
Effect of One-Legged Standing on Sleep - ph0rque
http://quantifiedself.com/2011/03/effect-of-one-legged-standing-on-sleep/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+QuantifiedSelf+%28The+Quantified+Self%29
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Tyrannosaurs
Methodologically isn't this close to nonsense?

His measure of how well rested he is is completely subjective. There's
obviously no blinding (as he's subject and experimenter) which makes it almost
certain that as he knows the hypothesis he's looking into and the measure is
subjective, he's going to either subconsciously or consciously push the data
towards proving or disproving it based on his preconceived ideas.

He talks about randomly choosing (possibly sloppy language but if you choose
in any way it's not random, regardless it's not clear) and he's failed to
adjust for or control any other variables that might influence sleep like,
oooo, alcohol or caffeine or stress or a whole bunch of things that will make
more of a difference than standing on one leg which given the relatively small
data set is a pretty big deal (again some of this may depend on the method of
randomisation).

And then the variation is within fractions of one percent (the scale showing
99 and 99.4) which given that the measure is subjective is essentially
insignificant.

Please, please tell me that this is a wind up about how people believe
anything scientific looking and trying to get people to stand on one leg for
lulz rather than something serious?

Given that what he's doing is basically exercise and that linking sleep and
exercise makes some sense, it's not a totally stupid hypothesis, but his
experiment proves nothing.

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ScottBurson
Too many people, like you, are hung up on "proof". Yes, we should be aware of
the difference between hypothesis exploration and a solid demonstration. But
that doesn't mean that hypothesis exploration is pointless!

An experiment like this one is entirely appropriate when trying to decide
whether a hypothesis is worth exploring further; setting up a more elaborate
study would have been premature.

So when you say "his experiment proves nothing" I think you are judging it by
standards it was not, and should not have been, intended to meet. Don't focus
only on the results of science; without the process, there would be no
interesting results.

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grhino
The experimental procedures he went through gave little additional support for
his argument than simply stating: "I noticed I sleep better when I stand on
one leg for a while".

The statistical analysis of the study does not provide any additional weight
to the statement. In fact, the statistical analysis is more of a distraction
because he didn't control for an important influence in self-evaluating
health. If a person expects that taking an action will improve their health,
it's very likely that the person will think he feels better after taking that
action.

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beagle3
While it is not rigorously scientific in the sense that physics is, it is
compares very favorably to findings in the fields of medicine and nutrition.
(Yes, they are much worse than you imagine).

And while this document cannot reflect this, I've been following Seth Roberts
for a few years now -- he is the best kind of scientist, with a remarkable
talent for objective measurement of oneself. While this cannot be generalized
to other people easily, as far as it refers to himself, it's probably way
better than most medical results published in the last 20 years.

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keiferski
_If I stood on one leg “to exhaustion” — until it hurt too much to continue —
a few times, I woke up feeling more rested_

Wouldn't it be easier to just exercise? Regular physical activity leads to
better sleep, and doesn't require you to stand on one leg.

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jcl
What he's doing _is_ exercise. He's working a muscle to exhaustion, which is
essentially weightlifting without the weights. I guess the value is that he's
found a simple workout that gets the results he needs in eight minutes a day
with no equipment.

It would be interesting to find out if he would get better or worse results
through cardio instead of working a muscle to exhaustion, and whether or not
it is important that the legs be that muscle. Some people suffer from restless
legs syndrome which keeps them from achieving deep sleep, and maybe exercising
the legs is countering this.

(I wish there was some way he could experiment that wasn't subject to the
placebo effect, though, which makes the results moot when applied to anyone
else.)

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keiferski
Well, yeah. It just seems a little strange (and likely less efficient) to do
leg raises, when a decent workout of real exercises would be just as easy and
more effective.

Even if you stick to the legs, exercises like bootstrappers, squats, and
lunges would be significantly better.

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peterwwillis
(see above comment) dynamic exercise is only more effective at increasing
muscle twitch force. isometrics will be more effective at increasing strength
at joint angle. for example, i could do more squats in a minute (up to 90)
after i did isometric holds vs before.

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keiferski
Fair enough. I just didn't get the impression that the OP took an exercise
approach to his experiment. It seemed less isometrics and more "I'm gonna
stand on one leg until I get tired."

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skittles
Interesting, useless experiment. It was invalid from the start. He went in
'knowing' that standing for long periods 'made' him sleep better. That may or
may not be true. It is anecdotal. Not only that, but he may have drawn the
same conclusion that standing on one leg also worked and that doing 4 sets was
best, etc. I'm not saying that standing's effect on sleep doesn't warrant
proper exploration. I am saying that the placebo effect cannot be ruled out
with this guy's work.

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klochner
We seem to be approaching self-satire here on HN.

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Skeletor
My Mom always told me a glass of milk would help me sleep better. It isn't
scientific, but if I'm stressed out and have a glass of milk before bed I'll
relax more and sleep better.

One legged standing could be just a good! I'll definitely try it out.

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p0ckets
The calcium in the milk helps:
<http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/163169.php>

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JohnJacobs
Why is this on Hacker News!?

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p09p09p09
Do squats, acquire sleep.

