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Comment by freeflight | Hacker News Reader

As a "not healthy" person, suffering from bouts of depression and heavy demotivation (especially during winter months), missing out on a night of sleep can put me in quite a positive mood.

But it's mostly a rather "hyped up" feeling, so it feels like the opposite extreme of the depressive phase.

When I was younger I'd regularly miss out on a night of sleep for exactly that reason, but as I get older I notice side-effect of this "treatment" of the physical kind. My teeth, which are already damaged by years of nightly gnashing, will start to hurt easily, with a higher chance of gum infections after I missed out on a night of sleep.

That's sadly something not mentioned at all in the BBC article, while my mind feels like it could be awake for days on end, my body doesn't really like that strain, especially as I get older.

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> My teeth, which are already damaged by years of nightly gnashing

My dentist made me a slimfit mouthguard for teeth grinding. It cost $500 but it's the best dental investment I ever made as it prevents further expensive damage to my teeth.

The first few nights I kept dreaming I had a piece of steak in my mouth though.

Yeah, I've gotten one of those as well for my upper jaw, sleeping way better since I got it.

It was also the dentist who unriddled particular nasty tension headaches I suffer from sometimes. All the nightly gnawing makes my neck muscles sometimes tense up, which leads to pains in the back of the neck radiating up to the back of the head.

Sadly that's not something the mouthguard helps with, so I will probably have to look for a solution to actually end the gnawing itself.

edit: This commenter [0] suggests Magnesium might help with the nightly teeth gnawing. A quick Google search, sure enough, seems to confirm the relation [1], awesome!

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16219942

[1] https://sleeptrack.io/2016/03/10/magnesium-rhodiola-bruxism/

It is still possible to get jaw problems with such a mouthguard though. As you still exert force on the mandibular joint, it may start to wear. The result is not very pleasant, to say the least.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temporomandibular_joint_dysfun...

Sounds like hypomania. Do you find yourself also chatty and more likely to take risks (spend money, do new things, etc.)?

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bipolar_II_disorder#Hypomanic_...

In my good moods, I'm very chatty, annoyingly chatty to some people, I like risks of the physical kind (bungee jumping/skydiving) but "social risks" are my bane, I've become very careful about being too open when meeting new people, needing time to open up until I open up "too much" for some.

As a kid, I was pretty much constantly very social, lively and chatty, without any of these apathetic down phases. I kinda trained myself into these due to negative social feedback to my "liveliness". By now I feel somewhat guilty/out of character when I'm "too happy", as I fear I might annoy my social surroundings.

I like doing new things, up to a point where I dread any routine, but at the same time, I notice how not having routine makes me anxious. It feels like a trade-off between "stable but uncreative routine" and "creative/volatile let's try everything".

As you might notice: I'm a bit all over the place, which doesn't make a diagnosis very easy, especially once it starts factoring in my, rather unconventional, upbringing in two different languages across three different countries.

That is exactly how I feel and I don't know how I FEEL about THAT. Welp...

If your still grinding your teeth a lot look into increasing your Magnesium intake (either through food or supliments). It completely eliminated my nightly grinding

Oh wow, I never thought about that! I tend to only take Magnesium supplements when I suffer from leg cramps, after working out too much.

I don't know how it would stop the grinding, but it, sure enough, sounds like it would help with the tension headaches I get when my neck muscles tense up/cramp up from all the grinding.

Thank you very much for suggesting this, if this actually stops the grinding too then you've just given me some serious increase in quality of life!

No problem and hope it helps! And yeah, the grinding, in my experience, is very closely related to muscle tension in general. From my research Mg and Zn tend to help by improving nerve function. Another helpful compound I've found is L-Theanine, especially if you drink coffee as I do. It's found in tea and seems to mitigate some of the stress/tension effects of Caffeine.

I suffer from depression pretty frequently. It gives me insomnia and unfortunately the lack of sleep never really helps me feel better.

I've seen a lot of people swear by a mixture of 2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar + 1 tbsp. honey mixed in a glass of hot water, drink before going to bed.

ASMR videos often help me calm down and fall asleep. Many different kinds out there, from soft whispers with positive reinforcement to simple stuff like rain. Just make sure to listen to the audio only, the blue light of most tablet/smartphone screens are really bad for trying to sleep (just like most monitors) because it's a light frequency that keeps the brain awake.

A good workout, like running, can lift the spirits and if you power your body out it often helps to calm down and fall asleep easier. Once you get into regular running it's also a great way to "declutter" your brain from whatever thoughts you might have collected during the day.

You could also try Indica Cannabis, which is usually a good sedative. Tho it can make depressions worse due to the sedative effect, so try with some caution.

Just as perspective. Any sport gets me to a high that ends with a crash. Just like with coffiene for example. Personally it makes things worse for me.

Also i usually recommend sativa and to stay away from indica. Sativa turns my depression into productivity, indica into a careless couch potato (which may is what you want tho)

Agreed on sativa for getting out of a low, but depending on strain they can make me too active and keep me awake till late in the night, but that's just me.

That's why I'm not sure they are that good of a choice for dealing with insomnia, a hybrid might be a good middle ground between light couchlock and lifting mood.

I've been running lately and I think it does make a bit of a difference. I'll have to try the apple cider vinegar + honey thing. Thanks for the advice.

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