The sleep poll!

[draakh_kimera]

So, how much do you people sleep on a weekday? How does this affect you? Just kinda curious. Myself, I average at about 5-6 hours, find myself constantly dozing off between the 8 and 12 morning classes, and don't properly wake up until sometime in the afternoon...

[Baley]

I can sleep as much as I want

 

Over 10 hours for me :cool:

[Darth Launch]

10 hours?! That's not fair...

 

I can only manage about 5-6 hours of sleep a day, if I'm lucky, due to my being an amateur insomniac

 

DL

[Darth Flatus]

baley is a growing boy, he needs his sleep

 

If an adult sleeps a lot its usually indicative of some health problem

[FaramirK]

10 hours?! That's not fair...

 

I can only manage about 5-6 hours of sleep a day, if I'm lucky, due to my being an amateur insomniac 

 

DL 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Me too. I eventually just gave up trying to be normal and usually get stuck with the graveyard shift.

[Drakron]

I managed to sleep over 10 hours but that was after staying awake for about 62 hours.

[kirottu]

I very rarely sleep more than eight hours... Usually it

[Kaftan Barlast]

I blame modern society for sticking to a work ethic that has its root in medieval catholic dogma dictating that a good man gets up at sunrise to work and finishes at sundown. Everyone knows there are morning people and evening people, yet all us evening people are forced to live in the cruel tyranny of the morning people.

[Reinoc]

I usually manage to stay awake 5-6 hours in a day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

edit: I'm joking, of course

[Darth Flatus]

thast probably not good

[213374U]

I wish I could sleep *less* than 10 hours. But once your body becomes used to it, it's hard as hell to shake the habit.

[The Elite_elite]

Usually about 6-7 hours.

[SteveThaiBinh]

I need eight hours. I usually get six or seven hours during the week, then make up the extra at the weekends.

[draakh_kimera]

I need  eight hours.  I usually get  six or seven hours during the week, then make up the extra at the weekends.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Heh, sounds familiar, but the problem I've got with making up for it is that I get so damn out of it if I sleep more than 8-9 hours Anyone else have this problem?

[Darth Flatus]

yes i feel messed up if i sleep too long

[mkreku]

I once got massive jetlag and slept for 26 hours straight. My girlfriend thought I was going to starve to death so she woke me up after 26 hours. I wonder how long I would have slept if nothing had disturbed me.

[Musopticon?]

I too need at least 8 hours, but I nowadays rarely get more than 6,5 hours. I blame it on internet and librarial services. More sleep equals less reading and internet, and I need both. <_<

 

I think I'll just sleep in my grave or whatever in the ashy state I will most likely end up.

[Baneblade]

Six hours, every night... like clockwork.

[metadigital]

I recommend to you all read Professor William Dement's book on sleep. "The Promise of Sleep: The Scientific Connection Between Health, Happiness and a Good Night's Sleep", ISBN: 0330354604 , Pan.

 

Rarely has something so important been so misunderstood and malttreated.

 

linky

 

At different times in life we need different amounts of sleep. For example, late teenage requres more sleep and later lie-ins (so we weren't lazy!), and the most disturbing fact is:

"Sleep Debt" is (roughly speaking) the accumulated urge to sleep (various ways to measure: Dr Dement meassures it via a "latent sleep test"); any sleep less than your personal requirements must be caught up before normal sleep habits return.

 

Some big accidents caused by sleep depreivation:

Exxon Valdez

Chernobyl

3 Mile Island

 

Dr Dement helped the first person make the Guiness World record for sleep deprivation. He also was the person who named REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep and discovered its purpose (dreaming) and importance (very). He has conducted the longest sleep trials in history. (The subjects were tested for two weeks -- about thirty years ago. The effects of sleep anomolies / deprivations on longer periods of time are untested. This is mainly due to cost.)

