Project Sleep

8/12/2019 Project Sleep

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Introduction to series,

goals, motivation and energy.

Good Sleep,

The need for sleep has for a long time often been viewed as a disorder of some kind, a weakness.

Too frequently we forget that sleep is a basic physiological drive, necessary for life and functioning.

When we don't get enough sleep we refer to it as being sleep deprived. Reports show that a largeportion of people in the western society suffer from sleep deprivation on a regular basis. leep

deprivation is a real problem, because without proper sleep we can't function well since sleep

regulates countless physiological effects in our bodies which in turn affects both our well!being and

performance.

"eing a professional poker player is at times tougher than it might seem to an outsider, because not

only can the stress of constantly making decisions of which outcome we lack complete control yet

which still has an economic impact, take its toll on us, but we're also required to rely heavily on

mental performance, that more than most other professions. #ike all human functions, mental

performance is rooted in physical energy first and foremost and without proper and constant

renewal we'll be unable to perform well and eventually break down. That's where this article comesin, sleep is one of the most important factors when it comes to both physical energy and stress

recovery which sets the foundation of our mental energy, so it makes sense that this series takes off

by addressing that first.

Article Content

This article focuses on providing a general overview of the fundamental theories behind sleep and

will be accompanied by a video that spreads more light on the practical side of achieving good sleep

habits.

Introduction

$ommon %yths

&etting too much sleep

ess sleep as you age

&(lcohol helps you sleep better

leep )eprivation

&hort Term

ong Term

"asics of leep

&tages

&$ircadian Rhythm

&*ltradian Rhythmurprising information about sleep patterns

&%onophasic

&"iphasic

&+olyphasic

When should you sleep

Common myths

It's possible to get too much sleep

%any people report feeling tired after longer sleeps, concluding that they've gotten too much sleep.

This is a misconception as the homeostatic drive to sleep wears off as you sleep and stops e-erting

its pressure. In the morning, the circadian cycle is in its alert phase, not its sleep phase. o if youcontinue to sleep put simply, it's because you need more sleep. The grogginess that some people

report with longer sleep isn't due to the e-tended sleep. %ost often, people e-tend their sleep


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because they've already been depriving themselves for several nights. /eep in mind, that a single

night of e-tended sleep rarely makes up all of the sleep debt, so when we wake up, we might still be

sleep deprived despite sleeping more than we would usually do.

You need less sleep as you get older

It is a common misconception that older people require less sleep. "ut in reality, 0randma and

randpa0 whom always got up at the crack of down were probably already in bed by 1 +.%, not tomention the early afternoon nap they managed to sneak in. o in truth, older people need 2ust as

much sleep as younger adults, the difference being that they may be having more trouble getting it

due to waking up more frequently.

Alcohol helps you sleep better

To put clearly, alcohol has a sedative effect, allowing you to fall asleep faster, but its harmful effects

on sleep quality far out weight this benefit. (lso, do note that craving a drink before bedtime in

order to fall asleep is one of the earliest physical symptoms of alcohol addiction.

Sleep Deprivation

When talking about sleep deprivation it is usually referred to either acute or chronic sleepdeprivation, which in turn can be translated to short or long!term, both which has a profound

negative effect on our brain and cognitive functioning. ( 3444 study, by the*$)chool of

%edicine and the 5eterans (ffairs 6ealthcare ystem in an )iego using f%RI 7functional

magnetic resonance imaging8 technology found that any given task required a higher energy output

from the brain during a sleep deprived! compared to a non sleep deprived state. The conclusion of

this study was that the average sleep deprived sub2ect was attempting to compensate for adverse

effects on the brain caused by the lack of sleep.

6ere we'll have a look at a short! and long term list of some possible side effects indicated by

research.

Short term,

&Decreased Performance and Alertness

&Memory and Cognitive Impairment

&In2uries 7leep deprivation greatly increases the risk of getting in2ured in various settings, such as

auto mobile accidents for natural reasons8

ong term!

&6igh blood pressure

&troke

&+sychiatric problems, including depression and other mood disorders

&(ttention )eficit )isorder 7())8&%ental impairment

&The list goes on...

leep still remains a bit of a mystery to us which is understandable given that most research

providing any real answers on the topic hasn't been very conclusive until fairly recently. 6owever

that doesn't mean that we haven't learned a lot already. We'll start by quickly going through the

various stages of sleep followed by a brief e-planation of sleep regulating cycles.

