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Good sleep, good learning, good life

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Re: Good sleep, good learning, good life

#51

Post by mtgx »

x87678r wrote: post #49

After covid hit I'm having trouble sleeping too much. I'm doing 9 hours a night and occasional 1 hr nap after lunch, I feel my metabolism is slowing down and I'm putting on weight. I've started doing more aerobic exercise and it just makes me need my after lunch nap.

Try lowering carbs in your foods. Drop sodas, alcohol, sweets and snacks. Don't add sugar to your coffee or tea. First 2 weeks will be a bit difficult and you'll see just how addictive those things are, but after that you'll be fine without them and feel better.

Re: Good sleep, good learning, good life

#52

Post by gchamonlive »

x87678r wrote: post #49

After covid hit I'm having trouble sleeping too much. I'm doing 9 hours a night and occasional 1 hr nap after lunch, I feel my metabolism is slowing down and I'm putting on weight. I've started doing more aerobic exercise and it just makes me need my after lunch nap.

What helped me was to reduce the carbohydrates intake after noon and to drink more water. That helped a bit with my sleeping habit.

But it has been really hot and that makes it that much more difficult to have a good night of sleep.

Re: Good sleep, good learning, good life

#53

Post by briefcomment »

chrisweekly wrote: post #47
pleasesurfmore wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That resonates with my own experience. I walked away from a bad relationship and my mental stamina, as you call it, improved dramatically. Memory is better, I am much more active and confident. I still have a very demanding job, so maybe I should change that as well.

See also "The Happiness Equation" which boils down to "Be happy first." NOT: Hard work -> success -> happiness RATHER: Happiness -> best work -> success

Intuitively, I don’t doubt that, but certainly there are unhappy “successful” people right?

My tentative explanation for this is that many people luck themselves into “success” and then fight tooth and nail to keep it.

Re: Good sleep, good learning, good life

#54

Post by wholinator2 »

briefcomment wrote: post #53
chrisweekly wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See also "The Happiness Equation" which boils down to "Be happy first." NOT: Hard work -> success -> happiness RATHER: Happiness -> best work -> success

Intuitively, I don’t doubt that, but certainly there are unhappy “successful” people right? My tentative explanation for this is that many people luck themselves into “success” and then fight tooth and nail to keep it.

Oh certainly! That is simply a paradigm and no paradigm can fit the whole (unless there's a better paradigm). Anyways, it depends on your definition of success. If it includes happiness then by definition no. If it's more vague then that then probably. I would define perfect success as something like improving the world and being happy about it.

To that point there are definitely construction workers and nurses who hate their jobs and actively despise but still make the world a better place, are they successful? I believe your internal mental state will reflect and impact upon those around you and the things you are significant for. Does being an unhappy boss who gets great results make you not successful. The core issue lies in definitions. We could dream up a definition of success that could define any number of contradictory traits. That is for you to decide and society at large to gently guide.

Re: Good sleep, good learning, good life

#55

Post by michaelcampbell »

bd_beats wrote: post #26
sradman wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The SuperMemo algorithms [1] have been re-implemented in more modern software such as Anki [2]. These systems are popular for goal oriented learning like studying for a test or learning a new language. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SuperMemo#Algorithms [2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anki_(software)

Anki's SRS algotihm is based on SM2 and is woefully outdated in comparison to SM's SRS algo. Additionally SM is much more feature rich once you get into incremental reading and fully optimizing your learning experience. Sure the UI isn't a nice flashy Electron.js app, but SM is a titan compared the terminate that is Anki.

outdated doesn't mean ineffective.

Anki is also free, and with a pretty big community behind it.

Re: Good sleep, good learning, good life

#56

Post by chromatin »

rajlego wrote: post #40
rajlego wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, the Discord SuperMemo community has grown actually a fair bit over the last year: https://discord.gg/vUQhqCT I myself only started using SuperMemo over the last 2 years but I think in the last 1, I've seen lots of friends get massively better and I'm looking forward to what we create over the next 5 years. In terms of new implementations, one thing I'm excited about is dendro: https://dendro.com.au/ . It's made…

I guess I'll take this as a chance, for anyone not knowing SuperMemo: this video introduces basics of IR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NURjZuHvDaU to actually try supermemo, you can get sm15 full for free or sm18 as a trial: https://supermemo.wiki/learn/#/

Thanks for the video. The example he gave was a wizard learning spells, where each spell was a pretty independent unit of collection of facts.

