[HN Gopher] How the brain's activity, energy use and blood flow ...
___________________________________________________________________
How the brain's activity, energy use and blood flow change as
people fall asleep
Author : XzetaU8
Score : 148 points
Date : 2025-10-25 05:30 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.massgeneralbrigham.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.massgeneralbrigham.org)
| jansan wrote:
| Only slightly related, but I often try to find ways to fall
| asleep faster. One thing that seems to work in some situations is
| trying to imagine a void (like a white or gray plane) for a
| while. However, often enough this does not work and I wonder if
| anyone knows of tricks that work for her/him (without using
| Melantonin or other drugs).
| cube2222 wrote:
| Box breathing (2 secs in, 2 secs hold, 2 secs out, 2 secs hold)
| or meditation both usually help if I can't fall asleep.
| Physical exercise during the day also helps.
| skydowx wrote:
| For me, holding my breath for as long as I can and then
| releasing it also helps.
| Pawamoy wrote:
| A friend shared his technique with me, and after adapting it to
| my needs, it works well. None of the other commonly mentioned
| techniques ever worked for me, because they ask for focus,
| which is the opposite of what my brain needs to fall asleep.
|
| Here's his technique: pick a letter of the alphabet, and find
| as much words that start with this letter as you can. Once you
| can't find words anymore, pick the next letter. Doesn't work
| for me, my brain won't ever stop.
|
| I noticed I have to visualize stuff in my head to fall asleep
| so my adaptation is to pick a single letter and a single word,
| and visualize it in my head, using it, manipulating it,
| experiencing it, whatever. For example: letter P, word
| Pineapple, imagine you're holding a pineapple, you feel the
| roughness of it's skin in your hands, you throw it in the air
| and catch it again, you take a knife and slice it on a wooden
| table on the beach, etc.. The dream kicks in seconds. Without
| external interruptions, after a few minutes I'm asleep (instead
| of rummaging for hours).
|
| If you notice you're stuck in a loop/pattern (for me anything
| about text, like reading or writing, and voice, like listening
| and speaking, or stressful scenarios), just pick a new letter,
| pick a new word, visualize it.
| MarcelOlsz wrote:
| I live at a 36-hours-at-a-time rhythm and it's absolutely
| brutal seeing as its 5:30am and I should have been in bed a
| long time ago. Going to give this a go and report back. I did
| the lucid dream thing for awhile but holding a heavy object
| in my hand and then dropping it got quite annoying (to train
| yourself to be more aware of when you enter a hypnagogic
| state).
| dev_hugepages wrote:
| Non 24h sleep syndrome or something else?
| MarcelOlsz wrote:
| Yes. I have no off switch.
| xenocratus wrote:
| I do something similar. If I'm not anxious but awake, I try
| to just visualise random stuff, random worlds. Somehow my
| brain is decent at that and I slowly drift off, though I
| sometimes get a jolt from reality. Recently I found that when
| I'm anxious it's better to try and imagine doing a hobby. I
| just imagine myself trail running. Reduces anxiety, pushes me
| towards sleep.
| OnACoffeeBreak wrote:
| I pick a category, like fruits and vegetables or cars, and
| then try to come up with a word in that category that starts
| with every letter of the alphabet in order. To keep it
| relaxing I synchronize it with my breath. On the breath in, I
| note the letter I am on: "C" for example. On the breath out I
| note the word: "Cantaloupe". If I don't have a word for that
| letter by the time I breath out, no big deal, I conceptualize
| whatever was in my mind at that point and then repeat the
| letter on the next breath in.
|
| Another thing I do that works well for me is just counting
| breaths. On the breath in I think "in-n-n-n-n" and on the
| breath out I count. When I lose count, and I am still awake,
| I start again from 0, as any sane programmer would ;-).
|
| ETA: For a couple of months I have been doing a short
| gratitude routine as I am getting into bed. I acknowledge the
| good and positive things that happened during the day, and I
| tell myself that I did a good job (if I did) or that I did as
| well as I could today and that's good enough for today. Then
| I think, "And now it's time for rest. I've been looking
| forward to this." If any part of me starts thinking about the
| day again or thinks about tomorrow, I gently reassure it that
| I will attend to all of this tomorrow morning and that now
| it's quiet time and time to rest.
