
Ask HN: Any research on 25+h days effects on health? - tsenkov
I believe many people in the startup world would be interested in this question.<p>What happens to your body, when you sleep 7-8h, but you extend the period of time you are awake?<p>I, personally, can&#x27;t sleep longer than 10h, no matter how long I was awake before that. Lately, I&#x27;ve been experimenting with my schedule (out of necessity to meet certain deadlines, mostly) and I found that I feel relatively OK, when sleeping regular 7-8h and working longer hours, ultimately going over 24h per sleep-awake cycle.<p>Obviously never getting your sleep at a certain time of the day (every day you move the time you go to bed with the number of hours you extend your day with) has an effect of the quality of your sleep and ultimately you get less sleep.<p>So, is there any research that you know of, comparing these 2 different types of sleep deprivation:<p><pre><code>  - sleeping less but keeping the 24h cycle duration;
  - sleeping regular amount of hours per cycle, but extending the cycle (through your awake time) to over 24h.</code></pre>
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rl3
Pretty sure that would count as habitual sleep deprivation, and thus you'd
incur brain damage on a regular basis. Plus your productivity will go straight
into the dumpster after about a week or two.

As someone who's no stranger to sleep dep, I strongly advise you to avoid that
course of action.

------
itamarst
If this is how you deal with having lots of work, you might want to instead
quit your job, or better yet re-negotiate your terms of employment

Sleep deprivation destroys your productivity. It's equivalent to being drunk.
E.g. "Chronic restriction of sleep periods to 4 h or 6 h per night over 14
consecutive days resulted in significant cumulative, dose-dependent deficits
in cognitive performance on all tasks."
([https://academic.oup.com/sleep/article/26/2/117/2709164](https://academic.oup.com/sleep/article/26/2/117/2709164)).

The idea that "oh I can just can stay awake longer" _might_ have merit. I
doubt it. But the whole premise is flawed, even if it is workable.

The premise is that working longer is better. It's not. Productivity is about
achieving your goals with minimal wasted effort. If you're spending your time
thinking about "how can I have more hours to work" you're not thinking about
the important thing: "what work am I doing that is unnecessary."

You can get order of magnitude reduction in effort by having the right idea,
or the right shortcut, or the right set of priorities. Staying awake more
might give you 25% more hours at the cost of massive cognitive deficit, and a
completely broken set of priorities.

More on productivity and sleep:

\- Productivity:
[https://codewithoutrules.com/2016/08/25/the-01x-programmer/](https://codewithoutrules.com/2016/08/25/the-01x-programmer/)

\- Why your startup has you working long hours:
[https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/06/21/why-company-want-
lon...](https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/06/21/why-company-want-long-hours/)

\- References to research on long working hours and sleep deprivation:
[http://www.igda.org/?page=crunchsixlessons](http://www.igda.org/?page=crunchsixlessons)

~~~
tsenkov
Totally agreed.

Yet (to continue with the metaphors) telling someone dying of thirst "You
should've packed more water." isn't immediately helpful.

Please assume (and that is addressed to everyone who would like to comment)
there is no other way, you are in that spot and you need to get that work
done. That's what my question is about.

And BTW, I can't speak for other people, but in my case being in these
situations where I have more work than I can complete within regular working
schedule, is more often caused by me loving my job too much, then me, being
forced to work longer hours.

Thanks for the links, will check those out.

~~~
itamarst
If you love your job then _work sane hours_. You'll do better at your job.
Really.

There is almost always another way. By starting with assumption there isn't
you're dramatically reducing the changes of finding it.

------
nukeop
Terry A. Davis of TempleOS fame has been dong something similar: awake for 32
hours, then sleep 16 hours. Judge the effects on his sanity yourself.

~~~
zapperdapper
Some context from Wikipedia:

"Development for TempleOS began in 2003 after Davis suffered from a series of
manic episodes that left him briefly hospitalized for mental health
issues.[1][4] Davis is a former atheist who proclaims that he has had
"communications" with God, and that God told him the operating system he built
was for God's third temple."

There's a lot to be said for getting a solid eight hours in every night.

