How much can an extra hour's sleep change you?
bbc.co.uk
bbc.co.uk
But yes, we have a culture that doesn't value sleep. I know of people who schedule emails to be sent in the middle of the night just so they appear to be working all the time. Construction can begin at 7AM in NYC, waking up hundreds of people in surrounding buildings. Gas leaf blowers emit one of the most stressful drone sounds out in the suburbs, causing stress to dozens of neighbors, so one man can clear a pavement of dead leaves quicker.
And just this morning over Manhattan, a helicopter hovered at 6AM for at least an hour. An hour, sitting there, hovering, for God knows what reason, awaking possibly thousands of people early, causing possibly millions in lost productivity today.
Why does the fire truck needs to blast its horns at 3am on a Tuesday going down a large empty street? There is no need and in some countries that would be against noise pollution laws. Doesn't seem to matter here.
Leaf blowers and lawn mowing at 7am on a Sunday are also a major annoyance yet I understand that some people, especially older people, like to get up early and who am I to complain that they do?
They say having a major lack of sleep is comparable to being intoxicated yet there are no protections in place to prevent it. Instead we wax on about "pulling an all-nighter" like it's a competition on who can be the most sleep deprived.
We live in a strange world.
Resistance is futile. I just started using wax earplugs and find they make a huge difference and actually drown out a lot of noise.
Emergency vehicles are exempt from those laws, as they should be. Safety is more important than your sleep. Trains blow their horns at crossings for the same reason.
Also, I have to laugh at your indignation at someone mowing their lawn at 7am because they are awake but you aren't right after complaining about an empty street at 3am because everyone is asleep.
I live on the 9th floor of a condo building that unfortunately has single-pane windows. If I don't have an extremely loud fan blowing, I will be woken up by everything from emergency vehicles to motorcyclists. I realize this comes with the territory of living in a city, but if cosmopolitan cities like Geneva can incorporate effective noise pollution laws* then there's room to improve.
I'm not sure what you mean here? I was saying I don't think emergency vehicles need to use their sirens on a quiet street at 3 am in the morning. I was also bemoaning the use of leaf blowers at 7am on a Sunday. Both of those things are annoying yet "technically" I'd say 7am is probably a good time to consider as the start of the day and therefore removal of any noise restrictions. In fact, I think in the UK noise pollution restrictions apply from 11pm - 7am most nights.
8am chain saw on the weekend? ticket.
Atlanta (the city, not the region) is basically the freaks and geeks vacuum for the South (and also a middle class black mecca too). The city is great. The metro area is far more questionable. Tons of affordable homes in the city, tons of trees (we're literally "The City of Trees"), and lots of little pockets of whatever you like.
Some of the close in suburbs are more like Atlanta than it's suburbs, but honestly, it's go with a home in the city or go home IMO.
(Fulton county too, not DeKalb...it's complicated but important).
1. Bad that I've caused as much noise as I have at some times.
2. Very sorry for those of you that have to deal with easily disturbed sleep.
Edit: a bonus one gets with the fan is that it also cools you off during summer when a shut window might have caused problems otherwise. (Aircon is uncommon here.)
In my neighborhood, the trash collecting on Sundays takes place (for whatever "reason") at, believe it or not, 6:15AM. Then the recycling people appear later on, at 8:15AM.
I guess they are trying to get people motivated during the week-end?
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131009100602.ht...
Why do they do it? Sounds unethical. What sort of industry they are in?
I also hate how our smalltalk starts with "What do you do for a living?" That's a fair question, but its depressing when that's the first one and all we really talk about.
Its a puritan's overworked culture serving the elites. This shutdown is about this as well. We really need to have European-style vacation time and healthcare. I hope my generation gets it right and the status quo of the baby boomers is seen as the horrific thing that it truly is.
I agree - it's not good small-talk. Since this was pointed out to me (~15 years ago) I've made a conscious effort never to ask people what they do for a living. One friend I knew for a year before I found out what he did (that's a rare situation, granted). If you haven't tried it then I highly recommend it.
I want to __ask__ people what they __care__ about...
How do you open __small talk__ ...
So I don't think you need to seek what they care about. You just need to make the conversation worth continuing and it will get their on its own.
What's so depressing about that, and what would you suggest people ask instead? People's careers take up a lot of their time and provide their livelihood, and a lot of people are quite proud of their careers. Sure, things like sleep and diet are probably more fundamental to a person's wellbeing, but it's pointless to start smalltalk with "how much sleep have you been getting?" or "what is your diet like?".
idk who you hang out with but those last two questions would probably produce more interesting conversations than the former.
I consider it a clear improvement over its primary competition in other cultures, "Where are you from?" and "Who are your parents?" At least this one, if you don't like the answer you're giving, you have power to change it.
