I was actually a bit surprised by the low regression coefficient values in figure 3. To me, the low values say that many of those features are not hugely important. The authors don’t emphasize this, but they also found that going to sleep later correlated with higher morning alertness.
My own takeaway from the data is a bit different from what the authors say conversationally (vs in the figures). I’d summarize the paper, mostly based on figure 5b, as:
Try to be happy, old, sleep well, and don’t eat too frequently.
In terms of breakfast, the data’s main conclusions are to avoid a lot of sugar (which is hugely important), and to wait a while before eating breakfast (see fig 3).
This could have to do with whether you're waking up in between versus in the middle of a sleep cycle. From what I understand, the former is preferable to the latter.
Well, it is "morning alertness", from what I've observed on myself "bad" (whether short or interrupted) sleep have far higher negative impact on rest of the day than morning.
To me it's the exact opposite. I usually end up feeling much better later in the day if I can't sleep but mornings are absolutely brutal. Even if I sleep well, I feel a bit groggy in early mornings; if I didn't sleep well I'm a complete zombie, but later in the day I will feel better, hopefully.
A few things I have found work well for maintaining energy levels and maximizing productivity levels throughout the day.
1. Only eat foods high in carbohydrates around the time you exercise. (Reduce carbohydrates on days that you don't exercise)
2. Workout in the morning or afternoon (ideally afternoon). (Working out at night will disrupt sleep and I have found that working out in the morning slightly decreases energy levels in the afternoon compared to working out in the afternoon.)
3. Avoid eating 6+ hours before going to bed.
4. Try to do some light exercise (walking/stretching) after you eat.
5. Make sure you're consistently drinking water throughout the day (a little bit less around the times you eat).
6. Only go to bed when you're like 8+/10 tired (time asleep doesn't matter much if the quality is slow)
7. Avoid screen time at least 1 hour before bed (this is basically a must to achieving 6...)
8. Wake up (get up) when you wake up relatively alert or when you have to get up. If you always stay in bed until you have to get up then you're probably not aligning your waking time with your sleep cycle which means you'll be more tired throughout the rest of the day
There are actually a lot of other things that I think help as well (diet, meditation, etc...) but I didn't want to make this post any longer than it is.
Lastly, I just wanted to say that having sleep aligned is SO important because it improves our energy/emotional state which ultimately assists us with other productive activities. (it's really a productivity multiplier)
Associating all these health markers (sleep, activity, diet) with an actual result is cool and something more fitness apps should do. Right now you can setup tracking for all these things relatively easy but the purpose of tracking them seems to be vaguely feeling "good" or losing weight. The apps encourage you to sleep a certain amount and exercise but it seems difficult to correlate those numbers with performing something you care about at a higher level.
I usually just say something like "yeah I guess I have been feeling more focused lately" but that seems pretty subjective.
The gold standard of medical evidence is the clinical endpoint. How someone feels after receiving treatment is subjective, but is is subjective per subject, so the subject in the numerator cancels with the one in the denominator, and the result is an objective measurement.
There are so many instances of people feeling they are doing well when the objective measure reveals that they are not. The Dunning Kruger effect became a meme because people are so bad at objectively measuring their own performance.
It is philosophical whether feeling you are doing good is more important than actually doing well, but for a metrics based study like the one this thread is based around I want objective measurements.
Interesting. Anecdotally, I do feel way sharper, eloquent and wittier when I am on low-carb, fasting-often-and-long diet I practice between September and March. I tend to feel sleepy and bloated on a high carb diet I do most of the summer (and that's not sweets or soda, it's just adding bread and pasta). I do a lot of fasted cardio, including things like cycling 200km during a 36hr or 72hr fast. I do software design for a living, so generally have to think hard with some regularity :-)
As a 200km+ cyclist, at what times of the day do you eat?
Eu or US based?
Interested, as i've never tried seasonal variations, as opposed to daily/ weekly.
I do whack in the sugars, though pre-ride (day before) and then fast until finished, whatever the distance. Eating during, bloats me and i mentally just kinda give up.
Usually in the morning the next day. Rarely I do two day fasts-and-long rides, but I mainly did that to see how my body would reapond. I live in the Netherlands. I ride all year long.
I think it takes weeks to get used to fasted cardio, though. At least 2-3 weeks, and I eat keto on eating days when I do that, and I ride at a leisure pace of around 25km/h despite riding on an otherwise fast, light road bike. Anything truly intense kicks me out of ketosis and quickly drives me towards starving and loosing strength. I do different things in the summer as I love a beer and french fries when the weather is nice :-)
I recommend every single person I know to screen themselves for Sleep Apnea -- My doctor estimates 30% of the population has it and most people go their whole lives without ever knowing.
Personally, my CPAP has boosted by daily energy/wakefulness tremendously, I feel at least 40% more energy each morning when I get a perfect CPAP adherence overnight, and I only had a minor/moderate case. If you snore, you probably have it without knowing.
Please get checked and make your life much better!
30% of the population do not have Apnea. Initial estimates in research were 3%, then a few years ago we started seeing numbers in the 8% to 12%. I have never seen a research paper that suggests anywhere near 30%, but that number gets batted around a bunch.
I'm not going to say Apnea isn't a problem. It is. I'm happy it made your life better.
Only eating between 5-9 pm means a deep sleep from digestion of 2500 calories. Also, skipping lunch prevents the post lunch tiredness which would reduce my physical activity so I can more easily stay on my feet at least 12 hours a day.
