How to function with sleep deprivation

[FirstYearGrad]

I've noticed I require less sleep as I work out more. However, you wouldn't be gaining any more study time because you'd be working out instead :).

 

[twofish-quant]

I don't care if it affects my health, its just a matter of 2.5 months. To achieve something you have to lose something. Please suggest me some ways to do this.

1) It's not clear to me that you are going to get higher scores if you lose sleep. Most of the research indicates that sleep lose greatly kills performance, and you likely would be better off at managing time and getting eight hours of sleep than trying to lose sleep.

2) It's not going to be for 2.5 months. Once you pick up a habit, it's going to stick with you for the rest of your life.

 

[twofish-quant]

Honestly, 6 hours of sleep is just as good as 8 hours of sleep.

One thing that sleep researchers have found is that people often think they are sleeping for 6 hours a night when they are actually sleeping for 8 hours. Something that does happen is "microsleep" when someone goes a sleep for a few minutes, and doesn't realize it.

And if you're feeling unalert after waking up, modafinil or Ritalin would do the trick (I won't advocate adderall since it's neurotoxic). If you could ever get your hands on modafinil, that's probably the best solution (but it's also very very expensive)

Personally, I think its a terrible idea, since you end up with all sorts of unknown side effects.

Also if you are in an environment in which exams matter more important than health, then you really need to find a way of getting out of that environment.

 

[Ryker]

I've noticed I require less sleep as I work out more. However, you wouldn't be gaining any more study time because you'd be working out instead :).

Really? I find it to be exactly the opposite, as my body needs more time to recover

 

[peak86]

6 hours of sleep are enough, if you have a normal daily activity.
Read this really http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110104182938.htm" published on sciencedaily.

 

[Jack21222]

6 hours of sleep are enough, if you have a normal daily activity.
Read this really http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110104182938.htm" published on sciencedaily.

That article has nothing to do with your comment. In fact, the only time the word "six" appears, is in this context:

. He said more research is needed to understand how short nighttime sleep schedules, typically six hours or less a night across many days, contribute to weight gain and obesity.

If you're going to make a wild claim like 6 hours of sleep are enough for a typical person, you'll need to back it up. Baseless speculation isn't allowed around here.

 

[f95toli]

To be fair: VERY few people can find enough time to sleep 8 hours a night (and certainly not nine). Many (most?) people have to get up between 6:30-7:00 in the morning and I don't know of any adult who routinely is asleep at 22:30 every night. Hence, most of us will have to get used to sleep 6-7 hours a night for most of our lives (especially if you are a parent, you need the time before/after the kids wake up and go to sleep).
I averaged about 6 hours a night when I was at university. Fortunately that is only about an hour less than what I actually need, meaning I could quite easily do it as long as I got to sleep in for one morning during the weekend.

That said, I wouldn't recommend changing you sleeping habits before the exams.

 

[Ryker]

To be fair: VERY few people can find enough time to sleep 8 hours a night (and certainly not nine). Many (most?) people have to get up between 6:30-7:00 in the morning and I don't know of any adult who routinely is asleep at 22:30 every night. Hence, most of us will have to get used to sleep 6-7 hours a night for most of our lives (especially if you are a parent, you need the time before/after the kids wake up and go to sleep).

Yeah, but as you age you need less sleep. Also, just because most people do it, doesn't mean it's good for you. I guess you do get used to it, but I think it's more of a get used to the "feeling run down" feeling than actually getting your body primed to work as it would had you gotten the amount of sleep you need. Then there's also the question that I think is relevant in this case of the reason why you should cut on sleep. To study more? Have we really gone that far?

 

[rick_741]

The brain is not very easily adaptable to different sleep patterns, but you can do it if you try hard enough. If you suddenly set your alarm clock two hours earlier than you're used to, your brain will not like it. Just stick with it, and it will adapt. You will suffer for about 14 days from sleep deprivation. I tried this myself, the first 3 or 4 days I felt like a zombie and could perform only brainless tasks. After the first week I wasn't feeling tired anymore, and after 2 weeks I couldn't even tell I was sleeping 6 hours every night. After the adaptation period, I felt completely normal, I didn't have any memory or learning impairment, or felt tired at all. I often felt the need for 1, not so often 2, 15-20 min powernap during the day, though.

