Comment by ge96
4 days ago
When I'm awake for a very long time (32hrs+) it feels like there is poison built up in my mind, then sleep clears it up/feel better.
Also if you lift in the mornings you feel lack of sleep/alcohol sleep disruption.
4 days ago
When I'm awake for a very long time (32hrs+) it feels like there is poison built up in my mind, then sleep clears it up/feel better.
Also if you lift in the mornings you feel lack of sleep/alcohol sleep disruption.
I feel this too, and always wondered if it related to the glymphatic system [1].
This is the system that clears out metabolic waste from the brain which builds up over time, and it's theorized that during slow-wave sleep in particular, the slow waves help pump out this waste fluid through microscopic channels the open up.
AFIAK, there were some researchers that were wondering if a drug of some kind could force this to happen more quickly, thus cutting down the amount we need to sleep. (Probably a bad idea.)
1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glymphatic_system
> it feels like there is poison built up in my mind, then sleep clears it up/feel better.
I'm not sure how common this is, but I feel this acutely after sustained mental exertion (e.g. reading informational material for a few hours). A deep 15 minute nap takes the feeling away completely without any grogginess.
> A deep 15 minute nap takes the feeling away
Almost the same here but it's not a deep nap for me. I relax, start seeing dream-like images in my mind (yet still drifting into-out of conscious awareness), then in ~15 minutes I feel energy build up and am ready to jump up and go.
I would say that the darn alarm clock prevented me from completing a sleep cycle properly in the morning, and now I did complete it and made my brain happy.
How do you ensure you are asleep for 15 minutes? Do you have a smart watch that detects when you drift asleep and can start a timer then? Or are you not losing consciousness, but are you simply closing your eyes and meditating?
For these instances where I get urgently fatigued ("brain tired") in the daytime, I close my eyes and fall asleep in 1-2 minutes. I'm definitely unconscious. I don't set any alarm and naturally wake up in ~15 minutes. It's been as short as 8 minutes, or as long as 30, but probably averages around 15. "Body tired" is different and requires the normal multiple hours of sleep.
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This is something I have considered getting into where and alarm goes off from when you actually fall asleep. For me it seems 5 hrs of sleep is the sweet spot (functional, slightly sleep deprived, but motivated)