"asics of sleep

Stagesleep isn't simply one block of time where the brain 0shuts down0 for a set period and the body

0recharges0 as you may or may not already know. Instead it goes through various stages,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UCSDhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UCSDhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UCSD


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transitioning gradually from one to another, each representing a different function.

Stage # $ %ery ight Sleep

%uscle activity begins to slow down. Waking up during this stage will probably go unnoticed as if

you weren't even asleep. This stage makes up about 9!:; a typical sleeping cycle.

Stage & $ ight Sleep%arked by your body temperature dropping, your breathing and heart rate slowing down. This stage

makes up about 9:!::; of a typical sleeping cycle.

Stage $ Deep Sleep

This stage is where deep sleep begins, the brain starts to generate slow delta waves as the body is

transitioning. This stage makes up about 9!3!>:; of a typical sleeping cycle.

Stage ) $ *+,+M

R?% or Rapid ?ye %ovement is distinguished by as you might have guessed, your eyes rapidly

moving under your eye lids as you sleep. =ou're completely still, your breathing is shallow, it is

during this stage your brainwaves speeds up and you start dreaming. =ou're likely to e-perience 9!@

dreams per night on average, however as your body is producing a hormone called norepinephrine

which yields a state similar to being into-icated, it can be difficult to remember them. R?% makes

up about 34!3:; of a typical cycle

Ane important thing to note is that these stages are believed not to be equal in importance as most

vital functions occurs during deep! and rem sleep, and the fact that your body will greatly prioratiBe

these in the state of sleep deprivation. +rioratiBing, instead of going through each stage slowly

transitioning to the other, it will skip the first 3!C stages all together and go directly into deep sleep

as it is more vital to your survival followed by the rem stage. (lthough there is more research to be

done on the long!term effects of missing out the less essential stages of sleep, it is definitely

possible to get by without them as we'll see in a couple of minutes.

Dow that we understand some of the basics of sleep, let's have a look at what regulates our sleep

pressure, making us sleepy at specific times of the day.

The body is run by many clock!like systems, regulated by hormonal secretions which respond tovarious stimuli or periods of time to ensure that your body is functioning efficient as a whole. When

referring to sleep and these systems we mostly talk about something called either the circadian or

the ultradian rhythm. #et's break them down a bit.

Circadian *hythm

This is in basic terms what allows our body to differentiate between night and day, it is also the

reason why we can get 02et lagged0 during travelling as the body requires some time before shifting

of the circadian rhythm occurs. )uring the right settings and light conditions our body can easily

detect when it is day or not, one reason for this is because of a hormone called 0%elatonin0. Ance

we find ourself in complete darkness our body starts secreting melatonin which is also commonly

referred to as 0the sleeping hormone0 making us sleepy as a result. )uring the day on the otherhand as a response to light finding it's way through mainly our retina but also our skin the body

suppresses the melatonin production. This also e-plains why artificial lighting or working with


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computer monitors in the evening can wreak havoc on our sleep as it will effectively postpone the

secretion of this sleep hormone, making it harder for us to fall asleep at the right time. In an ideal

world you wouldn't be using your monitors in the evening or stay much under indoor lights, but

culturally that is obviously not always an option, especially for poker players. "ecause of this, we're

going to present a few work!around tricks in our complementary video allowing you to maintain a

proper circadian rhythm and quality sleep.

-ltradian *hythm

If you've ever noticed yourself waking up at the e-act same time despite not being stimulated by

anything e-ternal such as light, noise or by an alarm, then that is because of your ultradian rhythm.

(s opposed to responding to light conditions like the circadian rhythm it responds to regularity. The

ultradian rhythm is the reason why going to bed at the same time and waking up at the same time

every day can be so beneficial to us simply because it will allow us to achieve a higher quality of

sleep due to being in the right state at the right time. =ou see, similar to when we're asleep and go

through various stages, the brain naturally goes through certain stages during wakefulness which is

marked by drops in concentration and energy every 14!>34 minutes or so. This is governed by our

ultradian rhythm, but it's also essential as allowing the brain waves to rise and shrink throughout the

day alleviates us from constantly burning out making those dips in concentration and energy vital.What this means is that it is important to try and maintain a fairly stable sleep schedule but also to

be attuned to your body's natural highs and lows in energy happening throughout the day allowing

you to better plan your grinding sessions and breaks.

"efore we get into various sleep schedules, let's have a look at a few common myths related to

sleep.

Sleep Schedules,

Eew seem to know that there are more than one viable sleep schedule successfully adopted by

people and even fewer might be aware of the fact that there is research indicating that the norm isn't

necessarily the way we'd naturally sleep under optimal settings.

