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Dealing with Insomnia

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Re: Dealing with Insomnia

#71

Post by masklinn »

jacquesm wrote: post #26
masklinn wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How large are their OTA headphones? I've been wondering about OTA noise-cancelling headphones for a while for both music and cycling as I've bad ears and excess wind leads to repeated otitis on short order (making actual non-stationary cycling problematic). But I also have large ears, so most OTA would literally sit on the ear cartilage and pressing it against the ear, making wearing them for extended periods very un…

OTA -> OTE, I can't imagine 'over the air' headphones :)

> OTA -> OTE

Yeeep.

> I can't imagine 'over the air' headphones :)

Well bluetooth are kinda OTA as opposed to wired 'phones.

Re: Dealing with Insomnia

#72

Post by manmal »

ComputerGuru wrote: post #63
flowerlad wrote: post #46

Try magnesium. Stress depletes magnesium. The cells in our body need magnesium and calcium for their operation. When you're low on magnesium your cells can't go into off state. When that happens your muscles become stiffer and you can't sleep. Magnesium supplementation is the solution. "Supplementation of 500 mg of Mg has been associated with significant improvement in the insomnia severity index, sleep time, sleep e…

Thanks for providing the links on the benefits of sleep linked to magnesium, but can you provide a link for this: > Stress depletes magnesium.

I've found a study that suggests that Mg deficiency actually produces stress: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5112180/

Re: Dealing with Insomnia

#73

Post by pmoriarty »

zaroth wrote: post #43

A few years ago I found myself experiencing a different sort of very debilitating sleeping problem. It started, as I recall, as something that would just happen on airplanes, my legs would feel almost like a buildup of lactic acid unless I moved them around. I could keep them still maybe for a few second at most, until the sensation built to a point where it was irresistibly uncomfortable and swinging or tapping my f…

You might want to check your nutrition. Sometimes issues like this are caused by nutritional imbalances (such as getting too little or too much of a certain nutrient). For instance, iron deficiency can be a cause for restless leg syndrome. Though please be careful with iron, and only take it under the supervision of a physician, as too much iron can be deadly.

Re: Dealing with Insomnia

#74

Post by thereticent »

elliekelly wrote: post #31

I feel like I leave this comment every few months on HN but the podcast “Sleep with Me” has been so immensely helpful to me that I take every opportunity to share it. Something about Scooter’s voice and the way he talks about nothing gets my brain in just the right spot to turn off. It has been more effective for me than any sleep aid medication I’ve tried. I know it won’t be a magic bullet for everyone but trying a…

Peter Yearsley's Librivox recordings are great for this, too. When I'm not tired, he's an excellent reader. When I am, he gets me straight to sleep.

Re: Dealing with Insomnia

#75

Post by morsch »

asadkn wrote: post #36

ASMR works well for me, most of the time (quality of ASMR matters - what's popular is just clickbait and not great content). Other times I need to meditate for a while to calm down and clear my head. Personally, the most important thing for me is to not work or think about anything that would get me in the obsessive problem-solving or worry mode, around the bed time hours.

> quality of ASMR matters - what's popular is just clickbait and not great content

Any recommendations?

Re: Dealing with Insomnia

#76

Post by caymanjim »

derefr wrote: post #58
caymanjim wrote: post #29

I think my biggest problem is that I don't exhaust myself physically. Humans are built for constant labor. We're the endurance-running champions of the animal kingdom. As recently as last century, almost all jobs were physically exhausting. Mind work is exhausting as well, but in a different way. At the end of a strenuous day of coding, and endless meetings, I'm drained. Completely wiped out. I feel physically exhaus…

> Humans are built for constant labor. We're the endurance-running champions of the animal kingdom. I mean, sure, we can do that. But most of our ape relatives lay about all day socializing and taking advantage of their social cohesiveness to hunt-and-gather very quickly (and then get back to lazing around.) They have many capabilities, but rarely use them, because social organization is just so OP compared to the de…

Apes spend over 50% of their day chewing food, and most of the rest sitting around digesting. Their diets are low-energy and they really can't do much else. We require over 25% more calories (adjusted for total body mass). There are some large physiological differences. This is what they're doing while socializing. We really are turbocharged engines by comparison. Our bodies are still adjusting, poorly, to the shift to agriculture and its higher caloric supply. Until recently agriculture was also hard work for everyone in a society. Apes can't wear themselves out in the same way because they lack the horsepower. They're maxed-out.

