For those struggling with caffeine addiction and poor sleep I strongly recommend rutaecarpine. Take one a few hours before bedtime and it deactivates the caffeine so you can sleep.
How to Sleep
251–260 of 274 posts
Re: How to Sleep
#252I'm 30 years old now. I was able to live on 4-6 hrs of sleep a night all the way up to age 25-28. That's when sleep started becoming a problem. At age 30, I absolutely need 8 hours of sleep minimum average of sleep, but that average has to be accumulated over the course of a week! That means that a single night of sleeping less and doing strenuous tasks on a linux terminal now takes a toll on me in ways that I have n…
> The older you get, the more sleep you need
This isn't true. Need for sleep declines with age. Youth masks the effects of poor sleep in the same way it masks poor eating and lack of exercise. But young people need more sleep, not less.
Re: How to Sleep
#253My biggest struggle with sleep is that I'm always excited to do stuff, and always feel like I'm not done with my day. Exceptions are when something happens and I end up feeling very depressed during the day, and simply want to shut down and do nothing. Usually, I get so infatuated with a script I'm writing, a new program I discovered, a bug that I need to resolve, a book that I'm reading, some concept that I'm thinki…
I've taken to excessive exercise to combat this. Really knocks me out at the end of the day and I wake up refreshed the next day.
Re: How to Sleep
#254I could write an essay about my battle with sleep. I'm in my 30's and I finally think it's solved. Sleeping meds, sleep studies, CBT-I, you name it - I've done it. My ultimate solution ended up being: - Earplugs - Exercise - Waking up the same time every single day, no matter how late I stay up. CBT-I had me wake up at 6:30 am every morning, and go to bed at 1 am. After a week of exhaustion, I started falling asleep…
Does the timing of exercise seem to make a difference? Also, how do you wake up at the same time daily? If you use earplugs, how would you use an alarm?
Re: How to Sleep
#255This was a pretty weak article. Usually The Atlantic packs a powerful punch. This seemed like clickbait.
Re: How to Sleep
#256My biggest struggle with sleep is that I'm always excited to do stuff, and always feel like I'm not done with my day. Exceptions are when something happens and I end up feeling very depressed during the day, and simply want to shut down and do nothing. Usually, I get so infatuated with a script I'm writing, a new program I discovered, a bug that I need to resolve, a book that I'm reading, some concept that I'm thinki…
One of the things I believe people like you have great success with, is routine and wind down. Set a bed time, and 1 hour before that you stop everything that'll keep you awake. Put on some quite music, e.g. easy listen or classic, and do something benign. Some people draw, some knit trivial stuff like blanket patches, others meditate. The important thing is that it is something your mind will not continue to work on…
I had huge issues falling asleep. I was unable to fall asleep before 1am and had to get up at 6am. So Monday - Friday was a downward spiral of sleep debt and all of stresses that come with that.
I eliminated blue light (mostly) after 8:00 and it help slightly but within the margin of error.
I then added 15 minutes of mindfulness meditation everyday at lunch. Nothing wooy just mindfulness.
Within 2 weeks i was naturally getting tired around 10:00 and able to fall asleep in less than five minutes.
Quit meditating (because its a pia to find the time, it shouldnt' be but it is) and sleep problems returned.
I didn't even attribute my sleep improvement to the daily practice until i noticed my sleep was all messed up again.
It works and its just 15 minutes. People's millage may very but it was life changing for me.
Re: How to Sleep
#257I'm not sure what the long term effects of chronic melatonin supplementation are, but I'll find out eventually. I've been taking between 3-6mg of melatonin every night for the past few years (2011?) It's almost required. Without it my sleep cycle seems fine at first, but then gets out of whack as I can't seem to keep a circadian rhythm in line with the rest of society / the earth's rotation. On the opposite end of th…
I took melatonin for years (low dose 500mcg). In retrospect, after taking melatonin I don't recall any dreams. I'd only dream after not taking it for a day or two then taking a dose of melatonin. About two weeks after stopping melatonin altogether, I now recall dreams every night. Stopped taking it due to insomnia getting worse and worse and figure I'd see what would happen without it. First week was rough, back to n…
I take a mix of melatonin, l-theanine, and 5-htp almost every night to go to sleep, and I've definitely found that if I don't take it for a couple days (usually Fri and Sat night) then take it again, my dreams are overly vivid and memorable.
