PTSD has kept me up at night, but when I eventually pass out from exhaustion I'm down for 7 - 12 hours. Makes for short days.....

I think it was a well intended thread, but the OP initially used drastic language that probably caused people some anxiety. It would have been better if it was backed up by statistics though, instead of scary facts! I think all in all ( as the OP said later on), while sleep is indisputably important, a few days of little to no sleep, or experiencing a sleeping disorder won’t kill you. The best thing you can do is keep yourself generally healthy and cut yourself some slack if you don’t sleep well. As an insomniac, I know how difficult it can be to get a full night’s rest!

This is very general guidance. Other studies have shown that everyone's sleeping patterns are different and can vary with age, so for instance a younger person obviously sleeps more than an older person. But also someone may function just fine on 4 hours sleep a night with a nap in the afternoon whereas others may not function at all well unless they have had at least 7 hours sleep. There is no doubt that sleep is good for you, but individual sleeping patterns need to be taken into consideration. There is absolutely no evidence that poor sleep habits when young, have long term health effects, particularly if those sleep habits are corrected.

This goes out to all of you suffering from insomnia. Seek professional help. Take medication is necessary. There is sleeping medication that isn't addictive. Often a couple of weeks of medication and a really strict day/night routine get you back on track and from there further without medication but with sleep is possible. I've suffered alot. Badly. I feel all of you. I now have my routines, my meds, my sleep - it is worth it. You are worth it!

Sleep is good, but 6/7 hours is more then enough for a lot of people. I never sleep more then 7 hours, and am still alive after 54 years.

Right ! I'll just inform my 4yo, and from now on I'll be sleeping in every morning

i have insomnia but it's pretty well managed with medication, and due to my other chronic conditions i sleep anywhere from 12-22 hours at a time, with periods of awake time in between sleeps ranging from 6-36 hours. my mom is the same way. we're fortunate that we have no reason to make ourselves do otherwise, apart from occasional appointments that we break that schedule to meet.

This was pretty interesting to me.. the gaining weight thing due to lack of sleep I found to be super interesting because I wonder if that's my issue when it comes to my weight gain. Hmm, ionno.. I used to have insomnia when I was younger and I am definitely a night owl, so I am totally one of those people who stay up as late as possible, binging on my shows and or falling asleep to a show even though I have to get up at 6 every morning.

I've always been an insomniac. The last handful of time I've been up 30-40+ hours (basically since hitting my early forty's) I've had a weird side effect - at some point I start to lose the ability to recognize faces. I can't watch TV since I have no idea what's going on. I usually can't game on my PC because I can't track the cursor, and reading? forget it...

I don't think the people this thread was targeting really care...I've seen too many students falling asleep after pulling all nighters, playing video games because "they don't have time during the day"

Great! If he can talk to my brain and tell it all of this maybe it will stop keeping me awake at night thinking things like ‘Why are The Simpsons yellow?’ and ‘I wonder what happened on my birthday in 1763’? and I could try this nightly 7 hour sleep thing he talks of.

tw: trigger warning. anitwt: anime community on twitter. stantwt: a section of Twitter that is comprised of cult-like-fandoms that worship popular artists or artist groups