like I need to dive into it further to understand/remember it). This cycle keeps on continuing, I drift to sleep while thinking about the dream, and then when I wake up there is a brand new dream in my head, and I get back to thinking about it. This cycle keeps on going for 2-3 hours, so my total sleep time from an outsider perspective is 10+ hours. No matter how much I think before going to sleep to not think about the dreams in the morning no matter how interesting they are, I am not able to control myself in thinking about the dream in the morning and then just falling back to sleep eventually.
- vlunkr 6y agoPut your alarm clock on the other side of the room.
- amelius 6y agoOr get one of these: https://www.amazon.com/Clocky-Rolling-Sleeper-Bed-Room-Run-away/dp/B000TAS9XQ https://www.amazon.com/Clocky-Rolling-Sleeper-Bed-Room-Run-a...
- Phlogistique 6y agoI did this back in high school. Turns out at some point I was able to wake up, walk to the computer (which I used as an alarm clock), stop the alarm, get back to sleep, and forget everything.
- alfonsodev 6y agoI'm not an expert on this matter, but it seems that you primed yourself to think that to a subconscious level, maybe try to prime yourself to think about gratitude first thing in the morning, but you'll have to belive deep down that is true, useful and important otherwise those dreams will be more interesting to your mind. Maybe you could start being grateful about the dreams and let them go, and focus on your body, be grateful you have two legs, you can breath... (find your own things). Gratitude is not just contemplative bullshit, it can be about action, like OK I'm acknowledge all these good things I have, and I need to fight thermodynamics, taking action or they might go away, like are you grateful you have two legs, take the action of walking and so on, it can be about honoring those things we take for granted but we can lose. I hope is not too cheesse or sounded crazy.
- 29athrowaway 6y agoSleeps helps consolidate anything you learned during the day, since it helps forming long-term memories.
- jtsiskin 6y agoAnother interesting theory: dreams are to prevent overfitting and improve generalizability https://arxiv.org/pdf/2007.09560.pdf https://arxiv.org/pdf/2007.09560.pdf
- hizxy 6y agoThis stresses me out because I’ve struggled with sleep for quite some time. Feels awful.
- Snackchez 6y agoSleep performance anxiety is a real thing. I’ve had to deal with similar issues. I try not to put too much weight when reading these studies (because they are anxiety inducing) and stick to a healthy bedtime wind-down routine as best as I can.
- hizxy 6y agoYes! I’ve had issues on and off for the last ten years. If I don’t sleep well then it’s quite easy to worry about the next night of sleep.
- mikkom 6y agoTry Meditation. It really helps sleep quality. Another thing is not drinking caffeine AT ALL. My sleep quality got much better after I stopped drinking coffee. Strangely I can drink as much tea as I want but coffee makes me sleep badly.
- Dumblydorr 6y agoSo you're drinking caffeinated or non caffeinated tea?
- mjayhn 6y agoGreen tea (maybe others) has l-theanine which takes away the jittery feeling/anxiety of caffeine. Might be why. I really like caffeine + ltheanine pills.
- slothtrop 6y agoCheck this out, might be helpful - https://insomniasos.net/ https://insomniasos.net/
- davidn20 6y ago
- Michael_Sieb 6y agoBought an apple watch and it helps me track my sleep better and make sure I get enough of it.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- kovek 6y agoLast night I worked out and my nose opened up and I slept so much better. Anyone experienced something similar?
- daxfohl 6y agoProbably, but also at age 44 I bought one of those nose hair trimmers, and it may be the best investment I've ever made.
- kovek 6y agoThank you for sharing!!
- mckirk 6y agoI have this audiobook sitting on my virtual shelf waiting to be listened to: 'Breath' by James Nestor. Sounded pretty interesting, might be interesting to you too.
- starpilot 6y agoI feel vindicated in insisting on 8-9 hours every night, and limiting any caffeine (few cups a month at most).
- justinko 6y agoDo you feel basically fantastic every day?
- TaupeRanger 6y agoDon't get anxious. These kinds of studies are almost always overturned by another one within 12-24 months. Weak correlations are not worth worrying about.
- momirlan 6y agoTrue, other things like DNA and training have a much bigger effect.
- arcturus17 6y agoTraining?
- mcguire 6y agoSleep Boot Camp. You didn't have to take it?
