5 ms·

Good grief. It almost makes me question what information is missing from the abstract since I don't know how one can consistently run on fumes without it affect

Good grief. It almost makes me question what information is missing from the abstract since I don't know how one can consistently run on fumes without it affecting cognition, productivity or decision making.

llarsson 6y ago
The insane stress levels from being in their situation also affects cognition. So I am not surprised if merely looking at sleep amounts fails to explain differences.
- lifeisstillgood 6y ago
  Highly likely this is a confounding factor - and compensating for it is essentially every decent policy for the last 50 years in the West.
  - lanstin 6y ago
    There is also a dynamic systems side to sleep rhythms. Quite likely there are stimuli you can randomly experience that shift your sleep cycle into a chaotic regime and then you need a good knock to the light and activity levels to reset to stability.
throwawaysleep 6y ago
Throwaway as I don't want to admit that I feel permanently cognitively impaired. Anecdotal, but I spent years not sleeping through university and sleeping in airports or on the train. Studied engineering and did a lot of hackathons and events and stuff. I figured out then that I didn't need full cognition or excellent decision making. I needed more hours cranking out work. I spent years sleeping just a few hours and often not sleeping on Saturday at all. I do a lot less of that now as work never has 2AM deadlines but it is as though I am permanently in that 80% functionality state. I never felt that I got out of that state. I have never regained my ability to be detail oriented. I am still reliant on the crutches of spell check and Grammarly and my IDE to make sure I don't do something stupid. I use task lists for every little thing in my day. So it is not that it does not impact cognition (at least in my case), it is that you get used to that impaired state and can't find a way back. Only a year and a half removed from that, so maybe it takes more time, but I still feel heavily optimized for output over quality, even though that is no longer needed. My baseline cognition was already impacted. More sleep just did not repair it.
- sdenton4 6y ago
  Well, humans are also extremely error prone. Spell check, IDE helpers, delinters, automated testing, etc, all help check that things are correct automatically, which saves huge amounts of pain. I personally would always put more faith in someone who carefully checks their work than someone who thinks they don't need to. The second person is making mistakes and just doesn't realize it.
- tartoran 6y ago
  But why are you doing this to yourself? The impact of not getting minimum sleep will have all sorts of bad effects on your body, not just cognition. Try to find a balance and what you consider as permanent cognitive impairment may revert, but even if it doesn’t you don’t want to make it worse
  - dijit 6y ago
    The parent is not continuing the practice, and has not for 18 months. It is noted in many sleep science studies that you cannot “recoup” lost sleep so this is plausible.
- rolleiflex 6y ago
  From your description, it's possible that you have undiagnosed ADHD, though probably not caused by lack of sleep. It's always worth talking to a doctor about these things — there might be a way to get your focus back.
  - undreren 6y ago
    I second this. I have been diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, and my experience, before medication, sounded very similar.
- hooande 6y ago
  There's little evidence that this is sleep related. There are a lot of people who aren't detail oriented and rely on spell check, for a very wide variety of reasons. If you feel this has impacted your life to the point where you need to hide your identity, maybe you should try therapy or a medical examination. Or just get more sleep

llarsson 6y ago

The insane stress levels from being in their situation also affects cognition. So I am not surprised if merely looking at sleep amounts fails to explain differences.

lifeisstillgood 6y ago
Highly likely this is a confounding factor - and compensating for it is essentially every decent policy for the last 50 years in the West.
- lanstin 6y ago
  There is also a dynamic systems side to sleep rhythms. Quite likely there are stimuli you can randomly experience that shift your sleep cycle into a chaotic regime and then you need a good knock to the light and activity levels to reset to stability.

throwawaysleep 6y ago

Throwaway as I don't want to admit that I feel permanently cognitively impaired. Anecdotal, but I spent years not sleeping through university and sleeping in airports or on the train. Studied engineering and did a lot of hackathons and events and stuff. I figured out then that I didn't need full cognition or excellent decision making. I needed more hours cranking out work. I spent years sleeping just a few hours and often not sleeping on Saturday at all. I do a lot less of that now as work never has 2AM deadlines but it is as though I am permanently in that 80% functionality state. I never felt that I got out of that state. I have never regained my ability to be detail oriented. I am still reliant on the crutches of spell check and Grammarly and my IDE to make sure I don't do something stupid. I use task lists for every little thing in my day. So it is not that it does not impact cognition (at least in my case), it is that you get used to that impaired state and can't find a way back. Only a year and a half removed from that, so maybe it takes more time, but I still feel heavily optimized for output over quality, even though that is no longer needed. My baseline cognition was already impacted. More sleep just did not repair it.

sdenton4 6y ago
Well, humans are also extremely error prone. Spell check, IDE helpers, delinters, automated testing, etc, all help check that things are correct automatically, which saves huge amounts of pain. I personally would always put more faith in someone who carefully checks their work than someone who thinks they don't need to. The second person is making mistakes and just doesn't realize it.
tartoran 6y ago
But why are you doing this to yourself? The impact of not getting minimum sleep will have all sorts of bad effects on your body, not just cognition. Try to find a balance and what you consider as permanent cognitive impairment may revert, but even if it doesn’t you don’t want to make it worse
- dijit 6y ago
  The parent is not continuing the practice, and has not for 18 months. It is noted in many sleep science studies that you cannot “recoup” lost sleep so this is plausible.
rolleiflex 6y ago
From your description, it's possible that you have undiagnosed ADHD, though probably not caused by lack of sleep. It's always worth talking to a doctor about these things — there might be a way to get your focus back.
- undreren 6y ago
  I second this. I have been diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, and my experience, before medication, sounded very similar.
hooande 6y ago
There's little evidence that this is sleep related. There are a lot of people who aren't detail oriented and rely on spell check, for a very wide variety of reasons. If you feel this has impacted your life to the point where you need to hide your identity, maybe you should try therapy or a medical examination. Or just get more sleep