Sleep or die early?

[djnotts]

Well, if it's a choice.....fun I had by going short of sleep in days long gone greater than any I get now or will get in the remaining few years. "Die early" for me, please.

[robing]

Well I've been an insomniac for over 20 years and I worked nights for 2 years so I'm screwed then!
Much of this article is hogwash. Some people can get by with relatively little sleep. Worrying about lack of sleep
Is worse than the actual lack of sleep and tends to perpetuate insomnia.

Also pretty sure that sleep deprivation would have been much worse during two world wars and in the past when the working classes worked extremely long hours.

[Sweep]

Also pretty sure that sleep deprivation would have been much worse during two world wars and in the past when the working classes worked extremely long hours.

Well yes rob but surely you are aware that folk died a fair bit younger in those days. Hence the pension sums made more sense. Not saying that this was mostly due to lack of sleep but there is a massive hole in your argument.

[mercalia]

Hi mercalia, many thanks for sharing this article.
I just read the whole article and I’m very scared. Now I’m in 26 years old. I sleep more than 5 hours at night very rarely. Sometimes I can’t sleep during a whole week. I think I’m in a great danger. From today I promise myself that trying to sleep at least more than 7 hours at night.

well you need to work out why you dont sleep? too much coffee at bedtime, watching tv or smartphone, worry over some thing etc

[Sweep]

And despite what some folk think, alcohol also hinders sleep.

[nez]

Hi mercalia, many thanks for sharing this article.
I just read the whole article and I’m very scared. Now I’m in 26 years old. I sleep more than 5 hours at night very rarely. Sometimes I can’t sleep during a whole week. I think I’m in a great danger. From today I promise myself that trying to sleep at least more than 7 hours at night.

well you need to work out why you dont sleep? too much coffee at bedtime, watching tv or smartphone, worry over some thing etc

long periods of too little sleep can lead to mental health problems. It definitely needs addressing

[mercalia]

And despite 2hat some folk think, alcohol also hinders sleep.

well in my case it does send me to sleep. I rarely drink, so maybe its a matter of how much? in my case maybe a large glass of wine and I start to feel drunk and sleepy and do get a good nights sleep. I am definitely not the soul of any party

[ANTONISH]

I've often wondered if hard core audax riders are effectively shift workers.
There are cyclists regularly riding 600k virtually every weekend.
I can remember a desultory conversation in a 400k night control about whether what we were doing was damaging to health.

[bigjim]

I've often wondered if hard core audax riders are effectively shift workers.
There are cyclists regularly riding 600k virtually every weekend.
I can remember a desultory conversation in a 400k night control about whether what we were doing was damaging to health.

I think moderate regular activity is best. The longest lived mammals such as Elephants, Turtles, Blue whales, seem to just stroll through life with the odd burst of frenetic activity.

Previous research supports the idea that endurance exercise carries a risk. A 2012 study from the Mayo Clinic found that excessive training can cause cardiovascular damage such as scarring and enlargement of the heart and blood vessels.

“You can do light to moderate exercise as long as you want. We’re genetically designed for that kind of activity," Dr. James O'Keefe, a cardiologist at the Mid America Heart Institute, told CNN at the time. "We’re just not designed to run 26 miles at a time, or 100, or go on a full-distance triathlon for 12 hours as hard as you can go.”

[Rusty Rider]

An interesting article in the Guardian on Sleep

" I take my sleep incredibly seriously because I have seen the evidence. Once you know that after just one night of only four or five hours’ sleep, your natural killer cells – the ones that attack the cancer cells that appear in your body every day – drop by 70%, or that a lack of sleep is linked to cancer of the bowel, prostate and breast, or even just that the World Health Organisation has classed any form of night-time shift work as a probable carcinogen, how could you do anything else?” ”



https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/sep/24/why-lack-of-sleep-health-worst-enemy-matthew-walker-why-we-sleep?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+main+NEW+H+categories&utm_term=245051&subid=23601318&CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2

■ An adult sleeping only 6.75 hours a night would be predicted to live only to their early 60s without medical intervention.

■ A 2013 study reported that men who slept too little had a sperm count 29% lower than those who regularly get a full and restful night’s sleep.

■ If you drive a car when you have had less than five hours’ sleep, you are 4.3 times more likely to be involved in a crash. If you drive having had four hours, you are 11.5 times more likely to be involved in an accident.

For over 40 years I've never had more than 6 hours sleep, sometimes its even less, but not often. Admittedly I am a survivor from bowel cancer, but apart from 1 year of what I term bad health I feel healthy, happy and enjoy long walks and riding a bicycle. I also play golf, do all my own DIY. I'm not old (63) and don't take any prescription drugs or statins. To be fair to these organisations that collect data on what they think, the small amount of ppeople in tests (normally a couple of thousand or so) isn't sufficient to work out our chances of living a long life.

[mercalia]

Four surprising reasons why it's so important for you to get eight hours of sleep

https://a.msn.com/r/2/AAuI4Wb?m=en-gb

[nez]

There is the equivalent of a giant experiment going on with your generation. My grandparents (Victorians and Edwardians) didn't have telephones for most of their lives. As a child in the 50s and 60s I hardly watched tv because it was so boring. By the mid/late 1980s the tv was broadcasting during the night. By the late 90s most people were carrying around phones. etc etc. And so it goes on. When the hell does your generation get to switch off? If you all start to suffer with depression and insomnia by the time you are middle aged it won't be hard to trace the reason.

[ianrobo]

And despite what some folk think, alcohol also hinders sleep.

you bet it does, this was me on NYD measured by HRV which is basically the difference in each heart beat. Note went to sleep straight away and slept OK but look at the stress levels during the sleep (normally very low).

Sleep is vital but quality is far more important than time.

[mercalia]

an article from the Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/feb/25/britons-epidemic-sleeplessness-damaging-health?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+main+NEW+H+categories&utm_term=265453&subid=23601318&CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2

[Audax67]

Yes, do the sums.
Two hours less sleep means two more hours awake. Equals fourteen more hours a week equals just over 30days a year.
So dying at three score years and ten, you have lived the equivalent of 76years.

Used to be known as burning the candle at both ends.