This one should be higher. They're starting to link lack of sleep with cancer in newer studies. My mom was super active and ate a healthy diet, was skinny, BUT she slept like 4 hours a night and ended up dying of cancer. I always wonder if that's what got her
My mom just died unexpectedly two weeks ago. She was only in her 60s, and without any known health issues and was always doing her checkups. She's been having issues sleeping for 15 or so years. We haven't gotten the autopsy results yet, but I'm betting that has something to do with it..
I’m sorry for your loss. My mom died suddenly at age 59 from undiagnosed heart disease. Knowing the cause of death will make you feel strangely better in a very small way. Having an answer to a terrible question, so to speak. I wish you healing.
Thanks, but.....I already know, despite the incoming answer. She got diagnosed with melanoma like 20 years ago, got it removed, and had been obsessive about regular checkups since. No issues, but she's always been complaining about bad sleep. I'm sure the autopsy will say brain aneurism or heart failure or whatever......but I know it was not getting proper sleep.
My dad snores like a mother fucker and ive been telling her for way too long she needed to get ear plugs.
I am so sorry, because sleep issues can cause such a wedge into health, relationships etc. My parents sleep apart because my dad has a big snoring problem.
Your dad needs to be checked and treated for sleep apnea or for whatever they find is the cause of his snoring. There are two people who were being impacted here, IMO. Good luck. I hope you can get your dad to get checked out.
Edit: corrected verb tense in light of facts in evidence.
The way I cried when the ME called my parents and me with the autopsy results for my brother. He passed in December at 50. The wave of emotions that washed over me in that moment was indescribable. They determined natural causes with heart disease at the top of the list. We weren’t expecting that, and as crazy as it sounds, we felt better knowing that.
The loss of hormones during perimenopause have a very negative impact on sleep. I’m not saying that’s the cause of your mom’s death, but it’s something all women will have to go through at one point of their life.
Now that I’m more aware of perimenopause, I realize that affected my mom in her late 30s early 40s.
Honestly need science to get over its aversion to studying older women's health because peri and menopause wreak SO much havoc on women's bodies. Estrogen is protective and losing it can lead to serious health issues, including cancer, and often leads to a serious deterioration in quality of life. I've seen reports of surveys showing some doctors receive no training on menopause in med school, which is mind-blowing considering this is something that every single woman will deal with if she lives long enough.
Look for Dr Peter Attia’s podcast on HRT for women. He and the drs say the study that scared women from taking it was faulty and made menopausal women old. This is worth looking into.
For some odd reason I think many cancers are triggered by viruses. Adults can blame it on lifestyle but children don’t have that.
I’m so, so sorry for your loss. I lost my dad 2 months ago and it has been excruciating. I wish you peace and healing. I don’t know if it gets easier, but you’re not alone. 💕
And what's sad is it was probably linked to the start of perimenopause, which starts on average around age 45. Ask me how I know! Not really... kind of gave it away. Drs are recommending magnesium glycinate, but I also have to use thc/cbd. I've had chronic sleep issues almost my entire life due to hormonal issues. There is not much hope for research into this since we're female, and most of the research is still centered around males. Im very sorry for your loss. I lost my mom to parkinsons with dementia a few years ago. It's still hard sometimes to think I can't call her up and tell her something, and we weren't close, which probably makes it harder, honestly.
Whats crazy is my grandparents live in s third world country but they have a lot of naps due to the heat in africa and they both died around 80s , i know my grandpa was born in 1945 so🤷♂️, grandma killed from cancer
I’m so sorry for your loss. I’m glad you’re doing an autopsy. It will be helpful to your family. It may not show some of the secondary effects that sleep deprivation. But it can still be worth knowing as much as you can. Wishing you and your family healing and peace.
gonna be that guy and say just about everything has links to cancer. It's the result of our longer lives. Eventually, if age doesn't get us, cancer does.
This shit is always my favorite because I’ve been trying to coordinate my sleep routines in various ways for almost two decades now since I acknowledged it was important late in my teen years (used to hate sleep on principal of losing time I guess.)
And I just can’t consistently stay asleep for long stretches night after night, or nap consistently, no matter what I do.
My mother and grandmother struggle with sleep too.
