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Why Can’t We Fall Asleep?

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Re: Why Can’t We Fall Asleep?

#51

Post by bryanlarsen »

dimitar wrote: post #27

But it may be that the most important aspect of sleep hygiene has to do with light I'm not convinced. The most important thing for sleep is your eating habits - if you want to wake up early eat very early dinners. If you want to wake up at 8 am, your last meal of the day should be at 6 pm ( 14 hours before that ). This works so well, that it overrides the effects of alcohol and caffeine and often even how tired you a…

I believe that the large meal effect has an impact on how easy it is to wake up, but little effect on how hard it is to fall asleep, at least for me.

Or it could just be that everybody's different.

It's a very common pattern in rural areas to have a quick nap after large meals. It's mostly done because exercise on a full stomach is a bad idea, but it's also done because the heavy meal makes it easier to fall asleep. We're all familiar with the "thanksgiving turkey effect", which has very little to do with tryptophan and lots to do with the large meal.

Personally, I can fall asleep quickly if these conditions are met:

- no caffeine within the last 8-12 hours.

- one hour since last significant blue screen exposure

- my mind is calm

- I'm not over-tired

Large meals do not appear to have any impact on me.

The last two may be the same effect; I find it difficult to calm myself when I'm overtired.

Re: Why Can’t We Fall Asleep?

#52

Post by Tenoke »

dimitar wrote: post #27

But it may be that the most important aspect of sleep hygiene has to do with light I'm not convinced. The most important thing for sleep is your eating habits - if you want to wake up early eat very early dinners. If you want to wake up at 8 am, your last meal of the day should be at 6 pm ( 14 hours before that ). This works so well, that it overrides the effects of alcohol and caffeine and often even how tired you a…

I wake up at 8, but if I have my last mean at 6 PM then I will be practically unable to fall asleep at midnight from the hunger.

Also given how thin the provided evidence is, I am not sure why this is the top comment.

Re: Why Can’t We Fall Asleep?

#53

Post by belorn »

dimitar wrote: post #27

But it may be that the most important aspect of sleep hygiene has to do with light I'm not convinced. The most important thing for sleep is your eating habits - if you want to wake up early eat very early dinners. If you want to wake up at 8 am, your last meal of the day should be at 6 pm ( 14 hours before that ). This works so well, that it overrides the effects of alcohol and caffeine and often even how tired you a…

Eating a full breakfast in order to avoid sleeping during the day might be an excellent advice to those that got a healthy digestion, healthy sugar levels and in general are a person in good health.

Re: Why Can’t We Fall Asleep?

#54

Post by liox »

While enrolled in a nighttime masters degree a few years ago I started taking low dose melatonin and it had a huge impact on my ability to get restful sleep. It prompted me to look into other sleep hacks and since then I've really been able to hone my ability to get great sleep most any night and under any condition — even when the duration isn't as long as I'd like. I really feel like a new person.

Here are some of the tricks I've found work well:

- Low dose melatonin: I've tried higher doses but there's a fair amount of literature out there stating that less is more [0]. My own experiences seem to confirm this, but melatonin definitely affects people differently! I can take it and be able to hop out of bed (morning person), but my gf (who's NOT a morning person) has tried it and ended up feeling even more like a zombie. Melatonin's definitely not for some people.

- f.lux: I've always felt that it gives your screen the quality of the page of a book. It's hard to describe the feeling, but removing the blue light definitely has a relaxing effect. I'm at the point now where if I turn off in the evening (maybe to see a graphic) I'll actually cringe.

- Sleep Cycle app: I started using this app when I read about how timing your wake up based on 90 minute sleep cycles [1] can help you avoid that morning groggy feeling. This was interesting because I'd definitely had those mornings where I got less sleep than usual but still felt awake – I was always curious about the reason. I've used the app for a little over a year and typically wake up before my alarm anyway, but the app seems to be pretty good at determining when I'm in the lightest stage.

- Earplugs: Living in a city that does garbage collection at 3am prompted this one. Earplugs are my go-to sleep hack whenever I'm traveling. I've found they help for general concentration as well.