|
| All of this plus 250 mg of magnesium an hour before bed has
| made falling asleep super consistent and easy.
| goopypoop wrote:
| all I can offer you is an intrusive thought with a song:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v64-DpcLEvI
| paulj5 wrote:
| There are a lot of imaging and thought techniques you can use,
| eg imagine sittimg beside a small stream, while the water
| guegles by, watch the leaves and sticks flowing past. or
| imagine events im yoir life floating by, or imagine being a
| duck floating by, swimming, or flying, etc. There are also body
| relaxation techniques ( zen , meditation, etc ) There are many
| many techniques available.
| gjadi wrote:
| There are several things I use:
|
| - think of past enjoyable moments (for me it's hiking, I
| usually don't go very far until I fall to sleep)
|
| - box breathing
|
| - hold breath for N sec then release, then N+10, then ...
|
| - try to relax your body from top to bottom (forehead, eyes,
| cheeks, mouth, ...)
|
| - imagine your body is very light, like your floating in the
| air
|
| - imagine your body is very heavy, like a block of concrete
| sinking into your bed
|
| - pick TAOCP and try to solve the exercises ;)
| IsTom wrote:
| What works for me is to pretend that I'm asleep. And it's good
| to be able to recognize the first phase of sleep - it's that
| state that you think that if somebody asked if you're asleep
| you'd think to yourself "no, I'm not", but have an excuse of "I
| don't feel like actually talking".
| igleria wrote:
| sometimes what works for me is literally inventing a movie in
| my mind. Then the awake part take the backseat...
| AstroNutt wrote:
| Yeah, melatonin makes me feel like crap after a few days of use
| and it's hit or miss.
|
| One thing I've done for years is focus on breathing. Get in a
| comfortable position and totally relax your body. Slowly take a
| deep breath. Then exhale until you can't no more. Repeat this
| 10 or 15 times.
|
| For whatever reason, this works for me probably 75% of the
| time. The other 25%, forget it.
|
| On a side note, I'm sure most of us here can relate to this
| song. https://youtu.be/vaG4vGsIFMQ
| jghn wrote:
| Have you tried smaller doses of melatonin? Can be hard to do
| as the smallest dosage I usually see at stores is still much
| higher than what I've found to be my max dose
| ckdarby wrote:
| Was going to reply the same thing.
|
| I buy 1 mg tablets and even that is too much for me. I use
| a razor blade to cut them into 1/6th pieces.
|
| Takes less than 30 minutes to kick in.
|
| A lot of other comments here about poor sleep I believe are
| the result of drinking caffeinated products past 1 PM.
| Propelloni wrote:
| What works best for me is to take a book, on paper, preferably
| on a boring topic (depends on you, obviously) and just start
| reading. Usually my eyes drop in a matter of minutes. Once I
| wake up, startled by the book falling over, I kill the lights
| and go to sleep. Works every time, any time.
|
| If I lie in bed and just think stuff, it takes much longer.
| nervousvarun wrote:
| Seconding this...also works well when I wake up in the middle
| of the night to get back to sleep which unfortunately seems
| to happen more and more every year.
| schuyler2d wrote:
| I do this with audiobooks/podcasts and then can start with
| the lights off and lying down. (important part I find is
| making sure the dynamics are low -- no high-volume ads or
| flashy punctuated sound effects)
|
| Not sure if any other buds work like this but the Bose
| QuietComfort Earbuds seem to auto-pause based on some kind of
| fitbit/sleep indicator which help even more with staying
| asleep.
| rndmio wrote:
| Sounds trite but my surefire method is to stop thinking. I
| literally lie down, close my eyes, and stop thinking. Sleep
| comes quickly.