I did that for long time, just one big meal in the evening, but over time I figured out that for me it works better to move it earlier (say noon) as it makes easier to fall asleep. Food before bed kinda does opposite for me, I stay longer than I want after.
It took a bunch of time to get used to longer breaks between meals but I can go for whole day without food without feeling all that much hunger. Dropping fast metabolizing foot also helped with that.
Only time where food makes me sleepy is if I had a lot after a period of average negative calorie intake, my body just goes "okay we sleep now" regardless of time of day.
Tom Rath's book "Eat, Move, Sleep" reinforces this same simple message. It seems like common sense to me, but for those who want the science, there you go.
This feels like "alertness associated with other positive health traits."
That is, I don't think most people or animals choose to lower their physical activity just because they can. Often lowering any of those is due to onset of sickness and you can observe this in pets.
Reading over the above, I do want to underline that this is still worth studying. I just hate that the reporting on it is painting a one-way causal link.
I also think the amount of psychological tricks that are employed against people is absurdly high. Such that the reasons we overeat or just eat the wrong things are as likely not about cravings you would have absent the effort companies put into giving you these cravings.
Ah, good point. For that, I would simply rephrase that too much sleep is also bad. Which, is a less controversial way of framing it. And still fits with my generic framing.
Readit News
My own takeaway from the data is a bit different from what the authors say conversationally (vs in the figures). I’d summarize the paper, mostly based on figure 5b, as:
Try to be happy, old, sleep well, and don’t eat too frequently.
In terms of breakfast, the data’s main conclusions are to avoid a lot of sugar (which is hugely important), and to wait a while before eating breakfast (see fig 3).
I always found this to be true for myself--if I got 6 hours of sleep I'd be much more alert in the morning than if I got 8.
1. Only eat foods high in carbohydrates around the time you exercise. (Reduce carbohydrates on days that you don't exercise)
2. Workout in the morning or afternoon (ideally afternoon). (Working out at night will disrupt sleep and I have found that working out in the morning slightly decreases energy levels in the afternoon compared to working out in the afternoon.)
3. Avoid eating 6+ hours before going to bed.
4. Try to do some light exercise (walking/stretching) after you eat.
5. Make sure you're consistently drinking water throughout the day (a little bit less around the times you eat).
6. Only go to bed when you're like 8+/10 tired (time asleep doesn't matter much if the quality is slow)
7. Avoid screen time at least 1 hour before bed (this is basically a must to achieving 6...)
8. Wake up (get up) when you wake up relatively alert or when you have to get up. If you always stay in bed until you have to get up then you're probably not aligning your waking time with your sleep cycle which means you'll be more tired throughout the rest of the day
There are actually a lot of other things that I think help as well (diet, meditation, etc...) but I didn't want to make this post any longer than it is.
Lastly, I just wanted to say that having sleep aligned is SO important because it improves our energy/emotional state which ultimately assists us with other productive activities. (it's really a productivity multiplier)
I usually just say something like "yeah I guess I have been feeling more focused lately" but that seems pretty subjective.
Request it, it may get done.
The gold standard of medical evidence is the clinical endpoint. How someone feels after receiving treatment is subjective, but is is subjective per subject, so the subject in the numerator cancels with the one in the denominator, and the result is an objective measurement.
It is philosophical whether feeling you are doing good is more important than actually doing well, but for a metrics based study like the one this thread is based around I want objective measurements.
Interested, as i've never tried seasonal variations, as opposed to daily/ weekly.
I do whack in the sugars, though pre-ride (day before) and then fast until finished, whatever the distance. Eating during, bloats me and i mentally just kinda give up.
I think it takes weeks to get used to fasted cardio, though. At least 2-3 weeks, and I eat keto on eating days when I do that, and I ride at a leisure pace of around 25km/h despite riding on an otherwise fast, light road bike. Anything truly intense kicks me out of ketosis and quickly drives me towards starving and loosing strength. I do different things in the summer as I love a beer and french fries when the weather is nice :-)
Personally, my CPAP has boosted by daily energy/wakefulness tremendously, I feel at least 40% more energy each morning when I get a perfect CPAP adherence overnight, and I only had a minor/moderate case. If you snore, you probably have it without knowing.
Please get checked and make your life much better!
I'm not going to say Apnea isn't a problem. It is. I'm happy it made your life better.
If you snore, you do not "probably" have apnea.
Only eating between 5-9 pm means a deep sleep from digestion of 2500 calories. Also, skipping lunch prevents the post lunch tiredness which would reduce my physical activity so I can more easily stay on my feet at least 12 hours a day.
It took a bunch of time to get used to longer breaks between meals but I can go for whole day without food without feeling all that much hunger. Dropping fast metabolizing foot also helped with that.
Only time where food makes me sleepy is if I had a lot after a period of average negative calorie intake, my body just goes "okay we sleep now" regardless of time of day.
That is, I don't think most people or animals choose to lower their physical activity just because they can. Often lowering any of those is due to onset of sickness and you can observe this in pets.
Reading over the above, I do want to underline that this is still worth studying. I just hate that the reporting on it is painting a one-way causal link.
I also think the amount of psychological tricks that are employed against people is absurdly high. Such that the reasons we overeat or just eat the wrong things are as likely not about cravings you would have absent the effort companies put into giving you these cravings.
Going to bed later was also associated with alertness.