I'm convinced the above helped me successfully complete my masters degree and also hold down 3 jobs (9-5 and 2 after hours startup roles) since then. It might seem like a lot of lifestyle change, but I did it gradually as I learned more about the science of sleep and also experienced the benefits first hand. They probably won't work for everyone, but they're worth a shot to see if they can help you!

[0] http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2001/melatonin-1017

[1] http://lifehacker.com/remember-the-90-minute-rule-to-ensure-...

Re: Why Can’t We Fall Asleep?

#55

Post by ken-chen »

dimitar wrote: post #27

But it may be that the most important aspect of sleep hygiene has to do with light I'm not convinced. The most important thing for sleep is your eating habits - if you want to wake up early eat very early dinners. If you want to wake up at 8 am, your last meal of the day should be at 6 pm ( 14 hours before that ). This works so well, that it overrides the effects of alcohol and caffeine and often even how tired you a…

There probably isn't just one sleep signal: there is a sleep drive (process S) and a circadian alertness signal that counteracts that (process C).

http://lesswrong.com/r/discussion/lw/meu/solving_sleep_just_...

If the 'food clock' exists, there is a good chance that it works by inhibiting the circadian alertness signal, thus making the body feel more sleepy on net, until the alertness level rises again naturally.

Re: Why Can’t We Fall Asleep?

#56

Post by sarah2079 »

kristofferR wrote: post #37
PepeGomez wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is also some evidence that yellow light causes nearsightedness, so be careful with that.

Really? Do you have any sources/links so I can read more about that?

http://www.nature.com/news/the-myopia-boom-1.17120

Re: Why Can’t We Fall Asleep?

#57

Post by Qantourisc »

If anyone feels brave. You could also dynamically set the screen brightness. I have a script for DDC communication with the screen on Linux (if you screen and video card supports it). It uses the program ddccontrol, but my script is really messy and needs a lot of cleanup. If you have nvidia: check https://goo.gl/BIW8ax for DDC crash issues.

Re: Why Can’t We Fall Asleep?

#58

Post by henryV »

My problem is the opposite. I can fall asleep very easily. Over 8 or 9 o'clock in the evening, if I'm doing something that doesn't require too much attention (like watching a film or something like that) I start to feel asleep and it's very hard not to.

The funny thing is that, if I let myself sleep for a few minutes (5-15), then I wake up fresh and ready to be awake a bunch of hours more (and it doesn't prevent me from getting asleep later).

Re: Why Can’t We Fall Asleep?

#59

Post by mistermann »

kristofferR wrote: post #36
m_fayer wrote: post #10

I'm surprised the article mentions the blue light problem and devices but does not talk about flux, it's a little app that shifts the color temperature of your display to match what you're supposed to see at your location given the time of day. So, after sunset your screen basically turns orange. Although it's a bit annoying and takes some getting used to, I've tried it on and off and whenever I'm using it I fall asl…

Try getting the Uvex S1933X glasses. They work for everything in your view (obviously) without messing around with software, and probably works better too. I have them, and they're amazing. I have pretty cool LED lighting in my apartment and can make my whole living room any color I want at night. If I set in to pure blue and put on the glasses, it's like being in pitch blackness (except a couple of items glow bright…

> I have pretty cool LED lighting in my apartment and can make my whole living room any color I want at night.

This sounds very cool, any chance you could post a picture of your living room with some different colors?

Re: Why Can’t We Fall Asleep?

#60

Post by mistermann »

spuz wrote: post #18

It's interesting that the article mentions the importance of not disrupting the body's natural ability to produce melatonin but does not mention melatonin when talking about sleep medication. As far as I understand artifial melatonin actually increases REM sleep, does not trigger sleep walking and can be taken for longer than a week. In my experience it does increase the intensity of dreams which could be a negative…

> I would not recommend this as a lifestyle at all

Is there a reason for that, is it dangerous longer term? I've been taking 10mg nighlty for a while now compared to your .75mg, a girl I know says her grandmother has been taking it for decades and swears by it, and she's fit as a fiddle.

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