Comments

You must log in or register to comment.

AutoModerator t1_isud2n8 wrote

Welcome to r/science! This is a heavily moderated subreddit in order to keep the discussion on science. However, we recognize that many people want to discuss how they feel the research relates to their own personal lives, so to give people a space to do that, personal anecdotes are now allowed as responses to this comment. Any anecdotal comments elsewhere in the discussion will continue to be removed and our normal comment rules still apply to other comments.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

1

Wagamaga OP t1_isud7fe wrote

Older people who get five hours of sleep a night or less may face a far greater risk of developing two or more chronic illnesses, such as heart disease, cancer or diabetes, compared to people who sleep longer, a new study suggests.

The research, published Tuesday in the journal PLOS Medicine, tracked the impact of sleep duration on the health of more than 7,000 men and women at the ages of 50, 60 and 70.

This was done via a 25-year follow up of participants in the Whitehall II cohort study involving members of the British civil service.

The British and French researchers, led by University College London, found that sleeping for five hours or less at the ages of 50, 60, and 70 was linked to a 30% to 40% increased risk of developing multiple chronic diseases versus people who slept for up to seven hours.

https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2022/10/18/five-hours-sleep-disease-risk-study/2071666105265/

26

woogyboogy8869 t1_isui1qc wrote

What about younger people (myself) who sleep 5 or less hours? Am I slowly giving myself illnesses?

137

IdRatherBeSleeping85 t1_isul129 wrote

Did it say why? Are people that sleep less just up to no good? Eating more? Watching more tv, using the internet? Thinking about the stresses of life? So sleeping an extra 3 hrs is the cure?

6

mydoghasocd t1_isuob5g wrote

Replying to [deleted] (#136,232)

you can try two things: regular exercise, and most importantly, don't eat anything or drink anything other than water (especially alcohol) for 3 hours before you go to bed. Metabolism interferes with sleep processes.

55

mydoghasocd t1_isuopos wrote

Replying to IdRatherBeSleeping85 (#136,204)

your body engages in extensive cellular repair and cleansing while you sleep. If you deprive your body of sleep, you are not getting that regular maintenance on your body. Sleep quality certainly matters, but 4 hours of high quality sleep is not ever going to outperform 7 hours of medium quality sleep. The sleep research is very clear that <5 (and maybe less than 6) is incredibly detrimental for all aspects of health.

10

Azzizabiz t1_isur6j6 wrote

Replying to [deleted] (#136,232)

You may want to consider a sleep study to see if you have sleep apnea. I was prescribed a CPAP machine, and I no longer get interruptions during my sleep. I thought I had prostate issues in my 30's. Turns out I was just never getting into REM sleep due to my apnea that my bladder never settled for the night.

10

immersemeinnature t1_isutawk wrote

I sleep like absolute crap and just developed hypertension. I have exercised pretty much daily since I was a kid and also am trim/ not overweight. It's absolutely my crap sleep.

6

flannelheart t1_isuxe1w wrote

Why are older people getting five or less hours of sleep? I turn down multiple invites every year ‘cause they’re past my bedtime. Priorities

7

[deleted] t1_isvg23b wrote

Who the hell sleeps 8 hours a night

5

PoopMagruder t1_isvlsfh wrote

Look. Sleeping feels good because it is necessary. Not getting enough sleep is obviously bad because it feels bad.

2

woogyboogy8869 t1_isvn4wm wrote

Replying to [deleted] (#138,086)

That is pretty much how I am except occasionally I do sleep 6 or 7 hours but when I do I end up waking up feeling worse than if I only sleep 3 hours.

https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2019/08/415261/after-10-year-search-scientists-find-second-short-sleep-gene

This is kind of an intersting article I read last year or so. I'm not going to claim I have this gene mutation, because I have nothing to back it up, but it makes sense there are people that just don't need as much sleep

7

J662b486h t1_isvravc wrote

Replying to [deleted] (#136,232)

Speaking from the viewpoint of someone who is getting farther from 50, I'm getting less nighttime sleep but the oddest change is that when I am sleeping I get lots of very vivid dreams - weird ones that aren't quite disturbing but close.

4

rbt321 t1_isvxlva wrote

Replying to muhyb (#137,413)

While I'm not aware of any studies, it was very common historically to go to sleep shortly after sunset, wake for a few hours in the middle of the night (many children created during these hours), then sleep again until sunrise.

