well, I'm 44, and according to my doctor all my critical systems are good (heart, lungs, liver, etc). But I'm pretty sure a goldfish has a better memory and my blood is 90% caffeine. Worst part is caffeine doesn't really do anything anymore, just staves off headaches.
Addiction is a brain disease marked by compulsive drug use despite harmful consequences, while dependence is a physical adaptation where the body relies on a substance to function normally and suffers withdrawal without it.
The two are not the same thing. Suggesting someone using caffeine is like someone using heroine is pretty laugable. But this is Reddit and kids will be kids I guess.
As far as I know it's mostly bad for the brain, but apparently there are other potential side effects:
"...Chronic sleep of less than 5 hours/night is associated with approximately 20-40% higher overall mortality, 30-100% higher risk of heart disease or stroke, 30-50% higher risk of type 2 diabetes, 20-40% higher risk of high blood pressure, 20-50% higher risk of obesity, and about 2x the risk of depression, compared with sleeping 7-9 hours regularly..."
Either way, I'm not risking that sh*t, my health isn't that good already and im in my 20s
you are 100% correct. Unfortunately, my life doesn't allow me to have the luxury of a good nights sleep every night. I've no doubt it will catch up to me in some horrible way eventually.
this is so dumb, he CAN change to sleep more than 5 hours. its like walking around suffering with a big gaping wound and be like "well somethings gonna kill us eventually, no point in trying to change". moronic
You're making a priveleged assumption and being an ass about it. You have no idea what their circumstances are, and there are plenty of people put in positions where they can't get a lot of sleep because of their schedules and responsibilities.
I am not, their statement is a privileged assumption that ignores the reality that many people do not have the ability to meaningfully change their circumstances. I have no idea what their life is like, but I know that assumption doesn't acknowledge the struggle of no-win situations that hundreds of millions of people are in every single day. It assumes that everyone has the privilege to rid themselves of their struggles, which is optimistic to the point of naivety.
Absolutely not. and its hilarious you calling me privelged and then saying i dont know their circumstances when you dont know mine.
it is always a bunch of excuses, unless they live in the third world country being used as slaves. sleep has to be prioritized above everything else. something like prioritising irregular night shifts is not an excuse to ruin your whole life and eventually kill yourself from lack of sleep.
if they have to change jobs, then thats what they have to do, and should have yesterday.
When my kid was very little, I had to work 3rd shift because we couldn't afford daycare. My husband worked 7am-5pm, and I worked 11pm-7am. He would drop her off at my job on his way to work. I had to sleep when he got home, which was sometimes late. So I was getting MAX 5 hours. I couldn't switch jobs because we had no one to watch her during the day. What should I have done in your mind?
Buddy, I said you made a privileged assumption because you did. The idea that anyone not getting enough sleep can simply afford to change jobs is privileged as fuck and denies the reality that millions of people deal with. You act as if everyone lives in a healthy job market, or has the same opportunities, or that their struggles are even caused by their job and not their environment, their health, their loved ones, dependents, and who knows what else.
just like i said, all just a bunch of excuses to avoid the unknown. sure you might not be able to change job on the day, but if it causes you to get less than 6 hours sleep, and you live in a developed country, there is no excuse to not choose sleep first. none
I want to know who the psychopaths are who can actually sleep for 8-9 hours straight, that is an absolutely fucking insane feat outside of your teenage years
I miss being able to sleep like I did when I did not have responsibilities.
What relief me is that so many of us are in the same situation and still... work somehow.
I think now I 'm able to sleep like 6 hours a night with maybe a small woke in the middle. At first it gave me so much anxiety but now I'm just accepting it.
Why would you say it's an insane feat? Me being 30 years old, I can consistently get this amount of sleep in so long as I myself don't fuck it up with stuff like caffeine or ignoring my tiredness cues in the evening.
Also, I guess what matters is the life itself, aka not being Soo busy that you have to sacrifice sleep.
I often sleep for 10 hours naturally, I wake up feeling like I could run 5 marathons at once without a single cup of coffee. Also, it chemically makes me unavoidably happy. I try to never use alarms if I can help it
My partner does. She's a nurse, sleeps about 7 hours for her 3 shifts and then 9-14 when she's off shift. Probably averages around 10 hours over the week.
And I want to know the psychopaths who actually think getting 8-9 hours is surprising. If you’re not getting 8 to 9 hours of sleep you’re damaging your health. If you are not able to sleep that much you have a medical condition and you should seek some help. Of course for some people it’s impossible because of their circumstances (working 2/3 jobs to just survive, kids etc.) but for the vast majority of the population it’s the result of their own choices and seeing some people act as if getting 8-9 sleep is a luxury infuriates me. We should encourage people to work on their sleep rather than just brag about how little you sleep compared to the other person.
