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I tried to hack my insomnia

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Re: I tried to hack my insomnia

#81

Post by klyrs »

forgotmypw wrote: post #61
klyrs wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you go to sleep when you're so tired, as opposed to when the societal clock says you should, you won't have any trouble sleeping. Great PMA, but you're absolutely wrong. I did that last night, got tired and went to bed around 10pm. And then I woke up at 1am. Now that it's approaching 6, I'm getting tired. But this happens to me occasionally and I know from past experience that my two options are: 1) Go back to b…

>I did that last night, got tired and went to bed around 10pm. And then I woke up at 1am. Now that it's approaching 6, I'm getting tired. But this happens to me occasionally and I know from past experience that my two options are: >1) Go back to bed at around 7, wake up at 8 or 9, and feel awful all day This is exactly what I'm talking about. Faced with this scenario, I would get up at 1AM, go back to bed around 7 or…

> This is exactly what I'm talking about. Faced with this scenario, I would get up at 1AM, go back to bed around 7 or 8, and sleep into the afternoon. Wake up feeling great.

Good for you! I went back to bed around 7, slept for about 15 minutes, and woke up again. I would love to sleep 'til noon, and my work schedule permits it. I've never been able to sleep during the day, except when I'm sick or have multiple days of exhaustion piled up. Your experience is not my experience, stop giving me advice based on what works for you!

Edit: Also I guess I should point out, sleep was way easier in my 20s, but I'm approaching 40 and encountering the same issues my parents did at my age.

Re: I tried to hack my insomnia

#82

Post by shantly »

Eric_WVGG wrote: post #59

I picked up very serious sleep problems (and seemingly permanent bags under my eyes) right around puberty and lived with it for about twenty years. Tried most of the "hacks" on this page (yes, including exercise) to no avail. It all unexpectedly went away when I moved into my current apartment. I have huge, unblocked, east-facing windows, and every morning I’m bathed in sunlight. No more sleeping in; I’m wide awake,…

Similar experience, had 15ish years of a terrible relationship with sleep starting when high school started, with a side order of seasonal depression. I blame a combination of:

1) puberty,

2) putting the long break in Summer rather than Winter plus a very early start time with the result that for several months I'd only see the Sun for at most 2.5 hours in the afternoon (walked into the building with the stars still out),

3) a homework load + butt-in-seat time that had more of my hours spoken for than I even came close to reaching again until I had multiple young kids of my own plus a full time job, plus the conditions being a hell of a lot closer to prison than to either college or working adult life (college was harder in some ways, of course, but less time consuming and way less stressful, I found, thanks to the much lower in-class time per week and more flexibility scheduling homework/study time, and consequently felt like a vacation after four years of high school),

4) glowing screens and the opportunity to reclaim some time for myself late at night with highly-engaging entertainment (by which I mean video games and screwing around on computers, the latter of which actually ended up being the most valuable thing I did in high school bar none, admittedly)

Oh and there's a good chance, according to current research, that the whole Winter-is-school-time thing plus younger grades not getting us outside enough in those low-sunlight-per-day months was a major contributor to my being nearsighted by 7th grade. IOW K-12 school broke me both physically and psychologically for no good reason, with consequences lasting between a two-digit count of years and a lifetime, and I had it pretty easy, relatively speaking.

Re: I tried to hack my insomnia

#83

Post by zeta0134 »

ACow_Adonis wrote: post #77
quanticle wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with that idea is that it completely misses the fact that most of us have to get up at a specific time in order to get to work or school or whatever else we have to do. I tried the no-trigger approach for a while, when I was between jobs and didn't have anything to do otherwise. What I found out is that my natural schedule, without manual intervention, has me going to bed at approximately 2am and waking u…

Wild idea: maybe some people's sleep cycles are just inherently incompatible with society and the arbitrary schedules and obligations that a particular society and context has landed on. And I don't say that with any joy...

This is why I continue to seek out and work evening shifts. 3am-10:30am is just about exactly what my body wants to do naturally. Shifts that start at noon and get out after dark are perfect; once I got that synergy, I stopped feeling tired all the time.

That said, sleep is a complicated, personal thing, and everyone's a little different. You should do what feels right to your body, because it might be very different from what works for my own.

Re: I tried to hack my insomnia

#84

Post by steve_adams_86 »

akeck wrote: post #80

Everyone is different, but for me strength training wakes me up, while cardio helps me sleep. What surprises me sometimes is how much cardio I need for good sleep. In one particularly high pressure week, I had to row (erg) 7-10km per a day to sleep well.

I'm similar. Without intense exercise, my brain is at high revs all day and I can't keep it under control to fall asleep. I need to knock myself out with exhaustion.

I used to run 50km per week or so and still feel like I could use more. Restless legs, active mind, fidgeting, etc. These days I'm running much less, but I'm lost without it.

Re: I tried to hack my insomnia

#85

Post by alanthonyc »

Eric_WVGG wrote: post #59

I picked up very serious sleep problems (and seemingly permanent bags under my eyes) right around puberty and lived with it for about twenty years. Tried most of the "hacks" on this page (yes, including exercise) to no avail. It all unexpectedly went away when I moved into my current apartment. I have huge, unblocked, east-facing windows, and every morning I’m bathed in sunlight. No more sleeping in; I’m wide awake,…

Have some children.

Re: I tried to hack my insomnia

#87

Post by JamesBarney »

Eric_WVGG wrote: post #59

I picked up very serious sleep problems (and seemingly permanent bags under my eyes) right around puberty and lived with it for about twenty years. Tried most of the "hacks" on this page (yes, including exercise) to no avail. It all unexpectedly went away when I moved into my current apartment. I have huge, unblocked, east-facing windows, and every morning I’m bathed in sunlight. No more sleeping in; I’m wide awake,…

This is basically the first line treatment for delayed sleep phase syndrome, but if you can't afford a large east window you can a blue light generating device(like the ones used for seasonal effective disorder).

Re: I tried to hack my insomnia

#88

Post by chaostheory »

sharadov wrote: post #46
throwaway1777 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s well established that cannabis interferes with rem sleep, so it’s an option, but not a good one.

That's only with the high THC strains, you need a low THC and high CBD strain.

This is the only thing that works for me and I’m not drowsy when I wake up

Re: I tried to hack my insomnia

#89

Post by tartoran »

2 new tricks to add here (that work magic for me at least)

- child pose for about 10 minutes with the head/forehead resting on a pillow

- forced yawning, but without needing to actually make a sound, (and without needing to open the mouth wide). Hard to explain, there's some oral/neck musculature that is not triggered voluntarily that I've been experimenting on which becomes somewhat easier to control with exercise. I'd start with lots of yawning first

Re: I tried to hack my insomnia

#90

Post by goostavos »

hiccuphippo wrote: post #49

I've heard a couple of times of this technique by the US Army in which you relax your body starting by the face, then arms, torso, legs. Finally you picture yourself in a canoe in the middle of a lake or something similar to avoid thinking of anything. Anyone knows how effective is this? https://medium.com/s/story/combat-tested-training-unwind-and...

I find its not that effective if not paired with the 8 hours of marching in heavy gear :|
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