| jghn wrote:
| My mom always told me to do this as a child. I've never
| understood this nor any other visualization technique. I have
| never found this to be possible. At best I actively think
| about not thinking which is counterproductive but even then
| within about 10 seconds my mind has already wandered. And if
| I'm not actively trying I'll always have some other thoughts
| popping in no matter what
| vlod wrote:
| Something that works for me is count from 10 to 1 slowly.
| Concentrate getting to 1. If another thought enters, start
| the count again. Repeat. This is like counting the
| proverbial sheep.
| jghn wrote:
| That's in the same category of techniques that will only
| work for a very brief time for me. At some point I
| realize I have background thoughts, and then those take
| over.
| vlod wrote:
| This happens to me as well, but when I become aware of
| other non welcome thoughts, I just start counting again.
| /shrug
| rndmio wrote:
| It might be because it wasn't a technique as such. I don't
| visualise not thinking, I just stop thinking about things,
| but I also don't have a constant inner voice talking
| to/with me as I understand many people do.
| jghn wrote:
| " I just stop thinking about things" is the part that I
| can't comprehend. I've never been able to do this. If I
| try, I immediately start thinking about things w/o
| intending to do so.
| oldestofsports wrote:
| I have had sleep issues my whole life, but what works for me
| is: - Get up same time every day - Moderate excersize every
| other day - Stable diet, homecooked healthy food and no
| soda/beer/candy whatsoever. - Dim the lights after dinner - No
| screens after 8pm (e-ink screens are allowed), no podcasts, no
| digital content consuming. - Actively aim to be bored everyday
| - Read a good book before bedtime
|
| May sound like a lot, but I sleep now.
| Ylpertnodi wrote:
| >No screens after 8pm (e-ink screens are allowed), no
| podcasts, no digital content consuming.
|
| Who needs the exception of e-ink screens are OK?
| oldestofsports wrote:
| To read books?
| JumpCrisscross wrote:
| > _trying to imagine a void (like a white or gray plane) for a
| while_
|
| Huh, mine is a plane in level flight. (From outside.)
| Preferably smaller. Depending on my mood it's retro or like a
| fighter jet.
| tacone wrote:
| On a side note, a good way to check your progress towards
| falling asleep is looking through your closed eyelids. The more
| movement (points, lights) you see, the more you're actually
| close to falling asleep.
| CrimsonCape wrote:
| I have a routine and the crazy part is that it is 100%
| effective, in that I can be restless, consciously start the
| routine, and 100% of the time I fall asleep. It is the oddest
| feeling to begin the routine, which requires conscious mental
| effort, and suddenly you can't remember anything because you
| fell asleep. I can only ever recall doing it at times when my
| mind is racing, so I can't say how well it works when calm as I
| forget to do the routine when calm.
|
| The routine is basically a game to see if you can "flow"
| between mental images by envisioning scenes in your mind and
| then allowing some object in the scene to "pull" you into a
| different scene. For example, envision the power cable of your
| lamp, you fly along the power cable up to the light bulb, and
| then you envision the bulb glass exploding into a million
| pieces, which becomes snow falling on a ski lodge, you see the
| warm glow of fire in the fireplace, and a fireball blasts out
| the chimney into the sky, somehow becomes a perfect flaming
| sphere, that becomes a meatball and falls into a plate of
| spaghetti, you are eating it down, you see yourself at a ratty
| diner table, under the table you see your shoes, and then your
| shoes are running through rain puddles, you zoom into a single
| droplet which is actually a massive aquarium tank, fish are
| swimming in it except we are in the ocean, not a tank, and the
| fish is so colorful but those colors are actually an explosion
| of rainbow paint colors dripping down an apartment wall, etc.
| etc.
|
| It might sound ridiculous when written in words, but that is
| the gist of it. The game is to lay there and consciously morph
| and fly between mental images, letting your mind conjure
| imagery that comes next.
|
| It's crazy because I start doing this with a conscious struggle
| to envision the next chain-of-events but suddenly my brain
| catches on and starts unconsciously playing the game and images
| just kinda flow and BAM asleep.
| shevy-java wrote:
| If that damn beast would ever fall asleep!
|
| Still listening to "Insomnia" from Faithless.
