Sleeeeeeeep!!

[007]

Back when I was in the military, and partying was the main objective, 4 or 5 hours was plenty.

Now, I try and get 8 hours a night. Anything less, and I can tell. I've heard over and over that sleep depravation is accumulative, so like a couple others, I sleep until I wake on the weekends. NO FREAKIN' ALARM!

 

[Trigg]

I really envy everyone here to said they take naps or sleep until late in the morning.

With 3 kids getting up for school at 6:30 and another one at home I have no idea what it is to take a nap or sleep late. I miss those days.

I try to get 8 hrs a night and get cranky if I get less than 5. :baby4:
Gotta love those babies though.

 

[deaddude]

good night about 7

bad night around 3 or 4

 

[waltky]

Sleep - heart attack link...

Sleeping Less Than 6 Hours Might Boost Heart Attack Risk
February 10, 2011 - Researchers find health problems in people who sleep less than six hours - or significantly more than eight hours - a night.

People who sleep less than six hours a night have significantly higher rates of heart disease and stroke, and are more likely to die of those causes. That's the conclusion of a new analysis that combined the results of previously published research papers on the sleep habits and health of almost a half-million people in eight countries. Lead author Francesco Cappuccio of the University of Warwick Medical School in Britain says the researchers didn’t find any significant health problems in people sleeping between six and eight hours a night. However, "when we go below and above, we find that the risk increases quite sharply," he explained in a telephone interview.

"On the low end, short sleep predicts a number of conditions including cardiovascular disease, and we feel short sleep may cause those conditions by a number of mechanisms." Cappuccio says those mechanisms have been identified in other studies, where people were forced to go without sleep. Sleep deprivation leads to a variety of measurable physiological changes. "Your blood pressure will go up and your cholesterol will go up. Your cortisol will go up, which is a stress hormone. And all these conditions - if you think you can extrapolate to being sustained for many years - are likely to cause the outcomes we detect," he said.

Cappuccio’s study also found that people who sleep a lot - more than nine hours a night - are also more likely to have heart disease and stroke, and are more likely to die from those conditions. But he says, however, that there is no obvious cause for that, so he thinks it may be that other underlying conditions are leading some people to sleep longer. Cancer might be one cause. A mental disorder could also be the issue. "You may be fatigued, tired, and you may tend to sleep longer. And that may be an early sign of depression that people often don't pick up." As a result, he says, patients and their doctors should explore the possibility that an apparently unrelated condition is causing longer-than-normal sleep patterns.

Source

 

[Madeline]

I'm retired, and I sleep when I am sleepy and dun get up again until I wake up. Some days that's 12 hours, some days it's 4.

IMO, this is by far the best reason TO retire. Fuck vineyards.

 

[AquaAthena]

How many hours do you personally need per night to function well and be well rested, and How much do you actually get???

I seem to need 7 hours........Generally I only get 5 or 6

I need and get 7, usually. When the nights are cold and the mornings, dark, I can sleep for 8 hours. But when springtime hits and the birds in the forest outside my window start chirping at 4:30 to 5:00, I am screwed....

 

[uscitizen]

I get about 4 hours sleep max a night. Makes for frequent naps.

 

[waltky]

Condition raises stress hormones and can overwork the heart...

Sleep Apnea Associated with Stroke
May 03, 2011 - Snoring can be irritating or funny - depending on whether or not it's disturbing your sleep. But it can also be deadly, especially when someone suffers from sleep apnea, a condition where a person stops breathing for a while and then gasps for air. Increasingly, evidence points to a relationship between sleep apnea and stroke.

For many people, the sound of sleep is anything but silent. And for some of these people, snoring could be a sign of sleep apnea. "Sleep apnea means that the airway, the upper airway cuts off at night," says Dr. David Gross, a pulmonary specialist at the National Rehabilitation Hospital of Washington. "So the person, while he’s breathing normally in the day time, when he goes to sleep, the muscles get all relaxed and cut off and this can happen over and over again, 60 to 100 times an hour." Doctors say most of the people who snore do not have sleep apnea, but most the people with sleep apnea snore. And increasingly, the condition is being recognized as a risk factor for stroke and heart attack.

"Whenever we run out of enough air to breathe, it sends alerting signals to our minds," says Dr. Michael Twery at the U.S. National Institutes of Health. "It raises the levels of stress hormones. It tells our heart to work harder." So the heart is working harder than it should, every night. "And it's constantly exposing us, night after night, to periods of insufficient oxygen where the level in our blood will actually decrease to levels that would be considered a medical emergency," Twery adds. He likens the effect of sleep apnea to that of racing a car engine for prolonged periods of time. It wears the engine out prematurely. "Our heart becomes overworked and we become more vulnerable to heart attack."