Dow this article isn't going to tell you to switch sleep pattern as there can be a long and tough

adaptation process to it, but it is going to inform you of some of the e-isting alternatives out there

which when adopted successfully can be very beneficial, especially to poker players.

%arious Sleep Patterns

&Monophasic

( monophasic sleep schedule represents the norm of western society. It is a sleep schedule where

the sub2ect sleeps in one long stretch, the so called classic 0F!hour sleep0, which is the sleep pattern

most of us subscribe to.

&"iphasic

"iphasic sleep, also known as segmented sleep is where things get interesting. Research right now

indicates that the norm of sleeping in one long stretch is rather unnatural to us and that until recently

everyone slept on average at least twice per night, with a period of wakefulness separating the two.

These two periods were referred to as the first and second sleep. 6owever, during the late >@ th

century reference to the first and second sleep started to disappear. This began in the urban upper

classes and eventually filtered down to the rest of western society until the >134s when the idea of a

first and second sleep had been completely forgotten. The changes have been attributed mostly to

improvements in street lightning, domestic lightning and a surge in coffee houses.

( typical segmented sleep pattern might look something like thisG


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33G44 o to bed

43G44 Wake up

49G44 o to bed

4FG44 Wake up

Daturally we all wake up a couple of times every night, but unless you stay awake for long enough

you probably wont register this and simply think that you've slept in one long stretch.

This is something you need to keep in mind if you ever decide to try out a sleep pattern like this.

The benefits 7and there are several H but in order to make sure this article doesn't get too long I urge

you to do some research on your own8 of a segmented sleep pattern can only be gained if you stay

awake for at least >!3 hours between sleep periods as else your brain will treat it as one long sleep

stretch.

)o note though that it isn't easy to ad2ust to a completely new sleep pattern, especially since the

norm at place is a result of cultural settings which still will get in the way even if you do believe in

the benefits of a segmented sleep pattern.

&Polyphasic

+olyphasic as you may have guessed means not 2ust two sleep cores, but several. There are less

e-treme polyphasic sleep schedules, for e-ample a segmented sleep pattern with a mid!day nap is a

form of polyphasic sleep schedule and can be very beneficial as naps have shown to have several

positive effects on our health. 6owever, in this case we're going to focus more on the e-treme

version.

The most known polyphasic sleeping schedule is the *berman. It is so e-treme that very few people

actually manage to get through the adaptation process and as a result reap its benefits.

=ou may have heard about ?lky's attempt at the uberman and thus already know what it is, if not

The uberman consists of < naps spread out evenly across the day, each 34 minute long resulting in a

total sleep of 3 hours per 39 hour cycle.

"y sleeping more often, we can override our need for sleep to some degree as the body will learn to

prioratiBe short wave sleepdeep sleep and rem over light sleep which is far less essential to us.

6owever, there is still not enough research on the long term effects of a schedule such as the

uberman that we can take for granted that adapting to it would be beneficial to us. There are reports

though, of people who have successfully adopted the uberman schedule whom seem to be overall

healthy and highly functional even after years of sleeping in this pattern.

-nderstanding .hen you should sleep,

In general, it is more ideal to wake up early as it is easier to maintain our sleep quality and energy

that way, but sometimes that's not really an option. "y thinking about the following few factors

you're much more likely to get a better understanding of what sleep pattern will work for you.

&/ime 0one

Aur bodies naturally respond to light and darkness by producing certain hormones. This means

we're all weighted towards early!rise schedules if we don't account for anything else.

&Pea1 hours $ GrindingIt is no secret that certain hours are better in terms of poker value than other hours. Worth noting is

that the traffic peaks in the evening for ?uropeans, but often the best ratio of weak to strong players


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occurs later in the night when the traffic begins to die off. +layers living in ?urope will usually be

weighted more towards a late!rise schedule.

&Social ife $ Activities

(dopting an early rise schedule has many benefits, but if you have a lot of late night activities, such

as going out partying with your friends and so on, then maintaining such a schedule isn't going to be

achieved very easily and this is definitely something which needs to be considered before evenattempting one. If you're one to party frequently, a late!rise schedule is probably going to work

better for you.

ourcestudies?-tra reading

&www.sleepfoundation.org

&httpGwww.ninds.nih.govdisordersbrainJbasicsunderstandingJsleep.htm

&httpGwww.bbc.co.uknewsmagaBine!>

Project Sleep

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