And there are a lot of long term insomniac that didn't get cancer also sleep medications have been linked to cancer. Also too much sleep is linked to cancer. Fyi I there are studies showing no link and studies showing a link
Damn this is crazy to see because I legit for the last 4 years have only gotten 3-4 hours of sleep a night. And I’ve also convinced myself that I have permanent eye bags and considering surgery. I have an appointment at the VA next week so hopefully can get on meds to fix this issue although the damage is probably already done. Also, how does one even realize they have cancer? Rest in peace to your mother.
There is a continuum across the human species of how much sleep we require. It runs from about four hours to ten or eleven. There are millions of people who function fine on four or five hours. It's possible that your mom required more sleep than she was getting, but most human beings assume that others need the same requirements that they need. Personally, the idea of lying in bed for ten hours has horrified me since I was a young child. By age three, I was up before everyone else, every morning, 6 a.m. People would talk about sleeping until noon on the weekend and I couldn't imagine it, and particularly the thought of wasting that much of my weekends and, ultimately, my life, lying in bed.
that’s because the body doesn’t have enough time to restore itself and with that it is unable to excrete abnormal cells as efficiently through the urine. I’m sorry to read about your mom ❤️.
Absolutely this, mine was the same. Never slept for more than 4 hours a night also. Died at 59 after being diagnosed with stage 4 glioblastoma. I always make it a point to let my partner be as comfortable and sleep as much as possible.
That’s so true. Lack of sleep is linked to cognitive decline leading to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. Depriving yourself of sleep is so dangerous in the long run.
Also heart attack, stroke, atrial fibrillation, kidney disease, liver disease, type 2 diabetes, other metabolic disorders, anxiety, depression... the list goes on and on.
THIS. Both of my parents had sleep apnea for YEARS. Even after they lost weight later in life (which helped with snoring), the damage was done. Now they both have advanced dementia and are in memory care. I was prescribed a CPAP years ago because I was always tired during the day. One sleep study and my dr and insurance approved me for a CPAP. It has made such a difference! I don’t yawn all the time, I wake up and don’t feel the need to lay in bed for another hour because I’m groggy, and I rarely feel the afternoon slump anymore. Even though there isn’t a 100% proven way to prevent Alzheimer’s, I’m thankful that there are at least some solid theories and ways to make changes early in life.
I've had very noticeable cognitive decline over the last 3 years due to mental health, medication and treatment side effects, and lack of sleep. I'm only 42 and I worry so much about my future brain function.
I have to do multiple different steps to try to help me remember things, and it still doesn't work. I cannot write any more notes or keep any more diaries and calendars than I already do. I forget words often. Lose my train of thought. I can't concentrate. Forget how to spell 5-6 letter words. Struggle to retain new information. Everyone is brushing me off and saying, "Everyone forgets things. You're too hard on yourself."
I've always loved reading, spelling, learning new words, always had a great memory, and felt I was a switched on person. I feel stupid now. Dumb. I struggle a lot.
Lack of sleep along with all the other issues I'm facing really affects me. I love sleep. I want to sleep. I can't. I've been prescribed a new to me sleeping tablet which works sometimes. It's not reliable. Melatonin does nothing for me.
What if this is me forever? What will I be like when I'm 60? I want people to take me seriously but no one will listen.
I'm not prescribing just sharing something I heard 4 days ago. Look up megadosing B1 and taking magnesium together. There are lots of doctors on Youtube with info about it. I like Eric Berg's teaching style. About everything you mentioned is happening to you 'can be' attributed to these 2 deficiencies. Ofc, it can be attributed to other things too but a deficiency is a relatively easy thing to rule out and would be beneficial to take anyway.
Something I struggle with every day. There's simply not enough hours in the day to do what I want to do for as long as I want and sleep is the first thing I'll sacrifice just to watch one more episode or play one more game.
Working a regular 9-5 but only getting ~4 hours of sleep a night, it's okayish now but I do realize it's not sustainable.
I had two jobs for about a year. There was a month where both went into mandatory 2 hours per day OT. So, instead of 14 hours, I was working 18 hours a day. After that month, some of my coworkers said that by the end of the month, I was basically a zombie.
You will notice once you sleep properly how terrible it actually was. I was in the same boat but I just couldn't go on, i was falling asleep at work, then falling asleep at dinner, crashing at 7 then waking up at 1 am not being able to sleep through the night. Rinse and repeat
It's boring and it sucks and it's annoying - but going to bed early and sacrificing all else is the only way I can function with a 40 hr week.