 

His research has shown that people need 8.5 hours sleep a night -- but more at different times in life. Also the body's diurnal circadien rhythm has a large, cyclic influence on the body's sleep pattern:

- wakes you up twice a day, at 9:30am and 8pm, approx.;

- the lowest period of alertness is early afternoon approx. 3pm;

- is about one hour longer than the 24 hour day, and

- is reset by bright light (e.g. dawn), so shine a bright, broad spectrum light in your eyes when you wake up to reset the cycle on a daily basis or you will tend to wake up later tomorrow.

 

Just a final quick note: if ever you have been driving and you start nodding off: this is very dangerous. You are actually already asleep when you nod the first time. (Dement terms the quick loss and regain of consciousness "microsleeps", for want of a better word.) Pull over immediately and rest.

[Darth Launch]

Actually, psychological research into sleep has determined that sleep in fact has little purpose or function and that technically we would be able to function without having had any...

 

DL

 

P.S. Whoa! I can't believe I actually remembered something from my lectures...

[metadigital]

Actually, psychological research into sleep has determined that sleep in fact has little purpose or function and that technically we would be able to function without having had any...

 

DL

 

P.S. Whoa! I can't believe I actually remembered something from my lectures... 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I am sorry but you are mistaken.

 

How long have you ever managed to go without sleep for? Go on, this is an experiment everyone can try at home (I know I have).

 

Some facts:

- The record is just over a week. What eventually happens is the person will start to hallucinate (dreaming whilst wide awake).

- The full understanding of dreaming is unknown, but Dr Dement's scientific studies demonstrated that people need to dream: subjects that were disturbed (read: woken up) at the onset of REM sleep were noticeably less rested, less able to concentrate and more irritable; they remained so until the body had a chance to catch up on the REM sleep. (Can you imagine being woken up like this -- I would have had to be restrained: I would have killed them!)

- Interrupting other parts of sleep (non-REM stages) had little or no effect.

- Those people as above who had disturbed REM sleep would have proprtionately more REM sleep over the next available nights.

- Sleep cycle is about an hour and twenty minutes long, cycling through Phase 1, 2, 3 4 (all deeper than the previous) thence to REM, and back again. (These phaes are easily identified by brainwaves using an electroencephalogram EEG) Total REM sleep is about 40-90 minutes a night, I think (a couple of minutes per cycle).

- Everyone dreams, every night.

- Babies and toddlers (up to the age of 2) have more REM sleep than adults.

- The reason you don't remember your dreams is because the neurochemical the brain secretes (melatonin, from memory ) to paralyze the muscles (so that when you dream of running you don't start moving your arms and legs) has the side effect of impairing the transfer of memories from short term to long term.

 

The current theory most favoured by neuroscientists is that dreaming is a sort of filter or "defrag" for the brain, where the important moments of the previous day's stream of consciousness is somehow converted into long-term storage.

[Darth Flatus]

Dr. Dement - excellent name. The longest i've ever gone without sleep is just over 48 hours, it was an unpleasant experience i felt i wanted to die near the end. I have read that prolonged lack of sleep can leave lasting psychological damage, is this true?

[Drakron]

Trust me, it does not get better ... it just gets wierder.

[metadigital]

Dr. Dement - excellent name. The longest i've ever gone without sleep is just over 48 hours, it was an unpleasant experience i felt i wanted to die near the end. I have read that prolonged lack of sleep can leave lasting psychological damage, is this true?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The frightening answer is no one knows. Dr Dement did his tests in the seventies, I think (might have been the sixties) with the help of the US army (think about the amount of support: 3 shifts round the clock monitoring all the subjects and flashing lights in peoples eyes...!)

 

It is just too cost-prohibitive to appeal to anyone. (Drug companies fund most scientific research, and they aren't interested on anything without a ROI.)

 

Dement's patients were tested for only 2 weeks. After this everone is extrapolating or guessing.

 

I heartily recommend the book. (It's less than $10/

[Kaftan Barlast]

 

 

I never sleep. The horses keep me up at night.