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Comment by guylhem | Hacker News Reader

Has anyone noticed how people who do not sleep a lot "look old" - I mean with wrinkles, spots, etc.

Look at investment bankers - their chronological age does not seem to match their physical appearance.

This article gives a potential explanation - bad sleep changes protein expression, but I'm curious about the visible outcomes.

Hopefully there are many sleep deprived founders, and well rested lifestyle entrepreneurs (sorry for the cliché!) reading this thread.

Do people tell you you look younger/older than what you are? And how old are you??

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"Has anyone noticed how people who do not sleep a lot "look old" - I mean with wrinkles, spots, etc."

Absolutely. But I will also add that the spots and the wrinkles can come from to much exposure to the sun which can also come from having the money to take vacations in the sun or have summer homes. Excess sun exposure really ages people.

Good point. They always say that about Presidents, they age like 20 years in 8 years.

Stress is a contributor too, even if you sleep well. Clinton was known as a night owl but Bush, by most reports, got plenty of sleep and he still aged a lot.

Obama 2004 (43 yo): http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/worldnews/9...

Obama 2011 (50 yo): http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/worldnews/9...

Not much hair color left..

Well that is a time where a lot of people lose their hair color.

People lose their hair color due (primarily) to a lack of catalase, which normally removes hydrogen peroxide. It is now thought that much of this work is done during sleep. So, assuming this theory is true, a lack of sleep (an effect every president has mentioned) does cause people to go gray.

That makes sense. Several of my friends in college developed grey patches in their hair that went away shortly after graduation.

It's an exaggeration, but maybe if the 2nd term doesn't go so well, this is what he could look like in 2016.

http://www.loop21.com/politics/how-obama-will-look-2016

If that happened to me, I'd bow out of a second term.

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