back
1 comments
Sometimes it just seems to uncannily perfect for the ruling classes.
I am not rich, just a regular person. I've slept as much as I've wanted all my life. Haven't used an alarm in over 10 yrs ( except when I've had to a catch a flight ect) .

It has constantly puzzled my why people are sleep deprived. why?

A lot of it has been studied and while there's some blue-light nonsense (not so much nonsense as heavily misinterpreted by the health blogosphere), there is evidence that a vast proportion of the human population is suffering from circadian rhythm disruption of some sort. This is especially prevalent in populations living with heavy noise and light pollution, AKA urban residents.

There are studies somewhere that if you ship people out to camp in remote areas with only fire as a light source, their circadian rhythms almost always realign within a few nights.

Furthermore, the genetics that determine how light-sensitive one's circadian rhythms were never selected against because it really didn't affect survivability except at the very far ends. Event then, Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome might have been allowed to remain around because it produced night-watchers that contributed to the survival of the pack. The result is there is a very large spectrum of light-sensitivity fairly well distributed amongst the human population.

All this adds up to: Very few people are not light sensitive, and a majority of it display varying degrees. So much so, difficulty maintaining a natural sleep pattern is considered the norm and not many people question it anymore.

I suspect a considerable portion can be attributed to FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). Whether it's that new Netflix show, some snapchat celebrity, watching the news, getting stuck in a Wikipedia hole, or going out with people after working 11 hours. People will burn hours a day on these things.

My wife is guilty of the Netflix and News descriptors mentioned above. I avoid the news and prefer to read but I still get stuck in the "one more chapter" hole.

I am curious to know the breakdown of sleeping habits based on some simple personality distinguishers like introvert vs extrovert.

I'm very introverted. I just go to bed when I'm tired.
> It has constantly puzzled my why people are sleep deprived. why?

Age, anxiety, work-load, sleeping conditions, habits, physical health - to name the more obvious reasons.

Is that really such a puzzle?

I have a full time job, side project(s), and a family. There aren't enough hours - so something has to give.
I wish I were you. I am incapable of sleeping without some sort of aid (alcohol, weed, utter exhaustion from extremely strenuous exercise).

I'm pretty sure it partially has to do with my environment (living in NY, which is loud and full of light, even at night).

But also some people are simply lighter sleepers than others. No one in my family is ever able to stay asleep longer than 5am, and all of us are very light sleepers.

My boyfriend is able to fall asleep and stay asleep WITHOUT being blackout drunk. I am amazed by this.

I just moved to NY myself a few weeks ago, and am generally a pretty light sleeper. I didn't have trouble falling asleep, but I had trouble with waking up at 4AM, as soon as sunlight really started coming in. Luckily, the solution was easy - $100 or so gets a set of blackout curtains that can just about make the place pitch black in direct sunlight. Apparently New Yorkers are oddly averse to curtains for some reason...

Noise is a little tougher. Luckily, my place is pretty well insulated. But white noise like fans and such and earplugs can help a lot.

Why not just get up at 4am? Its a very quiet time of the day to get work done and it lets you feel smarmily 'ahead' of everyone else (disclaimer: I don't actually get up at this time).
I can't stand not getting 8+ hours of sleep. So I usually do, save for when I get a new game, go out to see a movie (rarely), or some other special event.

I don't understand people who constantly deprive themselves of sleep, willingly.

Even if I were dead tired and had zero caffeine in the day, I wouldn't be able to stay asleep for 8+ hours. I WISH. I'll go to bed at 10pm and lie awake until 3am. And then maybe I'll fall asleep until 5am when my alarm goes off.
> It has constantly puzzled my why people are sleep deprived.

I doubt that. You must be at least partially aware that people often have long commutes and/or expectations of long work weeks.

Puzzle solved.

Well, kids can affect your schedule. When small, they wake very early and can't be left unsupervised. With two working adults in the household, the logical thing is for one to handle early duties, one late. Want to talk to your spouse uninterrupted? It may be at 9:30 pm after one rose at 5:30 am. Then add in anything else that may be going on in life, and eight hours sleep might not be doable during the week.
My brain doesn't reliably shut down in the evening when the rest of me is ready for bed.