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Were there any other downsides of sleeplessness besides breakfast confusion?

by orzig 4y ago

fartsucker69 4y ago
maybe they didn't realize but if you subjected them to any sort of cognitive, physical... actually you can almost say whatever kind of test, their performance in just about all of them would vastly downgrade compared to them in a rested sleep status. these results have been known for a long time for various problem solving tasks (your error rate and task completion time will skyrocket), physically focused things like weight lifting or cardio (you will lift less and not be able to run as long before hitting a wall etc.), reaction tests (you will become a slowpoke), memory tests, mood and other psychometrics. there are also fairly obvious outward physiological effects, like increased collagen production will give you baggy eyes, etc.
LanceH 4y ago
Well, it wasn't just breakfast, it was everything that I might consider "today" stacked on top of each other. So if I had a mental list of "things to do today", that just got longer. It was my mind was cluttered. I wasn't as tired and craving of sleep as I would have expected. Probably physically tired a bit just because I was sitting up reading books all night instead of getting good rest. Individual tasks in the "now" didn't seem too bad, but everything else (and it turns out to be a lot) that depended on short term was messed up -- conversations with people, where I parked, what day it was, routine tasks which felt like they were already done but still needed to be done that day, etc... I might need to do the laundry but felt like I had already done the laundry -- but that was 4 days ago. It took mental effort to observe what day it was, rather than waking up on Wednesday and knowing all day that it is Wednesday. Instead it I "knew" it was "Monday" and I also knew it was "Tuesday", and it certainly didn't feel like Wednesday. So I was spending mental effort for things that just flow naturally. Thankfully I didn't have much to do during those two weeks.

Were there any other downsides of sleeplessness besides breakfast confusion?

by orzig 4y ago

Were there any other downsides of sleeplessness besides breakfast confusion?

maybe they didn't realize but if you subjected them to any sort of cognitive, physical... actually you can almost say whatever kind of test, their performance in just about all of them would vastly downgrade compared to them in a rested sleep status. these results have been known for a long time for various problem solving tasks (your error rate and task completion time will skyrocket), physically focused things like weight lifting or cardio (you will lift less and not be able to run as long before hitting a wall etc.), reaction tests (you will become a slowpoke), memory tests, mood and other psychometrics. there are also fairly obvious outward physiological effects, like increased collagen production will give you baggy eyes, etc.

LanceH 4y ago

Well, it wasn't just breakfast, it was everything that I might consider "today" stacked on top of each other. So if I had a mental list of "things to do today", that just got longer. It was my mind was cluttered. I wasn't as tired and craving of sleep as I would have expected. Probably physically tired a bit just because I was sitting up reading books all night instead of getting good rest. Individual tasks in the "now" didn't seem too bad, but everything else (and it turns out to be a lot) that depended on short term was messed up -- conversations with people, where I parked, what day it was, routine tasks which felt like they were already done but still needed to be done that day, etc... I might need to do the laundry but felt like I had already done the laundry -- but that was 4 days ago. It took mental effort to observe what day it was, rather than waking up on Wednesday and knowing all day that it is Wednesday. Instead it I "knew" it was "Monday" and I also knew it was "Tuesday", and it certainly didn't feel like Wednesday. So I was spending mental effort for things that just flow naturally. Thankfully I didn't have much to do during those two weeks.