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Comment by mhh__ | Hacker News Reader

Even with an alarm I find that I almost immediately fall into a cycle of waking up at later than 7PM if I don't stop myself - I don't even go to bed that late sometimes, exercise or not.

Its the only superpower I actually want - to be able to just turn myself off like lightswitch. My brain itself is fairly happy just sort of thinking about compilers or field theory and stuff like that when going to sleep but I physically cannot stop myself from putting my fingers in yet another pie when I'm awake so I end up in this hyperfocused state in bursts of an hour or two and then I won't be going to bed possibly ever.

Sometimes I'm completely fine, sometimes the only way I'm getting up before 12AM is if I haven't slept a second. Even more annoying is that I have no vices other than tea - ADHD has been bandied around at me in the past, could be something like that.

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I am facing yet another day of utter sleep deprivation tomorrow... most of this is from work stress I think, and a good chunk of that is because Ive never in my life been able to force myself to really focus on something that wasn’t fun/engrossing in its own right. Luckily, programming physics is usually engrossing and fun, but when I am being closely managed, the old traits come out and sleep soon goes by the board due to stress from slow progress. I can handle micromanagement during the “code-up-the-solver” stage, but then when I have to deal with yet another rewrite of the infrastructure code... the mind wanders to, say field theory, the weather, or hacker news. It reminds me greatly of back in my school days. I could never really focus on the content of my studies properly — not until after being dumped out of undergrad with a lackluster gpa and no good future prospects. Only then, with nobody looking, caring, or expecting, curiosity and motivation switched on properly.

From the article: “ Dr Robert Stickgold has shown that people who learn a skill during the day do not show significant improvement until they get 7-8 hours of good sleep[1]”

Wow, I have had that a handful of nights in the past 3 years.

Used to have the same problem, my mind wandering off into (anxiety raising) fantasies. Now I read the same book over and over again as a form of meditation, it's a way to switch off. Same book because else I will be too engaged and will want to keep reading. I have the brightness way down on my amoled screen so that I can only just read the letters.

Good idea. Maybe I’ll break out LOR - it will help me make up stories for my kid toddler too.

Usually the only thing that helps is progress but we shall see!

That is the series I have settled on for the past few years :) Good luck

I have no advice but want to send some empathy. I also typically get through work with curiosity and my own motivation, and less by discipline.

It's a constant battle to refocus on critical business objectives and not to get distracted by the hundred other interesting rabbit holes.

I know I've given too much time and too much of myself to work, but still feel a bit of shame and stress about falling behind.

I've always heard the advice to do work by discipline and not motivation but 30 years and I haven't figured it out yet :)

Hey thanks! That’s nice to hear for sure. Similarly I’ve given way to much to work as well. My problem is they hold the cards for the moment!

> ADHD

It is worth getting yourself checked.

I'd also recommend listening to the podcast of prof of Neurobiology Andrew Huberman. He does research on the relationship between the eyes and the brain and a lot of it touches on sleep.

How does one actually get "checked" for ADHD? It's not like there's a blood test.

(Note: My son has diagnosed ADHD, non-hyperactive) There isn't a blood test, but you can do a neuropsychological evaluation which assesses cognitive functions. We had one done for my son, and it was a 2-day affair. As a non-ADHD parent, it was eye-opening to get a glimpse into how his brain worked and to start to really understand the challenges ADHD poses in a school environment.

You get assessed by a medical professional equipped to evaluate you, just like any neurodevelopment issue.

As a first step, you might hire a coach to help you with

1. Making and keeping the necessary appointments.

2. Dealing with insurance.

3. Persuading your parents to endure the ego-threat of listening to your actual needs instead of telling you things like "stop being so hard on yourself".

I can only second the Huberman podcast suggestion.

It's so much good information in one place and the guy does such a good job of explaining things that I'm really happy to see it gain traction :)

Yeah, I think he would say you need very bright light soon after waking, ideally sunlight.

It kind of sounds like you're following an extremely unnatural sleep pattern. Chemically, psychologically, humans were meant to be awake with the sun and asleep with the dark. Do you remember sleeping poorly when you did this?

If you aren't accidentally switching your AMs and PMs, you should really consider leaning into your sleep schedule. If you're going to sleep in the morning (6am?), just stay up one night/morning until 4pm, and then naturally sleep until 3am. Congratulations, you are now an early bird.

That said, you might have done constraints enforcing this bizarre schedule. It doesn't really make sense to me without more details.

For me that would only work for a short time. No matter what I do I end up shifting towards a night sleep pattern

It's worth trying again at different points in your life. Sometimes it's been easier for me to wake up early than others.

That and regenerating health quickly are the superpowers from The Long Dark that I long for. It's a videogame, and it does have a can't sleep if not tired enough mechanic, but you can just go to bed exactly when wanted and it's restful (when warm enough, and with water and food buffered).

Yeah... ADHD alarms are blaring right now. Worth getting yourself checked.

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