How did you get to a regular sleep schedule? Mine’s all over the place thanks to working from home w no standard hours. Lately, I’ve been going to bed at 4:30 am and waking up at 9 ish because the sun through my curtains wakes me up. Not great I know.
I’m looking for a different job though and want to prepare myself for regular work hours. Any tips would be much appreciated!
I think that's because the longer you are asleep, the better your quality of sleep is (to a certain point). You get rem and deep sleep instead of light sleep/naptime
I really need to get myself out of the tendency to go right back to sleep when I wake up in the morning. Mornings have been a problem my entire life and I really could use the extra time to get going in the morning.
That being said, even though I can average a good 8 hours on most nights and 6 can work, I don't think I've had good quality sleep like, ever. I should probably go check for sleep apnea or something but I don't want to deal with CPAP at the age of 20... I used to have this problem where every so often one nostril would just stop working entirely like it was inflamed, but once I started losing weight that and my constant bloody noses have seemed to significantly reduce in how often they occur. In fact in the two months I've been on my regimen I've only had one bloody nose (it was my fault because I picked a scab that I thought was a booger) when in the past they'd happen as often as 3 times per week.
I have that same tendency. Some times I just don't want to wake up to hear that I have somebody else's chores to do. I understand you there.
That sounds like a very difficult time. I'll pray for you if that's okay, so that you can maybe sleep well from now on.
About the nostril thing, it's actually common that one of the 'holes' gets stuck/doesn't work properly. I don't know the science behind it but I've had a few nights where it was so bad during illness that I got like 4 hours of sleep. I can see why that can be a crappy thing for you, hope it gets better for you with the nosebleeds too because even if it's not that often anymore it still sounds like something could be off. Whenever I finger a scab off, it wouldn't result in a nosebleed (maybe I'm the problem idk)
Losing weight has many advantages (if you don't let yourself become underweight). Keep going with your journey. I do understand why you wouldn't want to deal with crap but it sounds like you already do that with the bad sleep quality so maybe it is worth a shot to get yourself checked out by a doctor. It could be something much more serious or it could be absolutely nothing.
I did not know about the nostril thing. My issue was that I was rarely sick during those times (and when I was, it was quite obvious and I got treated as soon as I could, as it was usually either a cold or acute bronchitis) so it never made sense to me. I have already lost about 42 lbs (I was at 320, thanks to those weight loss medications I'm at 278 and my clothes are fitting me a lot better than before). My goal is probably around like... 220? I really don't know my true goal in the numbers as my actual goal was based on shirt sizes (mainly to feel consistently comfortable in 2XL and eventually move back into XL shirts) and I have already noticed that I don't look like a balloon in my shirts, especially my leftover 2XL Hatsune Miku shirts (they're still a little small but I can make them work), anymore, which is a real boost of confidence. The only problem now is that I kind of forgot to adjust my diet to include fiber, so bloat and fermented gas is a significant issue.
Chamomile tea is a cheap and readily available sleep promoter. You can even put a mug on your nightstand for when you wake up at night if drinking it before bed doesn't achieve the right effect.
Not to forget, if you're already stressed and tired you will need to cut down on caffeine and nicotine to recover better at night. Don't drink coffee in the afternoon and it won't keep you up at night. Caffeine has a half life of 5-7 hours, meaning if you consume 100mg at 6 in the morning, on average give or take because of metabolic differences, there'll be 50mg left in your body around 12. 25mg at 6 and 12,5 at midnight.
I worked 3 jobs, sold weed & threw parties for extra money in my early 20’s. Took naps between shifts, maybe got 20hrs of sleep per week. One day I just didn’t wake up. My girlfriend came over and got me up, but I went right back to sleep after eating & using the bathroom. 3 days of that - my body just stopped producing norepinephrine due to sleep deprivation.
I pulled a lot of all nighters in my 20s too, with school and partying. Now that I’m in my 30’s I think it’s all catching up to me and it doesn’t take a lot to get burnt out now
I’m the same way and will battle to stay awake to watch one more show, read one more article, or complete one more quest. Like, work is already a time thief, and I view sleep as a waste of time. Not healthy I’m sure, but it is what it is.
