Leo's very good at publishing stuff that HN likes.
I think your attitude to sleep changes as you age. When I was a teenager, all-nighters were tiring but after a night's sleep I'd be back to normal.
These days, it takes me a week to recover from an all-nighter.
The thing that really got me thinking about sleep as a precious resource was being diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnoea. I was getting to the point where I was sleeping for 14 hours and waking up exhausted.
The year I got a CPAP machine, my grade average jumped from credit to distinction.
I've been thinking the same thing over the last few years. Going to bed at 1AM every day used to be no big deal, but that's not the case now that I'm closer to 40 than 30. To combat this, I'm working on new routines - sleep by 11-12PM, alternating going to the gym and cycling to work daily and eating better (I have a serious sweet tooth). It's too early to see any results yet, but I believe it's going to make a major difference in the quality of life & work.
As another point of reference about sleep apnea, my mom got a CPAP machine in last couple years and reports amazing changes from using it. The sleep studies were a pain, but well worth the effort.
The thing that really got me thinking about sleep as a precious resource was being diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnoea. I was getting to the point where I was sleeping for 14 hours and waking up exhausted.
I often wonder about sleep apnea, I need a lot of sleep and have limited energy, nothing drastic but still noticeable compared to others. But I tend to think I don't have it, since in the morning I usually remember having long dreams - and sleep apnea is supposed to interrupt your sleep frequently. Were you able to observe new patterns in your sleep once you started using a CPAP machine?
Firstly, if you have any suspicion of having sleep apnea, I highly recommend getting a sleep study[0] done. I was diagnosed with a moderate case of obstructive sleep apnea after suffering from it for several years. I feel fortunate to have discovered and treated it at a fairly young age since it results general misery and is believed to cause heart attacks and strokes if left untreated.
I found no noticeable difference in my ability to recall dreams from the night before, or the length of dreams I experienced between using CPAP or not.
With regard to sleep patterns, the results from CPAP were immediately noticeable. I found that CPAP allowed me to go from a zombie that needed 12 or more hours of sleep per night to one that only needed about 4. This was not better. Despite really enjoying the extra 8 hours of "waking" time I had each day I was still tired all the time and thus made little use of the extra hours. I now sleep between 7 and 8 hours per night, I feel great and I am way more productive.
I'm not an expert, but I understand reduced dream recall is correlated with sleep apnea, but being able to recall dreams is definitely not a strong enough sign to rule out sleep apnea: see this study (http://www.sleepfoundation.org/alert/sleep-apnea-and-dream-r...)
One of the best ways to determine if you might have apnea is to ask your sleeping partner. If they complain about you moving around a lot, or making lots of "grunting" noises or noises that sound like you are choking, then you are a good candidate.
If you don't have a sleeping partner, use a video camera and record yourself sleeping one night.
For a lot of people, myself included, OSA causes almost continuous dreaming.
If you've ever had vivid dreams for 10 minutes after mashing a snooze button in the morning, you'll know this is possible. The phenomenon in OSA is similar (very brief awakening).
I'd dream almost night. It was exhausting. Worse, I apparently run out of things to dream about and my dreams become boring.
Hey Jacques, thanks for the kind shout, yes, really glad others often have similar thoughts to me.
That's very interesting and I think you are right, it changes as we get older and we need to adjust. What I am most interested though is to find a pattern that works no matter what age and I felt this 8 hours/night + half an hour comes pretty close.
Wow, that is quite an example there of what can happen and a great reminder to look after it, thanks for the heads up!
Sleep apnoea is bad. Please check that if your girlfriend/boyfriend tells you that you have breathing stops when you sleep.
I had sleep apnea, too. It went away with band aids over the nose and weight loss. (I got the weight and some other problems because I was tired from an undiagnosed allergy. Check that too, if you get really tired all the time... [Disclaimer: I have no idea how unusual food allergies like mine are, i.e. without throat/nose problems.])
I think your attitude to sleep changes as you age. When I was a teenager, all-nighters were tiring but after a night's sleep I'd be back to normal.
These days, it takes me a week to recover from an all-nighter.
The thing that really got me thinking about sleep as a precious resource was being diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnoea. I was getting to the point where I was sleeping for 14 hours and waking up exhausted.
The year I got a CPAP machine, my grade average jumped from credit to distinction.