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It's hard for me to fall asleep. I haven't cracked it yet how to do it perfectly. What helps: view the problem as improving your likelihood to sleep. Before I v
by mettamage 10y ago
It's hard for me to fall asleep. I haven't cracked it yet how to do it perfectly. What helps: view the problem as improving your likelihood to sleep. Before I viewed the problem as falling asleep 100% of the time, which is a really defeating view to have when I can't fall asleep.
Sleep tips that help me:
1. meditation: still experimenting with body-scan vs. breath meditation, they both help but have different effects.
2. magnesium: makes my body more relaxed.
3. sleeping less if needed: improves likelihood of falling asleep the next day, it's a tricky thing to do but applied sparingly and timed right it works really well. When I do this I prefer to sleep the 6 to 7 hour range.
4. reduce stress: sometimes hard to do but pretty essential for me.
5. flux.
6. opening your window for sunlight during the day: get vitamin D first thing in the morning.
7. buy quality decaffeinated tea: some green tea manufacturers say it's decaffeinated but it's not really. Or maybe it is but it still keeps me energized and awake.
8. no caffeine after 2: preferably not after 12, preferably not at all, use meditation and power naps as a first line of defence, only add caffeine when those 2 aren't enough. Preferably do the power nap + caffeine wombo combo (takes 20 min. for caffeine to reach your brain which is also the ideal power nap time).
I'm curious about other sleep tips that you guys have. I really want to improve this as much as possible.
- trhway 10y agotry running. Helps dissolve stress or whatever stuff that accumulated during the day - while it doesn't make problems disappear of course, it helps change your view on them a bit. Just did 3 miles and once i get to bed i'll be like dead.
- spotman 10y agoCompletely agree. I prefer to run at night, because running before work means I have some kind of timeline that has to occasionally be accounted for, like another thread running. So after work is done, I love going on some kind of cardio adventure for 30-60 minutes. Running is my favorite but biking also works. When I get home, all steam is blown off, and I manage to fall asleep in most cases. Naturally, I am not really a great sleeper. Cardio helps a lot.
- rjblackman 10y agoI have found the same as you. Also try cutting caffiene for a month and see how deeply you sleep. I might try this again soon, but I am and addict! Edit: I will add that I have found vitamin B6, zinc and melatonin to have significant effects as well. (Deep sleep and intense dreams)
- Swizec 10y agoThe only sleep tip that's ever worked for me: don't go to bed before you're tired. That means both physically and mentally. It's crazy how much even 1 hour of intense workout per day helps you sleep. And challenging your mind enough to actually run out of steam by the end of the day helps a lot too. The implied trick is to arrange your life so it supports your natural rhythm. For me that means being at office no earlier than 10am and living so close that I can roll out of bed as late as 9:30am if needed.
- nostromo 10y agoTwo more things you might try: * Melatonin -- get the low dose chewable kind from Trader Joes and take 30 minutes before you go to bed * Keep the bedroom cool and completely dark -- there is research the connects insomnia with warm body temperatures in some people (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18603220 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18603220)
- pedalpete 10y agoYou have to be careful with Melatonin, your body will produce less of it's own if you keep topping yourself up, which means diminished returns with continued use.
- wallace_f 10y agoI tried melatonin and this was my experience. It also started giving me a headache if I forgot to take it or ran out, which is annoying.
- r00fus 10y agoDo you have a cite for that? I use melatonin regularly and when I skip, I don't really have that many problems (I will stay up an hour or so more).
- majewsky 10y agoIt's fascinating how, in the US, Melatonin is sold in stores like a vitamin, whereas in Germany, they look at you strange if you ask for it in a pharmacy.
- chillingeffect 10y agoAnd autism is treated with nootropics in the Ukraine, but no the u.s. And phenibut is in Russian first aid kits and there's no codeine in American OTC painkillers. And magic mushrooms were only recently banned in Japan. And cannabis is legal in North Korea.