| hshdhdhehd wrote:
| Tearing off tights with my teeth
| submeta wrote:
| Tangential: Have had sleep disorders my whole life. Until I read
| an article here about melatonin (an article that was about
| substances that have an effect on longevity). So I started taking
| melatonin every night, 0.5mg. I must say: Never had this kind of
| deep sleep. Over such a long period of weeks (since I started
| taking it). My Garmin watch has a sleep tracker. And it confirms
| that I get way more deep sleep.
| v7engine wrote:
| I am considering taking melatonin supplements. Could you
| recommend any? I wake up several times in the night.
| submeta wrote:
| I am in Germany, so I cannot recommend any. Just one without
| any supplements, just melatonin.
| plumeria wrote:
| I wish dm stores were available internationally
| warp wrote:
| My understanding is that melatonin helps you fall asleep, but
| doesn't help you stay asleep.
|
| In general, I have no trouble falling asleep, but I typically
| wake up once or twice at night and am usually unable to sleep
| more than 5.5 hours. I've tried 3mg Melatonin tablets in
| Ecuador, and I've tried a couple of different brands of 10mg
| time-release Melatonin gummies from the US. None of them had
| any noticeable effect on me.
|
| The only thing that has worked so far, is physical activity.
| We just moved to Europe, and the first two weeks was a lot of
| buying and building furniture, slept great those two weeks.
| Now that I'm back to my normal office worker life, my sleep
| has also gone back to not being great.
|
| (I track my sleep using the AutoSleep app on iOS, wearing an
| Apple Watch at night)
| dpeckett wrote:
| Melatonin has a short half life (~1h), that's why melatonin
| receptor agonists [1] are a thing. So just mechanistically
| it's unlikely to help with sleep maintenance.
|
| Do you wake up after 5.5h at a consistent time of the day
| and the first half of the night is peaceful? If you fall
| back asleep do you then wake again shortly after?
|
| I mean waking in the night can be many things (apnea, etc),
| but you could very well have a rather advanced sleep phase.
|
| 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melatonin_receptor_agonist
| ssttoo wrote:
| I recently started exploring supplements. Turns out a lot of
| what you find in the likes of CVS and Whole Foods can be all
| over the map: from 0 of the actual ingredient to 10x what's
| on the label. Current consensus on reputable brands seems to
| be Thorne, NOW, Life extensions, and Pure. The last one
| acquired by Nestle, make of that what you will.
| tmountain wrote:
| My understanding has always been that you habituate to
| melatonin after a few days. Is this not true?
| submeta wrote:
| Not in my case. Never had this sleep quality. But maybe it's
| placebo after a few weeks? :)
| nervousvarun wrote:
| FYI it's unlikely you will eventually develop a tolerance,
| but it's important to not increase dosage:
| https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/mayo-clinic-
| mi...
| amaccuish wrote:
| The linked article doesn't mention tolerance at all? I
| don't believe there is any evidence out there to suggest
| that melatonin tolerance is a thing.
| nervousvarun wrote:
| You're right! Edited the post...thanks for pointing this
| out was actually a mistake on my part the article was
| about incorrect dosage which was the point I wanted to
| make.
| amaccuish wrote:
| Ahh then yes that's a super valid point. I've seen shops
| sell 10mg per tablet. 0.5mg already does the trick for
| me.
| amaccuish wrote:
| I don't believe there is any evidence that you develop a
| tolerance. As a side note, Melatonin changed my life.
| MobileVet wrote:
| Melatonin does have the potential for augmentation, but it
| isn't a certainty or even the majority of people.
|
| Oddly, the result isn't a loss of initial efficacy but
| instead a 'wide awake at 3am' situation.
| rybosworld wrote:
| The body will develop a tolerance (or the reverse, a
| sensitization reaction) to just about any substance that's
| taken regularly due to homeostasis. However, so long as
| you're taking a dose that nudges some physiologic signal/need
| in the right direction, your body's response to the substance
| will be minimal.
|
| I'd be surprised if you can find anything this isn't true
| for.
