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Dealing with Insomnia

jacquesmattheij.com

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Re: Dealing with Insomnia

#151

Post by andrewaylett »

chimen wrote: post #49

I'm using NC headphones for years. Highly recommend Sony MX3 or even MX2. The issue for me is that I'm now worried of the constant Bluetooth waves that go into my brain since I wear these headsets pretty much the entire time I spend at the computer (quite a lot). I actually gave up wearing them due to this concern. I tried finding a headphone that does noise canceling and produces audio without bluetooth. There's not…

While I second the other poster's assertion that you don't need to worry about the radio effects (and remember, the headphones are _mostly_ receiving -- you're probably getting more RF from your WiFi), I have a pair of Plantronics BackBeat Pro, and they will still do noise cancelling with Bluetooth off.

Re: Dealing with Insomnia

#152

Post by jacquesm »

devdas wrote: post #69
jacquesm wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having trouble to fall asleep and sleeplessness is typically called insomnia, that it is paired with delayed sleep phase is an unfortunate side-effect for those days that I did get (some) sleep, and from my preference for working when it is quiet (ie: nights). The one feeds into the other which eventually results in missing lots and lots of sleep. I was under the - mistaken - impression that you can get by on 4 hours…

DSPD lets you get 8 hours of restful sleep, just not at a convenient time. Insomnia means you don't get enough sleep at all.

Yep. See article.

Re: Dealing with Insomnia

#153

Post by jacquesm »

acituan wrote: post #114
keenmaster wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Caffeine is too useful for me to give up entirely. I had similar success with a rule: no caffeine after 12 PM (not even caffeinated soft drinks). Caffeine has a long half-life, which is especially problematic for people who, for genetic reasons, respond more to a given amount of caffeine. What I usually do is I have 2 cups of coffee back to back before 11 A.M. I feel the benefits for most of the day. It may be tempti…

> if you feel the need for more coffee in the afternoon, that’s a sign that your work habits and distractions need to change, not your physical energy level. Out of curiosity, why does this apply to the afternoon coffee and not the morning coffee? Maybe finding coffee useful at all is a sign?

Because cafeine breaks down over time so your evening/afternoon coffee has a much bigger effect on your later sleeping attempts than morning coffee. I don't drink coffee at all so that does not apply to me but I can see the confusion in the GP and your response to it.

Re: Dealing with Insomnia

#154

Post by jacquesm »

inimino wrote: post #144

I hesitate to speculate as much as I'm about to on the basis of a blog post alone, but here goes... Everything about this post screams to me that the real problem may be chronic stress. Rather than seeing the trouble sleeping as a symptom of stress, and addressing that, the author is just treating sleep as one more thing to be aggressively managed and thereby adding even more stress to the mix ("the time has come to…

Probably more than a grain of truth in there, but there is a cyclical element at work here: not enough sleep -> less efficient the next day -> more stressful -> even less sleep. There are a lot of those cycles at work here all of which can have cause/effect switched around at will and still be valid. So sleeping better has remarkably reduced my stress levels.

But thank you for pointing this out.

Re: Dealing with Insomnia

#155

Post by StavrosK »

caymanjim wrote: post #102
derefr wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have there been any studies on the differences in behavior of apes fed high-calorie diets? (Presumably non-interventionist studies, of e.g. apes that scavenge from urban areas encroaching into their habitats.) For that matter, how about the "city" monkeys of Lopburi, who eat human food (either from human offerings, or by stealing it)? Anyone looked into their sleep cycles?

I'm approaching the limit of my simian expertise. Those are interesting questions. I know captive apes outside laboratory conditions (zoo animals, pets, entertainment) are prone to diabetes, heart disease, and other modern human medical plagues, but I don't know their sleep habits.

Are apes not in captivity not prone to those diseases? What do they die of?

Re: Dealing with Insomnia

#156

Post by PragmaticPulp »

flowerlad wrote: post #127
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Magnesium had zero noticeable effect for me until I tried Magnesium Glycinate. I later tried pure Glycine without magnesium and realized that it was the Glycine that helped my insomnia, not the magnesium component. There are several studies showing positive effects of Glycine on sleep induction. Magnesium is harmless to try at low doses, but be warned that there is a substantial amount of low quality information abou…

> Despite what you might read, it is possible to consume too much magnesium. Magnesium accumulates in the body with a very long elimination time (days or weeks) which means overdose can occur after months of supplementing at the same level. You have not supported this with links to credible sources. Too much magnesium from food does not pose a health risk in healthy individuals because the kidneys eliminate excess am…

> Too much magnesium from food

The conversation was about magnesium supplements, not food.

