Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: How Do You Sleep?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 53 posts

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Sleep?

#41

Post by tmm84 »

I fixed my sleep by doing the following things:

#1: No before bed bad emotions or anxiety. Anything that'll get me anxious, angry or cause a fight mentally is stuff I try to avoid well before bed. (If you are married do not engage in conversation that can lead to an argument.)

#2: Make sure the room is cool and get a blanket. If the room is hot or the blanket too thick it'll make sleep uncomfortable at best.

#3: If you want to watch something before bed then it had better be boring. Boring stuff makes you want to stop watching something so you'll be less interested in that and more interested in sleeping. To make it easier, use an auto power-off mode for the device so you'll sleep without thinking about turning something off.

Those three helped me a lot.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Sleep?

#42

Post by jmpman »

monster_group wrote: post #7

I am not a doctor but I want to tell you what really helped me. Magnesium Glycinate, Magnesium L-Threonate, L-Tryptophan. These are not sleeping pills. They are supplements to compensate for Magnesium and amino acid deficiencies which shouldn't exist in the first place. You don't need to take all three. For me L-Tryptophan works the best.

My sleep doctor recommended Magnesium Glycinate. I also take calcium and EPA fish oil. Takes about 6 weeks for me to notice any difference, but that combo solved my 5 years of insomnia. Good luck. Go see a sleep doctor, as you may have apnea and you need that diagnosed quickly. The sleep doctor will also likely have you try Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which did absolutely nothing for me.. might have made my insomnia worse, but the studies indicate it’s effective for many. I also highly recommend not getting mixed up with any sleeping pills if you can avoid it. They’re not a long term solution.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Sleep?

#44

Post by temny »

lgregg wrote: post #39

I have found if I sleep with the room lights on or being woken up by the sun I feel much more rested.

In my experience sleeping with lights on causes more shallow sleep. I confirm it is easier to wake up, but after several days in a row I felt more tired than usually.

I found that blocking all sources of light during sleep and using light to make it easier to wake up works best for me.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Sleep?

#45

Post by nf05papsjfVbc »

penciljencil wrote: post #24
jolmg wrote: post #18

It might help to be more descriptive of your issue, so people can give better advice. Is it that you're finding it difficult to decide to lay down and call it a day? Is it that you lay down, but can't fall sleep? Is it that you do fall sleep, but you don't feel rested on waking up? Is it that you're waking multiple times during the night and can't get into deep sleep? Do you feel physically or mentally tired? etc.

My biggest issue is that I can't lie down in my bed and stop thinking. I'll be awake for hours with these random thoughts assaulting my head. Even if I do fall asleep, I'll then wake up 3 hours later and feel worse. Another weird thing is that I feel sleepier during the day than I do at night.

This is an exercise that I recommend: https://drcolleencarney.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Const...

This is called "worry time" and it has helped me in the past.

Another article describing it is here: https://healthypsych.com/psychology-tools-schedule-worry-tim...

It's not a silver bullet but it's a useful tool to have in one's toolbox.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Sleep?

#47

Post by godot »

phailhaus wrote: post #11
raztogt21 wrote: post #4

1. Cut caffeine (coffee, tea or energy drinks). The first 3 days suck. You should start sleeping better without stimulants. 2. Avoid blue screens 1 or 2 hours before sleep. I used to read my books on a Kindle Fire. I started reading paper books at night. 3. Exercise. The best time for exercising is when you have the time. These three things should account for a significant improvement.

On top of 2: if you can't avoid screens, at least get a blue light filtering app like flux. It'll feel weird at first but you'll quickly get used to it.

I second this, I would even go as far as to say that now that I'm used to this filter on all my devices (desktop/laptop/mobile), I can't stand looking at a screen without a blue light filter in the evening. I get a headache pretty quickly after looking at a screen without the filter for over 5 minutes, in the evening.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Sleep?

#48

Post by godot »

penciljencil wrote: post #24
jolmg wrote: post #18

It might help to be more descriptive of your issue, so people can give better advice. Is it that you're finding it difficult to decide to lay down and call it a day? Is it that you lay down, but can't fall sleep? Is it that you do fall sleep, but you don't feel rested on waking up? Is it that you're waking multiple times during the night and can't get into deep sleep? Do you feel physically or mentally tired? etc.

My biggest issue is that I can't lie down in my bed and stop thinking. I'll be awake for hours with these random thoughts assaulting my head. Even if I do fall asleep, I'll then wake up 3 hours later and feel worse. Another weird thing is that I feel sleepier during the day than I do at night.

Have you paid attention to what your thoughts are at night?

I've had similar issues before and I've noticed that if I think about work, projects, my day, etc. I could go on for a long time without falling asleep. I began to notice that if I think about generally fiction/stories, I can fall asleep much more quickly. In my case I think about plots of movies I've recently watched (or a long time ago), whether it's Avengers or Dragon Ball etc. Perhaps you could give that a try.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Sleep?

#50

Post by gshdg »

x2f10 wrote: post #31
yamrzou wrote: post #6

A year ago I bought a memory foam pillow after reading positive reviews about it in Amazon. At the beginning it felt hard, but I kept it, thinking that I’d get used to it. And I actually got used to it. Except that my sleep quality was deteriorating slowly without me noticing. The pillow lead to a “hidden” neck pain that I was feeling all the time. During the last previous months my sleep was horrible, I’d randomly w…

I am living your past life. Suggestions on pillow for side / belly sleeper?

Latex foam pillows. Firm for side sleeping; soft for belly sleeping.
Post reply on HN