- elyase 10y ago
- rsync 10y ago"It's hard for me to fall asleep. I haven't cracked it yet how to do it perfectly. What helps: view the problem as improving your likelihood to sleep. Before I viewed the problem as falling asleep 100% of the time, which is a really defeating view to have when I can't fall asleep." I did not respond to your sibling comment who speaks of anxiety. It sounds like a real pathology and something I have no business generalizing about. You, however, mention no such thing so I am emboldened to encourage you to exercise - something not mentioned in your list. I would experiment with both walking for 2-3 hours (on a day off, presumably) and also a 1.5 to 2 hour intense weightlifting workout (primarily focused on your thighs/legs[1][2], since they are the biggest muscles. I'm not saying to do these things on the same day, just that they are both good candidates for an exercise activity which could influence your ability to go to sleep. I like your list - especially getting out in the sun early and setting your circadian rhythms, but your list strikes me as it would somebody putting special air filters in their car when they've never taken it in for an oil change. Only reach for the specialized optimizations when you've exhausted the major factors. [1] which implies squats and deadlifts, although a real leg press (the kind you load with plates, not select weight from the stack) would also do the trick.
- echlebek 10y agoThat's great advice, but it's a pretty big task for someone who might not get a lot of exercise to do 2 hours of intense weightlifting. I lift regularly, and my gym sessions only take an hour. The good news is that if you are sedentary, older, or sedentary and older, even a little bit of exercise will be extremely effective. Go for that long walk, or maybe a shorter jog, and do some pushups and un-weighted squats. You'll be exhausted, and you'll be less likely to injure yourself. :)
- ivanb 10y agoIf you rely on windows to get vitamin D I have bad news for you. Glass filters out most of UV spectrum of sunlight. It is really hard if not impossible to get a tan behind glass. Physical exercises and outdoor activities are very helpful with sleep and overall well being.
- hawski 10y agoRead again what he wrote - he relies on open windows :)
- mettamage 10y agoYes open windows indeed! I do have a 'mosquito screen' (no clue how to call it in English).
- nommm-nommm 10y agoUsually called 'window screen' in American English or just 'screen' if the context is clear. I doubt 'mosquito screen' would be unclear to any English speaker so it's fine to say. If a screen is on a door you call it a 'screen door' if you have a full enclosurer to protect you from bugs it's a 'screen house.'
- kbart 10y agoI've had sleep problems for years. Few simple things that usually helped me: 1) a glass of whisky. 2) sex. 3) relaxing, silent background music (Dead Can Dance is wonderful, but I guess it's a matter of taste).
- eth0up 10y agoWhiskey yes, but listening to Saltarello would have me floundering all over the place. I think a samadhi (isolation) tank would be nifty, but one might wake a bit pruned.
- aurelianito 10y agoAll of them? In this order?
- kbart 10y agoWhen you think of it, why not? If it didn't work as expected, at least it will be an evening well spent..;]
- imron 10y ago> I'm curious about other sleep tips that you guys have. I really want to improve this as much as possible. What is your screen usage (phone, computer, tv, tablet etc) like in the hour or two before going to sleep? Have you tried reducing or eliminating it?
- metafunctor 10y agoMany have suggested some form of physical exercise. My suggestion is swimming: it's usually relatively cheap, doesn't matter much if you're overweight, and physically very exhausting. Also, you might consider getting some real data on your sleep and try to correlate that with your daily activities. I've used the Ōura ring for that to discover what helps me sleep better.
- dsco 10y agoI've struggled with falling asleep over the years. At first I couldn't cope with it at all and was mortified before bedtime each night. But nowadays sleep comes easily. I've noticed that: - Whenever I'm in a relationship and sleep together with someone I have no sleeping issues at all. - Having the pill Stilnoct prescribed helps immensely. I don't take them often. But just being aware that I have them reduces the stress around falling asleep. - If I feel that it's one of those nights when I can't fall asleep I just treat it as any other sickness. I email my colleagues telling them that I'm working from home the next day and turn off my morning alarm. - Journaling. Write down everything that has happened to you during the day before you go to bed. A lot of timea I can't fall asleep because my mind is obsessing/processing recent events. Spend 10 minutes to write them down. It's like running a database drop script. - Get a spike mat. It'll be uncomfortable in the beginning but you'll slowly get used to lying on it. This has worked wonders for my friend and I was thinking of getting one, but that was before my sleep problems just disappeared.
- media-narrative 10y agoI'm of the opinion that stuff like f.lux and Apple's Night Shift are both products that exploit pseudoscience to take advantage of the placebo effect. They're a "gluten free" feature for contemporary software — for those suspicious of childhood vaccinations. Macworld wrote a decent breakdown of the Night Shift quackery when it was introduced: http://www.macworld.com/article/3047121/iphone-ipad/ios-93-the-new-night-shift-feature-probably-wont-help-you-sleep-better.html http://www.macworld.com/article/3047121/iphone-ipad/ios-93-t...
