Is sleep cumulative?

A

AmadeusM

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..in terms of rest and nourishment?

I read somewhere that LACK of sleep is cumulative, so it got me wondering.

Example:

Let's say a person ideally needs exactly 8 hrs of sleep per night.

If this person gets two hours of sleep in the afternoon, and then 6 hrs of sleep that night, will that person

a) Feel exactly the same as after sleeping 8hrs during the night without any afternoon naps
b) Feel tired and then well rested only after additional two hours on the afternoon on that day
c)Neither

Thanks.
 
All sleep is not the same. There are different types of sleep, in which brain activity is quite different. The important one is REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, which is the one in which a person dreams.

Assuming that the amount of time spent in REM sleep is the same, the person should feel much more rested than if he/she had not had the nap. Will it be exactly the same? Probably depends on the person.
 
No, sleep is not cumulative, and you can't "make it up" on another day (i.e. if you only get a couple hours on Friday night, you can't sleep a few more extra hours on Saturday to make it up).

Sleep is still sort of a mystery to scientists, but it is known that if you don't reach the deeper stages of REM that the benefits of sleep are lost. So, good sleep is a factor of duration, as well as quality.
 
Your body operates on 45min sleep cycles. By keeping within the 45min cycles(45min, 90min, 3hr...) you allow your body the most benefit from sleep.

My usual is 3hrs at night and 45min before supper. When I was working I'd take my 45min at lunch instead of around 4pm.

While the body can adapt to fewer hours of sleep, you still need REM to properly function, which is why a 45min base is used.
 
VampyreWolf said:
Your body operates on 45min sleep cycles. By keeping within the 45min cycles(45min, 90min, 3hr...) you allow your body the most benefit from sleep.

My usual is 3hrs at night and 45min before supper. When I was working I'd take my 45min at lunch instead of around 4pm.

While the body can adapt to fewer hours of sleep, you still need REM to properly function, which is why a 45min base is used.
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And you do okay on that little? I typically get 5-6 hours of sleep a night. I wish I got more but I'd have to cut down on my forum time.:(
 
Some people - two are Donald Trump and Jon Gruden (Tampa Bay Buccaneers' coach) - claim to need (and get) only 4 to 5 hours of sleep a night.
 
I went on 4 hrs of sleep once (for about 2 weeks), and I would erratically change lanes on the road no matter how hard I tried to keep my eyes open.
 
I read once that your energy level is based on the past two days worths of sleep. YMMV, I think. Seems to be true for me, though.
 
Breaking up your sleep isn't nearly as effective as getting the same amount of sleep all at once. While in Basic Training, I never got more than three hours of sleep in a stretch, and usually less than five hours total in a night, for about six weeks. When it was over it took me a month and a half to recover. I fell asleep on my feet while standing in my room for an inspection, and at one point passed out on my bed fully clothed for 12 hours straight. One minute I was laying there taking a break before dinner, and the next my alarm was going off. There's no substitute for sleeping at least five hours at a stretch every night, at least not for me. Some people do better on more, some on less, but if you go below three hours things get dicey for just about everyone.
 
Snow said:
And you do okay on that little? I typically get 5-6 hours of sleep a night. I wish I got more but I'd have to cut down on my forum time.:(
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I can operate on as little as 2hrs of sleep, but then I better get at least 3hrs the next night. Any more than 6hrs and I get a bitch of a migrane.

Now that it's warm out still after 9pm or so. I'll be walking again at night(all dependant on what hours I get when I finally have work). So that means I'll get home around 2300hrs, have my shower, and either watch tv or read till 0200ish, get out of bed by 0530ish and make my coffee. I'll be up and moving by 0600hrs.

Of course, when you are trying to go from 5-6hrs down to 3 or so,
you will be slightly tired and worn down the first few weeks. Same thing as a diet, you body is trying to tell you it needs more. Just keep pushing through that.


If I can keep my brain going on something, it's not uncommon for me to be up 40hrs+. But you can only take apart and build stuff for so long before that gets boring.
 
Amadeus, I can speak from experience that lack of sleep is very definitely cumulative while sleep is not. You can sleep but so much, if you are a normal person, and then your system will not accept more. But, if deprived ofg sleep for any period of time or if deprived of proper sleep, you are in real trouble.
 
I read once that your energy level is based on the past two days worths of sleep. YMMV, I think. Seems to be true for me, though.
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Same here. I frequently work all-night shifts and it takes two days to recover. I definitely don't ride the motorcycle without two consecutive nights' sleep. Unfortunately, I rarely get two consecutive nights...

-Bob
 
Sleep has been proven to be non-cumulative, unfortunately.
Moreover, you need at least a certain amount of continuous sleep to get the full benefits of sleeping, or certain processes don't kick in.
I don't know exactly what it is, not being a psyichologist, but it is so.
 
Vampyre Wolf, that sounds like a theory of polyphasic sleep, which is pretty disputed. Different things work for different people. The majority of sleep time is spent in slow-wave sleep, which results in decreased vascular tone, lower basal metabolic rate, lower blood pressure and other vegetative functions of the body. These functions can decrease anywhere from 10-30% in people. REM sleep occupies about 25% of the normal sleep cycle and normally recurs about every 90 minutes. When someone is really tired, there are usually fewer bouts of REM sleep, or they may be absent altogether. When people feel well rested, the amount of time spent in REM can increase significantly, and the brain is highly active during REM (brain metabolism can increase as much as 20% and EEG shows patterns very similar to those seen during normal wakefulness).

One theory of sleep is that it "resets" the natural balance of the neuronal centers of the central nervous system, "rezeroing" the different aspects of the CNS and returning their baselines to perceived normal. Since not everybody has "normal" nervous system function, I suspect that people who sleep a lot tend to be unbalanced toward the sympathetic (fight or flight) side of things, and people who sleep less tend to be unbalanced toward the parasympathetic side of things when awake. Just a theory.
 
Ah, the fun of jobhunting... no time for the forums...

I've been doing this for the last 5yrs or so, a good week of sleep isn't usually more than 25hrs, usually closer to 20 or less.

This week I've had nothing to do but catch up on sleep that I missed over the previous 2 weeks with studying and finals, and look for work now that I'm done school. Had been sleeping in and getting 5hrs, Wednesday night was 4hrs, Thursday night I got tired of tv around 0400 and was moving by 0800(just under 4hrs), and I haven't gone to bed yet today, still wide awake at 21hrs and counting. Might catch an hour or so before breakfast and another day.

I sleep like I eat... whatever my body needs it gets. All I've eaten in the last 21hrs is an A&W breakfast sandwich around 0900 and a sub around 2100hrs. Have a 1litre container of yogurt in the fridge for breakfast (probably around 0800hrs) and then who knows when I'll eat again later(probably late evening again).

What works for me may not work for everyone. I've been doing it long enough that my body has adapted.

When I was working 0600-1400hrs, I'd still be reading at 0130hrs or so, and opening the gate at work around 0530. I'd be up and moving around 0430-0500, eat a couple granola bars over my work day, eat a full meal when I got home around 1500hrs, supper around 1900hrs, and a snack around 0100hrs. So about 3hrs at night and my lunch break at work for sleep. That nap at lunch would be enough to let me work a 14-16hr day if it was needed to get product out and still be alert enough at the end of it all.
 
I'm sorry I dozed off there. Could you repeat the question?
 
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