|
| A lack of studies on what the tolerance looks like for a
| particular substance does not imply that tolerance does not
| form.
|
| In the case of melatonin: It's almost universally true that
| your sleep quality is worse than it was before once you stop
| taking it (for a few days at least). That's an indication
| that your body's equilibrium has changed from habitual use.
| elric wrote:
| Two things:
|
| 1. Too much deep sleep might not be desirable.
|
| 2. Sleep staging by activity trackers is generally pretty
| inaccurate. Garmin is no exception.
| fasteo wrote:
| Could you please elaborate on 1. ?
| elric wrote:
| Different processes happen during different sleep stages.
| Typically people go from light sleep to deeper sleep stages
| (slow wave), to REM in a cyclical pattern. We go through
| each of the stages roughly every 90 minutes of "quality
| sleep". There's usually more deep sleep at the start of the
| night, and more REM towards the end of the night.
|
| If you end up with too much deep sleep (e.g. after being
| very physically exhausted for a while), you will have
| little or no REM sleep and your sleep quality will suffer.
|
| It's not just "too much deep sleep" that could fuck things
| up, being woken up multiple times can also mess up your
| sleep cycle, whether it's by crying children or sleep
| apnea.
| tartoran wrote:
| Personally, I am very alert throughout the day if I sleep
| between 6-7 hours. Past the 7 hours threshold I am get into
| a worse headspace (brainfog) throughout the day
| proportionally to the amount of extera sleep.
| ycombinete wrote:
| Sleeping for longer than 8 hours frequently gives me
| hypnic headaches and terrible migraines.
|
| I recently had a baby and the lack of sleep has reduced
| my headache frequency dramatically!
| webnrrd2k wrote:
| Taking melatonin has been mentioned several times in different
| threads here, and I just wanted to add my experience...
|
| I find that taking the _minimal_ amount make a big difference
| here, and it 's about 3 micro-grams (not milli-grams) for me. The
| trick is to get some liquid melatonin drops. There is a brand
| that has 3 milligrams per 30 drops as a recommended dosage, so I
| just take 3 or so drops and let them dissolve on my tongue. Using
| liquid drops this way, there is less of a sleep hangover, and It
| workes faster that way, too.
|
| I think I read about 3 micrograms as more appropriate for most
| people on lesswrong, but it might have been somewhere else. It's
| working really well for me, with frequent breaks from it, for
| five or more years.
| jonahrd wrote:
| That would be 300 micrograms
| mallomarmeasle wrote:
| As pointed out above me, 250-300 micrograms is what you likely
| meant. You might have to hunt for such low doses. I split a 1
| mg tab in quarters. Repeated studies have shown that there is
| not an increase in efficacy, but there is an increase in
| adverse effects when doses are higher. See
| https://slatestarcodex.com/2018/07/10/melatonin-much-more-th...
| wahnfrieden wrote:
| Products exist in US and recently Canada too
| hypeatei wrote:
| What time do you take them? An hour before going to sleep or
| right before?
| AngryData wrote:
| Not the same guy but, when I took them it was as I was laying
| down to try to sleep, so maybe 10 minutes before I was
| actually asleep.
|
| In my experience you don't want to take them and not try to
| go to sleep right afterwards or you can ruin the effect, and
| trying to take more trying to sleep afterwards merely results
| in addiction and needing it to sleep at all.
|
| I can also confirm you want a very low dosage. Higher dosages
| didn't help at all, just merely built tolerance to it. The
| ones I got were 3-5mg and I broke them up into tiny little
| pieces and took partial mgs at most. You want to nudge
| yourself towards sleep with it, not try to drug yourself with
| it.
| buzzardbait wrote:
| You emphasized the word "minimal" but it cannot be emphasized
| enough. I think melatonin is one of those things that quickly
| backfires if you take too much.
| Arrath wrote:
| I can confirm that anecdotally, taking those big 10mg pills
| did help me get to sleep, but also gave me some of the most
| fucked up dreams I've ever had the mispleasure of
| experiencing.
| geretnal wrote:
| Just make sure you're getting it as medicine and not
| supplement, taking it for for my insomia!