What I fail to see is how this would work with scientific articles — reviewing independent sections from articles without the larger context is often useless (or at least far less useful).

Is there an example of this?

Re: Good sleep, good learning, good life

#57

Post by lamename »

lolive wrote: post #4

I did not read the article (what did you expect, we are on HN ;) Anyway, my experience has been a little bit different. I would summarize it as "good life, good sleep, good learning". And yes, order matters. The fact is that recently I was completely in my midlife crisis and was at probably 50% of my mental stamina (memory loss, lack of interest, poor focus, and insomnia ). I was ok with the fact that I was getting o…

I'd say it's more useful to think of these as a 3 point cycle. Each leads to the other, and if any one gets perturbed out of control it will cause the other two to go south. The cause and effect is not linear but interactive. Then again, perhaps sleep is more basic than a "good life", so there is a little bit of hierarchy embedded...not sure what the article argues as it's currently down for me.

Re: Good sleep, good learning, good life

#58

Post by muzani »

This has been one of my favourite articles for years, on the reading list, but never had the time to fully read such a behemoth.

Some stuff I got out of this:

1. The ideal sleep pattern is sleeping when tired and walking up without an alarm.

2. Biphasic is recommended. Homeostatic is how easy it is to initiate sleep, circadian is how easy it is to maintain it. Circadian cycle is usually nightly, homeostatic peaks with fatigue. It's easy to have a 20 min midday nap but hard to do a midnight one.

3. Brainwork is great as soon as you wake up, and if you need caffiene, this is the time for it. Bundle stress and exercise and keep it away from the night.

Take note this is all theory and not practical, and the author hints that society should follow these and not the other way around. It took me half a decade to find a way to fit it, and what I did was:

A. Force myself to wake real early, about 4 AM. You will feel horrible for a week, but it moves your circadian rhythm forward to wake and sleep naturally without an alarm.

B. Naps in the car at lunch. Waking early gave more time to cook, which means packed meals are done in half an hour, followed by a quick nap. I set an alarm but never need it. Exercise is easy; a quick run and a lot of strong deodorant.

Re: Good sleep, good learning, good life

#59

Post by markus_zhang »

lolive wrote: post #4

I did not read the article (what did you expect, we are on HN ;) Anyway, my experience has been a little bit different. I would summarize it as "good life, good sleep, good learning". And yes, order matters. The fact is that recently I was completely in my midlife crisis and was at probably 50% of my mental stamina (memory loss, lack of interest, poor focus, and insomnia ). I was ok with the fact that I was getting o…

Agreed. You need to first have a good strategy, and then tackle the tactical points. Having a positive life is way more important than anything else. You can try to give yourself good sleep or good food, but if your life is miserable (not necessary poor, but of poor quality), you won't even have the mood to have good sleep/food.

Re: Good sleep, good learning, good life

#60

Post by rileyteige »

jmnicolas wrote: post #48
rajlego wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

naps are AWESOME. Woz claims somewhere that without naps, his brain is at 60% or somesuch second half of day. Same for me (likely even worse since I usually don't get enough night sleep). One reason I never want to work for a normal company is that I wouldn't be able to take naps. Not sure how I'd survive that. One note for anyone reading this wanting to try naps: the timing matters a lot. Woz recommends napping arou…

> One reason I never want to work for a normal company is that I wouldn't be able to take naps. It depends on the culture: I work for an absolutely normal company in France (I'm the sole dev) and at noon I go home (10 min drive) cook my meal and eat leisurely, then get a 30 minutes nap and go back to work at 2 PM. Pay isn't great, but quality of life is high.

I visited France a few years ago. It was incredible how e.g. the entire Vieux Port market in Marseille would close down from roughly 1-3pm. Just about nothing was open. Storefronts, restaurants, all closed. Seemed like a very peaceful place to make a living. I guess money's not everything.
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