- arcturus17 6y agoSeems like I didn’t get the memo. Could really use something like that though.
- jahewson 6y agoIt’s not worth losing sleep over.
- slothtrop 6y agoIsn't there a pretty sizable body of research at this point suggesting that sleeplessness leads to cognitive deficits?
- blaser-waffle 6y agoAye, I recall several studies about it. The one that sticks out the most is an Army study about how sleep deprived soldiers performed tasks (driving, etc.) at a capacity similar to someone who was legally drunk.
- okareaman 6y agoI'm bipolar so I've gone through periods where I sleep 18 hours a day and periods where I sleep 2 hours a night if at all. Caffeine intake doesn't seem to matter. Medication and good mental hygiene helps a lot with this issue.
- anonymouse008 6y agoIs ineffectiveness of caffeine a symptom / indicator of a mental difference? I, too, am not phased in the slightest by caffeine and have had sleep schedules vary, though not as large of a range... just curious
- okareaman 6y agoI'm not sure. I have learned in my treatments that stimulants the opposite effect on people with ADHD and calms them down. I don't suffer from that so I couldn't really say.
- LeonB 6y agoYou could have a genetic insensitivity to caffeine, or your body might be very used to it, but as another commenter mentioned an atypical response to stimulants is common with ADHD.
- 01100011 6y agoLately my body seems to be waking me up after around 4.5 hours of sleep. I'm alert and well rested, but if I wake up I'll be tired in an hour or two. If I push myself to sleep more, I wake up around 7-8 hours feeling more tired, and I can easily sleep to 10 hours at that point. It's really frustrating, because there doesn't seem to be a perfect amount of sleep for me anymore. I'm 45, Bipolar type II. Ever since trying intermittent fasting I'm extremely tired after meals, and my caffeine tolerance is way up. I always drank half a cup at most, now I need 2.5 a day just to function. I have sleep apnea, but it's well controlled with a CPAP(AHI<5). I feel like I need a couple month sabbatical to reset myself but I don't see that happening anytime soon.
- 6y ago
- kombinar 6y agoInteresting. I found after some trail and error that I'm more rested and perform better on less than recommended 8h of sleep. My sweet spot is somewhere around 7h. Fitbit "magic" sleep score also seems to confirm that (better sleep score on less sleep). I also found that stress is the biggest factor in getting good night sleep. When stressed I can sleep 8h and still feel bleh. I wonder if 8h of sleep is the cause of the better performance or they both are a result of less stressful life, better health or something else.
- daxfohl 6y agoI've been sleeping approximately 9:30 to 4 and feel way better. Groggy upon waking up, but okay by 4:30, getting stuff done. Feels like there's a lot more time in the day. Probably because late nights were mostly wasted time eating junk food anyway. Allow myself some catch up sleep on the weekends, and it seems to work out. It was hard at first but now that I am used to it, I'm hooked.
- the-smug-one 6y agoThe amount of sleep required depends on the person and their living situation. I normally feel best on 7-8 hours of sleep. When training hard I require 9 hours. There are genetic outliers who require less sleep (google it). Anecdotally: I have a friend who performs like anyone else, but only requires around 5-6 hours of sleep. I've known him for over a decade now, he seems to be doing fine.
- 6y ago
- trianglem 6y agoIs this study saying that more than 8 hours of sleep correlates with negative effects on cognition?
- suyash 6y agoI'm a bit confused by this statement as well : "For cognition only, associations shift to a negative association of sleep duration and cognition for participants sleeping more than 8 hr a day."
- SimeVidas 6y agoI average 6 hours and 8 minutes. Not enough.
- groos 6y agoWhat makes you think it’s not enough? Do you have mental or physiological symptoms?
- SimeVidas 6y agoJust tired. A lot more tired than I should be.
- jozzas 6y agoConsider getting an at-home sleep study, you may have sleep apnea. I did, and I did, and now I wear a device (not a CPAP machine!) that helps significantly. I don't sleep any longer but my sleep is less interrupted and I get more deep and REM sleep. I feel 1000 times better for it.
- SimeVidas 6y agoGood to know.