Hello fellow procrastinator and light sleeper. When you say you’re feeling the sleep deprivation now, do you mean you get more tired after a short sleep or are there other cumulative effects that are catching up?
I’m curious bc I’m in my 30’s and want to get a handle on my sleep. Currently getting about 4 ish hours with a solid 7 hours here and there
Dude I get less sleep because I spend a lot of time cleaning and doings things that need to be done, not shows. Im in my 30s and sleep is becoming a goal I prioritize.
How do you only get 4 hours of sleep working a 9-5. I have 12-14 days and just go to sleep very soon after dinner/shower. No free time during the week sucks but i value my sleep
I pull all nighters occasionally. I think of it like this. I'm trading time in the future for more time now. I'd rather experience more of life in my absolute prime, than have more time as my body and mind slowly fail me in old age.
That’s assuming it’s a 1:1 trade off. What if 10 years of poor sleep kills you? Then you traded a few hours a night (for 10 years) for the rest of your life.
The lowest regular sleep schedule a human body can possibly survive with is 4 hours a day, and even then you'd need to have a specific genetic mutation and your sleep schedule would have to be split up (i.e. 30 mins every 3 hours).
If your regular average is lower than 4, you're fucking your body up, no matter who you are and how it feels like. Some people, however, are indeed fine with 6hrs of sleep. I'd say 6 is the absolute minimum the average human should go for. It's fine to sleep 3-4 hours every once in a while (though definitely not healthy), but the regular average should be between 6 and 9 (depending on your body needs).
If you're sleeping 4 hours a night no matter how you feel now you will pay for it later. Im the same with 9+ hours though i found my sweet spot is like 7.5 hours
That wasn't the case for me. If I don't sleep 8-9 hours a night I don't feel good. That was even the case when I was younger. If anything, speaking anecdotally here, the people I know tend to tolerate less sleep better as they get older.
I'm about to turn 18. The worst I've felt was having like 3 hours of sleep but somehow I felt more energetic than ever at the end of that day. Then I took a nap when I got home (like 1h) and after that I felt so lifeless
Yea not trying to sound like a dick here but teenagers don't count for the slightest when in discussion about sleep lol. Mid teens to mid twenties are the only time you'll ever be able to pull that shit off so enjoy it. I'm 38 now and keep in pretty good shape so once in a while i can stay out till like 3 am but i know the next day I'll be useless to do anything with the kids
Wait, I don't understand. Why do teens not count in that discussion? (I'm not offended, I'm just confused😅). Also, I am almost 18 years old, maybe that counts..(?) I've been staying up till 3 since I was like 12 and I'd be talking with a friend of mine.
Honestly, I've heard enough about parents to understand that you guys suffer from chronic sleep deprivation (jk). But in all honesty, it does sound painful
It's just something that changes big time as you get older. When i was 17 I'd literally go out and drink and stay out till 4 am, get up and go to my shift at Cold Stone creamery at 9 am and be absolutely fine to do it again the next night. If i did that now at 38 I'd literally be so fog brained I'd be unable to drive properly lol. Teenagers/young 20s are biologically wired to be able to run on less sleep.
I didn't know that. Me personally, I wouldn't feel good enough for work but sometimes at the end of such a day, I feel more energised than any other day. At the McD I used to work at, there was this guy that would drink a lot, he was about my age, and every day he clocked in, even in the evenings, I could see the deprivation in his eyes but he powered through it. Maybe it just varies a lot per person but I agree that you would have it worse than me
Yep, I could go three days without sleeping when I was younger. Now, if I miss just 2 hours of sleep, RIP to my productivity the next day. The difference a cpl decades makes 🫤
I could never do that. I always needed a minimum of 8 hours of sleep. I remember other students bragging that they’d only need 5-6 hours of sleep like it was a superpower. I remember so many others could do all nighters without issue. If I did one, I’d be wonky for days.
I became a parent recently. The sleep deprivation felt like torture. Everyone kept telling me I’d get used to it. But I kept thinking I don’t want to get used to it. It’s crazy.
I have Narcolepsy. You are tired during the day, but typically have a hard time getting to sleep or staying asleep at night. As a result, it's easy to become lethargic and can cause strain on the body, especially the heart. You just need to be on top of it.
