Why Can’t I Sleep?

Re:Why Can’t I Sleep? by anonuser123456 on Friday June 11, 2021 @09:21AM (#27472943)

There is a genetic mutation that a small minority carry that allows them to sleep less (6.2 hrs average). You simply may be one of those people.

Sleep duration is just a single metric; apnea, REM+NREM3 duration etc. all matter. You may be getting as much REM+NREM3 in 6.5 as someone gets in 8... and if you don't have apnea, you might get WAY more actual sleep than most people.

I went through a period where I believed my body would only accommodate a certain amount of sleep. Once I stopped caring about sleep duration... that duration slowly increased to eventually revert to 'normal'.

The key is to just _stop_caring_ about it. Do everything right, and let your body/mind handle the rest. It doesn't happen overnight.

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Re:Why Can’t I Sleep? by rootusrootus on Friday June 11, 2021 @11:21AM (#27474565)

> just _stop_caring_

I agree with this. Worrying about the quality of my sleep caused me more sleep problems than it solved. I quit tracking my sleep, I go to bed when I'm tired and get out of bed when I wake up. E.g. I don't try to keep sleeping just because it's 4AM. My sleep quality has steadily improved as a result. Just roll with it.

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Re:Why Can’t I Sleep? by emerged on Friday June 11, 2021 @05:23PM (#27478675)

I’ve done this at times and it always wound up putting me out of phase with normal hours. That quickly causes all sorts of scheduling catastrophes.

I have however found that being a bit short on sleep one night and making it up another works perfectly fine if your weekly average comes out ok. Another thing all the sleep articles claims isn’t possible.

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Re:Why Can’t I Sleep? by swader999 on Friday June 11, 2021 @10:51AM (#27474178)

How do you check for whether you have this mutation? Sequence your genome? Any recommendations?

[ Parent | on HN ]