| J_Shelby_J wrote:
| Half milligram pills are available online. Wish Costco sold
| them.
| dpeckett wrote:
| I'm pretty sure at this point I have familial advanced sleep
| phase syndrome of an unknown genetic etiology [1].
|
| Wake up stupid early in the morning, get drowsy very early in the
| evenings etc. For a long time due to social pressure/habit I'd
| just power through the evening drowsiness. That lead to me only
| being able to sleep six hours or so (due to waking up stupid
| early), which over time lead to a substantial sleep debt.
|
| Going to bed early helps a lot, but over time it seems like I
| easily start drifting earlier and earlier. I've recently had some
| success stabilizing my rhythm using sublingual melatonin when I
| first waken at 2-3am. Let's me get a couple extra hours of
| additional quality sleep which is a lifesaver. Wears off quick
| enough that by 9am or so it's basically out of my system.
|
| I've actually been tinkering/hacking the last year or so on sleep
| tracking wearables. Initially focused on EEG/HRV monitoring but
| I'm taking a very modular approach and ultimately want to build a
| full set of sensors/effectors/etc.
|
| I've recently been experimenting a lot with skin temperature
| gradients, turns out in the lead up to sleep it's not just blood
| flow in the brain that is altered [2].
|
| 1.
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_sleep_phase_disorder#...
|
| 2.
| https://journals.physiology.org/doi/pdf/10.1152/ajpregu.2000...
| soulofmischief wrote:
| You might know this, but sleep debt doesn't just keep piling
| on. Eventually, and rather quickly, you may begin to experience
| permanent brain damage after a few nights of sleep deprivation.
|
| https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/STR.0000000000000453
|
| From one insomniac to another... In the past I've been lucky if
| I get 3 hours _total_ of sleep in a night due to physical pain
| disorders. I have deep trouble getting into NREM. I lucid dream
| often and my brain is active even when I 'm supposed to be
| sleeping. In my dreams, I have to be careful not to be too
| energetic or overstimulated, or I will wake up.
|
| I've had insomnia and night terrors since before I was
| regularly forming memories. An abusive childhood intensified
| that. I'm in my early 30s now and the damage is clear, both
| physically and to my life in general.
|
| As much as I fear them, sleeping medication seems like the only
| way to save myself from early onset dementia or not
| accomplishing certain goals due to a perpetually low energy
| budget. It also has prevented me from losing weight. Sleep
| studies have shown that people who get frequently woken up
| while sleeping can burn around 50% less fat.. In my case,
| that's my entire calorie deficit which means in order to lose
| weight I have to basically starve myself. Melatonin, etc. have
| never worked for me.
|
| All this to say... Don't wait for the damage to build up even
| more. Sleeping medication might change your life. I'm hoping it
| restores mine.
| cedws wrote:
| When you say "sleep medication" what do you mean
| specifically? AFAIK melatonin is safe but diphenhydramine
| overuse is linked to dementia.
| soulofmischief wrote:
| I'm still exploring my options, open to suggestions.
| Medications like zolpidem and diphenhydramine are
| definitely off the table.
| dpeckett wrote:
| Absolutely, loss of deep sleep is associated with a ton of
| aging related cognitive decline. There's a number of startups
| experimenting with techniques to enhance deep sleep in the
| elderly atm (timed audio clicks, electrical stimulation etc).
|
| There's not a lot of evidence that most common sleep
| medications are associated with long term improvements in
| health outcomes. Most have substantial detrimental effects on
| sleep architecture, can exacerbate underlying issues like
| apnea etc. Interesting the gabapentanoids (chronic pain) and
| Xyrem (narcolepsy) are associated with increased slow wave
| sleep. More research is needed (eg the DORA drugs [1]).
|
| Thankfully circadian issues (in the absence of sleep loss)
| aren't associated with negative health outcomes. Just a case
| of finding a way to modify ones life to accommodate them.
