Why on earth do people (you're not alone, I know) prefer to assume that direction of causation, rather than that the underlying condition that leads to Alzheimer's causes sleep disorders too?

It's well known that sleep disorders are associated with other neurological or mental disorders.

I think there is a pervasive disease of thinking where people associate science and smart people with counterintuitive statements, so every obvious relationship gets inverted.

And can you answer the basic question of why sleep is even necessary at all?

Lack of sleep is eventually lethal, and I read a very interesting study a couple years ago that seemed to have a plausible mechanism and stunningly reasonable methodology, but I haven't heard anything about it since then. So I still don't know if it was fake or something, because it seemed like it should get a Nobel Prize. Although it used fruit flies so perhaps it didn't generalize.

It's generally known that after 3 or 4 days of total sleeplessness there is permanent psychological damage which is probably physiological in nature. IIRC There was a radio show host who hosted his show for several days straight as a stunt and it really messed him up.

I didn't write that phrase precisely because people turn off their brains and learn nothing from it! It's become worthless.

The alternative to A -> B is B -> A, or C -> A and B.

You seriously think that running through those possibilities in your head is "dogmatism"?

Who then is the authority on which one of those is privileged and which require further research to validate, when they are all consistent with the evidence so far?

Had to Google that, though it does sound temporary?

Pure speculation of course, but it seems possible that low quality sleep would impair this system.

How is that an explanation? Something has to drive the sleep disorder. It's too vague to be blaming for anything. It's not a thing.

May be there are multiple thing that drives sleep disorder and and then that causes Alzheimer.

Or perhaps it’s just idiopathic/random/aging or environmental exposures that are less to do with lifestyle decisions. I’ve known plenty of people with Alzheimer’s and many of them tend to have had healthy lifestyles including healthy sleep - I would love to see any data that implicates meaningful risk reduction with “one weird trick” in sleep or diet - the common denominator was mostly old age.

I never quite understood what you're supposed to do with all the information about when you fall asleep, when you awake, when you have REM.

Okay you can quantify how bad your sleep is (though I guess you can just feel that in your daily life to a large extent). But what's the next step? Prove to a doctor you actually have bad sleep bc they don't take your word?

Or are you supposed to make some life adjustments based on the information?

> I was listening to a podcast…

HN comments in a nutshell.

Think about that before you go off on your hobby horse about whatever stereotype you despise the most.

Anybody you could find on reddit or anywhere else can comment here if they find it and want to.

I think it was years before I even knew who Peter Thiel was, and I've never been to California in my life.

Had a quick look at her Instagram - "80% of brain gray matter is modifiable by exercise so by hitting the gym you can now stave off Alzheimer's by 20 years"

> 95% of Alzheimer’s is now seen in people without a genetic predisposition to it

That's with our current knowledge of the genetic aspects of Alzheimer's, which probably isn't complete.

> That is to say that people’s lifestyle decisions around sleep, food, and exercise are the issue

Could be due to other reasons as well. Or most likely a combination of genetic + environmental. That's why these kind of illnesses (schizophrenia, depression) are so hard to crack, there's so many variables.

Sleep studies can tell if you have sleep apnea, where you might "think" you had a full night's sleep, but it was disturbed by disrupted breathing.

So it might be worth getting one anyway. Hopefully the tech will get to the point where your fitness watch can do it all. The last sleep study kit I had was quite bulky and wearing it probably affected my sleep!

I really have the least amount of respect for sleep clinics I have had the displeasure of working with.

It wasn't the worst night of sleep of my life, but it definitely wasn't the best. The beds were cheap and simple, all the wires and electrodes were annoying, and the rain on the metal prefab clinic building was loud.

To be honest, I went because my partner complained about my snoring. If it meant a $3-4k bill, I would not have gone.

Sleep apnea is the most common sleep disorder, and it's easy to identify with equipment that you take home and use for a night. If you have it, there are different treatment options depending on the cause.

Other disorders are more difficult to treat, and sometimes they just don't have an answer. I'm still struggling with my sleep issues - they can describe it based on a full sleep study, but there's not a good categorization for it in the DSM, which means they can't even say if it's physiological, psychological, or a combination of the two. That makes it very hard to treat.

I'm certainly aware there is a correlation, but unfortunately my life is not so structured that I can get sufficient sleep.

Would you have a reference for such a device? I assume that this is not an app in a phone, but something that actually measures the sleep phases?