Settle Your Debts

The NY Times tells us about sleep debt:

THE FACTS Chronic sleep deprivation is a given for most Americans. But paying off a sleep debt is not as simple as sleeping late on a Saturday.

In studies over the years, scientists have found that it can take a week or more for the cognitive and physiological consequences of poor sleep to wear off — even after increasing sleep.

In a study at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in 2003, for example, scientists examined the cognitive effects of a week of poor sleep, followed by three days of sleeping at least eight hours a night. The scientists found that the “recovery” sleep did not fully reverse declines in performance on a test of reaction times and other psychomotor tasks, especially for subjects who had been forced to sleep only three or five hours a night.

In a similar study in 2008, scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm found that when subjects slept four hours a night over five days, and then “recovered” with eight hours a night over the following week, they still showed slight residual cognitive impairments a week later, even though they reported no sleepiness.

But in another study, also at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, scientists found that people recovered much more quickly from a week of poor sleep when it was preceded by a “banking” week that included nights with 10 hours of shuteye. In other words, if you know you have a week of little sleep ahead of you, try loading up on sleep beforehand, not simply afterward.

THE BOTTOM LINE It takes more than a night of extra sleep to pay off a sleep debt.

Sleep early, sleep often.

Comments

[clarice]

That was brought home to me when I was onChantix to stop smoking. It's a three month program during which it is quite impossible to get a proper sleep..By the end of it I really felt I was getting dementia and dropped the Chantix along with the digarettes.
It really is dreadful not to get a good night's sleep and even worse when that goes on for that long.

[Jane]

If this political climate doesn't make you want digarettes Clarice, nothing will.

[clarice]

It doesn't actually, Jane. Jelly bellies are another story.

[Dave (in MA)]

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An insomnia-induced sleep deficit can sometimes be wiped out by a nightly dose of the drug known as C-SPAN.

[Jane]

Personally I like Nick at Night to fall asleep. It started with "Full House". I saw pieces of every single episode at least twice. I'm currently on to "The Nanny which I could never stand when it was in prime time, but now Fran's voice just lulls me into slumber.

Now if I want to wake up, I just turn on news, of any sort.

[jimmyk]

There was a NY Times article (so take it for what it's worth) a while back (LUN) about a small minority of people who need substantially less sleep than average. I seem to be one of those, because no matter what I do, unless I'm catching up from even less the night before, I get six hours. No alarm clocks necessary. If I go to bed an hour earlier I just wake up an hour earlier. My mother is the same way, consistent with it could be genetic (Of course, the article hints that a lot more people think they are in this group than truly are.) I just wish I had something to show for that extra two hours....

[laura]

Gosh Jane,
I am now on Vyvanse and sleep is a rare commodity. It really works like majic but I can't decide which is worse being my normal distracted, hyper, and unfocused self or being cognitively impaired from sleep deprivation.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

I tend to keep movies I already know well on the DVR. Recently it's been 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Warning: leaving the TV on so you get a Bill O'Reilly episode is not productive.

[Jack is Back!]

The reason people have a sleep debt is because of this clock that just won't stop ticking away.

[Dave (in MA)]

I get 4-6 hrs weeknights, 6-10 weekends.
Even though I'm on the East coast, it's not unusual for me to post the last pre-dawn JOM comment on some threads. :-(

[matt]

I heard that Goldman Sachs is starting a market in sleep futures.

[laura]

I did read an article about a sleep deprivation experiment conducted on fighter pilots. One hour a night, under normal sleep requirements over the course of a week would render the pilots impaired to a degree comparable to a .08BAC.
And yes, the experiment started off with a party.

[Tom Bowler]

By far, the best sleep remedy I have ever encountered was Dickens' "Pickwick Papers" which I would read before going to sleep at night. I made it to page two after about a month, but was I fresh and alert every morning!

I haven't picked it up in years, though. Not sure the old system can stand anything that strong.

[clarice]

Well, with Chantix, the problem is not that you can't sleep--in fact, you soon get droopy and sleepy a lot, but you never get R.E.M. (deep sleep) and your dreams are weird and disturbing.
When I was young I needed virtually no sleep. My son is the same way, but as I've gotten older (esp, on days when I get enough exercise) I need at least 7 hours of good sleep a night. I go into a deep sleep almost as soon as my head hits the pillow.

[Dave (in MA)]

OT:
At a time of political turmoil, a charismatic, telegenic new leader arrives virtually out of nowhere. He offers a message of hope and reconciliation based on compromise and promises to marshal technology for a better future that will include universal health care.

