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Oxygen is also a poisonous gas that is slowly oxidizing your body, but as far as we know, humans have been exposed to it constantly since prehistory. I'm sure the same could be said for sleep loss, whether because they are stressed about work, or stressed about falling out of the tree and being eaten by the lions below.

Try your best to get a good night's sleep, but don't let these kind of "recent studies show" articles distress you too much. There are all kinds of harms in our environment holding us back from hypothetical perfect health, and there always have been.



> There are all kinds of harms in our environment holding us back from hypothetical perfect health, and there always have been.

If "us" is mankind and its history, the "always have been" seems off. There are traditional harms, like the risk of being bitten by a tiger, but most of those harms are recent, something we are not yet genetically rewired for.


the oxygen point is something ive come across elsewhere as well. could be related to people who live in higher altitudes having longer lifespans


> There are all kinds of harms in our environment holding us back from hypothetical perfect health, and there always have been.

And as we've learned about them, we've been living much longer and healthier lives (until recently in the US).


Of course, so get the best night’s sleep that you can, but don’t be distressed about the irreversible brain damage you suffered staying up late as a college student.




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