The Science of Sleep
Apr. 24th, 2020 06:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unspeakablehorrorAn interesting article on sleep and the effects of sleep deficiency on cognitive performance:
https://www.popsci.com/how-many-hours-sleep-do-you-actually-need/
While I would disagree with the statement the article makes that sleep debt cannot be repaid, what I've read on this subject previously is consistent with the idea that the modern work schedule is simply incompatible with healthy sleep habits and provides insufficient time to make up lost sleep (a weekend or a 20 minute nap is just not going to cut it).
Also, while I don't doubt that they're right about the average amount of sleep that people need being 8 hours, I do think that there may be somewhat of a misunderstanding of what average means here. Some people are going to get by fine with a bit less, but also some people will need more than that. I don't doubt that a lot of people's conceptions of how much sleep they need to function adequately is vastly underestimated, however.
https://www.popsci.com/how-many-hours-sleep-do-you-actually-need/
While I would disagree with the statement the article makes that sleep debt cannot be repaid, what I've read on this subject previously is consistent with the idea that the modern work schedule is simply incompatible with healthy sleep habits and provides insufficient time to make up lost sleep (a weekend or a 20 minute nap is just not going to cut it).
Also, while I don't doubt that they're right about the average amount of sleep that people need being 8 hours, I do think that there may be somewhat of a misunderstanding of what average means here. Some people are going to get by fine with a bit less, but also some people will need more than that. I don't doubt that a lot of people's conceptions of how much sleep they need to function adequately is vastly underestimated, however.