Unexpected ways to wake up your brain • Hacker News Board

Re: Unexpected ways to wake up your brain

#21

Post by q845712 » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 7:53 PM UTC

Magi604 wrote: post #15

codyb wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A backpack solves all of those issues. None of that is necessarily very large. As for the shower, some work places have showers. Depending on how much you work out and what the climate is like you may or may not be a heavy sweater after a ride to work. People who work out often tend to sweat more because their bodies adapt to their routines and start to sweat at the slightest hint of physical exercise. People who don…

I used to cycle with a backpack, and it would always make my back sweaty, no matter the weather or the exertion I put into my ride. Then a couple of years ago I went on a bike tour, so I upgraded my bike and got some actual panniers to store stuff. The change was amazing! Not only can you carry more, but you also avoid the strain and sweatiness of having a backpack.

yes! i just have a milk-crate, but it makes all the difference.

yes also to OP on the "bicycling to work wakes me up super well" - i did in a northern US city for 6 years, and the icy/cold months when i had to rely on transit instead were remarkably more challenging, especially the mornings, even if i kept up other indoor exercise.

Re: Unexpected ways to wake up your brain

#22

Post by staunch » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 8:05 PM UTC

> In a test which involved pressing a button when I saw a light go on, my reaction times improved from an average of 650 milliseconds before the machine was turned on, to 550 milliseconds with it on. These findings are in line with results from other subjects.

The average reaction time is 256 milliseconds on this web site:

http://www.humanbenchmark.com/tests/reactiontime

Re: Unexpected ways to wake up your brain

#23

Post by sjcsjc » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 8:09 PM UTC

I used to drive a lot and and would regularly become extremely, and indeed dangerously, sleepy. I recall reading at the time that sleeping for around 12 minutes would relieve sleepiness, but that any more than that would actually make you more tired. After doing no research whatsoever, I put this into practice, and it worked, remarkably well. And it still does, 15 years later, though I drive a lot less now. I recommend it to anyone with the same problem.

[edit] when I say it worked well, I mean that after that short sleep (using an alarm of course, without which I would have slept for hours), I could continue driving for several hours without feeling sleepy again.

Re: Unexpected ways to wake up your brain

#24

Post by jib » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 8:13 PM UTC

cbd1984 wrote: post #20

sebnukem2 wrote: post #5

There's one thing that fully wakes me up every morning better than a dozen cups of coffee ever would: biking to work.

Where do you live? Because the climate would put a kibosh on that in a lot of places pretty quick. (Even if you're personally fine with being outside in -20°F (244 K) weather, there are rather serious mechanical issues with biking through deep snow and on glazed ice with a thin layer of loose snow on top.)

There's not that many places where you end up biking through deep snow, on ice, in -20F for a long part of the season, right? Normally its one of the other (really cold, or ice) - if you have long periods of -20F then you have packed snow on roads, not ice, at least we do back home, and packed snow is fine to go on.

I'm from Sweden, and when I lived in Gothenburg I had no issues biking in -10 - -20C or so (which is what it maxes out at in that area, and even then only for a few weeks at most).

Snow is fine to go on - the worst is like 0C when its been melting and freezing so you get slippery ice, but even then you do fine most of the time as at least the car parts of the roads tend to be maintained with gravel. Assuming you live somewhere that regularly has cold weather your roads are most likely decently graveled too.

Re: Unexpected ways to wake up your brain

#25

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 8:15 PM UTC

sjcsjc wrote: post #23

I used to drive a lot and and would regularly become extremely, and indeed dangerously, sleepy. I recall reading at the time that sleeping for around 12 minutes would relieve sleepiness, but that any more than that would actually make you more tired. After doing no research whatsoever, I put this into practice, and it worked, remarkably well. And it still does, 15 years later, though I drive a lot less now. I recomme…

[deleted]

Re: Unexpected ways to wake up your brain

#26

Post by pedalpete » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 8:20 PM UTC

cbd1984 wrote: post #20

sebnukem2 wrote: post #5

There's one thing that fully wakes me up every morning better than a dozen cups of coffee ever would: biking to work.

Where do you live? Because the climate would put a kibosh on that in a lot of places pretty quick. (Even if you're personally fine with being outside in -20°F (244 K) weather, there are rather serious mechanical issues with biking through deep snow and on glazed ice with a thin layer of loose snow on top.)

There are very few highly populated places where climate would reduce your ability to cycle most days of the year. I'm from Whistler, Canada, I spent a few winters commuting by bike every day, and it's in the Coastal Rainforest, so lots of rain too.

Sure, if you live in Moscow/Anchorage/Montreal/Stockholm/etc, it's miserable for a few months, but the rest of the time, you can cycle.

Plus, cycling in the cold wakes you up even faster than cycling in the heat.

Re: Unexpected ways to wake up your brain

#27

Post by colechristensen » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 8:43 PM UTC

cbd1984 wrote: post #20

sebnukem2 wrote: post #5

There's one thing that fully wakes me up every morning better than a dozen cups of coffee ever would: biking to work.

Where do you live? Because the climate would put a kibosh on that in a lot of places pretty quick. (Even if you're personally fine with being outside in -20°F (244 K) weather, there are rather serious mechanical issues with biking through deep snow and on glazed ice with a thin layer of loose snow on top.)

Not really, living in Minneapolis I've had several (perhaps crazy) friends who biked to work every day year round excepting maybe one or two of the worst days.

Re: Unexpected ways to wake up your brain

#28

Post by derefr » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 8:44 PM UTC

Magi604 wrote: post #17

Here's a trick I learned in college. Get something COLD (ice pack, a can of pop from the fridge, bag of ice. Even a swath of paper towels that have been run under a cold-running faucet for a while can do the trick Place it on your forehead, centered, just above your eyes. That always jolted me awake for a good 15-30 mins, though your mileage may vary. I am not sure of the science behind it, though I do remember readi…

Probably the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammalian_diving_reflex

Re: Unexpected ways to wake up your brain

#29

Post by Phlarp » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 9:05 PM UTC

staunch wrote: post #22

> In a test which involved pressing a button when I saw a light go on, my reaction times improved from an average of 650 milliseconds before the machine was turned on, to 550 milliseconds with it on. These findings are in line with results from other subjects. The average reaction time is 256 milliseconds on this web site: http://www.humanbenchmark.com/tests/reactiontime

I have no idea how the quoted test was formatted, but a twitch reaction when a subject is prepared for it within a short time-frame (10s like this website) will be much faster than a test where the subject rests or is made to focus on another task for longer periods between sampling.

Also, It sounds like that particular sample was from a cohort of stroke victims, perhaps the stroke also affected their reaction times, or stroke victims represent a generally older demographic and have slower reaction times outright than the younger cohort a website might be measuring.

Re: Unexpected ways to wake up your brain

#30

Post by mitchty » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 9:18 PM UTC

colechristensen wrote: post #27

cbd1984 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where do you live? Because the climate would put a kibosh on that in a lot of places pretty quick. (Even if you're personally fine with being outside in -20°F (244 K) weather, there are rather serious mechanical issues with biking through deep snow and on glazed ice with a thin layer of loose snow on top.)

Not really, living in Minneapolis I've had several (perhaps crazy) friends who biked to work every day year round excepting maybe one or two of the worst days.

Yep, I live in St Paul. Know many possibly crazy bikers that bike to Minneapolis even in heavy snow.

They have the crazy huge tires as well to go over snow/ice. Each one said its not a huge deal to bike in -20ish weather with snow/ice. Just means you travel slower was their statement.