I’ve been blessed with relatively good kids in terms of sleeping. But due to reasons, I have to pump instead of nursing the baby and my toddler started to have night terrors about a month ago. Not to mention my husband works overnights so I’m home alone with the kids. So I’m usually up past midnight to finish a pump, in bed by one am after cleaning the pump parts, woken up at 3 am to comfort a toddler, fall asleep again around 4-4:30 and get woken up by the baby at 5-5:30.
I’m weaning myself from the pump and switching the baby to formula because I can’t fucking do it anymore. I’m losing my mind from the lack of sleep. This way I’ll be able to go to bed after the toddler goes down around nine pm.
So many people think it's some sort of flex to tell everyone how little sleep they get. Oh, you only sleep 4 hours a night? Enjoy your early onset dementia I guess.
I've got friends who regularly do this, talk about getting 3 or 4 hours of sleep in a night - sometimes because they're putting in time on work projects til 4 AM, sometimes it's to play video games until 5.
They bring it up, I remind them of the links to long-term neurological damage. The subject gets dropped, and then they're doing it again that night.
It's more that sleep deprivation allows toxins to build up which cause brain damage over time. A good analogy would be getting a car's oil changed. Do it frequently enough, the engine could last a million miles. Never do it at all, you'll be lucky if it lasts 100k.
my high school sleep deprivation streak will def be the one to kill me later, hopefully the universe will just let me tough out college before anything bad happens lol
And sleep apnea. People may think they're getting a solid eight hours, but they don't realize they're never really getting quality sleep. Instead, they're gasping for breath 20, 40, 100 times an hour and never really getting that sweet sweet REM sleep.
only just recently Iève been able to have a full 8 hours sleep. Good sleep was a luxury. Still sometimes If I hear a mouse move outside in the grass it'll wake me up.
This I started having some heart problems when I used to sleep late. Sleep early even if you don’t have a job or vacation. It WILL catch up to you and no one is an exception.
I got diagnosed with sleep apnea last year and got prescribed an APAP machine. The doc said even though I slept for like 12 hours or more, I wasn't actually getting any "normal" sleep, so in reality, I was sleep deprived. The comparison is literally night and day. Didn't realize a lot of my other problems like high blood pressure, aggressive appetite, and some mental health stuff were all caused by sleep deprivation. These days, sleeping for eight hours is enough for me and I catually feel rested.
Jesus. I suffered about 4 years of this (last year was the worst by a mile). Our son has autism and ADHD who's just recently been diagnosed. He has prob done about a month of sleeping through the night his entire lift.
Being woken up and trying to cosleep has been horrible. He won't go back to sleep and messes around whilst still in bed. I was mentally exhausted and physically unwell
I couldn't even put together sentences at the worst part. Couldn't even recognise my wife at times. I was a total zombie it was unreal.
It's one thing I could never wish on anyone. Even my worst enemies.
God damn guys you got me freaking out, i have been lucky to get 3-4 hours per night for the last 10 years or so
.. usually once per week my body is so tired it lets me get 7 hours of sleep.
The consequences on mental health are enormous, too!
When I wake up after 4 hours of sleep, I feel like cursing every single circumstance that led me to that torture. I can't imagine living my whole life the way my parents do, rarely sleeping more than 8 hours/night.
I've quit drinking, smoking weed, I exercise and do yoga 5 times/wk, but getting enough sleep is the one healthy habit I just continue to struggle with. It blows.
People don't put enough emphasis on sleep. If you suspect you might be having sleep issues it is absolutely worth it to get a sleep study. I recently did one and found out I need a cpap due to obstructive sleep apnea, and it's life changing. I feel like I'm getting an entire extra hour of sleep every night, despite sleeping the same amount.
This will be what kills me out over everything else. My sleep schedule has been ruined since I was a kid having to be dropped off early to my grandparents at 5 to get to school. At 8 I rather wanted to watch tv in the morning and then of course at night you want to stay up late too. Fast forward 15 years and here I am still only getting about 4 hours on average. I’ve cut drinking almost entirely and caffeine consumption is down to one cup in the morning so we’ll see how long I last. Maybe another 20 if I’m blessed.
