51–60 of 195 posts
I've never been good at taking naps except when exhausted, so I'll have to try this next time. I'm very good at getting a good night's sleep, though. I fall asleep within a minute of my head hitting the pillow. The key for me is to go to bed at a consistent time (plus or minus 30 minutes or so) every night, get 8 hours consistently, limit light exposure before bed, eliminate caffeine entirely, and generally adopt a s…
Regarding falling asleep - I've noticed an interesting phenomenon in myself. Usually it takes me around 30 minutes to fall asleep, during which period I seem to gradually mellow, my internal narrative becomes weaker until I finally fall asleep. During the final stages of that process, I sometimes imagine beautiful and quite complex music or art that I like a lot (unfortunately, I'm nowhere skilled enough to try to cr…
I was curious about this a few years ago and looked it up. It's called hypnagogia and people have been known to try to induce it deliberately for creative purposes.
Just this year I learned an invaluable lesson about falling asleep. When my brain starts "daydreaming" random chains of thoughts, just let it do that. I used to try to clear my mind, but the opposite seems to work much better for me.
Sometime over the last few years I started to notice I was moments away from falling asleep because my stream of consciousness would become nonsensical. I then discovered I could fall asleep faster by purposefully daydreaming nonsensical sceneries.
Regarding falling asleep - I've noticed an interesting phenomenon in myself. Usually it takes me around 30 minutes to fall asleep, during which period I seem to gradually mellow, my internal narrative becomes weaker until I finally fall asleep. During the final stages of that process, I sometimes imagine beautiful and quite complex music or art that I like a lot (unfortunately, I'm nowhere skilled enough to try to cr…
Same for me. Sometimes on bad nights it can be hours but I need that time to "unwind". The music is awesome. I sometimes get hypnogogia. I can imagine the music and then, as I get closer to sleep, I actually hear the music. If I don't imagine music and I get hypnogogia, I'll hear people chatting next to me. That was quite scary before I understood what was going on. If I don't get hypnogogia, I'll start imagining odd…
> If I don't get hypnogogia, I'll start imagining odd scenarios. Sometimes I'll recognise that it's a sign I'm about to drift off and then bang I'm awake.
Almost like lucid dreaming, but when I'm only half-asleep, and becoming lucid wakes me up.
I have two 'tricks' to falling asleep (but this article looks better). The first is to play the 'unrelated words' game, where you think of a word as completely unrelated to the last word as possible. The second is to count up and work out whether the current number is prime. Both occupy the mind while minimizing stress, allowing the body to relax into sleep. I'm definitely going to try the techniques in the article t…
How determining if a number is prime is not stressful? O_o
Maybe there's a kind of thinking you like to do that's 'routine' and irrelevant to daily stresses?
I have the opposite problem, I can just fall asleep pretty much anywhere and in any position. Just had a triple espresso or four cold brews, no problem.
I frequently take “desk naps” throughout the day. I’ll set a timer for 15 minutes and lay my head down on my wrist rest. I fall asleep in less than a minute.
Does anyone know if there is a name for that? I generally refer to it as controllable narcolepsy or “luck”.
Regarding falling asleep - I've noticed an interesting phenomenon in myself. Usually it takes me around 30 minutes to fall asleep, during which period I seem to gradually mellow, my internal narrative becomes weaker until I finally fall asleep. During the final stages of that process, I sometimes imagine beautiful and quite complex music or art that I like a lot (unfortunately, I'm nowhere skilled enough to try to cr…
Sounds very similair to Dali's process. Where he would meditate holding a kitchen utensil on top of a pan. And when he would fall asleep it would fall making a sound and wake him up with i inspration for his next painting. http://www.creativitypost.com/authors/profile/33/mmichalko
Earlier quoted context omitted.
But there's another important part: this only works if I've been away from screens for at least 30-60 minutes and if I haven't had any caffeine in the last 6 hours. f.lux et al reduce the amount of time necessary to be away from the screen, but don't eliminate it. The only screen that's "safe" for me is a small black AMOLED screen (aka no backlight) with dim text.
Kobo e-reader with e-ink and night mode does it for me.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnic_jerk
I have always mentally separated what I described in my first comment from what I have come to associate with the term hypnic jerk. The first is more of a mental, physically still thing. The other is, for me, a sudden motion of a large body part, usually linked to dreaming about falling off something. More importantly, the latter is emotionally neutral. I wake up going "oh, I didn't really fall. It was just a dream."…
Bookmarked in case I ever have trouble sleeping. I have the opposite problem, I can just fall asleep pretty much anywhere and in any position. Just had a triple espresso or four cold brews, no problem. I frequently take “desk naps” throughout the day. I’ll set a timer for 15 minutes and lay my head down on my wrist rest. I fall asleep in less than a minute. Does anyone know if there is a name for that? I generally re…
I wonder, though, since you particularly mentioned "desk naps": Does focussing on your work exhaust you to the point of sleepiness?