How to sleep
WORK-IN-PROGRESS
I seem to naturally sleep productively.
But not everyone sleeps productively (quality), and not everyone gets a lot of sleep (quantity). (I explicitly split the two.)
Let’s help those people. Let’s talk sleep.
When I was discharged June 6, I had to be in a wheelchair. I couldn’t balance. I struggled undressing and stepping over the bathtub to shower. I could not walk the (actual) curb. I fell standing on one leg. This is expected with a devastated cerebral peduncle. A month later, I went to sleep; immediately upon waking up, without even getting out of bed – the moment my eyes opened – I was sure I could walk the curb. I just knew. I urged family to provide backup and we went to test. Yes, I could. My outpatient Physical Therapy was only four 1 hour visits lasting mid-July to mid-August.
Intuitions
Sleep is the ~33% most similar of ALL lives. Have you thought about it like that?
What’s your excuse to not have briefly contemplated the abundant academic Sleep literature in Psychiatry?
I suppose I did that for you. From Tononi, to parsing the PSQI article, to reading all those endless college student cognitive-sleep studies. All to seek insights into neurorehabilitation in hopes others mimic my DAI 3 recovery success, and mine persists for decades.
Perhaps you shrug off the importance of sleep: “Why? I’m not conscious during it anyway”.
Sleep is when we recover and internalize.
Reframe a perfect day:
me today = recovery/internalization(me yesterday) + error
me = sleep() + error
This is very simplified.
Quantity, Quality
Social media seems to really care about the quantity – “get your 8 hours of sleep”. Thought: what is then a power nap?
- undisciplined with blue lights
- beyond that, a naturally jumpy circadian rhythm
- post-trauma 1-2 prolonged wake ups every single night without exception
- post-trauma I can’t function without ~8 hours of sleep, and I don’t always get that. Well, I don’t function those days.
And this is still a good outcome. I know many TBI survivors struggle much more, needing exhaustion to even briefly fall asleep.
Precisely why the quality comes first. If you are stuck not sleeping much, making sure every second you do get to sleep counts and contributes to your recovery/internalization is even more critical than if you are a “good sleeper” who easily racks up the hours.
Extrinsic = mattress, pillow, reliance on a
Intrinsic = mind, cognition, psychology, long-term food habits
The Glymphatic System
Jessen NA, Munk AS, Lundgaard I, Nedergaard M. The Glymphatic System: A Beginner’s Guide