Why eight hours a night isn’t enough, according to a leading sleep scientist

submitted by magnora7 from qz.com

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[–]slabgreen 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (11 children)

I haven't ever thought about a circadian rhythm. It's honestly pretty irregular for me, though I can basically just sleep whenever I want to.

[–]magnora7[S] 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (10 children)

Yeah the circadian thing took me until I was like 22 to figure out. I just notice that I keep going to bed later, and later and later... until one day I just get no sleep, or I double-sleep, and then it re-aligns things and I'm back to going to bed at 11am instead of 6am. But it's always drifting like that, it puts me on about a 28-34 hour circadian rhythm.

I also have a lot of "momentum", waking up takes a while, as does falling asleep.

[–]slabgreen 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (9 children)

I've honestly never experienced anything like that. I usually just have a set sleep schedule though, to try to use my time well (then watch videos online for two hours after I wake up super early, negating the purpose of the entire routine). That's kinda cool.

[–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (8 children)

Yeah it's cool most of the time with the longer waking periods as I can get a lot done. But it sucks when you wake up at 6 in the evening and the whole waking period it's dark outside, and you just basically have to wait a few days for your rhythm to realign to daytime lol

[–]slabgreen 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (7 children)

Do you not have any control over it?

[–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

I have some control over it, but I can never stresslessly conform to the 24h rhythm for months on end. It's always a struggle tbh

[–]slabgreen 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

Sounds rough. I didn't know this was a thing... ! I don't think I have any actual restrictions on when / how I sleep - I don't get jet lag or anything.

[–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

I don't get jet lag either haha. I didn't know it was a thing either until it happened to me, basically. And I've read studies that in the dark, without any day/night cues, most people will naturally fall in to a 25h rhythm, longer than 24. Which is interesting. I'm just kind of an extreme case of that, I guess.

[–]slabgreen 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Is this a new development then? Or did you always have this kind of sleep pattern and just never really noticed?

[–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I always had problems falling asleep and getting enough sleep. It wasn't until I actually just let my sleep schedule vary instead of trying to force it, that I discovered the pattern, and it explained a lot.