What if I am capable of thinking with closed eyes?
Meditation is one way to stop doing that. OTOH, it doesn’t mean you’ll sleep either.
Lie still in bed
41–50 of 246 posts
Re: Lie still in bed
#42There is an amazing trick that I now use almost every time I want to sleep: the 4-7-8 breathing method. I don't remember using it and not falling asleep in less than 5 minutes, whatever the stress I was in. https://edition.cnn.com/2022/09/16/health/4-7-8-breathing-te...
I used this for a while, combined with (usually once, before the breathing technique) a sort of "bed yoga" thing, tightening muscles and then relaxing them until I start to feel at-one with the bed, an unusual feeling I can't much describe.
I now don't have to consciously do the breathing counts or the exercise; my brain and body can find their way to that same place with just careful, slow breathing with the long exchale, and a focus on that feeling.
But on its own, the 4-7-8 trick is enormously impressive. You don't even have to trust that it works. Though no caffeine after 2pm probably helps too.
Re: Lie still in bed
#43Very similar to “chop wood, carry water” Seems like I’m seeing a cultural shift happening in the last few months to people re/discovering zen-stoicism-minimalism Probably the cyclical nature of trends
It's possibly just that you're noticing it. Tech people on the internet have been like this for as long as I can remember the internet (31 years in my case).
Sometimes intolerably smugly, like Jack Dorsey.
Re: Lie still in bed
#44My mom worked night shifts as a nurse most of her life. It gave her the opportunity to be with us during the day but also took a toll on her sleep habits and health. She had a lot of trouble sleeping so she said she would just lie still in bed and that would get her _some_ rest. At least most rest than she would get by actively trying to sleep.
Re: Lie still in bed
#45What if I am capable of thinking with closed eyes?
There was another technique for falling asleep mentioned on HN, possibly https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17905574>. It basically suggests to not think, either.
Re: Lie still in bed
#46This may work for non-neurotic people but laying still in bed is when the demons in my mind come out to play and remind me of all of my problems.
Shavasana or Corpse Pose in Yoga is exactly this. Some say it is the hardest Asana.
Re: Lie still in bed
#47I went through a period where I'd wake up aboud 2-3 hours after going to bed and couldn't get back to sleep for most of the night. I used a related technique to help. I count backwards from 1000, and force myself to keep my eyes closed. It's a task that takes just enough brainpower that it's hard to do on autopilot while my mind drifts to something else. If I do wander off I just go back to counting whatever number I…
My sister once taught me a small trick to calm myself down when I was anxious but had no idea what I was anxious about: Count down from a random 3-digit number, subtracting 7 at each count. (e.g. 794, 787, 780, 773, ...) Do it until I drift away and lose track, unable to continue.
It works. I guess it's kind of in that "takes just enough brainpower" league. This takes more brain power than simply counting down though, and I'm not sure if this actually helps one falling asleep...
Another technique I derived from this is to do a countdown in the foreign language I was learning. Several years ago it was in English, and right now it's in Japanese. It also takes more brain power than counting down in my mother tongue, with the additional benefit of getting a little bit of practice. Killing two birds with one stone I guess :p
Re: Lie still in bed
#48This may work for non-neurotic people but laying still in bed is when the demons in my mind come out to play and remind me of all of my problems.
In my experience lying still doesn't really work, because it's a deliberate practice with a goal and your brain starts analyzing that as well. You know the inner voice that says: I am still not calming down, I am still awake. I once read that sleep therapists sometimes give people with bad sleeping problems the opposite advice: keep your eyes slightly open and try to stay awake. Not in the sense that you should put o…
People are different, so it is hard to make some advice that works for everybody. That being said, I totally agree with your conclusion. You do not have to lie still in order to go to sleep, or any other reason. In some sense, if you are in such a situation (being tired, needing to wake up early etc), lying still in the bed is already better than any alternative you can do, eg staying in front of a screen. Sometimes you may sleep. Sometimes you may not sleep. Ime, under this intention, it becomes easier and easier to sleep. Just do not put sleep in your mind as a goal, accept that you may not sleep or you may sleep (even better cultivate being indifferent towards either outcome) and lie still. Personally I have learnt that lying still is more important than eventually sleeping or not. It can even be enjoyable in itself.
Disclaimer: I have only had insomnia episodes that have lasted up to a month or so, so more chronic episodes can be different.
Re: Lie still in bed
#49The best kind of parody: the one you almost can’t tell is parody. My sense is that the core issue with people who actually think this way is that they lack empathy. They assume that their context is shared by everyone. So if one simple trick worked for them, it surely must work for everyone else.
I think perhaps you synthesized the "surely must work for everyone else" part. The author claims it worked for them, and suggested others try it. That's all.
Re: Lie still in bed
#50The best kind of parody: the one you almost can’t tell is parody. My sense is that the core issue with people who actually think this way is that they lack empathy. They assume that their context is shared by everyone. So if one simple trick worked for them, it surely must work for everyone else.
Is it really parody though? I haven't read other posts of the author to be able to know. It does make sense to me. When someone tells me they can't do something the problem isn't usually that they can't, but that they don't want to. In particular I like to apply it to acts for reducing one's environmental footprint: - Want to become a vegetarian? Just stop eating meat. - Want to switch to a more environmentally frien…
Literally everyone who stopped smoking cigarettes (whilst continuing to live) stopped using this method.
It's underrated.