In my experience this usually takes the form of "what do you do?" The question irks me because I know that what's implied is the "for work" part, and that in turn implies that somehow, the way I make money is the signature aspect of my being. The assumption is built in to our [American] society of course. My response to this query is always either "do for what?" or a list of things that I do that I consider important (walk, ride my bike, work out, travel, listen to jazz, read ...).
It seems very much up to the individual to fight the battle. i.e. pay for gym, make an effort to go & pay for healthy food etc.
I have snore-caused sleep apnea, are you referring to that? If so, a CPAP device could help you. It's a small cube you put on your nightdesk with a tube and a face (or nose) mask attached to it that allows you clear breathing, but increases pressure in your respiratory system so you won't snore as easily. I live in germany and my insurance covered it, but even if yours doesn't, 1k$ isn't too much for such a thing:
http://www.thecpapshop.com/resmed-s9-autoset-cpap-machine-wi...
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/cpap/
They're a little uncomfortable at first, but they get the job done.
I don't need one (mild hypopnea) yet, but it's nice to know that options exist.
I had a coworker who, years ago, had sleep apnea (would fall asleep at keyboard at work), who subsequently got a CPAP and it's a night and day difference. I'm really glad for his improvements.
If side sleeping doesn't help, I know there are DIY oral appliances you can buy. They're usually marketed just for snoring, but have the same effect on SA. You need to boil it, put it in your mouth so it gets an impression of your teeth, let it cool and wear it at night. It keeps your mouth open enough to help with airway issues. Might as well try it. I think its $20.
Can be done by an an Audiologist.
Make sure to also use the lubricant as well (helps with comfort and importantly blocks more sound). Price I paid was under $100. Bought a 2nd pair. They are great much better than the temporarily sound plugs (not to mention cheaper in the long run).
When construction in Manhattan starts at 7am on Saturday, it wakes me up, but I put the ear plugs back in and turn on white noise and I'm fine. When I'm at work and there's a helicopter or union strike or noisy coworker, I throw in the in-ear headphones (they form a seal) and turn on the white noise app on my phone. It totally sucks we have to do these things, but they can help a lot.
Cats are better now. We have confined them away from our bedroom At night and we used a water spray (fine mist) which put them off scratching at the door. After a week or so of getting wet they stopped scratching.
Tried the old water spary trick on our oldest child when she kept waking me up at 5 am. Didn't work. Made her cry.
Just kidding! :-)
Ahem
Compacting garbage collection.
Worse than that is that if I do have a lie in, or I sleep longer than 8 hours — yes, I recorded sleep before my FitBit — I'd end up with headaches all day and night, worsening my sleep the next night. 7.5 hours seems to be my perfect sleep duration.
I've never been able to have a lie in, even when growing up with my parents and going through puberty. I'd want to lie in, but my parents would have me up by 8:30 every day. 9AM on rare occasions. I wonder if that's got anything to do with it.
Sleep is another of those things that is not one-size-fits-all and I guess having a sleep study done is the only way to find out for sure what you need individually.
I hope these will get even better (maybe a non-intrusive headpiece that can measure brainwaves?) in the future.
Do you have advice for a better analysis of my sleep each night?
Of course, this whole article is based on a really small sample size...I would take it more as a suggestion than a solid scientific result.
Sleep deprivation increase the levels of cortisol which is in part why you tend to put on weight when not sleeping enough. Cortisol is an anti-inflammatory.
I wouldn't be surprised if chronic lack of sleep increase inflammatory, due to some other mechanism, but for sure, short bouts of sleep deprivation has worked wonder for me to stop allergic reactions (I'm talking sleeping less than 4 hours/24 hours period - I usually need between 7 and 9 hours).
I'm not talking about not sleeping well, I'm talking about sleep deprivation, less than 4 hours, when I normally need between 7 to 9 hours.
Also, we are all slightly different, what works for one person might not work for another (we are all an experience of one).
That's a horrible way to look at any research conclusion. Have you considered you are possibly oversleeping? 7.5 hours might be a magic number (exactly 5 rem cycles) as opposed to 6.5 which will put you waking up in the middle of a rem cycle. Studies can be faulty for a whole bunch of reasons but dismissing a body of work because your little n=1 experiment didn't sync up with their conclusion is just willful ignorance.
Second, that is not how it works. There are varying levels of sleep. Some better than others. When your body doesn't need to go through rem sleep anymore it is sufficiently rested but that doesn't mean you feel like a ray of sunshine and immediately jump out of bed. There are other factors which make a person want to stay in bed longer than they should which leads to shitty non-rem sleep. Too much of this makes you feel groggy.
You may be suffering from any number of medical problems interfering with a good night's sleep.
Things like CPAP machines are transformative for sleep depth
You should consider doing some research or consulting with a doctor.