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Sleep = GC and more available synapses = smarter* So smarter people need less sleep? Is the converse true? * http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/

Sleep = GC and more available synapses = smarter* So smarter people need less sleep? Is the converse true? * http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/science/sciencenews/3343912/Study-traces-the-evolution-of-the-human-brain.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/science/scie...

mapleoin 18y ago
I need a lot of sleep, so I must be dumb.
lunchbox 18y ago
Do you mean that smart people need less sleep to be able to perform a particular task, or that smart people need less sleep to perform at their own peak? The above analogy leads more naturally to the first conclusion. Give a smart person a cognitive task to perform, and gradually deprive him of sleep; eventually, his performance will be reduced to the level of the average person. It's less clear how the second conclusion would hold -- that smart people are incrementally affected less by sleep loss than average people. In other words, a priori, I don't think there's much reason to believe that a smart person would be impaired less by losing an hour of sleep than an average person would.
- anuraggoel 18y ago
  I wasn't aiming to go that deep, but to answer your question I meant the ability to perform any given set of tasks. Deriving the second conclusion needs a lot more data. Assuming there is no analog for swapping to disk, the biggest missing piece is the rate of GC. Is it the same for everyone? Additionally, is a given person's GC rate constant? When I go without sleep for two days, I usually need more sleep than when I missed sleeping for just a day. Does this mean there is more memory to reclaim? Or that my GC rate has been impaired? Or both? More interestingly, how do 'brain-building' foods and activities affect sleep requirements?
ryan-allen 18y ago
I wouldn't think so. Your body is made up of more organs and systems than your brain. Depending on how intensely I exercise, I need more sleep as it's repairing itself, so I think the answer to your questions is either 'probably not' or 'it depends'. I know that in addition to all this, that apparently sleep also moves information in to your long term memory, and that in certain trades (military comes to mind), that after intense training excercises, it is encouraged if not enforced to get a 'good night's sleep' instead of 'getting stuck into the beers after a hard day's work' in order to properly 'store' what was learnt during the day. So, if you want to remember stuff, get good a good night's sleep!

mapleoin 18y ago

I need a lot of sleep, so I must be dumb.

lunchbox 18y ago

Do you mean that smart people need less sleep to be able to perform a particular task, or that smart people need less sleep to perform at their own peak? The above analogy leads more naturally to the first conclusion. Give a smart person a cognitive task to perform, and gradually deprive him of sleep; eventually, his performance will be reduced to the level of the average person. It's less clear how the second conclusion would hold -- that smart people are incrementally affected less by sleep loss than average people. In other words, a priori, I don't think there's much reason to believe that a smart person would be impaired less by losing an hour of sleep than an average person would.

anuraggoel 18y ago
I wasn't aiming to go that deep, but to answer your question I meant the ability to perform any given set of tasks. Deriving the second conclusion needs a lot more data. Assuming there is no analog for swapping to disk, the biggest missing piece is the rate of GC. Is it the same for everyone? Additionally, is a given person's GC rate constant? When I go without sleep for two days, I usually need more sleep than when I missed sleeping for just a day. Does this mean there is more memory to reclaim? Or that my GC rate has been impaired? Or both? More interestingly, how do 'brain-building' foods and activities affect sleep requirements?

ryan-allen 18y ago

I wouldn't think so. Your body is made up of more organs and systems than your brain. Depending on how intensely I exercise, I need more sleep as it's repairing itself, so I think the answer to your questions is either 'probably not' or 'it depends'. I know that in addition to all this, that apparently sleep also moves information in to your long term memory, and that in certain trades (military comes to mind), that after intense training excercises, it is encouraged if not enforced to get a 'good night's sleep' instead of 'getting stuck into the beers after a hard day's work' in order to properly 'store' what was learnt during the day. So, if you want to remember stuff, get good a good night's sleep!