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Author
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Topic: Is 8 hours sleep gonna kill you?
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Nitrozac
Benevolent Dictator!
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posted September 24, 2007 14:03
As it turns out, getting your 8 hours of z's, isn't very healthy according to this reported study. The magic number for optimum health is lucky number 7. Less than 7 hours and you're risking serious health problems such as heart attacks and diabetes. More than 7 hours, increases mortality rate, but for non-cardiovascular disease reasons including "depression, low socioeconomic status and cancer-related fatigue.”
Recenty, I've purposely reduced my sleep from 9 hours per night, to 8 hours to see if "oversleeping" was causing my headaches. Since I've done that, my headaches have been significantly reduced in frequency and severity, so I think there is something to this. Perhaps I'll try reducing it further to 7 hours sleep and see if I notice any improvements.
How much do you sleep?
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Ugh, MightyClub
BlabberMouth, the Next Generation
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posted September 24, 2007 15:26
If given the chance, I'll sleep a good 10 - 12 hours before I feel any motivation to get out of bed. However, I tend to feel much better throughout the day if I get less than 8 hours of sleep. So I guess sleep is like everything else -- do it in moderation.
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Ugh!
Posts: 1615 | From: Ithaca, NY | Registered: Dec 2004
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Zwilnik
Solid Nitrozanium SuperFan!
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posted September 24, 2007 15:29
Interesting.
At the moment I'm typically targeting 7 hours, although it's usually not ideal sleep. Anything over that and I tend to dehydrate, which triggers day long migrane attacks.
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The Universe is entirely made up of elements.
The most important of which is the element of surprise.
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stevenback7
SuperBlabberMouth!
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posted September 24, 2007 15:38
I get 8 hours of sleep during the week and weekends it can be between 8 and 10 hours. If I get a good sleep then I feel normal. If I get too little I feel like I'm going to crash soon. If my sleep is eventful I feel tired. And if I sleep too much it takes forever to get going in the morning.
I think I better get as much sleep as I can now before University.
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The Famous Druid
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posted September 24, 2007 16:02
I'm a parent, I haven't had 8 hours uninterrupted sleep since 1998.
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If you watch 'The History Of NASA' backwards, it's about a space agency that has no manned spaceflight capability, then does low-orbit flights, then lands on the Moon.
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TMBWITW,PB
Member # 1734
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posted September 24, 2007 16:44
I hear that.
/me had <4 hours sleep last night, no more than 2 consecutive
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Callipygous
BlabberMouth, a Blabber Odyssey
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posted September 24, 2007 16:55
As I get older, I need less sleep. I get by on about 5/6 hours a night.
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"Knowledge is Power. France is Bacon" - Milton
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Chesty
Assimilated
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posted September 24, 2007 17:22
When I was in college I slept 3 hrs a night. Then after classes and practice I would take a forty five minute nap. Now I usually go to bed about 2 am and get up at 6 but I still take a nap in the afternoon (about 1.5 hours now).
I don't cheat on my taxes, lie to my wife or steal from anyone. That makes my sleep so much sweeter.
Posts: 416 | From: The Beach | Registered: Nov 2003
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Wingless
Mini Geek
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posted September 24, 2007 20:17
I need about 15 hours of sleep a night, but only get around 5. This is completely my own fault of course.
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nerdwithnofriends
Uber Geek
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posted September 24, 2007 21:12
I generally try for 9 hours of sleep per night, plus a variable time for naps during the day (being narcoleptic and all).
I generally get about 45 minutes of uninterrupted nap-time on mondays, wednsdays, and fridays, and about either fifteen minutes of an hour on tuesdays and thursdays, depending on if I skip differential equations before work.
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Darren Duncan
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posted September 25, 2007 01:17
I should say that the optimal sleep is dependent on the person and 7 hours is no magic bullet for everyone. Some need more, some less; in fact, some people supposedly just get 2-3 hours a night with no ill effects.
For me, I find that between 9 and 10 hours of sleep per night is optimal. I generally set my alarm for a little over 9 hours from when I go to bed, but not more than 10 hours.
About 8 hours is the least I can tolerate on a sustained basis, generally going below 8 leads to difficulty concentrating or general too-little-sleep symptoms.
I've never head headaches from sleeping too long, or I rarely have headaches at all in any event. I also generally make a point of avoiding stressful situations in my life, which includes not being a kind of person that tries to cram a lot of activities into too short a time.
I also do not take naps. It takes me awhile to fall asleep in the first place (eg, 30-60 minutes, rather than 1-2 minutes), though once asleep I can stay asleep easily enough, or if I wake, fall asleep again within minutes if I remained relaxed, and it generally works well just do all the sleeping in one block, at night. I also sleep best when the air is cool rather than when it is warm, so hot nights make sleeping quite difficult.
