[HN Gopher] An Algorithmic Solution to Insomnia
___________________________________________________________________
An Algorithmic Solution to Insomnia
Author : valgaze
Score : 19 points
Date : 2024-05-31 20:40 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (ilya.sukhar.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (ilya.sukhar.com)
| helph67 wrote:
| I agree with the 4 suggestions under "Unintuitive New Invariants"
| but add consider taking magnesium just before bed. My experience
| is that it helps the whole body relax, enabling sleep to be more
| easily achieved. Discuss it with your G.P first.
| complexworld wrote:
| My problem is that I wake up in the middle of the night after 3-4
| hours. Vaping one puff of indica cannabis puts me back to sleep
| until the morning. And even if I don't go back to sleep right
| away I'm feeling so good that I don't mind.
|
| Apparently it's genetic. My genome has 100% correlation with
| genetic variants associated with insomnia.
| Almondsetat wrote:
| To further add on the recommended app, the VA department also has
| other fantastic applications such as the mindfulness one. Being
| government funded they have no tracking, no ads, no plans, and a
| clear and pragmatic UX.
|
| As they should be, since the vast majority of useful apps aren't
| really anything that challenges the bleeding edge of software
| development
| eggdaft wrote:
| A lot of people wake up at 3 or 4am. This is typically stress
| related.
|
| Possible solution:
|
| 1. Sit up or get up. If getting up, I usually get a mint tea.
|
| 2. Journal. Write down your thoughts. Very important: write down
| _what you are going to do tomorrow_, step by step. Usually the
| brain is worrying about something and by telling it what you're
| going to do about it tomorrow it seems to calm down.
|
| 3. When you've gotten everything out, read. Just keep reading
| until you can't keep your eyes open.
|
| I've found this almost always works. Waking in the middle of the
| night is caused by stress around a problem. Your brain just wants
| to know the narrative around how that problem will get resolved
| or improved. Then it will fall sleep again.
| hhmc wrote:
| > Waking in the middle of the night is caused by stress around
| a problem
|
| I don't think this is universal. For example: rotating shift
| workers can have a mostly physiological insomia, due to various
| disrupted rhythms.
| xlii wrote:
| > My form of insomnia starts with an active mind some evening.
|
| Not a doctor, but I'm very confident that this is ADHD. Sleep
| disorders are very common, ADHD is linked with a late melatonin
| onset and evening "buzz" or overexciting are almost textbook
| examples.
|
| Treatments are there, but needs to be discussed with healthcare
| professionals. And "don't change schedule" is a harmful advice.
| Fatigued driving is as dangerous as driving intoxicated. Some
| professions and activities require heightened focus as they're
| dangerous to themselves and others.
| vundercind wrote:
| No screens _and_ no light brighter than single-digit candle power
| after sundown is a pretty good cure for, I suspect, a whole lot
| of modern cases of sleeplessness.
|
| Light your whole house up brighter than the mirrored hall at
| Versailles and engage with devices that put entertainments better
| than a pre-modern emperor could command at the grandest, most
| expensive carnival he could assemble at your fingertips and sleep
| becomes elusive.
|
| "The emperor's having trouble sleeping! We lit up the palace with
| thousands of candles and invited over the greatest scientists and
| sages and show persons of all kinds (including the _naked_
| variety) and are holding a 24 /7 carnival with all those folks
| just outside his bedroom and we just can't figure out what might
| be the problem." LOL, I mean, maybe there's other stuff going on
| too, but I think I know where to start...
| JonChesterfield wrote:
| Melatonin.
|
| There's loads of wisdom about improving sleep. Exercise, wind
| down rituals, avoiding caffeine, various diet ideas. Changing
| bedtime, changing alarm time. Nothing made a perceptible
| difference. Dropping caffeine was especially useless advice as it
| has no impact on my sleep but made me much less effective.
|
| Melatonin tablets however are magic. My pet theory is the CYP1A2
| genotype which is known to control how effectively you eliminate
| caffeine also affects how effectively you eliminate melatonin.
| Being unusually efficient at metabolising melatonin seems likely
| to present as insomnia.
| jghn wrote:
| This. I used to lay awake for hours, my mind racing. Started
| taking melatonin every night about 30 mins before going to bed
| and life has much improved. Once in a while I'll lay awake like
| the old days but for the most part I'm out quickly. I never was
| able to find anything that worked like this
| frankus wrote:
| A subtext here might be to try sleep restriction when you have a
| period of funemployment or PTO and can deal with the consequences
| of being sleep-deprived and/or can distract yourself from nodding
| off e.g. by going for a walk, and while you don't need to operate
| machinery, e.g. a car.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2024-05-31 23:00 UTC)