Also, siesta countries like Spain and Italy, have pretty strong life expectancy. Seems like an indicator that afternoon napping probably isn't harmful.

Seems like something worth studying in a controlled manner.

15

GodHatesGOP t1_iswa1hv wrote

Replying to [deleted] (#136,232)

You might be suffering from Sleep Apnea. This is a regular occurrence with age as your throat muscles lose tone, they allow the tongue to slip lower than it should, thus blocking your air intake (initially partially which results to loud snoring then totally which results in not breathing), you our brain detects a massive spike in carbon dioxide (your blood becomes more acidic) and it rouses you from your sleep...but ...just long enough to tense up your throat muscles and get few breaths of air in....that happens 8x/hr so basically at most you get 20min of sleep in an actual hour.

If you have insurance then get a sleep study done. Easy referral, tell your primary physician that your wife complains about how loud you snore and that you wake up each morning feeling very tired.
Now there are two types of sleep studies which depend on how compliant you are as a patient.

The in home sleep study Pro

You take devices that are placed on a headband on your forehead and a device placed under your chin and across your chest. To measure your brainwave activity, oxygen ehilation oxygen saturation, breathing rate and any snoring.

You get to sleep in your own bed and your own sleep environment. The measurements are done for two nights in order to average it out.

Cons

Not as accurate in terms of brain activity as in the sleep lab environment

Sleep lab environment

Very accurate in terms of brain activity but not so much in terms of replicating the actual sleep environment and sleep hygiene.

If you don't have insurance;

Then grab a "do I snore" app on your smart phone. Turn it on and go to bed. When you wake up tomorrow look at the results.

If you snored a lot and if the snoring sounded very loud then you most likely have sleep apnea.

CVS and Walgreens now sell RESMED APAP machines and masks. You can get one and look up the clinical menu unlock key combo for each device. This will allow you to set pressures.

1

BloodChasm t1_iswbr6w wrote

Does this take exercise into the equation? Those with less sleep are probably more reluctant to exercise, perhaps that's the key?

1

incomprehensibilitys t1_iswdglb wrote

The problem is, you really can't do anything about Not like older people are trying to not sleep

1

regreddit t1_isxwf23 wrote

Well contrasted to the other study posted about 3 weeks ago that correlated 9+ hours of sleep with dementia seems like you better get 8 squares, no more, no less!

1

DJSnafu t1_isydmh8 wrote

Replying to mydoghasocd (#142,470)

For sure. Just very tough, I've struggled with more than 5 hours of sleep since I was around 11 and I'm 41 now. Been awake since 6am today (4.5 hours of sleep at night) and your comment this morning has prevented from my daynap today:D Thank you again for taking the time to reply.

1

Titalator t1_isyhwdz wrote

This is great six hours has been my max sense highschool I just can't sleep more.

1

mydoghasocd t1_isyxoa1 wrote

Replying to DJSnafu (#143,976)

Well, there are some strategies to help with sleeping longer at night. You could read The Circadian Code, which covers a lot of these, although the most important things are 1) not napping during the day, 2) having a set wake up time, 3) don’t eat anything or drink alcohol for 2-3 hours before bed, 4) no caffeine after noon, and 5) increasing your physical activity. I will note that even though everyone consistently finds dramatic effects of sleep on overall health, that actually the most important thing you can possibly do for your health is regular physical activity, the next most important thing is eating a Mediterranean diet (or similar), and then sleep is after that, followed by other general health tweaking behaviors (e.g., fasting, meditation, reducing stress/anxiety). But the most important predictor of health is regular physical activity. So if you just can’t optimize your sleep even after trying everything, instead of stressing about sleep, you should just focus on exercising.   And if you exercise enough, it'll probably fix your sleep problem anyway.

1

tektite t1_iszml9e wrote

I regularly get 5 hours of sleep and wake up without an alarm. I guess I’m supposed to try to go back to sleep for another cycle, but it’s not very easy for me.

1

TLTAGL t1_itbmvi0 wrote

Replying to rbt321 (#138,936)

I really think the Mexican Spanish Siesta was studied long ago and it was proved that a Nap is extremely helpful to the body and mind but only if you didn’t sleep more then 30 minutes …

1

TLTAGL t1_itbos7e wrote

Replying to flannelheart (#136,815)

I sleep less then 4-5 hours because pain wakes me up,, Pain always wakes me up.. Drs can’t hand out pain meds to chronic pain patients like they use to so now u Suffer n lucky if u get anything besides a Advil

1