Beyond simply feeling decrepit, perception of being older can affect health by encouraging unhealthy eating and reducing exercise
Two nights of broken sleep are enough to make people feel years older, according to researchers, who said consistent, restful slumber was a key factor in helping to stave off feeling one’s true age.
Psychologists in Sweden found that, on average, volunteers felt more than four years older when they were restricted to only four hours of sleep for two consecutive nights, with some claiming the sleepiness made them feel decades older.
The opposite was seen when people were allowed to stay in bed for nine hours, though the effect was more modest, with participants in the study claiming to feel on average three months younger than their real age after ample rest.
The trick is to go on more than six days then you start feeling really energetic and starts having mini black outs too.
Can confirm, I’ve been on-call for a decade now and the oft interrupted sleep schedule is really hitting me harder as I enter my 30s. Only new jobs I’m considering include no on-call as part of the package
How would people know what being older feels like, when they have never actually been older?
Jokes on you! I don’t exercise and eat poorly whether I sleep well or not!
I’ve been on four and less hours for over two weeks… I don’t really understand how I’m supposed to feel ‘older’… I’m just heavily drowsy at certain points of the day.
No, really? After that asshole of “doctor” made me addicted to strong pain killers I had a nice withdrawal, after 4 days without sleep the hallucinations began. I really talked to Humphrey Bogart, trench coat and all. And there was a real creepy dog in my living room. After almost 6 days I fell unconscious, another week of “kinda-sleep” and my mind began to feel normal again, veeeery slowly. That, kids, is called hell.