|
| 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orexin_antagonist
| thunderbong wrote:
| Melatonin has helped, of course. But a few other steps I had read
| on a Reddit thread [0] also helped me - specifically the point
| about relaxing facial muscles. For some reason, doing this also
| seems to calm the mind and reduce random thoughts.
|
| [0]:
| https://old.reddit.com/r/sleep/comments/1bn2emp/how_do_yall_...
| Noumenon72 wrote:
| It is crazy how you can relax your face 4-5 times in a row
| getting less tense each time, and how well this method works to
| get you to sleep, especially after it has worked for a while so
| your body associates the relaxing with sleeping.
| buzzardbait wrote:
| I find that Yoga Nidra helps a lot. It relaxes all your muscles
| and also has nothing to do with "yoga".
| iandanforth wrote:
| 23 healthy adults ... who were able to fall asleep inside an MRI
| with EEG leads stuck to their heads. That's not an easy feat!
| buzzardbait wrote:
| I wonder how much of sleep research is affected by the difference
| in sleep quality between your own bed and a lab. Even if you're
| on vacation and the hotel bed is of exceptional quality, your
| brain knows that it's in a different environment and would
| naturally be on partial alert, at least for the first couple of
| nights.
|
| Now imagine sleeping in a lab setting, knowing that your sleep
| data is being measured. Intellectually you know that you're not
| at any risk but there must be some difference in the architecture
| of your sleep.
| sys32768 wrote:
| I started intermittent fasting and my sleep improved remarkably
| when I stopped eating calories after 3PM. Last night it shows I
| was awake for 16 minutes but in the morning my dream memories
| seem to be vast.
|
| My mother got Alzheimer's in her early 60s and was always a super
| light sleeper despite a healthy and happy lifestyle. I suspect
| her brain's glymphatic system wasn't kicking in often enough to
| clean her brain.
| tartoran wrote:
| During my 20s I developed a severe insomnia, probably due to not
| knowing how to handle stress. It was so bad that I had to go to
| the ER because I haven't had any sleep in days and didn't know
| what else to do. They gave me ambien and it helped at the time,
| but I knew that it was not something to take long term. I then
| started to experiment with various methods to help me fall asleep
| and sleep hygene such as hot/cold showers, warm baths, relaxing
| exercises and meditation, lowering the room temperature, removing
| sources of light (especially those blue LEDs). In my 40s now and
| am happy to report that I no longer have any insomniac episodes
| and I rarely have a hard time falling asleep. Out of all the
| techniques I found that forcefully yawning for a couple of
| minutes is the most efficent way for me to induce sleep.
| maksimur wrote:
| Would be interesting to know why yawning induces sleep at all.
| neetle wrote:
| My psych pointed out that yawning is a tension release
| mechanism, so it's likely just punting a bunch of cortisol
| from your nervous system
| mirekrusin wrote:
| I use forced yawning to wet my eyes when they become dry,
| works better than any drops.
| pedalpete wrote:
| Interesting study, but it mostly reinforces what we already know
| about sleep mechanics.
|
| Of particular importance is how sensory regions remain
| metabolically active while higher-order regions downshift during
| NREM sleep. That suggests the benefit of sleep depends less on
| how long we sleep and more on the specific activation and de-
| activation of networks during sleep.
|
| I work in neurotech/sleeptech as the founder of
| https://affectablesleep.com. Our stimulation triggers sensory
| pathways during sleep to enhance the brain's restorative function
| without changing sleep time.
|
| This systematic review [1] covers non-invasive approaches to
| enhancing slow-wave activity in sleep and outlines their
| physiology and effects. This focused paper [2] explores the
| neurophysiology of closed-loop auditory stimulation during sleep.
|
| Though the title of the post suggests the study looks at falling
| asleep, the study is really focused on what happens during NREM
| sleep, which has been our focus for the last few years.
|
| Of particular interest to me right now are the processes of
| waking. Research suggests that different neural networks come
| online in a specific sequence, and when that sequence is
| disrupted, we experience sleep inertia or the sense of not being
| fully restored.
|
| [1]https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2021.101438
| [2]https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.16132
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2025-10-28 23:01 UTC)