
Fragmented sleep 'harms memory' - ColinWright
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14279123
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Jem
This must be why parents have more than one child - they forget what it's like
in the first few weeks :)

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glimcat
I think it's safe to say that this is one thing nearly everyone learned in
college.

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stcredzero
Simple formula for being a college uber-student:

    
    
        - Practice good sleep hygiene
        - Begin work on all of your assignments the day you get
          them, and work a little on them every day until they
          are due
    

If you can do these two things, your odds of being in the top 10% will
increase dramatically.

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ColinWright
It would be interesting to compare and contrast this with any data about
polyphasic sleep. I'm all for, and very interested in, getting less sleep but
feeling better, and previous informal experiments have suggested that it's
possible, but there's so much conflicting data.

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rednum
What data are you talking about? As far as I know it seems that polyphasic is
a popular hoax, just as 'we use only 10% of our brain power' - popular but
fake. Dr Piotr Wozniak, who seems to know a bit about sleep deals with it in
few articles on his site. Also most first-hand reports I've read (sorry for no
links, I can dig into my history later) usually ended up in people saying they
are tired and rationalizing why do they go back to normal pattern (ie. many
people had problems admitting that they failed).

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ColinWright
For "data" in the above read "many, many stories from a wide range of people,
some of whom claim it works."

I recently read someone's report of using polyphasic sleep for multiple years.
Don't know where, can't spend the time.

You're saying that no one has ever switched permanently to it. I'm saying
people sometimes say they switched back out because of issues other than the
sleep.

When I ran on a week of 6x28 hour days I felt better, but I couldn't sustain
it because of the constant time shifts relative to "normal" people. When I
slept four times a week I got a lot more done, and generally felt better, but
in the end I got a job that wouldn't support the timing issues it caused.

I'd just like to know the truth.

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scott_s
Polyphasic sleep has been discussed extensively here.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=652650>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1464142>

To quote Indiana Jones, if you want _the truth_ , go to the Philosophy
department. But the evidence indicates the various kinds of polyphasic sleep
discussed in those threads is a terrible idea.

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stcredzero
Philosophy department? I don't know if the odds are so good for getting _the
truth_ , as opposed to the odds of getting the ability to greatly impress a
certain fraction of the populace while talking around the truth.

~~~
scott_s
I think that's what the line is hinting at:
<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097576/quotes?qt=qt0357889>

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mattgreenrocks
I haven't been sleeping well for the past few years due to (presumably) nasal
congestion. On the whole, I've felt like I cannot learn as quickly as I used
to. Granted, I'm older, but it really seems like some things (such as muscle
memory) just wouldn't stick.

I'm curious if anyone's been in similar circumstances. An ENT took one look at
me and told me it was allergies, but I never seem to be able to get any
relief, despite the seasons changing. I'm highly allergic to most trees and
some grass, and I wish I wasn't. I'll probably start shots here pretty soon.

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timcederman
As damontal said, take a nasal steroid, they're awesome. The other thing that
helped me was taking Nasalcrom, which acts like an antihistamine, but you can
take it long term, and has a localised effect.

What you probably have is an issue with your carpet, or some other allergen in
your home, perhaps mould. I recently moved and noticed in the bedrooms at
night I would get very congested which would affect my sleep. Taking the nasal
steroid and the cromolyn gave me instant relief. I had the carpets thoroughly
cleaned and bought a HEPA vacuum cleaner, and now no longer have to take the
medication.

You could also have a dust or dust mite allergy. Using a latex mattress cover
can help there.

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hippich
Granted, I know very little about how brain work, but assume that general
principle is dynamic building network between small elements in the brain
which is affected by different signals (which can come from both outside
receptors, or could be generated by brain itself?)..

So... Can someone explain in simple words why human brain _need_ to sleep to
consolidate memory? What is memory? This is not like RAM in my desktop where
you need to do map reduce to aggregate information... This is state of network
which is constantly and dynamically changes..