- justinko 6y agoUp to 30% of people may have sleep apnea. I recommend everyone to get at least an at-home sleep test. In-lab is much more difficult to get insurance to cover, but you could pay $1,500+ out-of-pocket. It is a horrendous condition that will ruin your life.
- 01100011 6y agoIf you don't have insurance, you can get a cheap data-logging SpO2 meter off Amazon for like $150. You can even set it to sound an alarm if your SpO2 drops too low. Apnea is serious though. It hit me when I was relatively fit at 43 and took a chunk of my youth with it. Ever since, I have more of an "old man" brain(like getting overwhelmed by stimulus, especially when driving). I've been on CPAP for over 2 years and my apnea is well controlled, but some things just don't seem to come back.
- justinko 6y ago14 months of PAP therapy for me. I was diagnosed with severe SA (40+ events per minute). Sp02 is useful, but mainly to ensure you're not dipping in o2 from leaks, bad fit, incorrect pressure, etc. It is not a diagnostic tool. A sleep study can pick up things like restless leg syndrome, central vs obstructive sleep apneas, RERA's, etc. Regarding the "brain fog" - I know exactly what you're talking about. I've improved mine significantly via: - Getting extensive blood tests to find any deficiencies. Turns out, I was deficient in vitamin D (really bad) and testosterone (which is produced during high quality REM stage, I believe). - Taking a boat load of supplements. L-Tyrosine, NAC, too many to list. Sometimes PAP therapy doesn't fix endocrine issues like testosterone. Going on TRT has been a game changer for both mental and physical improvement.
- billyharris 6y agoHaving proper sleep is so important in your mental health.
- k__ 6y agoA few years ago, I stopped setting an alarm clock on a regular basis. Now, I just sleep as long as I need, which is usually 8-9h a day. I struggled with sleep for years, but now I sleep good.
- slothtrop 6y agoThe risk with an inconsistent waking time is shifting forward the circadian rhythm, if you sleep in later and later. When that occurs you'll fall asleep later as well, or wake up more often. A wind-down period ahead of bedtime can also offer some flexibility, if you happen to have enough sleep pressure to fall asleep earlier some nights.
- k__ 6y agoI wake between 11:00 and 13:00 for years now. And I go to sleep between 2:00 and 4:00.
- srpm 6y agoWhen I stop using alarms and stop forcing myself to go to sleep early, my hours seem to converge to something very similar to yours. I experience the "shifting forward" until I get to 2am-11am, and the shifting stops. I've noticed the same pattern on roommates and family members as well.
- k__ 6y agoIt wasn't always like that. I fondly the time between school and university, when I was unemployed. I was awake until 7 and slept until 16. I didn't even party much at that time.
- MivLives 6y agoI countered this by setting a go to sleep alarm. Alarm goes off, time to wind it up and head to bed. I do have a morning alarm (multiple of them) but I've been waking up before they go off.
- fbxio 6y ago„Taken together, our results suggest that cognition and white matter integrity are not only affected by experimental sleep deprivation but are also associated with natural differences in habitual sleep duration. The findings of the present study are in line with other studies, which showed that cognitive performance and white matter are associated with sleep duration.„ On the other hand, I often hear stories of top-performing founders who claim to get by on just four hours of sleep or less over longer periods of time. Yet, getting too little sleep on an ongoing basis can have a negative impact on health. A study conducted by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and Stanford University, found that employees who slept for six hours or less per night were more likely to be sick, take more time off work and have higher rates of absenteeism than those who got seven to eight hours of shut-eye each night. When I sleep less than 8 hours, I have this sensation of less energy throughout the day, regardless of how much coffee I'm taking in. One way to reduce the amount of time you are spending in bed not working is to develop a system for falling asleep faster. This is a skill that can be learned. The first step is to develop a routine for going to bed. This should include the same steps every night, such as brushing your teeth, washing your face, and reading a book. The routine should take about 20 minutes or less. Next, you need to develop a pre-sleep ritual that will help you relax and fall asleep faster. This could include taking a warm bath or shower before bedtime, listening to soothing music, to relaxing nature sounds, or reading something relaxing like poetry or fiction, but not nonfiction because that‘s harder to process by your brain. It’s important not