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Ask HN: How much do you sleep?

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Re: Ask HN: How much do you sleep?

#81

Post by Broken_Hippo »

NietTim wrote: post #54
omalleyt wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had this problem all my life. Now I take 500 micrograms of melatonin every night an hour before bed. I'm out like a light. It might not be for everyone, but it's changed the way I feel about sleeping. And it's non-habituating

How has it affected your quality of sleep? Do the same hours as before make you feel equally rested?

I've tried it a couple times. I have to allow extra time to sleep and have someone there to wake me up since I sleep even heavier than normal - more chance to miss the alarm, unfortunately. I wake up groggy, but once that passes I'm very, very well-rested. Also, I get weird dreams as well.

I decided long ago I wouldn't try it again without a doctor's advice, which is probably a good thing since now I live in Norway and it is only available with prescription. Some folks do wind up needing it if they take it every night, though. I worked in a pharmacy in the states and heard the pharmacists' advice on this very thing many times.

Re: Ask HN: How much do you sleep?

#82

Post by achompas »

askafriend wrote: post #74
omalleyt wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had this problem all my life. Now I take 500 micrograms of melatonin every night an hour before bed. I'm out like a light. It might not be for everyone, but it's changed the way I feel about sleeping. And it's non-habituating

It's really easy to develop a tolerance and a reliance on it though. That's the downside to a supplement like melatonin.

My understanding from speaking with sleep specialists is that you'd need to take a large amount every day for weeks or months to develop a tolerance. They thus recommend cycling off melatonin bi-weekly or monthly for a little while.

(Sorry, no source other than time spent visiting the Cornell Sleep Institute.)

Re: Ask HN: How much do you sleep?

#83

Post by Broken_Hippo »

tertius wrote: post #32
hedonistbot wrote: post #16

My biggest problem with sleep is the fixed working schedule I have to follow. The 9-to-5 is killing me. It's not that there isn't enough time to sleep, it's that I cannot convince my body to go to sleep if it doesn't feel like it. Just last night I stood awake till 5 a.m. unable to fall asleep despite all efforts. The problem is that my natural clock seems to be working on a 26-7 hours per day cycle and I cannot fit…

Wake up at the same time every day. Pick that time and stick to it. Whether you get too little sleep or not.

I've personally tried this, and it only sometimes works. It depends on the wakeup time. I can go as early as 9am and feel rested. This is a few hours before my natural waking time - and wake up. 8am? That's a bit of a struggle, but overall doable. Any earlier than that and I get a sleep debt. The quality of sleep simply isn't good enough to keep me going and it winds up bad for my mental health.

To be fair, I've been like this since I was a child. Everyone thought I'd grow out of it, but I'm 39. I work evenings and nights with some ease, though, and luckily have generally had jobs that start later in the day or allow days I can sleep later (even if I had a few early days during the week).

Re: Ask HN: How much do you sleep?

#84

Post by juancn »

6-9 hours. It depends. I need to be well slept to be productive. It's not the number of hours but the feeling that matters. I have taken naps at the office when I had a bad night to bump my productivity. If I don't, I'm just warming up a seat.

Thankfully I have lot's of flexibility regarding working hours. That helps a lot. I don't think I could work fixed hours for long.

Re: Ask HN: How much do you sleep?

#86

Post by synicalx »

I try my best to hit 8 hours a night, used to keep 10PM-6AM every day even on weekends to keep things consistent. But with a partner that works from home (and therefore wakes up much later) its kind of hard most nights so it ends up being more like midnight to 7AM if I'm lucky.

I take ZMA as part of my supplement regime, and coincidentally I do notice that it helps with my sleep a bit - or at least it helps me stay asleep and not wake up several times a night.

Re: Ask HN: How much do you sleep?

#87

Post by ellius »

wallace_f wrote: post #52
hacker_9 wrote: post #29

7-9 hours. I require less sleep when I look after my body and eat healthily. For those who struggle to sleep, you may want to look into meditation when you are in bed. Effectively you focus on a single point and slowly your mind clears, kinda feels like it's shutting down regions. Then sleep comes naturally after, takes me about 20 mins with this technique. Concentrate on your heartbeat or breathing, and know that th…

This my sound strange, but has anyone tried this and had that sensation that if you stop thinking about your heart or breathing, they will stop? Jesus, I must be filled with anxiety.

I settled on using a mental image due to the fact that I couldn't help controlling my breathing when I focused on it. I find that it's harder to hold your focus on an image than an automatic bodily function, but the tradeoff is that it's easier to disassociate.

After enough practice, you may even start to disassociate from your anxiety (as in be able to view it metacognitively, be aware and become friends with it rather than get rid of it).

Re: Ask HN: How much do you sleep?

#88

Post by anotherevan »

I usually go to bed between 10-11 and read (non-light emitting eink screen). Lights out is almost always around 11:45. I wake anywhen from 6:30 to 7:30 usually.

My kids (both on the autism spectrum) use 1-3mg Melatonin and have from a young age, otherwise they would never sleep. If I'm travelling or find I have a few nights in a row with trouble getting to sleep I'll take it for a few days too. Works well.

The quality of your sleep is an important factor too. If you suspect you may have obstructive sleep apnea then go get it checked out. It may be the cause of all manner of irregularities in your sleep routine.

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