Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Night of the living brain fog dead or how I hacked myself better via open source

decodebytes.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 334 posts

Re: Night of the living brain fog dead or how I hacked myself better via open source

#101

Post by btreesOfSpring »

mattgreenrocks wrote: post #83

Curious: can the Apple Watch detect this sort of thing?

For WatchOS, you would start by running the Sleep App[0] and notice that there is an issue with your sleep stages.

Next you might move onto an app, like SnoreLab[1] where you record the audio of your sleep each night and can listen back to where you are having sleep interruptions. At that point, you would likely hear your breathing process.

Moving onto the Withings Sleep Analyzer[3] (as shown in the article) will fill out your data but by step 2, you will should probably already be setting up an appointment with your doctor for sleep apnea.

[0] https://support.apple.com/guide/watch/track-your-sleep-apd83... [1] https://www.snorelab.com/ [3] https://www.withings.com/be/en/sleep-analyzer

Re: Night of the living brain fog dead or how I hacked myself better via open source

#102

Post by ccooffee »

cj wrote: post #4
orangepurple wrote: post #3

The word iron did not show up a single time in this article. It is extremely important to make sure your iron and ferritin levels are sufficient or you will feel tired and depressed all the time.

Do either have a connection to sleep apnea?

"Iron deficiency and sleep - A scoping review"[0] did a literature review and found many studies linking Iron Deficiency to poor sleep outcomes for various particular sleep disorders. It summarizes the findings with:

> iron investigation and supplementation should be considered in patients presenting with sleep disorders

[0] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32224451/

Re: Night of the living brain fog dead or how I hacked myself better via open source

#103

Post by rendaw »

Out_of_Characte wrote: post #44
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He recognized the signs of sleep apnea and pursued treatment with sleep apnea devices, getting confirmation of the problem with the help of his doctor. The DIY part was largely related to pushing the process forward, not doing novel experimentation. Nobody would call that “anti-science”. Anti-science would be something like ignoring the common treatments and trying to solve the problem with natural supplements or som…

On the flipside, there are also a small selection of unproven treatments that work better than standard care.

If they're unproven, how do you know they work better than standard (=proven) care?

Re: Night of the living brain fog dead or how I hacked myself better via open source

#104

Post by denimnerd42 »

bitL wrote: post #35

Some people seem to have luck by taking 100mg vitamin B1 before sleep for central apnea: https://www.cpaptalk.com/viewtopic/t176555/Found-a-vitamin-t... Given B1 seems to be working similarly to acetazolamide but appears to be much safer, I am wondering if anyone is using it for altitude sickness? Doping up a few grams of thiamine just before climbing?

almost not worth trying for me given how well a low dose of acetazolamide works for everyone I know but would be interesting to know.

Re: Night of the living brain fog dead or how I hacked myself better via open source

#105

Post by aantix »

lapetitejort wrote: post #59
Out_of_Characte wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the flipside, there are also a small selection of unproven treatments that work better than standard care.

Can you share an example of an unproven treatment that works better than standard care?

Rinsing with baby shampoo and iodine for the treatment of sinus inflammation.

Vs antibiotics and/or saline rinses.

Re: Night of the living brain fog dead or how I hacked myself better via open source

#106

Post by stuffuru »

vaylian wrote: post #60
lmohseni wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read a book called Breath by James Nestor, it’s all about the benefits of nose breathing. Anecdotally this has completely fixed my sleep apnea/ snoring/ energy levels/ etc. Highly recommended!

What are the best strategies for increasing nose breathing?

Look into the EASE procedure by Dr. Kasey Li

Re: Night of the living brain fog dead or how I hacked myself better via open source

#107

Post by n8henrie »

agrue wrote: post #27

Sleep apnea is strange. Good news! We have a diagnosis, sleep apnea. You're bad at sleeping now, the thing everybody has to do all night long every day since birth. The solution is to wear a modern iron lung whenever you want or need to sleep forever. Many times it's because people are overweight but you aren't. Is that really all there is for treatment? No throat exercises or therapeutic sleeping positions? No diets…

To me, it certainly seems to suggest an environmental cause (or at least significant contributor). Certainly doesn't seem evolutionarily adaptive for such a large proportion of the population to live with profound mental and physical fatigue.

Obesity is an obvious confounder, but these seemingly frequent front-page HN sleep apnea posts usually abound with anecdotes of normal / thin individuals with significant issues.

Re: Night of the living brain fog dead or how I hacked myself better via open source

#108

Post by br3akaway »

mabbo wrote: post #89
agrue wrote: post #27

Sleep apnea is strange. Good news! We have a diagnosis, sleep apnea. You're bad at sleeping now, the thing everybody has to do all night long every day since birth. The solution is to wear a modern iron lung whenever you want or need to sleep forever. Many times it's because people are overweight but you aren't. Is that really all there is for treatment? No throat exercises or therapeutic sleeping positions? No diets…

Diagnosed at 24 with sleep apnea. I tried a bunch of things. What worked for me was regular cardio exercise and daily doses of high absorption magnesium. The magnesium is absolutely unproven pseudoscience nonsense that can't possibly work. But if I stop taking it my sleep suffers massively.

Could you share your magnesium preparation and dose? If you are deficient in magnesium, the mechanism I would guess is that neck muscles are unable to relax and constrict the action of weaker muscles used for breathing.

Re: Night of the living brain fog dead or how I hacked myself better via open source

#109

Post by n8henrie »

orangepurple wrote: post #19
quickthrower2 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blood panel was done

CBC won't show low ferritin. You can feel awful if your hemoglobin is OK but your ferritin is low.

Interesting!

DellaValle DM, Haas JD. Impact of iron depletion without anemia on performance in trained endurance athletes at the beginning of a training season: a study of female collegiate rowers. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2011;21(6):501-6. Accessed April 10, 2023. https://www.qxmd.com/r/22089308

Re: Night of the living brain fog dead or how I hacked myself better via open source

#110

Post by LoganDark »

yosito wrote: post #13

> The morale of the story, you need to sometimes tackle your own health and take matters into your own hands The frustrating thing for me is that doing so is often labeled as being anti-science, when the truth is, this guy was actually doing the science himself. It's not anti-science to take your health into your own hands. It's anti-outdated-underfunded-medical-systems.

I was never diagnosed with ADHD because medical professionals never noticed any symptoms on the outside. But inside, I was always suffering, I just didn't know what it was called. Once I learned about ADHD and that I checked every box, I started taking stimulants (even without an ADHD diagnosis) and they solved everything.

I think my case was just so severe that nobody saw me struggle with it, because it was impossible to fight. Plus, I'm autistic, so a lot of things were written off as autism.

Post reply on HN