to do anything too stimulating before bedtime because this will make it harder for you to fall asleep. For example, and I'm not suggesting that anyone here is doing that very often, avoid watching movies with lots of action and violence in them because they can stimulate your mind and body too much at night when you are trying to sleep. There are many techniques to fall asleep faster, thereby reducing the time you lie awake in bed. - Use the bed only for sleep, being sick or making love. Don’t read, watch TV, or eat in bed. - Avoid naps during the day. If you must nap, keep it short (no more than 20 minutes) and don’t nap too close to bedtime. - Exercise regularly but not within 3 hours of your regular bedtime. Exercise can make you feel tired but also revs up your metabolism, which may interfere with falling asleep quickly. - Avoid blue light around bedtime. It‘s a potent stimulator of the brain’s retinal ganglion cells, relaying visual information to the brain, which is like queuing up mountains of data for the GPU. It also suppresses melatonin production at night, which makes us feel more awake. - Be mindful about the sonic ambience in your bedroom. Is there distracting patterned noise like someone snoring, outside traffic or people talking? Mask it by playing unpredictable audio that covers up much of the audible spectrum, at the lowest volume possible just so it masks those noises enough. (new here, I hope this was a helpful contribution)
- KappaGreyFace 6y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_We_Sleep https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_We_Sleep Some effects are probably exaggerated (as mentioned in the wiki) but it's clear that evolution highly prioritized sleep across many species
- mohamez 6y agoDoes night sleep and day sleep have the same quality? is splitting the night sleep into two parts decreases the quality of a continuous night sleep?
- Kosirich 6y agoI fall asleep quite easy but I notice a correlation between dreaming or at least ability to remember the dream with how well rested I feel. Also, it seems that I have periods when I dream a lot, essentially every single day and periods like now when I don't. I suspect connection with screen time as the period I had dreams was when I was reading a physical book before sleep while for the last 2 months I've been reading from Kindle.
- zmmmmm 6y ago> The Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) is a self‐report questionnaire that assesses sleep quality and duration during the previous month I wonder why in this day and age where sleep monitoring tech is so widely available and routine, they still rely entirely on self-reporting?
- thotsBgone 6y agoFunding?
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 6y agoIt's crazy to me how nearly nobody knows how to sleep. The only other adult that I know who has a consistent and healthy sleep routine is my partner.
- Aeolun 6y agoI may not know how to sleep, but at least I’m aware that what I’m doing now isn’t it?
- pedalpete 6y agoThough the subjective measure of this study is better than nothing, in the coming years we'll be able to use sleep data for more concrete evidence. At https://soundmind.co https://soundmind.co, we're building a headband focused on improving Sleep Performance, by monitoring your sleep state and using sound to alter sleep state. There is amazing research around improving sleep quality, by improving sleep maintenance (aka reducing waking during the night), increase occurrence and amplitude of sleep spindles, and more. In initial trials, we've lowered average time awake from 1hr 41 minutes to 32 minutes, using a sample of 4 nights without stim, and 4 nights with. I need to do a blog post about that soon. We're still gathering more data. If this is an area of interest, you can sign-up for the waitlist on our website, or happy to answer questions here.
- ShamelessC 6y agoYou could probably sell a similar product with zero scientific research behind it and people would buy it. So please do post back when you publish results! Very curious to see if something like this could help me have better sleep. Are there at least preliminary papers you can cite as the basis for this idea? because it sounds super interesting.
- pedalpete 6y agoYeah, we're REALLY conscious of not selling snake oil. Life's too short to make useless crap. We've got a background in commercializing research and met in health-tech at CSIRO (Australia's science and technology research agency). I want to write about efficacy of what we're doing, and how we approach that, as well.
- jakequade 6y agoI've signed up, because what you've said here sounds interesting - but good lord that website is hideous. I would _never_ give a site like that my email. Consider at least showing your product/research/something that's not a stock image of... a Lion? A sunset? Waves on the beach?