- sjwright 10y agoWho cares whether it is quackery or not: these tools have a self-evidently useful purpose which is to manage the white balance of a display as the ambient light shifts between daylight and artificial light. Whether it has any effect on sleep hygiene is entirely orthogonal. A better analogy would be artisanal water: the touted benefits of their particular magical bottle of H₂0 may be quackery, but the benefits of hydration are irrefutable.
- AznHisoka 10y agoSo? Most of the time we fail to sleep because we feel anxiety, and our brains tells itself it's never going to sleep it's mostly mental, not physical. Hence a placebo is precisely what we need.
- cr1895 10y agoPurported sleep benefits aside, the reduced eye strain from warmer colors is invaluable to me. Sometimes I'm working on a ship's bridge where it's dark or under low reddish light. Turning on a bright, blue laptop screen is brutal. At home it's much more pleasant to look at than the colder daylight colors.
- Elvewyn 10y agoI don't know whether or not it helps me fall asleep, but I've been using f.lux or redshift for years now and it completely stopped my headaches from looking at the monitor at night. Anecdotal, yes, but it worked for me.
- Scottn1 10y ago
- macca321 10y agoI start making up a sci fi alien invasion story set in the local area, which quickly rambles, leading to sleep.
- krmboya 10y agoI used to have problems falling asleep, but after I got on a strength training program known to be effective [1], the problem mostly went away. I turn off the lights, do some reading in bed (with flux on), and just drift off into sleep. [1] http://startingstrength.com/ http://startingstrength.com/
- agumonkey 10y ago> 6. opening your window for sunlight during the day: get vitamin D first thing in the morning. I should really get automated curtain opening. Surely there are some programmable/wireless buttons these days.
- reitoei 10y agoTry listening to podcasts. It completely cured my inability to get to sleep. In fact, there are podcasts aimed directly at people like you (and me): http://www.sleepwithmepodcast.com/ http://www.sleepwithmepodcast.com/ Some other 'sleep favourites' of mine would be Skeptoid, Lore, Dan Carlin's Hardcore History, 99% invisible. Give it a try. I use the Stitcher app and set the timer to turn off streaming at the end of an episode. I'm usually asleep within 10-15 minutes or listening. Edit: Also try f.lux on your computer and Twilight on your phone. They work for me, but I'm more than willing to accept that the effects my be purely placebo.
- Vinkekatten 10y agoI tried a few episodes of sleep with me, and it creeped me right the hell out. It was some guy talking in a pouty, condescending baby-voice about some nonsense or other. His voice especially threw me off. Dan Carlin is great, but way too intense and interesting for me to sleep to. I pay attention to the podcast and want to hear "just another 20 minutes" instead. 99% invisible is perfect in this regard. Roman has a great voice, good editing and nice, mellow music in his production. I listen to it a lot. I also like to listen to The Moth, Hello Internet, Radiolab and Benjamin Walker's theory of everything when I go to sleep.
- jon-wood 10y agoHave a baby. Your sleeping less is my average night's sleep, split into two or three chunks. Amazing how easy it is to get to sleep when you've spent the last two and a half years in a low level state of exhaustion ;)
- mettamage 10y agoI've always marveled at how parents do it. Really, you are the true hero's in the world ;)
- baq 10y agoThere's not much choice so you just don't sleep. Takes a bit of getting used to. After a while you jump into bed at 10pm when before you had children you'd go to sleep at 2am and become a 'normal person', sort of.
- jon-wood 10y agoI'll second baq here - I used to be someone who went to bed sometime between midnight and 1am, then rolled out of bed about 9am, and started work about 10. Now if I feel really daring I might go to bed at 11, knowing at the very latest I'll be getting up at 7am, more typically I'm in bed shortly after 10.
- ashark 10y agoSplit the night with the other parent (if not a single parent). Gets you ~5-6hrs/night even during the worst of it. Trade sleep-in days on the weekend. A combination of luck (definitely) and technique (maybe) can have 'em sleeping through the night in 2-3 months, so it's not necessarily a long-term problem.
- markdog12 10y agoI haven't had a good night sleep in over 4 years
- ycombinatorMan 10y agoyou will never ever succeed this way
- a-saleh 10y agoThing that probably helped me and my wife to improve our sleep routine the best, is switching to ambient lights ~1 hour before sleep. Because the sun sets usually some time between 17 00 and 21 00 depending on the season, and we usually go to sleep between 22 00 and 24 00, we usually switch of the main lamps around 21 00 and maybe even switch from ambient lamps to candles later on. My wife introduced this because it should help with natural melatonin release and strengthen the circadian rhythm, and based on my anecdotal experience, it does help. This became even more important once our baby-girl has been born, because the difference with trying to put her to bed when the lights have been dim for an hour vs. when we just switched of the main lamp is really noticable :-)
- mettamage 10y agoInteresting! I thought about having better light control, now I really think it's a good thing to do. I'll Google ambient lights and see what they are and what it means.
