Was there anything in your text about making up long term sleep loss?

For example, I know that if you miss a night of sleep, sleeping-in the next day won't really help your body. But how long do you have to get enough sleep to "cure" yourself of long-term lack of sleep?

i wonder if lack of sleep is just a side effect of something greater affecting the body. cortisol is a stress hormone. stress causes insomnia. it just perpetuates.

i've long believed in lots and lots of sleep. :) i feel good when i sleep enough and terrible when i don't sleep enough.

it just makes sense. hehehe

"I wonder if it will affect the longevity of their lives."

I think there was a study once that supported the theory that id did have an adverse effect on life longevity... but I'd have to see if I could dig it up again...

I always feel more emotional when I haven't had enough sleep too (cranky, more likely to cry, freak out, etc)

it can also cause temporary psychosis due to an inability to practice thought supression. people have been known to become obsessive over particular thoughts, usually things that worry them and instead of being able to tell your brain to just shut up and go on to something else it becomes consuming and can cause people to do some pretty crazy things.

the age of internet is definitely causing all of us to sleep less and spend more time online.

check this out, i just found it in an online journal about insomnia...

Whereas many people with difficulty sleeping believe that they’re not getting enough sleep (an opinion shared by a number of sleep researchers), evidence is mounting that people with insomnia are in fact getting at least as much sleep as they require, and possibly more. What is known is that insomniacs tend to get into bed early, stay in bed late, sleep during the day, spend more time in bed than non-insomniacs, and that they underestimate the amount they actually sleep even though they sleep as much as those people without insomnia. The amount of daytime sleep a person experiences is directly related to overall sleeping problems. Finally, voluntarily extending sleep is known to cause insomnia. Conversely, reducing time in bed is a very effective treatment for sleeplessness. Thus the hypothesis that primary insomnia is caused by attempting to sleep more than you need.

Simply put, if you believe you need eight hours of sleep a night, you’ll arrange your bedtimes and rising times to be in bed for eight hours. If your actual sleep requirements were only six hours, however, this schedule would result in two hours of tossing and turning each night. Even with sleep medication that might make you sleep an extra hour that would still leave one hour of tortured wakefulness.

*** This doesn't address the life longevity question but still an interesting related article...

Poll: Most American Adults Sleep Poorly
Mar 29, 8:03 AM (ET)

By SIOBHAN McDONOUGH

(AP) HOLD FOR RELEASE AT 12:01 A.M. EST TUESDAY; chart shows percentage of adults reporting a problem...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Getting a good night's sleep is hard for many adults and that often means poorer health, lower productivity on the job, more danger on the roads and a less vibrant sex life.

"By 3 to 4 in the afternoon, I'm starting to feel brain-drained and I need that caffeine to pick me back up again," said Becky Mcerien, 50, of Philadelphia.

She gets about 6.5 hours of sleep a night - slightly less than the adult average of 6.9 hours reported by the National Sleep Foundation.

Many experts say adults need a minimum of seven to nine hours of sleep a night.

A poll for the foundation, released Tuesday, indicates that three-quarters of adults say they frequently have a sleep problem, such as waking during the night or snoring.

Most people ignore the problem and few think they actually have one. Only half of those polled were able to say they slept well on most nights.

"I get what I need to function," said Guillermo Sardina, 55, of Hamilton, N.J., who averages six or seven hours a night. "I sleep through the night. I'm a sound sleeper. ... I don't even remember my dreams."

One-fourth of adults say sleep problems have some impact on their daily lives.

Richard Gelula, the foundation's CEO, said there's a link between sleep and quality of life.

"People who sleep well, in general, are happier and healthier," he said. "But when sleep is poor or inadequate, people feel tired or fatigued, their social and intimate relationships suffer, work productivity is negatively affected, and they make our roads more dangerous by driving while sleepy and less alert."

Symptoms of a sleep problem include difficulty falling asleep, waking a lot during the night, waking up too early and not being able to get back to sleep, waking up feeling unrefreshed, snoring, unpleasant feelings in the legs or pauses in breathing.

Darwin McCallian, 51, of Burke, Va., wakes up at 4 a.m. so he can get a head start on his work day and says he sometimes gets drowsy during his commute into Washington. "When I sleep in a little bit longer, it makes me a safer driver," said McCallian, who gets six to eight hours of sleep a night.

It's not just how much sleep a person gets, but the quality of sleep that matters, the report said.

Some of the nation's sleep habits can be attributed to an always-on-the-go society, said Chris Drake, senior scientist at the Henry Ford Hospital Sleep Center in Detroit and co-chairman of the 2005 poll task force.

"In an increasing 24-hour society, people are staying up much later," he said. "They can go to a 24-hour pharmacy or supermarket. They can do anything at any time of the night and day. That can impact on people's decisions to stay up later watching TV, doing work, being on the Internet."

Mary Cuffee, 64, of Washington, says she stays up watching TV and has a stressful job. For her, seven hours of sleep aren't enough. She says she needs at least 10.

The study found:

_Six in 10 adult motorists said they have driven while drowsy in the past year; 4 percent reported that they have had an accident or near-accident because they were too tired or actually fell asleep while driving.

_Three-fourths said their partner has a sleep problem, and the most common is snoring.

_Roughly one-fourth of respondents who have partners report that their sexual relationship has been hurt because they have been too sleepy. They had sex less often or lost interest in having sex because they were too tired.

_Seven in 10 people said their doctor has never asked them about their sleep.

The foundation and many sleep experts recommend avoiding alcohol and caffeine close to bedtime. The group also recommends that adults pay attention to how much sleep they get and the quality of that sleep, and seek help if needed.

The National Sleep Foundation is a nonprofit organization that lobbies Congress and state governments on public health and safety issues surrounding sleep disorders and deprivation, including drowsy driving and school start times. It receives its funding from the sleep products industry, pharmaceutical companies, other corporate sponsors, physicians, clinics and sleep centers.

The poll, conducted by WB&A Market Research, used a random sample of 1,506 adults who were interviewed over the phone between Sept. 20 and Nov. 7, 2004. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

apnews.myway.com//article/...L4AG0.html

Hi all. I'm new here.

Where to start.......
I'm a security guard, which means i work nights. Sleep has been a nuisance since i started this job. I have my windows covered, i sleep strange hours despite working steady hours, and i can only imagine the long-term (2 years) effects on my psyche that i'm not aware of.

I go through spells, usually 6 months, where i sleep very sporadically, like for 3 or 4 days at a time, for weeks, i get what sleep i can. It usually takes me blocking everything and everybody else out and crashing when i have to and sleeping until i'm done. This doesn't always help either.

In the end though, things usually work out, and i wind up just being cranky bunches, but don't become an insomniac. I just wanted to share about myself. :)

A more serious problem is a friend of mine. She would say she's a "night owl", because she usually can't fall asleep before 4am, even if she has to be up at 7am the next day and she was up at 7am that morning. I think she may just have a problem with being able to relax or calm down. When she does sleep, even if it's deep, she wakes very easily (to include being looked at).

I've known her for 3 years, and nothing i've ever been able to tell her has seemed to help. Could i get some suggestions that might help her sleep more easily please?