6
votes
Accepted
Can oversleeping be harmful to overall health?
Studies have linked oversleeping with
Cognitive impairment
Depression
Increased inflammation
Increased pain
Impaired fertility
Higher risk of obesity
Higher risk of diabetes
Higher risk of heart ...
- 130
6
votes
Accepted
Term for a person who sleeps as they need to, rather than with any regular pattern?
As far as I know, there's no medical term for a person who does such a thing (and I doubt it would be labelled a disorder since practically everyone can do it to some extent), but the 2nd part of the ...
- 5,928
5
votes
Accepted
Does less sleep lead to weight loss?
Actually lack of sleep leads to weight gain and not weight loss.
Losing out on sleep creates a viscous cycle in your body, making you more prone to various factors contributing to weight gain. “The ...
- 1,878
5
votes
Accepted
Can humans acclimate to longer or shorter days?
Yes, it can.
The "master clock" of your body is the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus. It receives:
Neuronal input from the retina, through the retino-hypothalamic tract.
Hormonal input, ...
- 121
4
votes
Does caffeine boost adenosine buildup?
Your question demonstrates a key understanding of homeostatic mechanisms: in many cases, long-term pharmaceutical modulation leads to compensatory changes that blunt the effects of the modulation. ...
- 13.3k
3
votes
Accepted
Exactly what triggers the release of Melatonin?
Melatonin synthesis and secretion (pineal gland) is enhanced by darkness and inhibited by light (photons).
DOI: 10.1530/ror.0.0030013 PMID: 9509985
- 46
3
votes
Which impacts one's sleep more - waking up towards the beginning of a sleep cycle, or the end?
Generally, NREM phase 3 (N3) also known as deep sleep, is considered to be the sleep phase in which the body rests the most and people suddenly awakened during this phase may have unpleasant ...
- 206
3
votes
Accepted
how can I get my sleeping cycle to normal again?
Many sleeping pills are addictive.
Many non-addictive sleeping pills can be mentally addictive.
If you do not mind using sleeping pills for the rest of your life, then that is a perfectly fine choice....
2
votes
Accepted
How much sleep is too much?
People who sleep less than 6 hours and people who sleep more than 9 hours have been found to have a greater risk of suffering from adverse health effects, see e.g. here. But one cannot conclude from ...
- 2,250
2
votes
Sleeping 6 hours discontinuously every day
This is generally unhealthy, especially as sleep cannot be made up or paid back like financial debt. Try to get back to at least seven hours. As always, consult with a doctor.
See: National Sleep ...
- 21
2
votes
How to get to sleep half-an-hour / an hour earlier than the day before?
Sleep Hygiene is the first line treatment for most insomnia. This is another good list from Harvard.
Anecdotally, the principles of it that worked best for me were blackout curtains, removing ...
- 5,754
2
votes
Accepted
Do hearing-impaired individuals need more sleep?
A hot topic in hearing research right now is listening effort. The basic idea is that is that individuals with hearing loss need to use additional cognitive resources to process sounds. There is also ...
- 1,462
2
votes
Accepted
Why do I feel more tired when I sleep in?
Good question Tehp,
You know what I also experienced that, according to Dr. Michael Breus, a Sleep Doctor that a Sleep has its own cycle. The sleep-wake cycle follows a regular pattern (circadian ...
- 105
2
votes
Does a computer screen work as a lightbox?
I don't know if there is research on this, but if not, this might help.
Natural daylight contains a wide range of light frequencies - hence the rainbow, when it's split up. At different times of day, ...
- 341
1
vote
How much melatonin does the body produce naturally per day?
According to encyclopedia.com 1 the production of the hormone melatonin (5-methoxy-N-acetyltrypt-amine) varies over the course of a lifetime and over the course of a day.
Newborn babies produce very ...
- 983
1
vote
When should we sleep?
It's best to choose the time period for sleeping such that it doesn't need to be changed often, as this leads to better sleep quality. If this means that you need to sleep during daytime, then you ...
- 2,250
1
vote
What happens to melatonin and the circadian rythm when one adopts biphasic sleep cycle?
Yes, something quite similar to what you hypothesize in fact!
According to this study (unfortunately, behind a paywall): In short photoperiods, human sleep is biphasic. (Literally the title of the ...
- 4,866
1
vote
Sleeping 6 hours discontinuously every day
The way you are sleeping is not necessarily unhealthy, but this is easily debatable and you should probably look at what social and lifestyle factors may be affecting your sleep duration and consider ...
- 119
1
vote
Is setting your alarm for a long duration at a lower volume a good way to ensure you wake up in light sleep?
How deep the sleep is depends on the sleep cycles. This overview from shows, that the deepest sleep stages 3 & 4 only happen during the first half of the night. The second half is mainly REM sleep....
- 51
1
vote
Is setting your alarm for a long duration at a lower volume a good way to ensure you wake up in light sleep?
I think it would help after the first few times, but lose effectivity as you become used to the less noise. I would think to put your alarm on extra early, and your alarm steadily getting louder would ...
- 647
1
vote
Are there permanent health effects from working the night shift for 6 days?
This answer is more speculative than I like my answers here to be, but I think it still has some value.
It is highly unlikely that a single six-day period of working the night shift will have a ...
- 6,982
1
vote
How much sleep is too much?
For the causes of mortality with short and long sleep, the first linked article in @CountIblis' answer (Gallicchio & Kalesan, 2009) states that
The specific mechanisms underlying the association ...
- 6,154
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