Total sleep deprivation impairs attention and higher-order cognitive processes

[firefoxd]

And causes hallucinations!

Will post my story here in the near future, but let's just say a good man was doing my taxes at 3am. It was okay at first, because he was a hard worker. Suddenly I realized it was 3am, and told him to rush it. He complied, hunched his back and buried his nose in all the documents. I looked down at my legs and saw that I was wearing my boxers only, I told him to hurry it up because I gotta go to bed. I could hear him mumbling a response and hunching his shoulders some more to work faster. I felt bad for putting all this pressure on him. I got closer and put a hand on his shoulder, only to find that he had fallen asleep. I looked around and saw that his desk was a crib, and that this man was my premii 2 months old son.

I'm a father of twins.

[hombre_fatal]

I was working in my bedroom on the second evening of a sleepless marathon. I kept hearing distant chatter, like two people whispering together.

I thought my roommate had brought someone home and they were whispering in the living room. I put some clothes on and exited my bedroom to find the house completely dark and empty.

On my way back to the bedroom, confused, I realized the faucet was running slightly in the bathroom across the hall and my brain was interpreting it as human whispers and English-like words.

I notice this sort of aural hallucination always happens to me after 24 hours of staying awake.

[ignoramous]

Rarely, I've experienced sleep paralysis [0] when going to sleep after being awake for 30+ hours, a feeling that's dreadful and scary, something I'd never wish on my enemy.

Occasionally, I lucid dream [1]: Flying like a bird or falling like a feather after 22+ hours of wakefulness, a feeling that is very addictive.

Often times, a pulsating head and neck migraine [2] follows sleep deprivation.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_dream

[2] https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/migraine-head...

[wayneftw]

I learned here on HN that Eskimos don't have access to a lot of drugs or alcohol, so they used to just starve themselves in order to get to this hallucinogenic state!

People really have a deep seeded desire to alter their consciousness.

[101008]

When my mother was in the hospital, I usually stayed with her during the nights, awake, in case she needed something. Two nights I couldn't sleep the day before, which meant I had to stay awake, in dim light, after 24 hours without sleep. I started seeing spiders crawling the walls. I just had to focs my eyes to make them stop, but I saw spiders on the corner of my eyesight, which was umcofortable. After those nights, I understood how important is to sleep well.

[jeltz]

Yeah. If I am awake for more than like 40 hours I start to hallucinate. Never anything close to as bad as what you describe, mostly just weird shapes in the corners of my eyes. But I have had also had some aural hallucinations too.

[asauce]

One of my favourite examples of sleep deprived hallucinations is from Courtney Dauwalter. Courtney is an ultra marathon runner (eg 200 miles) and there are many times we she is extremely sleep deprived while running.

She has mentioned that while running she has seen bunnies running alongside her, a violin playing man, and even a woman churning butter[0]! Very interesting how our mind reacts to minimal sleep.

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imivD-wnmDs

[Nyra]

As someone with serious sleeping problems (at least once a week I miss a night of sleep) and bad sleeping habits overall, I’ve definitely noticed my attention span and ability to think clearly taking a serious nosedive over the last couple years. Who would have thought, sleep is super important.

[papito]

Go on Amazon and get yourself one of those acupressure mats. Worst case, you will lose like $25, but I can attest to its effectiveness as one of the early users (and I have recommended it to friends ever since). Cheapest thing ever that can change your life.

I have trouble falling asleep, mind racing, all that jazz. I have to be EXHAUSTED to fall asleep. This thing is a miracle. After 15-20 minutes, you start drifting off, then wake up on it about an hour later, toss it to the side, and immediately fall back asleep, super-drowsy. And in the morning you feel like you had slept 36 hours straight.

[durpleDrank]

I wonder if there is evidence that the brain adapts? I too have been having sleep problems due to a heavy footed night owl neighbor. In the beginning it was an issue, however, I found over the last two years my body kicks into a type of an overdrive and overcomes this. Obviously it's not good, however, I do notice a type of compensation.

[michaelcampbell]

> Who would have thought, sleep is super important.

not sure of the sarcasm level here, but it astounds me that anyone wouldn't.

[rhinoceraptor]

If there was an alternative to sleep, then that would be a huge evolutionary advantage.

