Browsed two pages of Googe Scholar abstracts for the search “cancer risk sleep duration”
Looked at the abstract of the epidemiological study Guzey cites against the cancer/sleep deprivation
Googled for “world health organisation sleep epidemic”
So far, all of Guzey’s specific claims about incorrect statements by Walker have held up. That epidemiological study on sleep duration and cancer risk? Not cherry-picked. If you look at the other two pages of cancer risk/sleep duration studies, hazard ratios are typically small (though one is around 1.6, IIRC). Some show elevated cancer risk for longer-duration sleep (on the order of 10 hours). Most show little-no effect, though some that show no effect in aggregate find subgroup effects.
I feel unbelievably stupid saying this, but the format of Guzey’s takedown post, and this post even moreso, have a style and format that makes me particularly nervous. Maybe it’s the font. If I bought the argument, then I might want to show it to other people, who’d see a very long and strongly worded blog post with LOTS OF BOLD AND UNDERLINE with Twitter inclusions totally taking down one of the world’s leading sleep researchers (while working on 1.5 hours of sleep)! I expect they’d see me as credulous and not consider it more deeply (possibly because they’d imagine the same result in showing Guzey’s posts to their friends).
When I found him referenced by a sympathetic author in Prospect Magazine, the sort of publication I might not feel embarrassed to send to my parents, it made me feel more open to Guzey’s argument. And yes, I would probably share the Prospect Magazine article before I shared Guzey’s post. There’s a time for symmetric weapons. But Guzey gets the moral credit for raising the issue.
Peer review, baby! Sorry for scaring you, I’ve suspected for a while that my writing can come off as intimidating, but I haven’t figured out yet how to solve that problem. Thanks for the feedback ;)
I did a little epistemic spot checking:
Read the memory consolidation review article
Browsed two pages of Googe Scholar abstracts for the search “cancer risk sleep duration”
Looked at the abstract of the epidemiological study Guzey cites against the cancer/sleep deprivation
Googled for “world health organisation sleep epidemic”
So far, all of Guzey’s specific claims about incorrect statements by Walker have held up. That epidemiological study on sleep duration and cancer risk? Not cherry-picked. If you look at the other two pages of cancer risk/sleep duration studies, hazard ratios are typically small (though one is around 1.6, IIRC). Some show elevated cancer risk for longer-duration sleep (on the order of 10 hours). Most show little-no effect, though some that show no effect in aggregate find subgroup effects.
I feel unbelievably stupid saying this, but the format of Guzey’s takedown post, and this post even moreso, have a style and format that makes me particularly nervous. Maybe it’s the font. If I bought the argument, then I might want to show it to other people, who’d see a very long and strongly worded blog post with LOTS OF BOLD AND UNDERLINE with Twitter inclusions totally taking down one of the world’s leading sleep researchers (while working on 1.5 hours of sleep)! I expect they’d see me as credulous and not consider it more deeply (possibly because they’d imagine the same result in showing Guzey’s posts to their friends).
When I found him referenced by a sympathetic author in Prospect Magazine, the sort of publication I might not feel embarrassed to send to my parents, it made me feel more open to Guzey’s argument. And yes, I would probably share the Prospect Magazine article before I shared Guzey’s post. There’s a time for symmetric weapons. But Guzey gets the moral credit for raising the issue.
lmao I started reading this comment and was like “oh no i’m about to be destroyed” and instead everything held up 😎
I guess showing drafts to literal dozens of people before publishing actually works haha.
Peer review, baby! Sorry for scaring you, I’ve suspected for a while that my writing can come off as intimidating, but I haven’t figured out yet how to solve that problem. Thanks for the feedback ;)
He alleges a psyop. It’s alright to feel nervous about the content.