While I'm on it, they're pretty suppressed. I used to take 10mg of melatonin every night and the effects were the same I'd say, so it doesn't seem to matter on dosage.
Re: How to Sleep
#258>In one study published in the journal Sleep, researchers kept people just slightly sleep deprived—allowing them only six hours to sleep each night—and watched the subjects’ performance on cognitive tests plummet. The crucial finding was that throughout their time in the study, the sixers thought they were functioning perfectly well.
>Effective sleep habits, like many things, seem to come back to self-awareness.
One of the things I've noticed is that it's really hard to police your own sleep schedule, especially if you aren't aware of the consequences of losing a few hours of sleep. I'm working on a bot that helps you get to bed earlier, and our power users often come to us with a really clear understanding of what happens when they don't get enough sleep (e.g. "I perform way worse on my Army fitness test", "I'm not focused enough to do my side project after work") and still need to set up systems to keep themselves accountable on a daily basis.
That said, I think there's a much larger "zombie population" of the "sixers" described above that isn't getting enough sleep and simply isn't particularly aware of it. From a population health standpoint, the question then becomes: How do we get people to appreciate the effect of getting a full 7-9 hours of sleep when they don't explicitly feel the effects on a daily basis? Not only that, but how do we get them to unwind and prioritize getting good night's sleep at the time of day when willpower is low and Netflix temptations are high.
The CEO of Netflix somewhat flippantly declared sleep their biggest competition, and I think they're crushing the competition right now.
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/new...
On the bright side there are people who have used our product and seen it make a pretty big difference. The trick was getting them to start with a very unambitious bedtime goal relative to their average bedtime, and gradually make the bedtime earlier week over week until they've dismantled their bad sleep habits.
Re: How to Sleep
#259Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'm assuming this is just temporary and eventually it's just smooth sailing and you get sleepy? No, you pick something you want permanent and just do it. Eating early after waking is helpful. I drink tea with L-Theanine before bed and reduce blue light. I take melatonin when I really need it, which is rare. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22214254 I'm not naturally an early riser. > What do you do with social e…
I guess I should have added the caveat that I want to be getting eight hours fairly consistently. How often would you say you have less. When doing heavy weight training, it's more or less a necessity. (No kid at this point, I'm sure that will change things once I do have once)
> I guess I should have added the caveat that I want to be getting eight hours fairly consistently. How often would you say you have less.
Right now, I'm sleep training a baby, so less. My goal is 7 hours and I really enjoy 8. And I can get this consistently.
> When doing heavy weight training, it's more or less a necessity.
I've been a gym rat for many years and I can attest to this. Not enough sleep and your tanks are empty, no power.
> (No kid at this point, I'm sure that will change things once I do have once)
Kids make you focus. You cut out things you wasted time on and you're back to where you were. Less time wasty, more family and relationship. Works out well.
Re: How to Sleep
#260Earlier quoted context omitted.
Pick a time and stick to it. Doesn't matter how little sleep you get. It also helps to have a meal as soon as you get up. And meal is anything with calories in it. I.e. a cabbage leaf is fine. This helps reset your circadian rhythm (great for jetlag too).
I'm assuming this is just temporary and eventually it's just smooth sailing and you get sleepy? What do you do with social events etc though. Nap? Just be tired? If they're 1-2x per week I guess I'd need a later fixed time.
> I'm assuming this is just temporary and eventually it's just smooth sailing and you get sleepy?
After reading this again. Yes, the goal is a habit that puts you into a rhythm. The place you want to be is to not need an alarm to wake up and to wake up with light (natural or not). Now I like sleeping too much for this to work. I'll happily stay in bed for 10 hours. More than that and my body starts hurting...
( Artificial: http://www.usa.philips.com/c-m-li/light-therapy/wake-up-ligh... )