- 6y ago
- forgotmypw17 6y agoI'd like to share my sleeping practice which I've developed after several years of focusing on it and trying to recreate the pre-industrial (and possibly pre-farming) sleep patterns my ancestors had for millions of years before the last few thousand. Whenever I feel tired, I lay down to rest. Whenever I am sleeping, I allow myself to sleep until I am "fully slept", meaning I can lay there for a while, still physically resting, and not fall asleep. Sometimes this means only a couple hours, and sometimes it's 16 or more. Whatever it is, if I am tired and want to keep sleeping, that's what I do. A couple of times I think I was coming down with something, I slept for more than 24 hours with only pee breaks. And I woke up feeling fresh as a cucumber, as they say. Those flus and colds which I used to get once or twice a year and which would sometimes drag on for weeks? I can't remember the last time I've had that happen, but it's been several years now. (Of course, I have several other practices to thank for this, in addition to the sleep.) I also practice what I call "dog sleep" or "cat sleep", meaning I lay down and close my eyes and fully rest my body, without necessarily losing all alertness or consciousness. My rewards have been improved cognition, better health and overall feeling, and still being able to do occasional coding marathons like I used to when I was half my current age. We've been conditioned to think of sleep as laziness and sloth, but nothing could be further from the truth on the cellular level. When you rest, your cells go to work cleaning, rebuilding, and renewing your body. Your mind also does sorting and self-analysis, and returns the results in the form of remembered dreams.
- Rivosa 6y ago> 24h sleep I advise anyone reading this and experiencing similar sleep pattern or fatigue to visit their doctor. This could be anything from diabetes, iron difeciency, Vitamin D difeciancy, and whole other things that could be wrong. Please don't use someone's else experience as the whole truth.
- forgotmypw17 6y agoEdit: I want to preface this by saying that I'm not writing off modern medicine, nor post-modern medicine, nor saying that you should avoid doctors altogether. Just that it's a powerful and thus dangerous tool, and that you should ideally find a doctor you trust and then maintain contact with them, probably by visiting them regularly, now that I think about it, and maybe occasionally giving them a nice gift. :) I advise the exact opposite, to visit doctors as little as possible, unless you experience pain which does not go away after a day or two. In my experience, doctors will find something to do with you, and it will rarely work out to your advantage, unless it is emergency medicine. My personal experiences: One doctor told me I need to get circumcised because I had minor irritation on my glans due to a scratch, which I told them about. Another doctor insisted, without even looking at my X-rays, IIRC, that the cast on my broken hand was not sufficient, and that I needed him to take the cast off and perform surgery, or I would not be able to use my hand properly again. If I had listened to these doctors instead of thinking for myself, I'd be without my precious foreskin and undergone unnecessary surgery, which would've delayed my getting better.
- bamboozled 6y agoThis is another cruel modern irony, we know more about the importance of sleep then ever before, yet we’ve built such a horrible world for sleep. Light pollution, noise pollution, blue light emitting devices, being “connected” 24x7, synthetic bedding materials, global man made crisis to worry about. Now study after study on how getting more sleep is important.
- 00deadbeef 6y agoWhat's wrong with synthetic bedding materials?
- niek_pas 6y agoDon't forget about the 40-hour work week as part of the "horrible world for sleep".
- MeinBlutIstBlau 6y agoJust listen to your body. It knows what you need better than you do. Which is why you don't have to think about beating your heart or processing food in your stomach. Any amount of cognitive increases are most likely related to the fact that your body can relay the excess to other areas such as the brain.
- kypro 6y agoAround the age of 17 I used to regularly go to bed late so I could socialise, but I often had to be up at 8-9am for college / university / work. This meant I developed a fairly unhealthy sleep pattern and would often only get 6 hours of sleep a night. 10 years on and although I don't stay up to socialise anymore, I still really struggling to get enough sleep. No matter how tired I am throughout the day my mind seems to naturally wake up around 10pm and I rarely want to go to bed before 3am despite having to be up at 9am for work. On average I probably get 5-6 hours a night on a week day and 7-8 a night on weekends. Also every now and then (2 or 3 times a year) my body simply refuses to sleep and I will be completely unable to sleep for 2-3 days. Again, although I know I need sleep I am not "tired". I'll put my head down on the pillow and nothing, my mind is racing and my body is fidgety and hyperactive. I don't know if I've conditioned myself to develop an unhealthy sleep pattern as a teenager, but I really struggle with sleep these days. I have tried to condition myself with having a schedule and dimming lights past 9pm, but so far I haven't had much luck shutting my head off at an appropriate time. However when I do eventually sleep I will typically want to stay in bed for 12+ hours it's just that's rarely possible because of work, etc. Does anyone have any tips for me? I seem to naturally want to sleep around 5-7pm so these days if I'm feeling particularly sleep deprived I'll try to get a couple of hours after work, but again this isn't always possible and sometimes my body will refuse to sleep even if I lie there for two hours.
