What if I am capable of thinking with closed eyes?
Sometimes I think about what I'd do and how I'd get by if I was in Lord of the Rings. While lying still.
Lie still in bed
161–170 of 246 posts
Re: Lie still in bed
#162I’ve never actually slept. I lay still in bed, until I find myself waking up. Time has passed, but I have no idea what happened during the time in between laying down and waking up. I only feel the effects of having slept. Similarly there is a version of me that has only ever slept, and knows nothing of the awakened life. Yet still I wonder, if there is even a third version unknown to both of us?
Unbeknownst to you, what actually happens is that as soon as you fall asleep the universe is disassembled and then immediately re-assembled a few hours in the future.
Re: Lie still in bed
#163The biggest effects helping me fall asleep are: - get some exercise during the day. 30 minutes of exercise is basically free from a time perspective, because of improved sleep - if I need to fall asleep earlier, get up earlier Sometimes my brain is too busy, and an audiobook with a just-interesting-enough-to-listen-to-but-not-care-about can help disengage from the thoughts of the day.
Exercise is magic. It's improved so many things for me.
Re: Lie still in bed
#164Most sleep problems cannot be solved by sitting still. You should go to the doctor, get a sleep test and look for more serious treatment methods. I wouldn't recommend wasting your time with such suggestions.
I think most of what we call "sleep problems" aren't actually pathological but are a consequence of our lifestyle in one way or another. and anecdotally those can be solved by lying still.
Re: Lie still in bed
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think the point of the article was actually about sleep at all. It was about where to apply willpower to effect any kind of habit change. It's just an example in his case that the habit he wanted to build was going to sleep earlier, which he tried to do by just lying still in bed at the time he wanted to sleep, and resisting the urge to do anything else, first for two minutes, then for four. But he applies th…
Of course, why didn't I think of it? To change my bad habits, all I need to do is will it! Truly insightful.
Did you read the article? You need to use your will to make very small steps? You can't _just_ will it....
Re: Lie still in bed
#166I used to be really bad at falling asleep. I'm not talking 30 minutes or 45 minutes, but sometimes 3 whole hours without being able to get 1 second of sleep. I didn't even touch my phone once while in bed. I also had a lot of trouble finding the right position in which to sleep to feel comfortable (not even talking about finding the right mattress/pillow combination). Somehow, I trained myself at sleeping on my back…
For people sleeping alone, this counting technique might be a nerdy alternative: http://www.dirk-loss.de/calmyourmind/ Moreover, I find Shinzen Young's reframing helpful: "Amazingly, it’s possible to get a good night’s rest without necessarily sleeping much or at all. Two things are required: (1) that the body get rest by lying very still and corpse-like. (2) that the consciousness get rest by engaging in a systemati…
There is no possibility of this anyhow working. Sleep is not "mind rest", it's a neurological process completely different from and incompatible with consciousness.
You can relieve some fraction of cognitive fatigue by taking a mental break, but this compares to sleep in much the same way as duct taping a broken tool compares to mending it properly.
Re: Lie still in bed
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think the point of the article was actually about sleep at all. It was about where to apply willpower to effect any kind of habit change. It's just an example in his case that the habit he wanted to build was going to sleep earlier, which he tried to do by just lying still in bed at the time he wanted to sleep, and resisting the urge to do anything else, first for two minutes, then for four. But he applies th…
willpower is a vacuous self-help concept as you have as little control over your 'willpower' as you have over your sleep. To pick OPs example, people with ADHD often have executive dysfunction. They're unable to follow these kinds of routines because their brains don't work like this. And ordinary people too just vary in their conscientiousness (which unlike willpower is a real, measurable trait), and that is going t…
I very strongly disagree and you having to lean on a clinical diagnosis to make your point makes me more sure that I'm correct.
You can't "practice" having an arm if it was amputated.
A classic example of an exception that proves the rule.
Re: Lie still in bed
#168Such articles are… really laughable, as people differ in their physiology and circadian rhythms and it is NOT generally advisable to blindly follow someone else’s experiences with sleep. There are books like ‘While we sleep’ which can give you some insight into the complexity of causes and effects and even this book was heavily criticised although the author did some actual research with cited sources etc. And I’m sa…
> Such articles are… really laughable On the other hand, wrong takes on something everyone feels they have expertise in are what cause the most comments here on HN.
By now I understand that people who agree and have gotten value from the article rarely comment.
Re: Lie still in bed
#169 Just like you can practice going to sleep at a
reasonable hour, so can you practice keeping
your bed made, liking a particular food, or
doing collage.
It's probably the single biggest fixable difference I see between people who are successful and happy and those who aren't.
I think the general HN demographic is perhaps more inclined to recognize this than the general population. Not that the hacker community has a monopoly on it by any means. Athletes, successful executives, etc. They know it too.
Edit: I want to be extremely clear. I am talking about a mindset of self-improvement. It is not a magic cure for anything. I am not telling you that you can just magically "mind hack" problems away.
I recognize that there is a fine line to walk here. There are a lot of people who think that your depression or your ADHD or your whatever is a result of you simply not trying hard enough or not finding the right "hack." Those people are wrong, and that attitude is misguided and hurtful.
In my experience happiness and success is the result of finding a happy middle ground between (a) learned helplessness (b) a toxic and delusional belief in magical positive thinking. You should believe that you can continually hone your skills and habits. You should not take that sort of attitude to a toxic extreme, and you certainly should not use it as a tool to hurt and judge others.
Re: Lie still in bed
#170Cooling my forehead by applying water has helped me fall asleep, especially on warm days. I suspect an inability to fall asleep plus chaotic mind wandering is often related to an overheated brain and that this is a good artificial way to help the body cool your head. Brain cooling is supposedly one of the purposes behind yawning, but at least for me, yawning can't seem to keep up
Note: if you try this, don't dry the forehead after applying water. The main longterm cooling mechanism is through slow evaporation just like with sweat