Re: Dealing with Insomnia

#77

Post by manmal »

For some people, improving (reducing) CO2 levels in the bedroom might be low hanging fruit. Ever since moving to a new place with a controlled ventilation system, I had no dream recall, and often suffered from incredible fatigue and tiredness. I suspect that I was low on REM phases, but never got a sleep study done. Finally, I started opening the sleeping room window ever so slightly, by turning the window handle a bit to the open position. We also started changing the air filter of the ventilation system more often, as air flow becomes noticeably weaker after ~3-4 weeks. As a result, I often dream now, and wake well rested most of the time. For me, air flow has proven more important than blue light reduction, or weight loss.

Re: Dealing with Insomnia

#78

Post by pmoriarty »

ReactiveJelly wrote: post #70
cafemachiavelli wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't tried this, but I could absolutely see this working for me as well. I've noticed that my visual imagination gets much more vivid just as I'm drifting off to sleep, so I have in the past tried to gently nudge that along by jumping between visual thoughts. It did work fairly well, but I also never had enough trouble sleeping to hone the technique or quantify its effectiveness.

Sometimes I have hypnagogic hallucinations of people talking, sometimes I can't understand the words, but it's nice because then I know that I'm falling asleep.

I get the same thing, but I've found that I can understand the words if I focus on them and try to understand them, though the problem is that as soon as I do I become more awake and it takes time to get back in to the hypnagogic state again after that, so I usually don't bother.

Re: Dealing with Insomnia

#79

Post by frosted-flakes »

youareostriches wrote: post #68
caymanjim wrote: post #29

I think my biggest problem is that I don't exhaust myself physically. Humans are built for constant labor. We're the endurance-running champions of the animal kingdom. As recently as last century, almost all jobs were physically exhausting. Mind work is exhausting as well, but in a different way. At the end of a strenuous day of coding, and endless meetings, I'm drained. Completely wiped out. I feel physically exhaus…

>...home remodeling, yard work, or canoeing... Are you sure it's actually the physical exhaustion and not the hours of exposure to direct sunlight which calibrates your circadian rhythm?

Home remodelling is an indoor activity though.

Re: Dealing with Insomnia

#80

Post by nicoburns »

derefr wrote: post #58
caymanjim wrote: post #29

I think my biggest problem is that I don't exhaust myself physically. Humans are built for constant labor. We're the endurance-running champions of the animal kingdom. As recently as last century, almost all jobs were physically exhausting. Mind work is exhausting as well, but in a different way. At the end of a strenuous day of coding, and endless meetings, I'm drained. Completely wiped out. I feel physically exhaus…

> Humans are built for constant labor. We're the endurance-running champions of the animal kingdom. I mean, sure, we can do that. But most of our ape relatives lay about all day socializing and taking advantage of their social cohesiveness to hunt-and-gather very quickly (and then get back to lazing around.) They have many capabilities, but rarely use them, because social organization is just so OP compared to the de…

> I mean, sure, we can do that. But most of our ape relatives lay about all day socializing and taking advantage of their social cohesiveness to hunt-and-gather very quickly

I think you underestimate how much energy you use walking around even short distances for 6 hours a day compared to a typical office job. I had a step counter on my phone at one point, and found that if I spend a day outdoors, I can easily walk 10k-20k steps without feeling like I've done anything at all. Whereas my number for a typical office day where I didn't specifically exercise was much lower.

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