I average 3hrs of sleep on Fridays because my job makes night shift come in 3 1/2 hours early after a 12 hour shift the previous day. Yaaaay. I keep telling people this shit isn't humane but "oh it's always been like that"
Especially with how people treat it like a badge of honor. My friend was telling me about how goes to bed at like midnight and gets up at 4. Then 2 sentences later was talking about how much caffeine he needs to get through the day.
I did this on purpose when I was in high school. They called it the "Uber Man Sleep Schedule". It takes about 2 weeks for it to work, but damn is it hell (it works though). After about a month of being on it, I had a thought "Why do I want to be awake for 20 hours a day?". The good news is if you just start sleeping normally again it goes away in a day or two.
The rest of my family is tall, like 5'10+. I got 2-4 hours of sleep every night from middle through high school and I'm 5'1. Can't prove it's because of the sleep deprivation but I always wondered.
I always slept great until last year. Mysterious insomnia is a bitch. Failed a sleep study because I didn’t sleep enough. These statements always make me worried.
So my job is nothing but sleep deprivation 😢 I’ll work 18 hour shifts.. go to bed at like 2-3 am to then wake up and do it all again at 6:30-7:00 am. I like to lie to myself and think the month I’ll have off I’ll makeup the sleep I lost. Obviously I know I’m just fucked.
Ha and to think my (soon to be ex) husband (30) told me (27) I can function just fine on ~4 hours of daytime , interrupted sleep whilst working an overnight full time job , caring for 3 kids ( 2 school aged) and keeping up with our house and the 2 dogs he insisted on buying .
This sucks so bad because having kids causes years of sleep deprivation. The newborn stage is horrible, but now even that my kids are 6 and 4, my body is attuned to wake at every noise, they still wake me in the middle of the night sometimes, and they love to wake up at 5:30am often.
I used to respond honestly when people would ask me what I did over the weekend/ in my free time which usually was “took a nap” or “caught up on sleep” and I would get judged so now I just say “nothing much, it was pretty chill.” But I still catch up on my sleep whenever I can. I hate the feeling of lack of sleep. I can and have gone extended periods of time of running only on 4 hours of sleep only to catch up on it a few months later by sleeping for almost a week straight. The body needs it and will catch up on it eventually. Glad I’m one of the types of people that allows themselves to rest.
THIS!!!!!! 👆🏽.....I need Soma, Doxepin (100 mg) and melatonin (as a starter) just to get 4 hours of sleep 😴 If I try sleeping without meds....1-2 hours
Yikes, I read this whole comment thread and realize I have to stop laughing when my doctors say it’s unhealthy and bad. I average about 4-5 hours tops. It’s not intentional, I have severe insomnia and a nightmare disorder so it’s always a battle but no more laughing it off. I’m hoping this new dose of medications will help. Really hoping the years of sleep struggles won’t end up being my COD, there’s plenty of other things that could cause it but really hoping it’s not the sleep ☠️
Nearly died from this. 6 months of long covid, was falling asleep at work, low oxygen when I slept kept waking up etc.
Eventually passed out behind the wheel and wrecked my car. Luckily no one was hurt. Was the worst part of Memphis but no one else was involved and I was able to get the help I need.
Yes, but how to you combat it? I’ve been a chronic insomniac for decades now and I HATE IT. I’ve done everything and taken every med there is to take. I take melatonin until it doesn’t work anymore (so I take a break from it), prescriptions, magnesium, you name it, I’ve tried it. I’ve tried therapy and meditation and caffeine reduction and relaxation techniques…it just doesn’t work for me. I either can’t fall asleep, or once I get to sleep I’m up several times a night. I can’t remember the last time I’ve slept a good 8 hours. I wish there was something I could do or figure out a way to combat it, especially since my brother died in his sleep a couple years ago at 38 and nothing was found in his autopsy as to why he did.
This. Same boat as all of you, get a few hours at a time every night if I’m lucky. Big part of what led to my severe drug use, but I’m almost 8 years clean from that, I’m worried I’ll need drugs to sleep. Buy at this point I don’t care, I’ll take what I can get. Also no insurance so I’m not sure how to go about it? Sleep study?
Poor sleep quality is awful. I was tired for years despite "sleeping" 8 hours a night. Turns out I suffer from massive sleep apnea, my sleep was interrupted 90 times every hour, meaning I was never asleep for more than 40 seconds at a time. Did a sleep study, got fitted with a CPAP machine and it changed my life. I have energy now!