The news media swoons in admiration -- one simpering anchorman even shouts at a reporter who asks a tough question: ``Why don't you show some respect?!!'' The public is likewise smitten, except for a few nut cases who circulate batty rumors on the Internet about the leader's origins and intentions. The leader, undismayed, offers assurances that are soothing, if also just a tiny bit condescending: ``Embracing change is never easy.''

This is a description of tonight's remake of the old "V" series from a Miami Herald review. I guess renaming it "O" would have been too obvious.

[daddy]

Can't remember if I've mentioned this here before, but an old friend is an Astronaut.

Regaling us all one night he mentioned that to him the most unexpected thing about Zero G was falling asleep. He said that typically when you're driving down the road and you're exhausted, that your head nods forward as you nod off and you feel that, and catch yourself and sit back up straight. Gravity partially acts as a spur to transmit a signal that you're nodding off, so you have a last chance to catch yourself.

But he said that in Zero G you don't feel that nod downward, you don't sense it at all, so you don't catch yourself.

Instead, blam, you're asleep without even knowing it, as if somehow a switch in your head was instantly turned off and you're out, and then later, if undisturbed, you wake up again whenever the computer in your head decides to reboot.

Thought that was fascinating, and something I would have never thought of. For me I generally I find that I drop my book, and that's the first I know I've just fallen asleep when not intending to.

[narciso]

Glenn Garvin, who's one of the better reviewers, he was possibly one of the only good reporters on the Contra beat in the 80s, a libertarian, yet his earlier version
dwelled a little too much on 'teabaggers'and
'birthers' as his analogy for the anti visitor resistance.

[clarice]

That is interesting,daddy.

[Thomas Collins]

Wow. Get enough sleep, exercise moderately, cool it (not Kool it) on the tobacco, imbibe spirits in a moderate amount, weave whole grains, fruits and veggies into the diet, drink water in lieu of soda, not too much fruit juice, carnivoring is fine but in moderation. Is that the current state of health science? What common sense has told us for years health science is now just figuring out?

[matt]

"Dave, This is HAL...Time to wake up" was all a lie daddy?

So in the new "V" is Obama a space lizard too? That would explain a lot.

[Jane]

Wow Daddy, that is cool.

[cathyf]

Usually when I get my sleep out of whack I end up turned around and jet-lagged -- if I sleep in to make up for a sleep deficit, then the next night I want to stay up later and sleep in even longer.

Except when I was pregnant. I could sleep all afternoon, wake up and eat dinner, go back to sleep at 8pm, and still have trouble waking up at 8am...

Actually, my thyroid problems are a lot like being pregnant. I don't feel dopey or jet-lagged. I go to bed, fall asleep, sleep soundly, wake up refreshed -- just 14 hours later!

[PD]

"Sleep is a weapon," Ludlum told us in the Bourne books.

[PD]

just 14 hours later!

Sounds like you're really a cat, cath.

[daddy]

TM,

FWIW, A major stateside Pilot Union just released a NewsWire announcing that a new Pilot/Sleep Fatigue Program is just about to be instituted by the FAA. Don't know the particulars since I'd rather spend time tonight reveling in tonight's Election Victories, but the program I've just scanned runs to 39 pages. Probably be in the high hundreds once Nan Pelosi and her bunch get their hands on it for a final chop.

[AL]

“weave whole grains, fruits and veggies into the diet, drink water in lieu of soda, not too much fruit juice, carnivoring is fine but in moderation.”

Whole grains are practically the same as regular flour plus dietary fiber supplement.

Fruits are mostly sugar (fructose), so do not push it.

Water is tricky thing. Purified water is very low in minerals – Sodium, Potassium, Calcium and Magnesium. Sodium we get with table salt, but to get enough K we will inevitably want to drink tremendous amount of soda, orange juice, or beer – and ton of calories with it. One of solutions is to use table salt with 20% of K. Ca and Mg are supplied with dairy products, or should be supplemented.

For me, water with lemon, cucumber, and hibiscus flower is perfect. Try it. Hibiscus, BTW, lowers blood cholesterol and blood pressure.

Unless you eat a lot of fish, Omega-3 supplement is a must (Omega-6 in Western diet is plenty from meat).

And ease off on calories – the easiest way is to reduce bread, pasta, rise, while keeping juicy rib eye intact.

[LTC John]

Daddy - that is some good stuff re: astro-sleep!

One of the reasons I would jump into a dragon's mouth for GEN Petreaus is that he insisted that everyone get a half day of down time per week - the only reason I managed to keep working 90 hour weeks and not go bonkers.

[3birte]

Zero G doens't stop twitching, which Obama, I mean lucifer, will make for for Christmas. Zero G stop seeing with eyes closed or do we have to be christend again?

Al Gore invented REM too.