And stroke. Twery oversaw a study of about 9,000 people who had sleep apnea, but did not have cardiovascular disease. The researchers followed them over a nine-year period. Then they analyzed the data. "They found that men can experience up to a three-fold increased risk of stroke," says Twery, "and that risk seemed to be well correlated with the severity of their sleep apnea." The next step in the research is to find out if people who have already had a stroke or heart attack can lessen their risk of having another one by using a machine like this while they sleep. It has a mask that is hooked up to a motor that delivers constant air into the throat and lungs, making it impossible to experience apnea.

Source

 

[waltky]

Granny says must be why Uncle Ferd naps so much - he got a lotta problems with his fat g/f's...

Sleep might help you solve problems better
12 June`11 - Got a big decision to make and thinking about sleeping on it? A new study suggests that might be a good idea; it found that people did a better job of learning a game when they got some shut-eye afterward.

The research doesn't prove that sleep will help you learn more effectively. But it does provide more evidence that your brain doesn't just rest and dream when you're asleep, said study co-author Rebecca Spencer, an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. The brain appears to also be reviewing the day's events and processing them, she said. "You put the movie in and you replay it. This says sleep is really adding something, that we shouldn't go with our gut instinct. We should sleep on it," she said. It may seem obvious that people would perform a task better after getting some sleep. But Spencer said the new study is unique because it looks at people who had a brief chance to learn something and then either slept or stayed awake.

Other sleep research has focused on memory and on what happens when people don't get enough sleep. "Everything falls to pieces when you've been sleep-deprived," she said. In the study, researchers assigned 54 college students (aged 18-23) to one of two groups. One learned a gambling game in the morning, while the other learned it in the evening, although no one was allowed to learn the trick to beating the game. Then they came back 12 hours later to play the game. Those who had a chance to get a full night's sleep after learning the game did a better job of figuring out the trick to it. Eighty percent of those who slept figured out the trick to the game, while 40 percent of those who stayed awake did, Spencer said.

The researchers assigned the game to other groups of students and found that the time of day when they played it didn't affect their performance, boosting the case that sleep was a crucial factor for the first two groups. What's going on? The brain appears to process what it's learned during sleep, Spencer said. "It's filing it away. And when you file things, you're not just putting them in the file drawer. You're putting them in a real organized fashion, you're filing it next to things." Sleep researcher Michael P. Stryker, a professor at the University of California at San Francisco, said the study does have an important limitation: "Is the difference really a gain in performance after sleep because of some kind of 'insight' or 'problem-solving' that happens during sleep, or is it that being awake for 12 hours makes you less able to perform the task?"

Sleep researcher Michael Anch, an associate professor at Saint Louis University, said the study "emphasizes the growing awareness of the importance of sleep for optimal cognitive functioning." "This study is consistent with other studies suggesting that sleep allows you to integrate learned information from various brain regions, which is not allowable by instant decisions," Anch said. "This gives credence to the notion that if you have a decision to make, sleep on it!" The study appears in the current online issue of the Journal of Sleep Research.

Source

 

[Mr_Rockhead]

I was retired for six years and I can vouch for the fact that never needing to set the alarm is the apex of luxurious living. Yep, that’s really what it’s all about.

That said, I was forced back into the workforce a few years ago and now I work the graveyard shift so I sleep during the day and I try to get at least six hours but I can get along okay with three to five as long as it’s only for one or two days. I also work a lot of weekends so there is very little chance to “catch up” so I tend to be slightly sleep-deprived most of the time.

And I can’t wait to get back into retirement.

 

[Dabs]

If I do sleep at night, I tend to get by with about 3 hours of sleep. And I haven't used an alarm in years, my body knows it has to be up and at'em by a certain time. If my schedule were to change, yes it would take some getting used to. I am one of those that can go for long lengths of time without sleep. It gets frustrating, because some nights, I don't sleep at all, and I feel crappy the next day. But after a couple of nights without a good sleep, then I find I am able to lie down and go to sleep. My problem is, when I lie my head down, my brain doesn't shut off. And anything and everything that has been cruising thru my mind and causing chaos in my life, is right up front and center, whirling in my head. Makes me nuts. So if I don't fall asleep after 20 minutes, I get back up and find some way to keep myself busy and my mind occupied.

