31–40 of 43 posts
Also: remove phones and ipads from bedroom, remove tvs/laptop/computers from bedroom, no email/blog/web articles before bed time.
I don't mean to be cynical, but it seems like someone else has just "discovered" the motivation for GTD. After all, that's the entire point of the system; Loading everything you need to remember into a trusted system so that your mind can remain clear, focused, and relaxed.
What happens is you start to drift off, you relax, an apnea happens, and your body gives you a dose of adrenalin to help wake you up to breath. Hence the mind racing. Often you don't even realize you had started to drift off at all, and just think your mind has been spinning wildly keeping you awake.
As someone with serious insomnia, this post comes across almost as selling snake oil. Caffeine, alcohol, general nutrition, sleep hygiene (good sleep habits), sunlight exposure, temperature, eating habits (time/size of meals), all matter -- most of them more than mental state. From my 20+ years of personally-motivated research on this, I believe the most influential factors in insomnia are, in order: (1) A controlled…
This article isn't about how we can't sleep, it's the author telling us why he can't sleep.
As someone with serious insomnia, this post comes across almost as selling snake oil. Caffeine, alcohol, general nutrition, sleep hygiene (good sleep habits), sunlight exposure, temperature, eating habits (time/size of meals), all matter -- most of them more than mental state. From my 20+ years of personally-motivated research on this, I believe the most influential factors in insomnia are, in order: (1) A controlled…
Exercise too. As somebody who doesn't sleep well or much, how do you define 'serious'?
In the context of this article, by 'serious' insomnia, I meant cases that are not just psychological (eg stress).
I didn't mean to downplay significant sleep troubles due to stress alone. Even in those cases, non-psychological factors should be considered.
This doesn't necessarily work for me. I will start going down the rabbit hole of fleshing out ideas and going down corridors of thought, and I'll soon have filled up four or five pages of a legal pad only to have amplified the circus in my head to a deafening level. I find a glass of scotch and putting on an old TV episode that I've seen 100 times before to personally be the best cure for insomnia.
I never understood the old TV show/movie technique, but I might have to try it now. My girlfriend's mother watches Pride and Prejudice almost every night before bed, and I never really got it.
A book might be better though, since blue light is supposed to promote wakefulness and is more prevalent in light coming from screens that from your average light bulb.
(FWIW - I tend to watch cartoons on my iPhone just before I go to sleep, but only ones which I find slightly amusing and wouldn't watch otherwise)
As someone with serious insomnia, this post comes across almost as selling snake oil. Caffeine, alcohol, general nutrition, sleep hygiene (good sleep habits), sunlight exposure, temperature, eating habits (time/size of meals), all matter -- most of them more than mental state. From my 20+ years of personally-motivated research on this, I believe the most influential factors in insomnia are, in order: (1) A controlled…
This article isn't about how we can't sleep, it's the author telling us why he can't sleep.
Ha. A "blogfomercial", or a blog infomercial.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I never understood the old TV show/movie technique, but I might have to try it now. My girlfriend's mother watches Pride and Prejudice almost every night before bed, and I never really got it.
I'd suspect that it can be helpful because it distracts you from thinking about other things, and if it's a show you're familiar with (or something where you don't need to pay too much attention) then it doesn't require much active effort from you either, hopefully leaving you in a state where you've purged yourself of too many other pressing thoughts and you're relaxed - both of which should help you sleep. A book m…
The Audible edition of Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" has worked really well for me: it's a fascinating panorama of history, but very episodic so you don't miss out on plot points if you actually fall asleep; the writing style is clear, elegant, and often funny; and the narrator has a calming voice and a smooth even tone throughout all 1300+ years of history so you won't be jarred awake by changes in volume.