There, I guess that's saying a lot.
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Ashitaka
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posted September 25, 2007 02:19
Just becuase "B" follows "A" does not mean that "A" caused "B".
As no mechinism is proposed I think that poor sleeping habits are not the cause of these ilnesses but that both sleeping habits and deseases are the result of other lifestyle choices.
While not getting enough sleep could lower the abilty of ones imune system, and I could accept that this could be among causes to a person's poor health, it is the too much sleep causing increased chances of illnesses that makes me take this article with a grain of salt.
I do not think that sleeping to much causes depression as the article eludes to (though I do not know what they report as i cannot read teh journal article) but that the cause and effect in this case is reversed and that depression causes moer sleep.
Having said this I guess I am healthy because I sleep 7 hours a night, and not the other way around.
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"If they're not gonna make a distinction between Muslims and violent extremists, then why should I take the time to distinguish between decent, fearful white people and racists?"
-Assif Mandvi
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maxray
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posted September 25, 2007 13:03
I get top the bed approximately at 0.40 nd wake up at 8.05. Woohoo! iIam healthy! Am I?
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CommanderShroom
BlabberMouth, a Blabber Odyssey
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posted September 25, 2007 13:19
I generally run on about 4-6 hours of sleep per night. I am also known to be up very early in the morning rather than stay up excessively late.
Now I can go on less sleep for many days in a row, but my body rebels against me and I tend to pass out while relaxing and won't wake up for hours.
My body dictates my sleep more so than I. I know I have slept enough when I can wake up with out the guidance of an alarm clock. Which in recent weeks has not been the case. But after all these years of being up fairly early, sleeping in for me is to sleep until 7 am...
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Has one of us confessed?
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dragonman97
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posted September 26, 2007 12:52
8 hours? I'd love to get that, but I have this pesky thing called "a job" and I really don't like going to bed before midnight. ![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
OTOH, I had a long weekend, and slept a good deal through it. :-)
Monday night, I probably get <=7 hrs sleep, and felt pretty alright, but I think the extra rest and pleasant weekend helped with that. Otherwise, I probably don't get much more than 6-7 hrs per night if I'm lucky.
And now I'm kind of weary...I'd like to be able to take a siesta! ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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There are three things you can be sure of in life: Death, taxes, and reading about fake illnesses online...
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Xanthine
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posted September 26, 2007 13:15
One of the perks of my job is noone cares which 60 hours of the week I choose to work, so I get my 8 or 9 in nightly.
When I was an undergrad, I'd typically get around3-5 hours of sleep on weeknights, and a whopping 7 or 8 on weekends. I did not nap. I never nap, unless I'm sick. This is not a healthy thing to do for weeks and months on end. At the end of semesters I'd typically go through a couple weeks where I'd catch up by sleeping 14 hours at a stretch, and dreaming bizarre dreams. I think I broke something too, because even if I wanted to live on that kind of schedule again I couldn't.
That said, I can and still do pull the occasional all-nighter or short-nighter, but such occasions are few and far between.
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And it's one, two, three / On the wrong side of the lee / What were you meant for? / What were you meant for?
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Colonel Panic
BlabberMouth, the Next Generation
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posted September 26, 2007 17:44
Ahitika has an excellent point in examining causal relationship.
I might get 8-14 hours a week. I inherited it.
Colonel Panic
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Free! Free at last!
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Zwilnik
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posted September 26, 2007 19:24
I actually worked with someone who didn't sleep at all. Other than power napping for 10-15 minutes at a time when nothing else was on.
Seems to work for him at least. He didn't ever appear to be tired and was holding down a top exec job at a major (major) company last time I saw him.
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The Universe is entirely made up of elements.
The most important of which is the element of surprise.
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TMBWITW,PB
Member # 1734
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posted September 26, 2007 21:05
Sounds like he was on the Ueberman schedule. I don't think I could bring myself to try polyphasic sleep schedules. Although the 28 hour day sounds interesting.
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"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it may be necessary from time to time to give a stupid or misinformed beholder a black eye."
—Miss Piggy
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fs
Solid Nitrozanium SuperFan!
Member # 1181
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posted September 27, 2007 14:16
quote:
Originally posted by Ashitaka:
While not getting enough sleep could lower the abilty of ones imune system, and I could accept that this could be among causes to a person's poor health, it is the too much sleep causing increased chances of illnesses that makes me take this article with a grain of salt.
Though it seems entirely reasonable that if you are depressed, unemployed (low socio-econonomic status), or suffering from cancer you may sleep more than eight hours a night.
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