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Good sleep, good learning, good life

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Re: Good sleep, good learning, good life

#41

Post by DanBC »

purephase wrote: post #38
antirez wrote: post #37

I and my wife co-sleep with my daughter that is now almost 4 months old, this worked very well for us, basically she sleeps the whole night, interrupting us just when she needs some milk. However because she is breastfed it is pretty natural because of co-sleeping so my wife just let she start getting the milk and fall asleep again after a few second. Surely it does not work for everybody but when it works it means t…

We tried this (our daughter is almost 6 months old) but every bloody doctor, nurse, family member etc. that we discussed this with put the every living terror in us about accidentally killing her. The baby slept well, we did not.

There are cots which attach to the side of the bed which give the benefits of co-sleeping without the risk.

Re: Good sleep, good learning, good life

#42

Post by DanBC »

gmurphy wrote: post #12

I've struggled with sleep issues since I was a small child; even after doing all the reasonable exercise/caffeine/no-bright-lights things people recommended, my brain sometimes just wouldn't shut down. After some introspection, I came to realize that my body seemed be on a 25 hour day, and it just wanted to stay awake an hour later each time. Then I read gwern's article on melatonin[1], and it changed everything. I d…

Melatonin is a prescription only med in the UK.

I haven't asked a doctor for it, and I don't know what their reaction would be.

When I've struggled with insomnia I've been given advice about sleep hygiene; then had someone give me help with sleep hygiene; then got a prescription for zopiclone.

That was great for me, at that time. (I really needed sleep!!) but unfortunately the care got handed back to my GP and he was careless about the repeat prescriptions. SO, I ended up being able to get it for about a year. Luckily I didn't suffer too much from it, but some people find zopiclone addictive and there are other risks from it.

What I'd really want, before getting to zopiclone (and probably before melatonin) would be access to a cognitive behaviour therapy course for insomnia.

Re: Good sleep, good learning, good life

#43

Post by whiddershins »

I mostly have the habit/ability to sleep exactly 8 hours from whenever I go to bed, regardless of the time of day or time zone, with no alarm clock.

I had much insomnia as a teenager and through age ~24. Even as a child, for who-knows what reason, I would resist sleep. While living alone, and working for myself, I decided to try free running sleep. Within a couple of months my sleep normalized to exactly 8 hours (who knew???), regardless of when I went to bed (which could be as ridiculously late as 6 or 11 am, I might run get a cup of coffee from the corner diner and enjoy a little morning air before going to sleep)

Now, 15 years later, I still tend to sleep exactly 8 hours. It is less reliable because I no longer live alone, and occasionally jet-lag or work excitement will defeat me, but all in all the free sleeping approach makes me very happy. My policy is to only use an alarm when I have a specific appointment which I don't want to miss, and to keep my phones etc. silent while sleeping.

Re: Good sleep, good learning, good life

#44

Post by corry »

sergiotapia wrote: post #39
mhurron wrote: post #9

A little bit of exercise is something many people are lacking. I have had a long commute (1.5h one way) for a little over a year now. Not long into it I noticed that I wasn't sleeping well. Not that I was sleeping that well to begin with but it got worse. My day was sit in the car, sit at a desk, sit in the car, sit at a desk at home. My weekends were basically sit at a desk at home with some various chores sprinkled…

Suddenly my 11 minute commute seems fantastic. Granted I'm in Bolivia, but still. Puts things into perspective when I hear people driving over an hour to get to work. I'll never curse at traffic here again because it "slowed me down to 20 minutes!"

Ah, Bolivia! I lived in Cochabamba for about 5 months and loved it - walking, buses, taxis - so easy to get around. What's the dev scene like down there?

Re: Good sleep, good learning, good life

#45

Post by antirez »

purephase wrote: post #38
antirez wrote: post #37

I and my wife co-sleep with my daughter that is now almost 4 months old, this worked very well for us, basically she sleeps the whole night, interrupting us just when she needs some milk. However because she is breastfed it is pretty natural because of co-sleeping so my wife just let she start getting the milk and fall asleep again after a few second. Surely it does not work for everybody but when it works it means t…

We tried this (our daughter is almost 6 months old) but every bloody doctor, nurse, family member etc. that we discussed this with put the every living terror in us about accidentally killing her. The baby slept well, we did not.

This is normal, family, doctors, and friends are dangerous:

* Hey, you no longer have enough milk! Try giving some more integration with artificial milk.

* You'll end killing her because of co-sleeping!

* Co-sleeping will increase chances of SIDS!

* Let her cry, otherwise you'll always carry her in your arms!

*

And so forth. My advice is: don't listen to them, they tell you this with good intentions, but the reality is, for a shitload of years since we exist small babyes co-sleeped with their mothers. This is how it's supposed to work.

