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How to Sleep

theatlantic.com

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Re: How to Sleep

#261

Post by charsifood »

RandomInteger4 wrote: post #15

I'm not sure what the long term effects of chronic melatonin supplementation are, but I'll find out eventually. I've been taking between 3-6mg of melatonin every night for the past few years (2011?) It's almost required. Without it my sleep cycle seems fine at first, but then gets out of whack as I can't seem to keep a circadian rhythm in line with the rest of society / the earth's rotation. On the opposite end of th…

You're taking way too much.

>>"According to our research, the physiological dose of melatonin of about 0.3 milligrams restores sleep in adults over the age of 50," said Wurtman, lead investigator in the study. "The adults who would normally wake up during the second and third thirds of the night were able to sleep through the night with the 0.3 milligram dosage." The researchers also discovered that the typical health food store dosage of melatonin, which is about three milligrams (or 10 times the dosage in the study), is less effective in treating insomnia. [1]

Personally, I take about .1 mg every night sublingually.

1. http://news.mit.edu/2001/melatonin-1017

Re: How to Sleep

#262

Post by hvidgaard »

Omnius wrote: post #256
hvidgaard wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the things I believe people like you have great success with, is routine and wind down. Set a bed time, and 1 hour before that you stop everything that'll keep you awake. Put on some quite music, e.g. easy listen or classic, and do something benign. Some people draw, some knit trivial stuff like blanket patches, others meditate. The important thing is that it is something your mind will not continue to work on…

I had huge issues falling asleep. I was unable to fall asleep before 1am and had to get up at 6am. So Monday - Friday was a downward spiral of sleep debt and all of stresses that come with that. I eliminated blue light (mostly) after 8:00 and it help slightly but within the margin of error. I then added 15 minutes of mindfulness meditation everyday at lunch. Nothing wooy just mindfulness. Within 2 weeks i was natural…

Good work, and pretty nice that something as seemingly simple as 15 minutes of mindfulness yielded great results.

Are you fast paced in general? It is my experience that mindfulness enables the brain to put things away easier throughout the day, but it is really difficult the first week or so, because you actively have to let thoughts fly away.

Re: How to Sleep

#263

Post by taneq »

teolandon wrote: post #59

My biggest struggle with sleep is that I'm always excited to do stuff, and always feel like I'm not done with my day. Exceptions are when something happens and I end up feeling very depressed during the day, and simply want to shut down and do nothing. Usually, I get so infatuated with a script I'm writing, a new program I discovered, a bug that I need to resolve, a book that I'm reading, some concept that I'm thinki…

> It's the worst when I'm working on my computer, due to the blue light (I've started wearing yellow sunglasses to minimize the effect)

F.lux?

Re: How to Sleep

#264

Post by graeme »

tertius wrote: post #259
graeme wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess I should have added the caveat that I want to be getting eight hours fairly consistently. How often would you say you have less. When doing heavy weight training, it's more or less a necessity. (No kid at this point, I'm sure that will change things once I do have once)

> I guess I should have added the caveat that I want to be getting eight hours fairly consistently. How often would you say you have less. Right now, I'm sleep training a baby, so less. My goal is 7 hours and I really enjoy 8. And I can get this consistently. > When doing heavy weight training, it's more or less a necessity. I've been a gym rat for many years and I can attest to this. Not enough sleep and your tanks…

Thanks! I appreciate the detailed replies. Going to test this.

Re: How to Sleep

#265

Post by bigbugbag »

closeparen wrote: post #103
teolandon wrote: post #59

My biggest struggle with sleep is that I'm always excited to do stuff, and always feel like I'm not done with my day. Exceptions are when something happens and I end up feeling very depressed during the day, and simply want to shut down and do nothing. Usually, I get so infatuated with a script I'm writing, a new program I discovered, a bug that I need to resolve, a book that I'm reading, some concept that I'm thinki…

Ritual helps me shut down. Power off the computer, make tea, curl up on the couch and read, brush teeth, etc. Going from 60 to 0 instantly is never realistic.

Tea has caffeine, IIANM regular caffeine intake has long term effects on sleep.

Re: How to Sleep

#266

Post by bigbugbag »

iman453 wrote: post #201
voidz wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Earplugs are my #1 life changer when it comes to sleep. I found these really soft ones that don't really get in the way when you're lying on one ear, they filter pretty much all of the sound and when I take them out the next day, my ears don't hurt. As it turns out my wife's breathing kept me kind of awake, and traffic sounds too. And now that I got used to it, thanks to the associativity of the brain, these days I f…

Could you tell me which earplugs you use and how you went about finding the right ones?

Easy enough, the right ones are the custom molds earplugs, plugs made from and for your ear canal.

They're not cheap but they fit snugly and tight, plus they last a long time. I got mine from a recommendation from a sound tech frien. There are different kinds with filters, for example to remove the bang from a gunshot or filter out snoring but not the alarm clock or the full plug to cancel all sounds.

While taking the print for the molds I experienced total silence for the first time and enjoyed the slight tinnitus I never noticed I had.

Re: How to Sleep

#267

Post by evonsdesigns »

_flbt wrote: post #166

I could write an essay about my battle with sleep. I'm in my 30's and I finally think it's solved. Sleeping meds, sleep studies, CBT-I, you name it - I've done it. My ultimate solution ended up being: - Earplugs - Exercise - Waking up the same time every single day, no matter how late I stay up. CBT-I had me wake up at 6:30 am every morning, and go to bed at 1 am. After a week of exhaustion, I started falling asleep…

No food in the hours before bedtime is something I practice in addition to this list.

Re: How to Sleep

#268

Post by evonsdesigns »

voidz wrote: post #198
_flbt wrote: post #166

I could write an essay about my battle with sleep. I'm in my 30's and I finally think it's solved. Sleeping meds, sleep studies, CBT-I, you name it - I've done it. My ultimate solution ended up being: - Earplugs - Exercise - Waking up the same time every single day, no matter how late I stay up. CBT-I had me wake up at 6:30 am every morning, and go to bed at 1 am. After a week of exhaustion, I started falling asleep…

Earplugs are my #1 life changer when it comes to sleep. I found these really soft ones that don't really get in the way when you're lying on one ear, they filter pretty much all of the sound and when I take them out the next day, my ears don't hurt. As it turns out my wife's breathing kept me kind of awake, and traffic sounds too. And now that I got used to it, thanks to the associativity of the brain, these days I f…

Earplugs are a must if I am sleeping on an airplane. When I use them in bed, they always end up falling out during the night.

Re: How to Sleep

#269

Post by evonsdesigns »

Bakary wrote: post #29
nemasu wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm, can people reasonably do 1-3 in places where the sun sets at like 6PM?

There are tools that reduce the amount of blue light emitted from the screen. They essentially turn your screen orange. The difference it makes is large enough that you wonder how you managed before it. The most well known is f.lux, but it's also natively supported in some phone OSes.

For Chrome, there is a plugin Dark Reader that works pretty well for inverting colors / dimming webpages.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dark-reader/eimadp...

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