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Comment by nopassrecover | Hacker News Reader

If it affects peak physical performance, it seems reasonable to suspect it affects peak mental performance (as studies seem to suggest). High functioning executives might get by on little sleep, but would they perform better on more sleep? Are hours clocked more important than output at the executive level?

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No, it doesn't seem reasonable at all.

Athletic activity causes actual physical microdamage that takes rest time, nutrition, and hormones to repair. The elevated secretion of human growth hormone during REM sleep is a significant reason why athletes perform better on more sleep.

No such analogue exists for the human brain. Mental activities, at worst, deplete neurotransmitter levels. I have seen no evidence to suggest that massive dosages of sleep do a better job of restoring these levels than minimally adequate amounts.

I thought it was well known that sleep plays a very important role in learning?

For mental work, sleep is not replenishment, it's prep work. Your brain is thinking problems while you sleep.

Not only that, sleep also appears to be when your brain reinforces what you've learned... over and over again.

Yet people perform worse mentally without sleep - why would that be if sleep was not vital to mental performance? Have you never needed a nap or coffee to refresh your mind? Do you deny a physical influence on mental faculties?

Training involves neural adaptation, a large part of which occurs while sleeping.

The systems of the body are not neatly partitioned into modules.

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