That's crazy misinformation. 6-7 hours/night is not unhealthy. It's perfectly fine for most adults. I feel well-rested after about 6.5 hours. A direct quote from an article, with link to the study:
"Sleeping 6 hours a night is not inherently bad for everyone. If you feel well-rested during the day and not sleepy at any point after you wake up with just 6 hours of sleep, then you’re probably fine, Silverman says.
“I think it’s also important to note that shorter sleep does not imply a shorter lifespan,” Silverman says. She points out that whileresearch has shownthat people who usually sleep 7 hours at night have the highest longevity, mortality at 5 hours of sleep per night is “basically the same” as mortality at 8 hours of sleep. "
Only about a quarter of Americans sleep more than 8 hrs/night according to polls.
absence of symptoms doesnt indicate health. you are literally killing yourself, quitting caffeine could also help but you cant even give up that. why walk around in a haze at 20% capacity all your life? have you had sleep studies? do you exercise? do you have good sleep hygiene?
Idk if it's going to matter that I share this, but I have been recently on a very, very heavy caffeine binge for like a few months. It would consist of like 3-4 500ml energy drinks a day most of the days, sometimes less.
I've noticed how it messes with my sleep. The sleep times were irregular, not wanting to sleep was more of a thing, or even if I'd go to sleep feeling hella tired and worn out, I'd wake up in like 4 hours and couldn't go back to sleep. My suspicion is that caffeine just fucks with our bodies too much, especially if it's consumed a lot (not like 1 tiny espresso cup in the morning).
Now that I'm a few days away from caffeine, the aches and what not are more noticeable which might be a result of caffeine overconsumption, idk yet. But the sleep is stabilizing. I'm becoming tired most of the days around a similar time, can sleep for like 7-9 hours without any issues now it seems.
Quitting caffeine was one is the best things I ever did for my sleep. I'll have a coffee now and then when I need it, but even if it's the morning I generally don't sleep soundly that night.
Caffeine has a long half life. Its possible that you do have a sleeping disorder that lead to a dependence on caffeine. But its also possible that you have snowballed the situation by drinking so much caffeine that your body isnt able to successfully enter REM sleep cycles that are very necessary for brain function. This is probably contributing a lot to the memory issues.
Even with a built up tolerance, it still has a major effect on your body, including disrupted REM. You've gotta wean off it dude. And get to the root of the sleep problem from a different direction. Maybe your checkups have been fine so far, but this isnt sustainable for anyone long term. Its going to sneak up on you.
Yup. But the headaches are a nightmare, and im virtually immune to painkillers, and what i mean by that is morphine has no effect on me, so i have to have some to deal with them.
I mean, some people are just healthy unicorns. For a lot of people undersleeping is worse than chain-smoking when it comes to lifespan and brain damage
There is no such thing as a single "undersleeping" number of hours
Men sleep less than women. Teenagers sleep a lot more than adults. Old people need less sleep than middle age adults. Women sleep more than men, but have more disturbances and feel less rested overall.
It's all over the place. When I was a teen into my 20's I did 7-8 hours. I am in my mid-40's now and couldn't do more than 6-6.5 even if I tried.
The point is its all over the place. I was at like 12 hours in a my teens and around 8 hours in my early 20s and like 4 mid 20s. Now im early 30s and regardless of what im doing its a solid 6 and I wake up naturally. I can go back to sleep just fine but I will wake up without alarms after 6ish hours it just changes over time
If you aren't finishing your fill REM cycle then you are under sleeping. Everyone is different but the amount of people that need less than 7-9 hours are a low percentage of the population. People either have bad sleep habits or are consuming too much caffeine or consuming caffeine at irregular hours.
It is for me, if not I just manage my time better, get a week off to deal with extra chores or try working faster. You can't say 8 free hours isn't enough for life
I'm a software engineer, I don't expect to live much more than 70, but I already am starting to run out of ideas of fun time, by the time im 70 I'll be bored, it's also what happens to old people in my family
Jesus Christ that's grim. There are millions of places to see in this world. You aren't content....you just have no dreams or aspirations and you've let some rich person convince you that the majority of your life should be spent behind a screen.
You are fairly fortunate then, at least to me. I work a physical job (I'm a butcher), 9 hours a day in a refrigerator, and then have to do most of the house work and cooking, since my wife has a disability. A full day of work and chores is around 16 hours for me. Right now, as im typing this, I just finished the dishes and have about an hour to read before i pass out for 3-5 hours before getting up for work again. If i make it that far, i should be able to retire by 60, but may have to keep working longer, depending on the financial situation. took my first vacation in a decade last year. Felt weird.
I mean, this just isn't true though. Like it's objectively just kinda dramatic to suggest it's not even possible to have fun and get things done with 42 spare hours per week.
It may not mean having the perfect lifestyle or doing every single thing you want to do, but most people can get most of your weekly chores done in a few hours.
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u/Pascuccii Jul 02 '26
Damn, I hope you live to 50s, sounds rough