I found out that most sleep research data available that are against sleeping less than 8 hours were gathered during this sleep deprivation period. Indeed, you cannot function properly when sleep deprived, but it goes away. You can google some paper that shows that memory tests performed in people with after this 14 week adaptation period had great results, second only to people on free-running sleep schedules.

 

[DaveC426913]

After the adaptation period, I felt completely normal, I didn't have any memory or learning impairment..

Really? What kind of cognitive and reaction-time studies did you do to confirm this? Or do we just assume that, because you didn't fall under a bus the following week it means you're operating at 100% of your former capacity?

Are you comfortable with your one-time personal experiment being the basis of a general claim that it is so?

 

[rick_741]

Really? What kind of cognitive and reaction-time studies did you do to confirm this? Or do we just assume that, because you didn't fall under a bus the following week it means you're operating at 100% of your former capacity?

Are you comfortable with your one-time personal experiment being the basis of a general claim that it is so?

I was mentioning a personal experience, hence the expression I felt was used. It indicates a personal opinion. I evaluated the results concerning my life and daily activities over a period of about 20 months during which I had this sleeping schedule, and came to that conclusion. I'm sorry if I didn't make a full scientific experiment out of this just so I could live up to your life standards.

 

[Jack21222]

I was mentioning a personal experience, hence the expression I felt was used. It indicates a personal opinion. I evaluated the results concerning my life and daily activities over a period of about 20 months during which I had this sleeping schedule, and came to that conclusion. I'm sorry if I didn't make a full scientific experiment out of this just so I could live up to your life standards.

People with a 0.08 blood alcohol concentration FEEL like they can drive just fine. Your personal experience is worse than meaningless.

 

[rick_741]

People with a 0.08 blood alcohol concentration FEEL like they can drive just fine. Your personal experience is worse than meaningless.

So is your post. I wasn't saying anything to you, by the way, but to the user who created this thread.

And yeah, DWI/DUI and a couple of hours of less sleep, exactly the same thing. Your logic is brilliant.

 

[Ryker]

So is your post. I wasn't saying anything to you, by the way, but to the user who created this thread.

And yeah, DWI/DUI and a couple of hours of less sleep, exactly the same thing. Your logic is brilliant.

I think you missed the point of his post, he wasn't saying they are the same. And also, from what I hear being tired does actually impair your driving skills to a similar extent than chugging a couple of brewskies beforehand. So there you go, even if you misinterpret what he's saying, he makes sense

 

[twofish-quant]

I was mentioning a personal experience, hence the expression I felt was used. It indicates a personal opinion. I evaluated the results concerning my life and daily activities over a period of about 20 months during which I had this sleeping schedule, and came to that conclusion. I'm sorry if I didn't make a full scientific experiment out of this just so I could live up to your life standards.

This is pretty important, because people that have done sleep studies have found that self-reporting gives you a very inaccurate picture of what is going on. In particular, one thing that people get wrong is how often they actually fall asleep. What can happen if you are sleep deprived is that you go into microsleep, and fall asleep for a minute without knowing that your are asleep.

 

[DaveC426913]

I was mentioning a personal experience, hence the expression I felt was used. It indicates a personal opinion. I evaluated the results concerning my life and daily activities over a period of about 20 months during which I had this sleeping schedule, and came to that conclusion.

Except that there are six instances of the word 'you':

The brain is not very easily adaptable to different sleep patterns, but you can do it if you try hard enough. If you suddenly set your alarm clock two hours earlier than you're used to, your brain will not like it. Just stick with it, and it will adapt. You will suffer for about 14 days from sleep deprivation.

 

[DaveC426913]

And yeah, DWI/DUI and a couple of hours of less sleep, exactly the same thing. Your logic is brilliant.

Actually, it's, more similar than you may think in terms of reaction time. That's why we do clinical trials rather than personal anecdotes.


I have no problem with personal anecdotes, but you can't claim authority on the subject. Frankly, you can't even be sure it's true for you personally - one of the side effects of altering sleep is that it will have an affect on your ability to judge your own performance.

 

[General_Sax]

What can happen if you are sleep deprived is that you go into microsleep, and fall asleep for a minute without knowing that your are asleep.

Would it be as if you're on the train, and you fall into microsleep, and get off at your stop without even knowing you fell asleep?