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Re:Longevity Study Across 5 Species Found a New Pathway to R... by jacquesm on Sunday April 23, 2023 @08:04PM (#35682064)
The math on getting more sleep may not check out though. You may live longer but you may not be awake longer. If you can get by at 5 hours per night instead of 8 then that works out to 21 hours or about 1 full day for every week. That's 1/7th long life span equivalent right there, and that 1/7th would come at the end of your life, not right now when you're fit, curious and healthy.

Lots of my family members are in their late 80's now and I really wouldn't want to exchange say a decade of their life with a decade of mine if that means I will only live to 75 instead of 85 or 90. The number of people in their 80's that I know that I would want to exchange with is vanishingly small, most of them are going from one health issue to another, whereas most people in their 70's that I know, even the ones that lived relatively unhealthy are still going quite strong.

Re:Longevity Study Across 5 Species Found a New Pathway to R... by yadingus on Sunday April 23, 2023 @08:32PM (#35682272)
It's a bit shortsighted to only look at numbers. Quality of sleep affects how tired you feel, how well you can think, etc. Plus I fucking love sleeping, if you consider sleep as a necessary battery charging then you're missing out.
Re:Longevity Study Across 5 Species Found a New Pathway to R... by jacquesm on Sunday April 23, 2023 @08:33PM (#35682282)
Or maybe 'each to their own'. I've had insomnia for a while so I know how bad it is to go on too little sleep but I also really don't need 8 hours and staying in bed when I'm awake and have stuff to do is something that I find pretty hard to do.
Re:Longevity Study Across 5 Species Found a New Pathway to R... by mellosouls on Monday April 24, 2023 @04:10AM (#35684895)
Ah, but do you love sleeping itself, or the context to safe and secure sleep, the luxury of a warm bed and the knowledge you can get the sleep you need, getting up when you like and feel refreshed?

I get that that is what you are saying is a part of the quality of sleep experience, but those qualities are not really about duration, you either have those privileges or you don't. If you are lucky enough to have a biological clock requiring less hours per night to enjoy them fully, that's ok.

I would agree though that to forgo those qualities intentionally over an extended timeframe is a curious choice.

Re:Longevity Study Across 5 Species Found a New Pathway to R... by yadingus on Tuesday April 25, 2023 @11:12PM (#35709311)
I love dreaming and I think it can be used as a tool to get to know yourself, and even practice skills.

I think some people, specially nowadays, live in a very conceptual world inside their minds, and anything that they don't understand or deem unrelated to it, they compartmentalize as disposable, where in reality they're being a bit childish in how narrow they view the world.

Re:Longevity Study Across 5 Species Found a New Pathway to R... by probablynish on Monday April 24, 2023 @03:28AM (#35684640)
You're right, and the wider point is that one should always maximize their own utility/happiness function. So also, if smoking cigarettes and eating ice cream makes you so happy that it compensates for poorer health and shorter lifespan then it's optimal for you. I was just addressing the question about lifespan/healthspan
Re:Longevity Study Across 5 Species Found a New Pathway to R... by lisasays on Monday April 24, 2023 @12:22PM (#35689664)
You may live longer but you may not be awake longer.

I find that the 16 hours I have after clocking 8 hours are infinitely more "awake" than the 19 hours I get when I only clock 5.

Which is basically what the sleep researchers say. The bottom line is that there's clearly a tipping point, not the same for everyone of course but averaging around 7 hours, below which "wakefulness" (and functioning metabolism in general) experienced throughout the rest of the day rapidly starts to tank.

Re:Longevity Study Across 5 Species Found a New Pathway to R... by jacquesm on Monday April 24, 2023 @12:30PM (#35689787)
Sure. But people are not all exactly the same.
Re:Longevity Study Across 5 Species Found a New Pathway to R... by lisasays on Monday April 24, 2023 @01:32PM (#35690670)
Sure, but what I'm getting at is that your advice doesn't seem applicable (or even remotely so) to most people.