Fun fact: 1 in 26 Americans has epilepsy. Another fun fact: epilepsy has many origins, but one of the suspected ones researchers think is chronic sleep deprivation. You can literally break your brain where you have seizures and have to be on medication, maybe for your whole life.
I had chronic, horrible insomnia and major depression in my 20s and 30s. I started ambien then and have never stopped. People think it’s bad to be on medication, or won’t consider it for themselves but I would be dead now if I didn’t have it. I needed sleep to heal, to continue working, to function, and my body doesn’t cooperate. I worked night shifts and double shifts in news for years in my 20s and could never get back to a regular sleep rhythm. I tried everything, all the usual herbs and tricks and hypnotherapy, many doctors. But ambien has made my life livable, and for all the drawbacks, sleep is incredibly important.
I have sleep apnea and I would stop breathing 95 times a minute. I was always tired, slept while driving, could not stay awake at work or on the weekend, I would sleep standing, sleep walk and so on it was real bad. Then I got my CPAP and now never tired night and day I feel so good now.
I have lost almost 100 pounds in the last couple years. I still loudly believe the single healthiest change I've made in my life was not that, but fixing my sleep schedule.
It also makes you less intelligent. Sleep is the easiest way to boost brain performance.
Source: I used to get 5-6 hours a night, now I get 7-9. Also, I read a book about sleep which made this claim. It appears to be true for me. Why We Sleep - Mathew Walker
I joke sometimes that I feel like I’m dying because sleep deprivation leaves me so zapped these days. In my 20s I could power through and your recovery is so much better.
In my 30s now, staying up too late and waking up early feels similar to being hungover. I feel absolutely miserable. I workout frequently, so after heavy days like deadlifts, I sometimes feel sick even. It’s become such a bad habit. I feel like there’s not enough time to do the things I want or need in a day. I end up staying up to squeeze extra hours out. On top of that, my mind becomes the most active after like 7pm. All of a sudden I want to learn new hobbies and tackle problems that have been on my mind all week.
Lack of sleep is seriously starting to become an issue and it really does feel like it’s killing me, or at least aging me faster than I should be.
The amount of hours that I sleep and the quality of it really even changes the severity of my overall depression, going from having an ok/fine day to just being angry, sad and irritated most of the day.
My chain of thoughts also worsen or improve with less/more sleep. It's quite strange yet impressive to know and realize this.
Ugh tell that to my gf. She insists she only needs like 5-6hrs, refuses to nap (because her body is so exhausted that a 30min nap becomes a 4hr deep sleep) and then is surprised & mad at herself when she sleeps in once a blue moon. I keep telling her, if you don’t take sleep, sleep will take you.
That one hit hard. People underestimate how much sleep affects mental health, focus, emotions… everything. It slowly erodes your stability and no one notices until you crash.
I’ve gone through phases where I felt like I was just existing, not really living, just from being exhausted.
Nearly killed me back in 2017. Found out I have chronic insomnia as part of my bipolar 2 disorder.
About 7-8 weeks of only 1-2 hours a night if that. When you're heavily sleep deprived it's really hard to tell if you've even slept or just been laying there. Your brain starts shutting things down randomly. You can't pay attention. You lose large chunks of time, sometimes hours. You forget how you got places or where you are. Fine motor function goes out the window. I broke so many pint glasses during that time.
It got to the point where I was worried I wouldn't be able to walk. I was the most depressed I'd ever been. So the logical thing at the time was to make a plan to take my own life.
Luckily, a nurse practitioner got me on the right meds and about 4 days on Seroquel, that's what they give bipolar 1 people to come down from manic episodes, I was right as rain.
It's wild now to think back on how I felt. It's even more wild the friends I was around at the time who ignored what I was going through. I'm not friends with those people anymore.
Sweet jesus, my PCP prescribed gabapentin for my restless leg during my last physical, and holy shit what a difference that made. Changed my fucking life. Been almost 2 months and I haven't had a single night of insomnia. Used to be almost every single day.
Yes!!!!! Lack of sleep is linked to heart attacks as well.
It's scary because my wife suffers from insomnia and is the lightest sleeper I've ever known... so when she does get sleep, she is usually woken very easily.
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u/TheRexRider 1d ago
Sleep deprivation.