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The Stages of Insomnia

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Re: The Stages of Insomnia

#41

Post by kabdib »

ineedasername wrote: post #34

This is why I listen to audiobooks when trying to fall asleep. If I can't fall asleep, I'd rather someone read me a bedtime story than have my own thoughts bouncing around the inside of my head all night.

This is precisely what I do. Pretty much anything that sends my mind off into a cool direction works well. Some narrators are better than others (Stefan Rudnicki has a great voice, and William Dufris does a wonderful job of voicing characters).

I searched high and low for headphones that I can sleep in. I can't sleep on my back, so big cans are right out. I hate earbuds and things that poke into my ear canal, and headband-like arrangements slide around, are hot and compress my ears painfully. I finally found a set of small, disk-like phones that fit flat and in the center of my ear, just outside the ear canal; with a little extra padding these are very, very comfortable.

[The product I liked are Bedphones, from dubslabs.com; they are expensive, but I found them totally worth it. I use the wired version, and they tend to tangle badly unless you take a little care wrapping them up, but I hate having yet another device to charge]

----

"Really? Doctor, I think your stories are simply divine--"

"Thank you."

"Oh, I really do. I put one of your tapes on my player and let it lull me to sleep almost every night."

"Higher praise a writer cannot expect," Jubal said with a straight face.

- Robert Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

Re: The Stages of Insomnia

#42

Post by climb_stealth »

kabdib wrote: post #41
ineedasername wrote: post #34

This is why I listen to audiobooks when trying to fall asleep. If I can't fall asleep, I'd rather someone read me a bedtime story than have my own thoughts bouncing around the inside of my head all night.

This is precisely what I do. Pretty much anything that sends my mind off into a cool direction works well. Some narrators are better than others (Stefan Rudnicki has a great voice, and William Dufris does a wonderful job of voicing characters). I searched high and low for headphones that I can sleep in. I can't sleep on my back, so big cans are right out. I hate earbuds and things that poke into my ear canal, and hea…

Please do mention the actual product! I like to listen to music in bed sometimes but having to lie on my back stops me from really enjoying it.

There is no issue with recommending products on HN AFAIK. I have come across some great products after recommendations on here in the past.

Re: The Stages of Insomnia

#43

Post by forgotmypw17 »

I think insomnia is a way of blaming a human for not being on the industrial day cycle.

I don't think there is anything wrong with staying up late through the night and sleeping into the day.

If I am not falling asleep, I get up and work on something, rather than allowing myself to become attached to the idea of going to sleep at a certain time.

When I feel so tired that I have no choice but to pass out, that is when I lie down and sleep like a baby.

I feel extremely blessed/fortunate to have discovered letting my body dictate when to sleep and when to wake, and hope that my message helps someone else.

Re: The Stages of Insomnia

#44

Post by exmadscientist »

LuvSauce wrote: post #29
neurobashing wrote: post #24

I've been using something called Intermezzo, which is basically 'baby Ambien'. It's a crazy mild dose, sublingual so you don't need to even get up and swallow a pill. Knocks you out for maybe 4 hours on a good day. The idea is to knock you out just enough to get you into a sleeping habit on your own, not sedate you into oblivion. It works OK, I guess, but every now and then I power through it and end up having not so…

As long as you use melatonin sublingually it should do the same thing right down to the 4hr nap, only .3-1mg is needed.

> only .3-1mg is needed

It's a bit more subtle than that: the correct dose is about 300 to 1000 micrograms. Doses significantly larger than that will not work for most people. The effective dosing window for melatonin is narrow, so more is not better.

It doesn't help that most melatonin available OTC in the US is in doses of 3mg to 10mg. This stuff is not useful. You need the 300 microgram pills, the 1 milligram pills, the liquid, or as a last resort the 3mg pills with a splitter.

Re: The Stages of Insomnia

#45

Post by Schinken_ »

forgotmypw17 wrote: post #43

I think insomnia is a way of blaming a human for not being on the industrial day cycle. I don't think there is anything wrong with staying up late through the night and sleeping into the day. If I am not falling asleep, I get up and work on something, rather than allowing myself to become attached to the idea of going to sleep at a certain time. When I feel so tired that I have no choice but to pass out, that is when…

So much this. My work allows me to work whenever I want (even move hours or entire days off to the weekend if it suits me better). Worked wonders for my mood and actual health. No more sleep stress and being tired at work (or while working from home). Every employer should take note that its absolutely useless to force strict working hours when some of your workers will be at the mental capacity of a jacket potato.

Same goes for school and early hours. I know for school as well as for work there is a lot of productivity to gain when most people work at the same time (easy meetings, no need to repeat stuff, for schools that's basically the only way etc). But at least have an option of two to three core working hours?

Also, good thing my SO is catching on and understanding that I'm just not an early bird (unless I wake up at 1am and stay awake). She fully understands.

Re: The Stages of Insomnia

#46

Post by 082349872349872 »

aaronination wrote: post #14

tip from a mild hypochondriac: never search WebMD, regardless of what time of day (or night) it is

I've heard that one of the side effects of going to med school is constantly becoming aware of symptoms of whatever rare condition one may be studying at the time.

Re: The Stages of Insomnia

#47

Post by csjohnst »

vinni2 wrote: post #40
ineedasername wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My partner never hears it: I use a pair of bluetooth earbuds, but I leave one out of my ear on the side I lay on. I fall asleep that way, with a sleep timer on the audiobook player. If I wake up in the middle of the night, I just start it up again.

Good for you but I can’t fall asleep with earbuds in my ears.

I use a cheap pillow speaker connected into my iPhone dock

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m...

Re: The Stages of Insomnia

#48

Post by scrooched_moose »

vinni2 wrote: post #36

Most of the comments here seem to focus on one type of insomnia — falling asleep. Most of the time I can easily fall asleep but I often wake up in the middle of the night or very early in the morning for no reason and I can’t go back to sleep.

Mine is similar.

Can easily fall into a light sleep which lasts about 30 minutes, then I wake up. I've never been able to figure out of it's something environmental pulling me out, or just me.

Those 30 minutes are just enough of a power nap I'm up until 4:00am.

At this point I know trying to go back to sleep is futile so I just get up and go do something productive.

Re: The Stages of Insomnia

#49

Post by anm89 »

I've started to listen to hours long super dry economics podcasts every night and it works better than anything I've ever done to knock me out and as a side effect I've learned a ton. The problem is it usually also eventually wakes me back up but I usually am able to quickly fall back to sleep.

Re: The Stages of Insomnia

#50

Post by mettamage »

vinni2 wrote: post #36

Most of the comments here seem to focus on one type of insomnia — falling asleep. Most of the time I can easily fall asleep but I often wake up in the middle of the night or very early in the morning for no reason and I can’t go back to sleep.

I've had this too, but nowadays I go to sleep fine. I've made and seen a few adjustments:

- Use a sleep mask and earplugs, or do the poor man's version like I do (pillow on the top of your head).

- Get into a situation where you can't feel stressed. I'm in that situation right now. I feel too underpaid to be stressed. In that sense, being underpaid is much more of a good thing than a bad thing, since my performance is good enough.

- Get into a situation where you don't feel mildly depressed.

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