[FRIAM] enough sleep?

[Steven A Smith]

Glen (and Marcus) -

Interesting points to ponder...

I definitely don't ascribe to "one size fits all" in any domain where I
have personal experience.   My personal experience differs from both of
yours *and* from that implied by the article.  My experience is
subjective of course.   I *feel* like I've (most) always gotten enough
sleep, and that has varied in absolute measures from roughly 5-6 hours a
night with a (near) daily catnap to 8-10 hours.   Part of the reason I
may feel I've always had enough sleep is that I've always made it a
point to arrange my life to fit my personal rhythms as best I can rather
than vice-versa.

When I"m busy and engaged, I usually feel I need less sleep.   I (most)
always arrange to wake naturally rather than to the ring of an alarm.  
I used to generally prefer late nights and mornings arranged according
to need (sleep in when I could, but up earliesh when needed).   I rarely
felt sleep deprived or challenged with lack of focus from lack of sleep.

My knockoff "fitbit" monitor indicated otherwise (over many months of
using it) where it reported that I didn't get enough "deep sleep".  
Perhaps this is true, because I *do* prefer light sleep or moving in and
out of hypnagogic/hypnapompic states with lots of elaborate dreaming. 
But by my wellness tracker's measure, I was *never* getting a good
night's sleep and at least subjectively I did not miss it one bit. 
Perhaps I've *never* had a good night's sleep and wouldn't recognize it
if I did.  The only contradiction to this is that when I am utterly
exhausted physically, I DO tend to sleep soundly and awake "yet more"
refreshed than usual if I get a solid 6-8 hours of sleep... so maybe I"m
just habituated to "weak sleep habits" and wouldn't know truly rested
and focused if I saw it?

I found the following article interesting in broad arc (not enough
detail nor time to follow up references) on the topic of "everything in
it's time":

   
https://buffer.com/resources/your-bodys-best-time-for-everything-how-to-eat-sleep-and-work-more-efficiently

This post (and the linked article) also reminded me of discovering the
historical research on human "biphasic sleep", or "two sleeps" (or more
generally "segmented sleep").    I believe this criteria is met by
cultures/people who are prone to the "siesta" as well as those who have
a period of wakefulness in the middle of the night.   I am a fan of
both/either as they fit your lifestyle.

I also live with two dogs (and a cat) who nap *all the time* and while
they occasionally present as "groggy" when woken abruptly, they mostly
slide in and out of sleep according to need, efficiently and well as
best I can tell.

- Steve

PS.  I agree with any/all implications that our society is structured
around regulating individual behaviour to create a "replaceable part"
mentality and a sense of scarcity (including sleep?) that keeps everyone
motivated to "perform".   I've done my time in those models and probably
through hysteresis, continue so, but avoid being driven by overt
"societal forces" as best I can, and try to look to my inner rhythms as
informed by those of the world I live in (sun, moon, plants, animals,
etc.) over those provided by things like 8-5 workday, 5 day workweek,
daylight savings time, IRS filing deadlines, etc.


On 4/9/19 9:46 AM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
> The nature of our economy rewards people that keep their nose to the grindstone.   Locally it is a good optimization, but globally you work till you drop.   Maybe you go on a Viking River Cruise or something while you are reaching completion.    I have a lot of sleep momentum and require lots of coffee to get to the point where I assent to the internally posed question of "Why the f*ck would I want to do that?"  
>
> On 4/9/19, 9:33 AM, "Friam on behalf of glen∈ℂ" <friam-bounces at redfish.com on behalf of gepropella at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>     If you’re not sleeping at work, you should be fired
>     https://theconversation.com/if-youre-not-sleeping-at-work-you-should-be-fired-114006
>     
>     I'm skeptical of the argument that "we're" not getting enough sleep. Just this morning, after getting plenty of good sleep last night (helped along by some Peruvian chaufa), my exercise performance this morning was terrible ... whereas my "regular" night's sleep of 5 hours produced excellent performance over the last month or so.  Stories aside, by what measure(s) do we judge health, recovery, alertness, engagedness, etc ... the bait presented at the beginning of this article?
>     
>     Again, just for me, a nap destroys my productivity.  But aperiodic *distractions* seem to improve my productivity.  When I finish the first draft of a report, for example, it's good to go for a bike ride before the 2nd iteration. Taking a nap just makes me sleepy and want to watch TV.  However, when I am well (over?) rested like today, I tend to wax philosophical and am attracted by Deep Thoughts™. So, I can see why the gist of the article would match someone's intuition.  But intuition is not reliable.  The data I keep on, e.g., my weight lifting regimen seems to show that I perform better when I'm consistent, regardless of the amount of sleep I get.  When I get the same amount each and every night, then I perform better.  I don't keep data on my fugues into Deep Thoughts™, though ... maybe I should. 8^)
>     
>     
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