It’s well-known that overdose from magnesium supplements is possible. The condition is called “Hypermagnesemia” and one of the primary causes is magnesium supplements.

> You have not supported this with links to credible sources.

If you'd like to know more about the dynamics of magnesium, scientific articles are easy to find: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4455825/

As for supplement overdose: You should always assume that overdose is possible when taking concentrated supplements. Don't assume that you can apply the same logic to food (as in the link you provided) and isolated supplements consumed in bulk (as with the high magnesium doses discussed in this thread).

Re: Dealing with Insomnia

#157

Post by flowerlad »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #156
flowerlad wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Despite what you might read, it is possible to consume too much magnesium. Magnesium accumulates in the body with a very long elimination time (days or weeks) which means overdose can occur after months of supplementing at the same level. You have not supported this with links to credible sources. Too much magnesium from food does not pose a health risk in healthy individuals because the kidneys eliminate excess am…

> Too much magnesium from food The conversation was about magnesium supplements, not food. It’s well-known that overdose from magnesium supplements is possible. The condition is called “Hypermagnesemia” and one of the primary causes is magnesium supplements. > You have not supported this with links to credible sources. If you'd like to know more about the dynamics of magnesium, scientific articles are easy to find: h…

It is safe to take magnesium supplements unless you have kidney disease. If you consume excess magnesium it is simply not absorbed by the body.

Here are some excerpts from the article you linked:

"It is noteworthy that intestinal absorption is not directly proportional to magnesium intake but is dependent mainly on magnesium status. The lower the magnesium level, the more of this element is absorbed in the gut, thus relative magnesium absorption is high when intake is low and vice versa."

"As the kidneys play a crucial role in magnesium homeostasis, in advanced chronic kidney disease, the compensatory mechanisms start to become inadequate and hypermagnesaemia may develop."

"Acute and chronic oral magnesium supplementation has been described as well tolerated with a good safety profile."

Re: Dealing with Insomnia

#158

Post by lorthemar »

I normally have a really difficult time focusing on things, especially work related, this is mainly due to the noise and movement in an office setting. I've been working from home for quite some time now and I used to get most done during the night just like you. It's quiet and it's dark. I think the dark helps as much as the noise as well. There's less things that catch my attention. But I realized that, my sleep schedule was the main culprit behind me being unproductive during the day. I've tried various techniques, but it didn't help too much (I've been meditating regularly for over a decade now). The best way is to tire yourself, brisk walking etc. and also finding what makes you disconnect from your daily life.

Re: Dealing with Insomnia

#159

Post by lorthemar »

34679 wrote: post #21

After decades of trouble falling asleep, I've found a simple technique that works for me. The goal of this technique is to replace words/monologue with images in your stream of consciousness. I do this by picturing three shapes, each engulfing the previous one. Start with a sphere. Just imagine a sphere and nothing else. Then picture a 5 sided pyramid that perfectly engulfs the sphere so that the sides are tangential…

I have a similar approach too. Not shapes or colors, simply I imagine a cat that is sleeping and try to see things from a cats perspective. It's weird but gets me to sleep almost instantly. Obviously it can be anything but I picked cats because they are the best sleepers I know of :P

Re: Dealing with Insomnia

#160

Post by sideshowb »

baby wrote: post #106
34679 wrote: post #21

After decades of trouble falling asleep, I've found a simple technique that works for me. The goal of this technique is to replace words/monologue with images in your stream of consciousness. I do this by picturing three shapes, each engulfing the previous one. Start with a sphere. Just imagine a sphere and nothing else. Then picture a 5 sided pyramid that perfectly engulfs the sphere so that the sides are tangential…

I have a similar technique that I really need to document I think about random ideas in succession very quickly. For example: if I hammer an icecube I’ll get to the meeting on monday. But then that’s apple day. Better running away. There are dogs falling from the sky so I’ll take my fork. Etc. It works every single time. Takes around 10-15min of doing this

I've recently been trying a podcast called sleep with me, it basically takes this approach, about an hour of deliberately not very coherent narration
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