- chimprich 10y agoI like to read my Kindle for a while after going to bed, just using the backlight only - I find this is sufficiently dark to trigger my sleep reflex, and it feels much more efficient to spend 20 minutes or so reading rather than lying in bed waiting for sleep.
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- bambax 10y agoCan you explain your problem in more detail? Do you fall asleep late in the night and then feel tired all day, and then it repeats over several days? If you miss a whole night's sleep, surely the next evening you're so exhausted you fall asleep easily? I have found that I sleep much much better with a total absence of noise and light, so I now use ear plugs and an eye mask. This has improved the quality of my sleep a lot. Also, we all have a cycle that lasts approx. 90 minutes; you will fall asleep more easily at the end of that cycle; the time window is around 10 minutes. You need to be prepared to go to bed when that window starts; if you start preparing to go to bed when you feel sleepy, by the time you're in bed the moment's passed and you need to wait another 90 minutes.
- jules 10y agoThe trick to sleeping is simple: make sure you are mentally and physically tired, and switch off your computer and dim the lights one hour before you want to sleep.
- zeppelin101 10y agoThat's one of the hardest possible things for us techies.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- samdoidge 10y agoI didn't see 'exercise' listed here - this is probably the most important for me.
- fmueller 10y agoI wasn't able to sleep in the past. Now I can because of two simple tricks (may not work for everyone): 1) I lie on the side and cover both ears, one with the cushion and one with the blanket. 2) I imagine a story I made up once and go trough it in my mind. It's always the same story, only a little different each time. Then I fall asleep.
- zeppelin101 10y agoBoth of these sound very effective. May I also recommend using earplugs? There are many varieties available and they're inexpensive. I used to do the covering ears thing but it's not super comfortable.
- kofejnik 10y ago1. Stronglifts 5x5 [Stronglifts 5×5 Read more: http://stronglifts.com/5x5/ http://stronglifts.com/5x5/] 2. video games
- petercooper 10y agoIt won't work for everyone, but I had trouble getting to sleep quickly, figured out why, and "fixed" it. My problem was thinking/working while trying to sleep, too much internal monologue. I also realized I am unable to have an internal monologue/actively "think" while listening to other people speaking (I'm a verbal thinker). So I started listening to audiobooks while trying to fall asleep. Now I'm off in about 5-10 minutes every night and take a couple of months to make it through a book.
- bfuller 10y agoGreen tea + l theanine is a good combo Also can attest through personal experience that the caffeine + power nap works wonders (I usually use my espresso machine)
- george_ciobanu 10y agoRunning works wonders for me: helps mood, sleep and energy right away. I run 3-5 miles almost every day and the following morning I wake up refreshed and in a good mood. The effect wears out after a day or two so you have to do it often. Distance is not that important - what matters is time and intensity: run at least 20m with 10 of them near your upper limit. Make sure you pick a sustainable pace that makes it hard but not impossible to breath. Don't compare to others - your body needs to be challenged relative to itself. Run comfortably for 10 minutes then a little more than slightly uncomfortably for another 10. You will feel better as soon as you stop. You will feel calmer, focused, confident and strong for hours after. You will feel better next day. When I had a bad funk it helped me get out of it. I tried a lot of other forms of exercise from weights and swimming and HIIT and martial arts and yoga. They all help (in other ways) but not as well as running. If you can, complement it with weights 1-2 a week, and yoga 1-2 times as well.
- arcanus 10y ago^ this. Absolutely don't disagree with any of it. Big runner here. I'll just add that many people are mentally exhausted, and frustrated they cannot sleep. But I bet they are not physically exhausted. HIIT, distance running, whatever works, etc. are all great ways to tire out your body.
- joeyspn 10y agoYes, cardio and anaerobic (weight lifting, etc) works wonders... but don't do it at the end of the day (10PM or even later) because you'll also have problems sleeping. Post-work out insomnia is a very common problem. (IMO the best time for exercising is during the morning and afternoon)
- george_ciobanu 10y agoI think it depends. I can't workout in the morning and get super sleepy after running, and sleep super well.
