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

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

#191

Post by inconceivable »

zackmorris wrote: post #163

There's going to be a lot of variation between people, so I'll just project my experience with this: * Mild sleep apnea, ~15 events per hour, undiagnosed until after my severe burnout in the spring of 2019 * Breathe Right strips brought me back to life in just a day or two (no affiliation) * Lightly taping my mouth at night with 1/4" surgical tape (or 1/2 ripped down the center) about 2" long in an X shape (to preven…

+1 for breathe right strips. they're all i need for a good night's sleep. they are kind of expensive but you can buy them in bulk from amazon and a good night's sleep is priceless. i would recommend everyone try it just to see if it helps.

sometimes i wear them while out and about, because i'm at the age where i really don't care what other people think of me. also, a lot of athletes use them while working out.

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

#192

Post by Levitz »

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?

Research is currently being done and this is of course anecdotal (I mean, if it wasn't it would be proven treatment, wouldn't it?)

That said, my depression was improved more by a couple of magic mushrooms trips than by more than a year of psychology. The results have been so good that it feels wrong to share it, makes it sound like some miracle stuff and I think any depressed person would go for it in a heartbeat completely ignoring risks.

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

#193

Post by Levitz »

rendaw wrote: post #103
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.

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

There is a certain weight to experience and prevalence, you can go wrong, sure, but it's often worth it to try.

Parachutes aren't scientifically proven to work on humans.

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

#194

Post by redundantly »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #188
redundantly wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The solution is to wear a modern iron lung whenever you want or need to sleep forever Calling it an iron lung is extremely disingenuous. The Iron Lung uses negative pressure and had to be used 24x7 to keep the patient alive because their lungs weren't able work on their own. They had no mobility and were confined to a bed for the rest of their lives. CPAP / APAP machines use positive pressure and only assist with b…

It's hyperbole, but the comparison isn't without some merit. My grandma stopped using it because it's troublesome, and I've heard many people voice the same. Getting into an iron lung each night would also be ... troublesome.

You don't climb in and out of an iron lung. If you're using one you're in it 24x7.

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

#195

Post by tootie »

marcosdumay wrote: post #64
xlii wrote: post #43

I find it somewhat odd that modern medicine don't screen for stuff like sleep apnea or ADHD (and similar). They're quite frequent (sleep apnea - 17% from the article, ADHD - 5-20% depending on the study) and impact peoples' lives quite severely both on quality and productivity fronts.

Both are expensive to diagnose. ADHD also has a problem in that a wrong diagnostic can harm people.

The new sleep apnea device he used is really simple and easy. I think we'll see it utilized a lot more often.

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

#196

Post by Levitz »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #24
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.

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…

>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.

It actually baffled me that it wasn't his doctor who picked this up. A person waking up several times with confirmation from someone sleeping besides him that he has stopped breathing, I'm no doctor and gee maybe it's because there are a few cases in my family but that screams "sleep apnea" to me.

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

#197

Post by david2ndaccount »

rolisz wrote: post #168

Anyone got any other experiences with things that cause brain fog? I don't think I have sleep apnea (my wife often falls asleep after I do and she doesn't report any kind of weird breathing issues for me, nor snoring). But even though I generally sleep 8 hours a night, I am quite tired during the day and I often have trouble focusing. At night, I fall asleep like a log and I don't wake up during the night.

Get a sleep study. You can still suffer from reduced airflow at night even if it doesn’t translate to actual obstructive events. Or it could be something else.

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

#198

Post by Levitz »

rolisz wrote: post #168

Anyone got any other experiences with things that cause brain fog? I don't think I have sleep apnea (my wife often falls asleep after I do and she doesn't report any kind of weird breathing issues for me, nor snoring). But even though I generally sleep 8 hours a night, I am quite tired during the day and I often have trouble focusing. At night, I fall asleep like a log and I don't wake up during the night.

You might be getting poor sleep and there are many reasons that might be happening.

Then there is also depression or hormone problems.

For me personally it tends to be caffeine preventing me from getting good sleep, which in turn makes me want to take caffeine to focus more, which prevents me from getting good sleep, rinse repeat.

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

#200

Post by ericmcer »

lunderdog wrote: post #126

I had surgery to expand my upper jaw and palate three weeks ago, and the improved ability to breathe during the night and day is absolutley life-changing. I used to wake up multiple times a night with a pounding heart, and could never get a restful sleep. Within a few days after surgery, I could sleep through the night and my blood pressure dropped enough to start weening off my hypertension medication. If somebody i…

My friend had that surgery, it also gave him a more robust jawline which was a bonus.

He used to snore shockingly loud. It sounded like a jet taking off, if I tried to mimic it intentionally I was unable to get as loud.

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