5 ms·

I started today with 4.5 hours of sleep and I’ll do just great with that. Once a week my body grabs 10-14 hours in a single night to “catch up”.

martindbp 5y ago
The vast majority of people would be under performing without even noticing at 4.5 hrs. Yet somehow, everyone thinks they're part of the 1% that has some magic genetic fix for this. Sort of like how 80% of people think they're above average at driving.
- throwaway2037 5y ago
  The last sentence is brilliant! Sometimes, I feel I am the only person that I know who admits to being a terrible driver. I am so easily distracted by beautiful nature, construction sites, other car crashes, whatever... Thank goodness I never had an accident, but many close calls. As a result, I try to drive as little as possible.
  - AgoRapide 5y ago
    Average is not the same as mode. 99.9% of people (at least) have more arms than the average for instance. So yes, theoretically 80% may be better at driving than the average, it is just so that the other 20% are even worse at it.
- pc86 5y ago
  Given the average driver, imagine how bad that other 20% must be.
adrianN 5y ago
Unless you're a genetic outlier it is likely that you're doing long-term damage to your health.
- bruce343434 5y ago
  like?
  - exdsq 5y ago
    High correlation between sleep deprivation and altzimers
testmasterflex 5y ago
Why are you downvoting this? I also know people like this, however I personally need at least 7-8. The last weeks I have practised to not focus too much on if Ive had a sleep deprived night and that helps and works for a few days.
z3ncyberpunk 5y ago
Yeah... that doesn't work how you think it does.. you're body and mind don't "catch up" on sleep. you had 6 terrible sleep days detrimentally effecting your brain and one "good" nights sleep. you do not biologically make up for lost sleep, you just walked around with poor mental function and toxic built-in up neurochemicals then probably masked it all by doing further damage and guzzling down some coffee and caffeine and sugar to force your body to stay awake.
pc86 5y ago
"Catching up" on sleep is a myth. If you're getting wildly different amounts of sleep night to night (even on a "schedule" like yours) it's a biological/physiological certainly that you're operating at a deficit. Maybe not cognitive, but there is a deficit there whether you realize it or not.
- yawaworht1978 5y ago
  I am not sure about this, i had periods of 5h a sleep days for a week or two and then slept 12 hours for a day and felt very fresh and carried on with 5h a day. Sometimes it's 7-8 hours a day for couple weeks, sometimes it's 5. Feels about equal to me, maybe it has to do with volatile working hours for me, not sure. All I know the worst is hangover days and on holidays I stay in bed for 10hours only to feel unusually tired. Maybe environment is a bigger factor than genetics.
ThrowawayR2 5y ago
I was under the impression that the idea that one can just oversleep to "catch up" was debunked already, e.g. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-can-you-catch-up-on-sleep/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-c...

martindbp 5y ago

The vast majority of people would be under performing without even noticing at 4.5 hrs. Yet somehow, everyone thinks they're part of the 1% that has some magic genetic fix for this. Sort of like how 80% of people think they're above average at driving.

throwaway2037 5y ago
The last sentence is brilliant! Sometimes, I feel I am the only person that I know who admits to being a terrible driver. I am so easily distracted by beautiful nature, construction sites, other car crashes, whatever... Thank goodness I never had an accident, but many close calls. As a result, I try to drive as little as possible.
- AgoRapide 5y ago
  Average is not the same as mode. 99.9% of people (at least) have more arms than the average for instance. So yes, theoretically 80% may be better at driving than the average, it is just so that the other 20% are even worse at it.
pc86 5y ago
Given the average driver, imagine how bad that other 20% must be.

adrianN 5y ago

Unless you're a genetic outlier it is likely that you're doing long-term damage to your health.

bruce343434 5y ago
like?
- exdsq 5y ago
  High correlation between sleep deprivation and altzimers

testmasterflex 5y ago

Why are you downvoting this? I also know people like this, however I personally need at least 7-8. The last weeks I have practised to not focus too much on if Ive had a sleep deprived night and that helps and works for a few days.

z3ncyberpunk 5y ago

Yeah... that doesn't work how you think it does.. you're body and mind don't "catch up" on sleep. you had 6 terrible sleep days detrimentally effecting your brain and one "good" nights sleep. you do not biologically make up for lost sleep, you just walked around with poor mental function and toxic built-in up neurochemicals then probably masked it all by doing further damage and guzzling down some coffee and caffeine and sugar to force your body to stay awake.

pc86 5y ago

"Catching up" on sleep is a myth. If you're getting wildly different amounts of sleep night to night (even on a "schedule" like yours) it's a biological/physiological certainly that you're operating at a deficit. Maybe not cognitive, but there is a deficit there whether you realize it or not.

yawaworht1978 5y ago
I am not sure about this, i had periods of 5h a sleep days for a week or two and then slept 12 hours for a day and felt very fresh and carried on with 5h a day. Sometimes it's 7-8 hours a day for couple weeks, sometimes it's 5. Feels about equal to me, maybe it has to do with volatile working hours for me, not sure. All I know the worst is hangover days and on holidays I stay in bed for 10hours only to feel unusually tired. Maybe environment is a bigger factor than genetics.

ThrowawayR2 5y ago

I was under the impression that the idea that one can just oversleep to "catch up" was debunked already, e.g. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-can-you-catch-up-on-sleep/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-c...