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Comment by enobrev | Hacker News Reader

I've put a huge emphasis on sleep in the past year, as someone who used to sleep about 4 hours a night.

I've found that giving myself a solid hour to wind down helps immensely with slowing my brain down and letting me sleep more peacefully. Sometimes I read, or listen to music, or watch youtube, or have a beer or an edible and just hang with out, or just tidy the house or something. Whatever it is, it's not work, it's not in my office, and it's not hard. I've found I've been sleeping far better because of it.

Even on nights that I work super late on some head scratcher, with a full 12-15 hours at my desk, I still give myself the hour before going to bed.

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This is how I do it, too. I allocate at least an hour to YouTube (in bed, using my iPad), with the not-super-strict rule to look at content that does not stimulate my mind. Videos about games, or restoration of old computers, are okay for bedtime, videos about e.g. DSP are not.

If my mind is really stimulated, this may feel a bit awkward initially, forcing my mind to "calm down and focus on the video", but at the end of the hour it's usually fine.

And then do not start thinking about a related problem again when you shut the iPad off. I made that mistake so many times.

You've probably heard this but the science says you'll "condition" your mind to sleep better if you associate the bed with just sleeping (and possibly that other thing). But try not to read, watch videos etc for extended periods of time in bed, and you will get naturally wind down and fall into "sleep mode" once you get in bed.

As you get older you can clearly see the effects of lack of sleep on friend’s faces who burned the midnight oil (work/party).

This made me always get the right amount of sleep no matter what.

This is why flexible/remote work time is good. If you need to go late you can but you won’t be punished for it by a 9am standup.

Take Ca+Mg supplements in order to improve sleep and reduce your stress level. It will make you slower at thinking but still functional, and after a few days you can switch back to normal.

For me this formula works like magic because I can't control my mind from constantly iterating when starting new projects so I use this as a chemical brake.

I've started a brain dump prizes at night on a remarkable tablet. It lets me let go of things until three next day.

I do the same with my Boox Note 2, sometimes followed by reading a book on it (with the blue coloured backlight off and only the warm orange one on, it doesn’t annoy my partner with the lights off)

I mostly fast until dinner then I have a 2k calorie meal, I can barely stay awake until 10 pm after a hit like that, the rest of the day I’m super alert, use one super dark 16 oz (no dairy) coffee in the morning for appetite suppression.

Stretching for 15 minutes, less or more, is super.

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