[abrookins]

Related: Parents of young children found to be completely dead inside

[johnydepp]

Oh man...I can totally relate to it.. I have a 2 year kid and last 2 years have been most difficult for me and my wife's life given that I need to take of the startup as well

[etagobla]

Chicken or the egg

[shams93]

I had this job that thought you were stealing from them if you got more than 90 minutes sleep a night they would literally call the engineers 7 days a week at 3am to make sure we were not "slipping up" by getting sleep worst job of my life absolutely illegal labor practice as well imagine having to work 140 hours to keep getting paid for 40.

[rcfox]

Unless this job was a study on sleep deprivation, how could they possibly believe they had the right to do this?

[api]

What industry was this and where?

There are some industries (architecture, design, medicine are some that come to mind) where sleep deprivation is viewed as a macho badge of honor and there's this culture of showing off extreme workaholism. Of course this is not efficient work due to cognitive impairment and burnout, but it's more of a macho / hazing thing.

[bad_good_guy]

what country was this in?

[gumby]

I see some people consider this article to be a trivial commonplace but in some environments sleep is considered a waste of time. For example when I was at MIT I think everybody pulled a couple of all-nighters per week. There was a culture of how to manage it, not one of how to make that unnecessary.

[bityard]

The same is true in the medical profession. Sleep deprivation is absolutely the norm for young doctors and surgeons in residence, which should be a scary thing given how often people's lives are quite literally in their hands.

[hownottowrite]

Ref: PDF of study https://msu.edu/~ema/StepanAltmannFennJEPG.pdf

[mrleinad]

Day before yesterday a bus crashed in Argentina, two kids died as consequence of the crash.

Earlier this month the organism that regulates public transportation allowed companies to send just one driver on long distance trips, forcing that person to stay awake during the whole journey.

[mrleinad]

This source, who asked to reserve his name, was eloquent: “Outside the high season is one thing, but within the season, employers, to increase their profitability, force workers not to respect their hours of rest. The driver should say so, yes, but if you have your source of work at stake… ”

(link in spanish) https://www.clarin.com/sociedad/pequena-trampa-legal-habilit...

[timwaagh]

I don't think we should dehumanize people just because they are on the other site of the debate. To address the point, there are good reasons for deprioritising safety given the economic climate.

[tartoran]

Yawning induces sleep! I forcefully and repeatedly yawn for 10 minutes to rid of insomnia. Really works

[fbelzile]

I know this book gets posted anytime something sleep related comes up... but I still find it underrated.

'Why We Sleep'[0] has changed my sleeping habits for the better and I wish everyone had the chance to read it. It's like a manual explaining how your body works 1/3 of the time you're alive.

[0] https://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Sleep-Unlocking-Dreams/dp/1501...

[cybertronic]

"“Why We Sleep” Is Riddled with Scientific and Factual Errors" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21546850

[qrbLPHiKpiux]

Physicians, keep this mind. Don’t let your hospital health system overlords do this to you.

[hughpeters]

Can someone define total sleep deprivation (TSD) in the context of this article? I'm assuming it's going one night with no sleep at all, but is that correct?

[m0zg]

I'm about to publish a groundbreaking study which also demonstrates that eating five double quarter pounders with cheese and fries a day will lead to obesity.

[swayvil]

Sleep-dep is a standard consciousness-alteration technique in the monastic/mystic scene. Along with fasting and meditation.

[anewguy9000]

filed under no shit

[wheelie_boy]

Yesterday was all about getting enough light during the day, today is about getting good sleep at night. Hopefully we'll also hear about eating healthy, getting some exercise, and the importance of healthy friendships.

[nannal]

Looking forward to the posts on how Financial stability is conducive to a low stress environment overall improving the mental and physical health of all affected.

[trentnix]

I won’t believe any of that makes a difference until I see a poorly validated study from grant-hungry academics published in a barely read journal.

[BurningFrog]

What's the latest research on oxygen?

[Lammy]

That’s verging on unacceptable speech in certain circles I’ve been a part of. Watch out or soon you’ll be telling me to clean up my bedroom too /s

[s0ss]

This is still an important area of study. Plenty of very smart people don't get enough sleep and don't understand the consequences.

[afarrell]

I think MIT undergrads still say “sleep is for the weak”.