Sleep

About Sleep

It is said that wake time is determined by practical matters [1]. Even better would be to set ideal wake time based on our needs - consistent with nature - and fit the day around it. Sleep is critical for health, and we should not mess up our sleep. Ie, wake up with the sun if you can, and like Benjamin Franklin, Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. Is there scientific evidence for Ben's claim?

In other words - are there any historical examples of movers and shakers (people who have contributed to progress in society) who did not rise early (or stay up all day), and had a long life? The only exception appears to be Descartes. [2]. Descartes died at 53.

Exercise and sleep are a mutually-reinforcing positive loop. [3]. Without good sleep, people get less exercise (energy) due to fatigue. However, definitive experiments showing that better sleep means higher activity have not been done. How obtuse! Is there really no definitive experiment showing that if you get good sleep, you are more active in the day? Or is that shown for individuals, but not for statistical groups?

• This poor scholarship, and specifically in this paper - can be encapsulated in its conclusion - However, while intervening on physical activity levels has been shown to improve sleep, improving sleep has not resulted in increased levels of physical activity. How can that be? That is a sad state if we still don't know an answer to this basic question. Maybe we will study it at OSE, etc. And - note also the unclear writing - did the author mean to say 'improved sleep has not resulted in...' or 'improved sleep has not shown evidence of' - 'increased levels of physical activity? It seems the author meant the latter. NB - this paper was written in 2015.

10% of the adult population has insomnia. Best treatment is CBT, not drugs. A step-wise model is presented for making CBT accessible (scalable, due to time and expense required) -[4]. DIY is first, BSM (Behavioral Sleep Medicine) professional is top.

It is not known how the timing of exercise affects circadian rhythm, but it is known that nocturnal exercise inhibits onset of melatonin. [5]

The ideal sleeping condition is pitch black and a temperature between 60 and 67 degrees.

Chronotype is genetic but you can change your chronotype according to this source [6].

Is chronotype genetic? There are genes that influence chronotype, like there are genes that influence everything about you. Clear causal relationships are unknown, and combined with epigenetics - the case for stating that 'your genes determine your chronotype' is false. One can say 'genes may affect chronotype, but how they do so is unknown'. [7]. Other people say that 'chronotype is genetic and you can't change it'. [8]

Best Time To Wake Up

• Ayurveda sez wake up between 1:36 and 48 minutes before sunrise ideally, but definitely not after sunrise. [9]
• Waking time from 9:30 in 20s to 6:30 in 70s? [10]. Sounds far-fetched for young people to do that. Is that based on science?
• Sleep at night until 7. [11]
• There are night owls, early risers, lethargics, and energizer bunnies. [12]
• Early risers are more successful, night owls are more creative. Earlies procrastinate less (study). Early risers are persistent, cooperative, agreeable, and conscientious - studies showed persistence and agreeable-ness. Early risers get more exercise. A study says 'Morning people tend to be healthier and happier as well as having lower body mass indexes.' Study - if you don't get good sleep, you gonna be ugly. [13]

Other

• Nobody changed the world on 40 hours a week [14]
• Uberman sleep cycle - [15]
• Musk's daily routine - [16]
• There are clearly successful people who don't wake up early, but it seems that generally, success is correlated with early rising. [17] and [18]

Chronotype

• Test - [19] - see middle one.
• Change it like this - [20]

OSE Notes

MJ sez - I am blown away that science has not yet answered such a fundamental question: 'does improving sleep improve physical activity'. This to me seems yet another poignant examples of how humanity is trying to reach for the stars, but is missing evolution on many basics. Typical related to human performance and positive psychology - as demonstrated clearly by (1) 10-20% of the global population not able to read or write; (2) nearly half the global population lives in poverty. [21]. This is where collaborative open source development could help.

Nocturnal Awakenings

• It appears natural that most people wake up many times. 9 on average - [22]
• Note that sleep time is NOT the time you go to be and wake up. It is that time minus the awake times. Thus, if you plan on the recommended 8 hours - you need to spend more than 8 hours in bed. It is 55 minutes more on average according to available data - [23]. THIS IS A BIG POINT TO HEED FOR ANYONE WANTING TO GET THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF SLEEP, OR IF THEY WONDER WHY THEY are tired if they 'go to sleep for 8 hours'
• Remember that proper sleep, diet, and exercise are critical physical requirements of health

Training the Mind to Fall Asleep Rapidly

• Author says his insight came from a book, "Insomnia and Other Adult Sleep Problems

• How to train your brain subconsciously to fall asleep in 30 seconds [24]. (1) remove caffeine in training period (2) good diet; (3) exercise; (4) wake at same time, no lingering - which trains your brain it's all it gets, which incentives brain to fall asleep at the same time to adapt. It's the lingering that teaches the brain that it's ok not to wake up, so brain never trains itself to fall asleep immediately. (5) caffeine can be added back once brain is trained.
• Herbal stimulants - peppermint, cayenne, ginger, cinnamon - [25]

Assessment

• Polysomnogram and actigraphy
• Stanford or Epstein Sleep Scale
• Fitbit or other cheap China health watches ($40)

Wehr Study

• [26] - in the 90s it was shown in an experiment that with 14 hours of night, one's sleep.cycle turns biphasic with one hour wake time. +

Links

• Non 24-Hour Sleep Phase Disorder - [27]. Occurs in most blind people! Lack of sunlight through eyes?
• Good PDF - Your Guide to Healthy Sleep - [28]
• Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome - [29]