 

[Big Black Dog]

Sleep is highly over-rated. If you drink enough coffee and take enough caffeine into your system, you'll never need to go to sleep. But then again, if you don't sleep, you won't have anything to do after sex.

 

[Dabs]

Sleep is highly over-rated. If you drink enough coffee and take enough caffeine into your system, you'll never need to go to sleep. But then again, if you don't sleep, you won't have anything to do after sex.

*Haha*
True!
But wait..I think it's the men who want to sleep after sex, it's the women who want to talk
I only use my bed for 2 things....sleeping and sex. I do not watch Tv in my bed, nor do I eat (food) in my bed.
Anyway, I always tell everyone-- after they have asked me, how is it I never sleep??---that I will get all the sleep I need when I'm dead (a quote from Sam Elliot when he played with Patrick Swayze in Road House)!!!

 

[waltky]

Granny says dat's why she needs her beauty sleep...

Fragmented sleep 'harms memory'
25 July 2011 - Continuous sleep is important for memory formation

Broken sleep affects the ability to build memories, a study of mice suggests. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Science findings could help explain memory problems linked to conditions including Alzheimer's and sleep apnoea. The Stanford University found disrupting sleep made it harder for the animals to recognise familiar objects. A UK sleep expert said the brain used deep sleep to evaluate the day's events and decide what to keep. This study looked at sleep that was fragmented, but not shorter or less intense than normal for the mice. It used a technique called optogenetics, where specific cells are genetically engineered so they can be controlled by light. They targeted a type of brain cell that plays a key role in switching between the states of being asleep and being awake.

Mouse memory test

The researchers then sent light pulses directly into the brains of mice while they slept. This meant they could disrupt their sleep without affecting total sleep time or the quality or composition of sleep. The animals were then placed in a box with two objects, one of which they had encountered before. Mice would naturally spend more time examining the newer object, and those who had been allowed uninterrupted sleep did just that. But those whose sleep had been disrupted were equally interested in both objects, suggesting their memories had been affected. Writing in the journal, the researchers, led by Dr Luis de Lecea, said: "Sleep continuity is one of the main factors affected in various pathological conditions that impact memory, including Alzheimer's and other age-related cognitive deficits."

Broken sleep also affects people addicted to alcohol, and those with sleep apnoea - a condition in which the throat repeatedly narrows or closes during sleep, restricting oxygen and causing the patient to wake up. The researchers add there is no evidence of a causal link between sleep disruption and any of these conditions. But they added: "We conclude that regardless of the total amount of sleep or sleep intensity, a minimal unit of uninterrupted sleep is crucial for memory consolidation." Independent sleep expert Dr Neil Stanley, a former chairman of the British Sleep Society, said: "During the day, we accumulate all these memories. "At some point we have to sort through what's happened during the day. "There are some things that we need to 'lock down' as a permanent hard memory.

"That process occurs in deep sleep. So anything that affects sleep will have an effect on that process to a greater or a lesser extent." Dr Stanley said there was particularly striking evidence that people with sleep apnoea had particular problems "locking down" memories. And he added that people with Alzheimer's often had trouble sleeping, but said: "There is something there. But whether it's the degeneration of the brain that causes poor sleep, or poor sleep that aids the degeneration of the brain has not been determined."

BBC News - Fragmented sleep 'harms memory'

 

[Dabs]

I don't care if I build any more memories. I just don't sleep much, there's not much I can do about it, besides swallowing a shitload of pills, and even sometimes, they don't help.
I can feel sleepy, be tired, but when my head hits the pillow, it's HELLO time.
The brain finds many ways to keep me awake. I guess I should find it comical in a way.

 

[ekrem]

Normal days 5-8 hours, sports day about 8-9 hours. And if it is weekend it can be more and not necessarily at night.

 

[Dabs]

I'm a night time person...love the night time!
I had to drive home late one night just a few nights ago, and as I was driving, I had the windows down a short bit and the breeze of the night air was awesome
The stars in the sky....I felt more alive and alert than I had for days!
I'm definitely not a morning person, no-no......the night time is for me

 

[Spud]

I get about 5 hours sleep a night, on weekends and days off I can sleep for 12+ hours, but I generally function the same regardless of how much sleep I get.

 

[Douger]

5 hours if I stay home. 3 hours if I have to go to town in the evening. I have to be up by 2 or 3 . My workers show up at 330 expecting coffee.

 

[Kooshdakhaa]

Sunday through Thursday nights I get 5-6 hours...usually 5. I need 6-7 hours.

Friday and Saturday nights I get anywhere from 8-12 hours depending on how exhausted I am.