- SonicSoul 10y agodon't think anyone mentioned ice baths yet, but that seems to come highly recommended from people like Tim Ferris and Kevin Rose. Think TF writes it up in 4hr body. Also Rhonda Patrick is a proponent of it and you can see her thoughts on https://www.foundmyfitness.com/ https://www.foundmyfitness.com/ (videos and podcast). Apparently it can be quite calming. Another thing I have not see you mention is diet. Lots of factors there. All anecdotal but i've tried raw paleo diet in the past and eating raw meat has usually given me a happy buzz during sleep while eating fruits in the evening has usually caused me issues. Everyone is different so I can't say what will work for you but it should be something you experiment with a lot.
- aurelianito 10y agoI just stopped drinking coffee. The first 2 weeks were awful. I was tired all the time and sleeping over 10 hours every night. After that I returned to my usual 7 hour sleep but I had no more issues getting to sleep. My performance is the same as it was when drinking coffee, I sleep well, and if I ever need a boost, a single ristretto will give me lots of energy! :D
- phkahler 10y agoSince you're already taking magnesium, try getting magnesium glycinate. It has 6 times as much glycine as magnesium by weight and is readily available. Glycine may help you sleep.
- camelNotation 10y agoSex is a good option too. My wife and I both fall asleep earlier and sleep longer after we've had a good romp and roll.
- nommm-nommm 10y agoSex does the opposite for me - it wakes me up.
- camelNotation 10y agoYou must not be burning enough calories. Increase your output.
- Raphmedia 10y ago> magnesium Yes! Magnesium changed my life! I was certain that I was living with a hard depression... until I read somewhere that lactose intolerance can lead to magnesium deficiency. I started taking Magnesium and felt the effect immediately. All of my body is physically relaxed. I struggled with muscle cramps and spasms, they are gone thanks to increasing my magnesium intake. The body truly is a machine... !
- mrfusion 10y agoCan you share the brand and dosage?
- creeble 10y ago2nd that - I've also "heard" coffee is a magnesium-flusher, and heavy coffee drinkers should replenish magnesium.
- Raphmedia 10y agoI use "Nature's Bounty Magnesium Mineral Supplement", the 500mg ones. At first I selected wrong product at the store and purchased homeopathy magnesium supplements. Suffice to says that those didn't work.
- rm_-rf_slash 10y agoKeeping a daily journal isn't for everyone - although I do recommend it - but I have found that by recording my day's thoughts it gets them out of my head, and by writing down my next day's planned tasks ahead of time, I am more likely to get a good nights sleep, wake up at the right time, and get to work on those tasks.
- JamesBarney 10y agoLook up Delayed sleep phase disorder. It's basically night owl syndrome. The two things that have some evidence for their usage are melatonin and SAD lights.
- theonething 10y agoI've tried lots of different things and the most effective has been forcing myself to get up early (~6am for me). It was really difficult when I first started, but then I got into a routine. It's the only thing that consistently causes me to be feel tired earlier at night and be able to fall asleep more easily. I also combine that with reading in bed (with a orange filtered light bulb) until I nod off (~20 minutes). Sometimes getting up so early makes me tired during the day (I'm not a natural morning person) so I'll take micro naps to mitigate. And getting an early start to my day is fantastic. I can run, read, meditate, etc before I start my work day.
- TheSpiceIsLife 10y agoI'm a tradesman, at my work we always start at 7am for an 8hr day. If we're busy and doing overtime we start at 6am for a 10hr day. Im at a computer for a third to a half of my day, otherwise I'm walking and packing and on a forklift. I'm at the gym by 5am for an hour or so for weights abd running. There are no cool white fluoros or CFLs in my house, nor outside. I find this regime thoroughly exhausts me physically and mentally, and I have no trouble falling asleep and staying alseep unless I get cold.
- TrevorJ 10y agoI started listening to some history podcasts in bed with my eyes closed. The podcast app I use (podcast addict) has a timer feature so I set it to 15 or 20 minutes and by the time the podcast stops I'm ready to sleep. I also know a lot more history than I used to :) I recommend: The History of Rome by Mike Duncan Revolutions (also by Mike) The History of Philosophy without any Gaps The British History Podcast
- theshrike79 10y agoSleep hygiene did it for me. If I'm not sleeping or fucking, I get out of bed. Also no f.lux on the computer and Night Shift on my iPhone in the evening does wonders. It took a few months to train my body and mind, but now I fall asleep in under 5 minutes after I go to bed.