[HN Gopher] Bluntly Stated: The Impacts of Lack of Sleep
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       Bluntly Stated: The Impacts of Lack of Sleep
        
       Author : belkarx
       Score  : 21 points
       Date   : 2022-02-02 22:10 UTC (50 minutes ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (belkarx.github.io)
 (TXT) w3m dump (belkarx.github.io)
        
       | donkarma wrote:
       | preaching to the choir, everyone wants sleep
        
       | jsrcout wrote:
       | I've had terrible sleep issues forever. Finally got my sleep
       | apnea and insomnia sorted out some years back (CPAP and
       | melatonin+magnesium took care of it for me) and the difference is
       | just incredible. I mean I would worry on a daily basis that I was
       | going to black out at work and hit my head on my desk. (While
       | still putting out decent work most of the time - not completely
       | sure how). I no longer take multi-hour naps several evenings a
       | week after work. I can't overstate the difference it's made in my
       | life.
       | 
       | Anyway, if you suffer from sleep issues, I urge you to take it
       | seriously and do anything in your power to mitigate them.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | Melatonic wrote:
       | I tried to finish the original article but I was just too
       | tired...
        
       | dvh wrote:
       | Is 8h sleep from 22:00 to 6:00 qualitatively equivalent to 8h
       | sleep from 00:00 to 8:00?
        
         | jimt1234 wrote:
         | This is a question I've had for years: Does time of day matter
         | for sleep?
         | 
         | If I go to sleep on a "normal" schedule (wake up, start day
         | around 7am), I need 8 hours. However, I can totally survive,
         | and even thrive, with just 5-ish hours of sleep, if I can wake
         | up around 11am, going to sleep just before dawn.
         | 
         | Not a doctor, so I don't know the answer. My assumption is that
         | it depends on the person. I'm a night-person, so naturally the
         | waking-at-11am schedule works best for me. But staying awake
         | until 5:30am is unthinkable for most morning people.
        
       | thret wrote:
       | The end of your life is not guaranteed. Your life may be
       | shortened any number of ways unrelated to how much sleep you have
       | had.
       | 
       | Let's say you live to be 90, sleeping 8 hours a day. That's 60
       | years of actual living time, 20 of which occur between ages 60
       | and 90. If you sleep 4 hours a day and live to be 90, that's 75
       | years awake with those extra 15 years spread over your entire
       | life - not just the last third which is likely to be less
       | enjoyable and productive.
        
       | WilTimSon wrote:
       | I'm not sure how much this will do to change anyone. Sure, it's
       | bluntly stated but, well, most people realize quite well that
       | lack of sleep is awful and dangerous. People don't usually do it
       | because they want to do it. Long hours at work, deadlines,
       | stress, occasional bout of Netflix addiction. Out of all of
       | those, there's only one that's easy to resolve and I'd wager that
       | Netflix isn't usually the biggest contributor to chronic lack of
       | sleep.
        
         | brimble wrote:
         | Imagine a medieval king who decided their castle should be lit
         | up like day at nighttime, hundreds of candles in mirror-walled
         | rooms, 365 days a year, and also that the entire castle save
         | only the bed chamber would host the finest entertainers and all
         | the most interesting friends and strangers in the world, party
         | games and amusements in a hundred palace rooms, and a mage who
         | could show the king any wonder of the world in his crystal
         | ball, and a bazaar with the finest goods on display, the best
         | academics, et c., et c., basically on tap, and this wild best-
         | the-world's-ever-seen carnival would _never_. _Close_. So that
         | all the king must do is open his bed chamber door, any hour,
         | any day, to be enthusiastically welcomed into a veritable (and
         | sometimes literal) orgy of entertainment. 24. 7. Year-round.
         | 
         | Think that king might have a rather _disrupted_ sleep schedule?
         | It seems _obviously_ insane to live like that, no? Instant
         | reaction is  "my god, why would you do that", right?
         | 
         | Consider that a totally ordinary middle class house in the West
         | is arguably _worse_ than that.
         | 
         | No wonder everyone "can't" sleep or "is just a night owl"
         | (sure, some may actually be, not saying zero people are).
         | 
         | Frankly it's a miracle we get anydamnthing done, and sleep at
         | all.
         | 
         | I'd encourage everyone to try candle-only lighting after
         | sundown (or maybe _extremely_ dim candle-temp electric
         | lighting, though if you 're just trying it briefly consider the
         | candles, they're a bad idea for a bunch of reasons long-term
         | but fine for a few days--you'd be surprised how little you
         | need, I found two beeswax tapers were the minimum to read by
         | without discomfort, but my eyes are still young-ish), no
         | electric devices whatsoever (there's actually still a ton you
         | can do--card games, board games, play music, read, draw, write,
         | et c.), no whole-room lighting, just for a week or so. See if
         | you're still a "night person" by day 7.
        
         | cassianoleal wrote:
         | Also being a night person on a day people's world.
        
           | WilTimSon wrote:
           | Yup. Even being a day person and maintaining a solid schedule
           | is hard. Oh, you'd like to go to bed on time but the
           | two/three friends you still retain as an adult want to have a
           | drink because today's the only day of the week they're free.
           | And then tomorrow you want to go to sleep early but it's
           | cleaning day and you need to do it cause then it'll be a
           | tough day at work and so on, forever and ever.
        
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       (page generated 2022-02-02 23:00 UTC)