- andrekandre 6y ago- daily excercise really helps - read a textbook before sleeping (works for me everytime) - turn off the lights by 8 (not just dimming) - get rid of your tv if you have one personal anecdote: for me, difficulty in sleeping is also caused by work anxiety, so... maybe changing that work environment might be something to think about
- slpthrwwy 6y agoI was in a similar state, I just started taking unisom (the kind with doxylamine succinate) on the days I have trouble going to sleep at a good time. It works for me. Sleeping pills aren't great but not sleeping isn't either. And not sleeping well can create a bad cycle where you stay up late to finish stuff that you didn't do during the day due to exhaustion.
- carrozo 6y agoI’ve found a type of box breathing to be a really effective way to fall asleep in recent weeks; breathe in through nose until lungs full, count 7 seconds, breathe out through mouth until lungs empty (really squeeze all the air out), count for 7 seconds. Repeat. Thoughts fade away from persistent focus on following the routine of it.
- sinoue 6y agoTLDR - “positive correlation between sleep duration and the global cognition score”
- zadjii 6y agoSleep is such an interesting aspect of the human existence. We all need it, but so many of us have such drastically different experiences with it. Some people are early risers, others night owls. Some people have extremely vivid dreams, others have random jumbles, and some people nothing at all. Even the amount of sleep that a person needs can vary wildly. This whole thread is full of examples of people sharing their different experiences with sleep, almost as if no two people have the same exact patterns.
- sleepfailure 6y agoSleep paralysis every night when falling asleep (repeated attempts) and then when waking every morning (often being forced back to sleep) certainly has an impact on cognitive performance. Feeling like you're suffocating with the occasional sprinkle of epileptic attack isn't great either.
- groos 6y agoFrom the responses, it seems like everyone here is 17 and can use unlimited sleep. In my late 40s, I can't sleep more than 6 hours and if I do, I end up groggy with an aching head. Sleep habits are very diverse and if you're lacking sleep, you'll find out in short order as there's no way to ignore it. OTOH, worrying about whether you are getting enough sleep is creating unnecessary stress in your life.
- benlumen 6y agoMain thing for me has been quitting caffeine after lunchtime. For most of my life I just drank caffeine as if it were synomynous with hydration - coffee in the morning, diet sodas in the afternoon, teas in the evenings. And for years, I wondered why I couldn't sleep... Withdrawal was surprising. On the first day, I fell asleep at 6pm until the next morning. The next day, 8pm until morning. Felt ill for a week. Ached all over. The waistband on my pyjamas was uncomfortable... felt like I had the flu, until my one allowed morning coffee, which made it all go away. Never went full cold turkey, but compared to routine intake, it was close enough. I still have my coffee in the morning, but in the evening, I'm asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow. For the first time since I was a kid.
- jozzas 6y agoI recently went on a break from caffeine, and while the withdrawals weren't bad (I was only ever a one coffee in the morning person), I have since noticed how INCREDIBLY sensitive I am to caffeine. Now that I have no tolerance, having one coffee at any point during the day will completely ruin my sleep for that night (from ~7h down to ~4h with lots of awake time). I'm at a point now where I don't think coffee is for me - I love the taste and the effect but not at the expense of a good night's sleep!
- Void_ 6y agoI’m the same way, also very sensitive. I never thought a morning coffee can affect sleep. But once I quit, I realized just how much it does. Now I use coffee if I wanna stay up late on a Friday night - a cappuccino in the morning makes sure I’m wide awake until midnight.
- baccheion 6y agoSustained-release melatonin. Minimum dose. Last meal 3-4 hours before bed or earlier. Blocker glasses. Etc. Melatonin blunts much of degeneration triggers that occur with age and is balanced by vitamin D3 (+ K2; ensure magnesium sufficiency) in the morning.
- vfinn 6y agoI know that my sleep quality would increase if 1) I could keep my window open and get fresh air 2) have a silent environment like I did when I was a child/teen living in a remote area. Now I live next to a relatively busy street, so keeping my window open is not possible due to pollution, and using earplugs won't fully solve the noise issue either.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]