Re: Good sleep, good learning, good life

#46

Post by Evgeny »

purephase wrote: post #38
antirez wrote: post #37

I and my wife co-sleep with my daughter that is now almost 4 months old, this worked very well for us, basically she sleeps the whole night, interrupting us just when she needs some milk. However because she is breastfed it is pretty natural because of co-sleeping so my wife just let she start getting the milk and fall asleep again after a few second. Surely it does not work for everybody but when it works it means t…

We tried this (our daughter is almost 6 months old) but every bloody doctor, nurse, family member etc. that we discussed this with put the every living terror in us about accidentally killing her. The baby slept well, we did not.

every bloody doctor, nurse, family member etc. that we discussed this with put the every living terror in us about accidentally killing her

The reason is probably http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudden_infant_death_syndrome - no one is exactly sure why some babies dies without a visible reason, but there are some correlations.

Sharing a bed with parents or other siblings may increase risk for SIDS, but the mechanism remains unclear

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20148046 The risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) has fallen dramatically in the "Back to Sleep" era; however, half the cases now occur when the infant has been sleeping in bed with another person.

Re: Good sleep, good learning, good life

#47

Post by sergiotapia »

purephase wrote: post #38
antirez wrote: post #37

I and my wife co-sleep with my daughter that is now almost 4 months old, this worked very well for us, basically she sleeps the whole night, interrupting us just when she needs some milk. However because she is breastfed it is pretty natural because of co-sleeping so my wife just let she start getting the milk and fall asleep again after a few second. Surely it does not work for everybody but when it works it means t…

We tried this (our daughter is almost 6 months old) but every bloody doctor, nurse, family member etc. that we discussed this with put the every living terror in us about accidentally killing her. The baby slept well, we did not.

Ditto.

When I had my first son my wife and all nearly killed each other due to lack of sleep, we would take shifts so there were a pair of eyes on him always. At least until he was around 7 months old. SIDS is real, and is not worth it.

The same thing happened when my daughter was born. Heh, well, with my baby girl I never slept. I kept an eye on her like a HAWK.

Re: Good sleep, good learning, good life

#48

Post by tsewlliw »

Evgeny wrote: post #46
purephase wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We tried this (our daughter is almost 6 months old) but every bloody doctor, nurse, family member etc. that we discussed this with put the every living terror in us about accidentally killing her. The baby slept well, we did not.

every bloody doctor, nurse, family member etc. that we discussed this with put the every living terror in us about accidentally killing her The reason is probably http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudden_infant_death_syndrome - no one is exactly sure why some babies dies without a visible reason, but there are some correlations. Sharing a bed with parents or other siblings may increase risk for SIDS, but the mechanism rem…

"Safe Sleep". Hopefully that campaign of education will eliminate the idea that these infants are just randomly dying and promote -- the mechanism is not unclear, just nobody wants to tell a grieving parent that they are responsible for death of their child.

Re: Good sleep, good learning, good life

#49

Post by alexkus »

whyleyc wrote: post #40
TwistedWeasel wrote: post #33

Maybe co-sleeping is great for some families, maybe not for others. My kids (4 and 2) are impossible to sleep next to, they wriggle and kick and force me to the edge of the bed. In their own rooms they sleep just fine but they are still the primary cause of any bad sleep patterns I have. I consider both my children to be fairly good sleepers but they still get up at 6am every day no matter what and when one of them i…

In terms of getting up too early in the morning some friends of mine have had good success with a Gro-Clock which gives children a visual indicator of when it's ok to get up: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gro-Clock-HJ008-Gro-Clock-Trainer/dp...

Yep, we hear our daughter shuffling around in bed, sighing and generally being restless and then at bang on 7am there's the sound of her getting out of bed and running in to our room shouting "Mummy, Daddy, the sun came up!"

Re: Good sleep, good learning, good life

#50

Post by jamesaguilar »

antirez wrote: post #45
purephase wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We tried this (our daughter is almost 6 months old) but every bloody doctor, nurse, family member etc. that we discussed this with put the every living terror in us about accidentally killing her. The baby slept well, we did not.

This is normal, family, doctors, and friends are dangerous: * Hey, you no longer have enough milk! Try giving some more integration with artificial milk. * You'll end killing her because of co-sleeping! * Co-sleeping will increase chances of SIDS! * Let her cry, otherwise you'll always carry her in your arms! * And so forth. My advice is: don't listen to them, they tell you this with good intentions, but the reality…

For "a shitload" of years infant mortality rate was >15% too. How things used to be is not a good indicator of optimal approaches.

A scientifically-minded person should not prefer random internet commentators to doctors' when the sole argument proferred by the former is that things used to be a certain way, therefore it's ok.

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