Sleep is a naturally recurring state characterized by reduced or absent consciousness, relatively suspended sensory activity, and inactivity of nearly all voluntary muscles. It is distinguished from quiet wakefulness by a decreased ability to react to stimuli, and is more easily reversible than being in hibernation or a coma.
Questions tagged [sleep]
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Does polyphasic sleep work? Does it have long-term or short-term side effects?
Cutting sleep down to 6, or 4, or 2 hours per day sounds fantastic. It also sounds like something that should have evolved naturally if it were possible.
From the Polyphasic Society:
Humans are naturally polyphasic sleepers. Depending on the…
Ben Lerner
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Do you eat a certain number of spiders whilst you sleep?
Over the course of your life time, the average person eats X spider/insects/whatever whilst they are sleeping.
X tends to vary according to who you ask. Is this just an urban legend?
MSpeed
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Do teenagers fall asleep and rise up later than kids or adults for biological reasons?
In a TED talk "Why school should start later for teens", Wendy Toxel made an assertion that teenagers naturally fall asleep and rise up a couple of hours later than children OR adults (related to Melatonin production time).
I found one BBC article…
user5341
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Do we need 8 hours of consecutive sleep a day?
It is said that an adult human needs around 7-9 hours of sleep per day.
Do human beings need around 8 hours of consecutive sleep a day? Is it prejudicial to the body and brain that you don't? Or is that a myth?
Bruno Pereira
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Does the color temperature of a computer screen affect sleep patterns?
There's a little tool called f.lux that claims:
During the day, computer screens look good — they're designed to look like the sun. But, at 9PM, 10PM, or 3AM, you probably shouldn't be looking at the sun.
F.lux fixes this: it makes the color of…
Lagerbaer
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Is it better to sleep before midnight?
My father and I couldn't be more different when it comes to sleep. I rarely go to bed before midnight, while he will often retire around 9:30. While growing up, we'd often get into discussions on the topic of our sleep habits. Over and over I heard…
Timothy Baldridge
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Were our ancestors segmented sleepers?
Historian A. Roger Ekirch contends that in ancient times, people naturally had two sleeping periods at night- the first starts shortly after sundown and ends in an short break, where people were semi-conscious and would speak to each other about…
Apophenia Overload
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Did Albert Einstein sleep 10-11 hours daily?
I heard many times that Albert Einstein needed a lot of sleep. For example, this BBC article claims that he typically needed eleven hours of sleep:
People's sleep needs can differ significantly.
At the extreme, Margaret Thatcher managed on four…
Piotr Migdal
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Are blue light filters, not blue lights, on phones and computer screens harmful to sleep?
These existing questions ask whether the blue lights, not blue light filters, from computer screens affect sleep:
Does blue light from screens (phone, computer, TV) before sleep affect sleep?
Does the color temperature of a computer screen affect…
BCLC
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Can devices detect your sleep cycle and wake you in a more refreshed state?
There are a number of products on the market that claim to be "better alarm clocks" that allows you to feel more refreshed when you wake - even if you sleep a few minutes or tens of minutes less.
There are two claims:
that one feels more refreshed…
Larry OBrien
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Does eating just before sleeping cause nightmares?
In many cartoons and on Sesame Street there are many storylines where a character eats just before going to bed (usually pizza) and they end up having nightmares or very crazy vivid dreams.
Normally this ends with another character pointing out that…
going
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Death by lack of sleep -- is it possible?
I had an argument with a friend in college who claimed that it was possible to remain awake with little to no detrimental affects for an arbitrarily long period of time. I am wondering, has anybody ever tried to measure the effects of extreme sleep…
Glen Wheeler
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Does radiation from sleeping next to your smartphone affect your brain patterns negatively?
Vivian Giang writes in Sleep Drives Metabolite Clearance from the Adult Brain:
In fact, as part of Swart’s Neuroscience For Leadership class at MIT in April, she discussed the serious health consequences that come from neglecting shut-eye. Swart,…
Christian
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Has "the destruction of the space shuttle Challenger... been linked to insufficient sleep"?
According to Daylight Savings Time and Traffic Accidents N Engl J Med 1996; 334:924-925
Major disasters, including the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and the destruction of the space shuttle Challenger, have been linked…
DavePhD
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Is "co-sleeping" (infant sleeps in bed with parents) safe?
Among some circles, co-sleeping is highly advocated for newborns/infants due to ease of breastfeeding and potential developmental bonding to the mother (for more examples, read about proposed advantages here). The immediate and obvious red flag that…
Hendy
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