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Comment by imwally | Hacker News Reader

I’ve always been jealous of those who can nap. For whatever reason my body just doesn’t want to fall asleep. Even at night it usually takes me over an hour to fall asleep. Anyone else unable to nap?

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Here's a trick my coworker invented that helps me fall asleep: Spell the name of an author you like forwards, and then backwards, and then forwards again, and backwards, repeating and repeating until you fall asleep. I've gotten to the point where I do it 2x and am out.

Why does this work? :)

Sometimes the reason I can't fall asleep is that my mental engines are just too active. I'm not worried per se, there are just too many interesting things to think about. Sometimes in response I'll do prime factorization of numbers in my head. It requires focused attention, and is interesting enough that I can actually focus on it, excluding all the other things I was thinking about, but not so interesting that I'll fight sleep to do it. Sometimes listening to Chinese does the same thing: it's interesting enough to focus on (and exclude whatever else was keeping the "engine" going), but not so interesting that I'll fight sleep to pay attention.

If I were to pull an explanation out of my behind: I’d say this is a complicated enough exercise to keep you focused on it and not drift to other topics, yet so utterly boring as to not keep you awake in anticipation of what happens next.

Then perhaps after using this technique for a few days your brain might start to recognize these neuron patterns as the shutdown sequence.

Three reasons:

- it gets your mind off from the problems it would work on instead of sleeping

- it is boring, so it will eventually escape the boredom by falling asleep

- the time it takes to fall asleep gets shorter and shorter as it becomes a routine

Someone told me ear plugs significantly shortened their time to sleep.

I’ve also noticed one can feel relaxed and lie in bed but actually have a lot of residual muscle tension. Consciously trying to relax muscles in upper back/neck, thighs and arms seems to help me.

Ear plugs help with noise, but they are painful for me after a while

I used to be unable to nap. However, sometimes I'd feel nappish, and just fake it. Close your eyes, slow your breathing, focus your attention on the sound of your breath. After 20 minutes, get up. That never failed for me.

I'm a bit older now, and I can actually fall asleep in midday naps. Sometimes. But I still feel energized after a nap, sleep or no.

For nighttime, I refuse to fail to sleep. When I start yawning, it's my bedtime, and I'm out like a light. If I try to sleep but I'm still bored 10 minutes in, it's not time yet. I've learned that if I try for an hour, I'll still be trying come morning.

I have the same shortcoming; when I try to nap I seldom succeed. When I do succeed, I usually awake feeling worse, like I have whole-body morning mouth. I wish I had that napping power, I've seen what it can do for others.

I used to only be able to nap very rarely. Then I noticed that on the few days that I did nap, I had usually exerted myself physically. Then I started exercising regularly, just 2-3x a week at first. And suddenly, was able to nap. I actually just woke up from my regular Saturday afternoon nap. It’s wonderful.

Do you drink a lot of coffee? A couple of years ago I made a small experiment and cut out coffee completely for at couple of weeks and I noticed two positive things. One is toilet oriented and the other was that I found it significantly easier to fall asleep.

I've also sometimes tried something I read in a blog a long time ago. I think they said it was what the Marines did but I have no idea if it's true. I'll imagine I'm lying in a canoe on an almost still lake with a crystal clear sky. Focus really hard on imagining the clear blue sky and then start imagining the gentle rocking of the canoe by the lake. Keep focus on just those two things.

Zero science, pure anecdotal, so take it for what you will :)

I've spent years learning to fall asleep as well. I've had no luck with any of the "mindful" methods, brain just too overactive and restless. What worked well is listening to user comments on a monotonous text-to-speech engine. Feels like dozying off at a party while eaves dropping on conversation.

Setup is low profile in ear bluetooth headphones + copy and past a HN or reddit thread of interest (bookmarked earlier during RSS time), strip superfluous UI text and listen away. Unlike produced content like podcast/show, it's not designed to keep your attention. It still takes 10-20 minutes but it's reliable. Also gaining 10% more time is invaluable.

Regarding podcasts designed to keep your attention: I just found out about the complete opposite elsewhere in this thread: https://open.spotify.com/show/6RLX4Ns3kRUQiJi7RZl4NA?si=bEFG...

Episodes seem to resolve into largely incoherent babbling pretty soon. Also, the number of episodes (and their duration) is kind of mind boggling!

haha this podcast is what inspired me on my tts system.

Thought the concept was great, but couldn't stand the host or style. it feels like being trapped in room with crazy person, harder to fall asleep to his mutterings. Also doesn't work well when topics are random, need something that grabs brain interest, but not too much. This is why comment threads are great - they're somewhat sorted by quality. You start off with interesting conversations before quality drop, and it's easy for brain to check out.

I used to be able to fall asleep anytime anywhere. Then I got diagnosed with Sleep Apnea. Now that I'm treating it and actually getting a good sleep it's very hard to nap, maybe these people are just sleep deprived? or a lot of them anyway.

Also unable to nap. I usually sleep fine at night, no insomnia. But I can't fall asleep in the afternoon unless I'm severely sleep deprived. Even being physically tired from hard labor or exercise doesn't really make me able to nap.

I think the key (at least for me) is to not worry too much about it. Some times I lay down for 10-15 minutes but I don't fall asleep, and that's OK. Not every nap requires sleep.

I think some people (my wife included) get caught up in the thought that in order to nap you have to sleep. Maybe just lie down, close your eyes, and try to relax (slow breathing, clear your mind, etc.) If you don't fall asleep after 10 minutes (or whatever) get up and go about your day. If you do, that's great too.

Both caffeine and alcohol can mess with your ability to get to sleep. If you are having trouble sleeping I would recommend reducing or eliminating those from your routine.

For naps I use an app called Pzizz. Without it, I can't nap. With it, I fall asleep almost every time.

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