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It may seem paradoxical but also not worrying about sleep itself, not writing down lists, not trying to dissect and optimize sleep, may actually improve your sl

It may seem paradoxical but also not worrying about sleep itself, not writing down lists, not trying to dissect and optimize sleep, may actually improve your sleep much more. Animals have slept and evolved for literally millions of years. Unless there’s an actual clinical condition, having faith in your own body and just relaxing should be enough. At least that’s my case.

zemvpferreira 5y ago
It is paradoxical and rooted in our duality as thinking animals. Many sleep disorders (mine included) are rooted in anxiety. They will respond to these little hacks and tricks, but (in my experience) only insofar as they allow you to feel in control and tune out your thought stream. For the record I practice all the common wisdom and more 90% of the time (and melatonin, earplugs and blindfold close to 100%). I might sleep 7-8 hours a night and wake up fully rested or I might wake up totally blitzed, depending on my mental state. I might fall asleep easily the night after or toss and turn for hours. I might fall asleep easily from exhaustion and wake up 4 hours before I'm supposed to with a racing mind. It's not environmental and it's not any state of my body. It's my/your thoughts and emotions. It sucks but since I've found the root cause, I've been better at controling the downward spirals. (Still need my little rituals before going to bed to feel right though)
nickjj 5y ago
> just relaxing should be enough. At least that’s my case. Yep, this is a very important one. I've been fortunate enough to have a pretty good ability to fall asleep and generally wake up feeling rested. Most nights I'll wrap up with a movie and often times I'll fall asleep in what feels like about 10 minutes after I decide "ok, I'm going to sleep now". I believe this is very tied into not feeling like I must wake up at a specific time. It allows me to goto sleep when I'm tired and wake up when I naturally wake up. There's no laying down and thinking "ok it's 11:17pm, I have to be up at 7am". This could easily turn into "it's now 11:58pm, why can't I sleep, crap I have to be up in 7 hours" to "...how the heck is it 1:30am, this is bad, I need to be up in 5.5 hours" and now you're done for, your sleep quality is going to be bad because you'll for sure think if you can't fall asleep in a few minutes you're going to risk sleeping through any alarm. But without the pressure of having to be up on a schedule, 99.99% of the time if I went to bed at 11pm I'll be up at about 6:30am or 7am without an alarm and feel good about it. This has happened to me time and time again. Any time where something comes up and I "must" be up at an early hour with alarm it affects my ability to fall asleep the night before. Usually the more important the thing is the harder it will be to fall asleep. Like ensuring I'm up to catch a flight or anything with a hard line on the time.
- Talanes 5y ago
  >But without the pressure of having to be up on a schedule, 99.99% of the time if I went to bed at 11pm I'll be up at about 6:30am or 7am without an alarm and feel good about it. For me it's even a step further, because with no set schedule I'm more likely to fall asleep at 9 than at 11. The schedule anxiety can creep into the morning if I have more time than I strictly need, which leads to my sleep schedule being mostly a (semi)subconcious attempt to minimize excess morning time.
- rewgs 5y ago
  > Any time where something comes up and I "must" be up at an early hour with alarm it affects my ability to fall asleep the night before. Usually the more important the thing is the harder it will be to fall asleep. Like ensuring I'm up to catch a flight or anything with a hard line on the time. Yup, this is me. It's one of the driving reasons why I've endeavored to not have to wake up at any particular time most days. Paradoxically, I wake up earlier.

zemvpferreira 5y ago

It is paradoxical and rooted in our duality as thinking animals. Many sleep disorders (mine included) are rooted in anxiety. They will respond to these little hacks and tricks, but (in my experience) only insofar as they allow you to feel in control and tune out your thought stream. For the record I practice all the common wisdom and more 90% of the time (and melatonin, earplugs and blindfold close to 100%). I might sleep 7-8 hours a night and wake up fully rested or I might wake up totally blitzed, depending on my mental state. I might fall asleep easily the night after or toss and turn for hours. I might fall asleep easily from exhaustion and wake up 4 hours before I'm supposed to with a racing mind. It's not environmental and it's not any state of my body. It's my/your thoughts and emotions. It sucks but since I've found the root cause, I've been better at controling the downward spirals. (Still need my little rituals before going to bed to feel right though)

nickjj 5y ago

> just relaxing should be enough. At least that’s my case. Yep, this is a very important one. I've been fortunate enough to have a pretty good ability to fall asleep and generally wake up feeling rested. Most nights I'll wrap up with a movie and often times I'll fall asleep in what feels like about 10 minutes after I decide "ok, I'm going to sleep now". I believe this is very tied into not feeling like I must wake up at a specific time. It allows me to goto sleep when I'm tired and wake up when I naturally wake up. There's no laying down and thinking "ok it's 11:17pm, I have to be up at 7am". This could easily turn into "it's now 11:58pm, why can't I sleep, crap I have to be up in 7 hours" to "...how the heck is it 1:30am, this is bad, I need to be up in 5.5 hours" and now you're done for, your sleep quality is going to be bad because you'll for sure think if you can't fall asleep in a few minutes you're going to risk sleeping through any alarm. But without the pressure of having to be up on a schedule, 99.99% of the time if I went to bed at 11pm I'll be up at about 6:30am or 7am without an alarm and feel good about it. This has happened to me time and time again. Any time where something comes up and I "must" be up at an early hour with alarm it affects my ability to fall asleep the night before. Usually the more important the thing is the harder it will be to fall asleep. Like ensuring I'm up to catch a flight or anything with a hard line on the time.

Talanes 5y ago
>But without the pressure of having to be up on a schedule, 99.99% of the time if I went to bed at 11pm I'll be up at about 6:30am or 7am without an alarm and feel good about it. For me it's even a step further, because with no set schedule I'm more likely to fall asleep at 9 than at 11. The schedule anxiety can creep into the morning if I have more time than I strictly need, which leads to my sleep schedule being mostly a (semi)subconcious attempt to minimize excess morning time.
rewgs 5y ago
> Any time where something comes up and I "must" be up at an early hour with alarm it affects my ability to fall asleep the night before. Usually the more important the thing is the harder it will be to fall asleep. Like ensuring I'm up to catch a flight or anything with a hard line on the time. Yup, this is me. It's one of the driving reasons why I've endeavored to not have to wake up at any particular time most days. Paradoxically, I wake up earlier.