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Comment by pasxizeis | Hacker News Reader

> Almost a year and a half later, after leaving that job, I took the pandemic to really focus on my stress levels and be happier (I am).

Do you mind sharing any particular advice on how to do this?

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Naps!

Seriously, listen to your mind and your body. If it needs sleep, give it some. It it requires painting or dancing, do it!

I agree with this comment. Sleep is ridiculously underestimated in our society due to the fact that it's perceived as a waste of time, while you could do something else more "productive" or "fun" - binge watching, learning, studying, working on that thing that you really wanted to finish, etc. etc. It's absolutely not the case. The first thing to go is the memory. Then step by step things add up. It's not fun.

Sleep doesn't come naturally to everyone. I can lay in bed all night long, but the brain likes to wake me up at 5 am and suddenly remind me of all my problems, Todo lists and stuff I should or shouldn't have said.

When I first discovered talk around "mindfullness" I at first cynically dismissed it as new age pap - but many of hte techniques for calming and focus do work. They don't work overnight - it takes practice and effort, but I have found it worth it.

Meditation/introspection in general is a good thing and something we don't value, especially in the days of constant notification bombardment from all our devices. That's why I'm really enjoying the new focus features Apple is building into all of their platforms with the recent betas. It's pretty presumptuous to assume everyone should be at our beck and call (and vice versa). Time to return to more asynchronous communication and reset expectations as a society!

Naps! Seriously, if you're lying in bed and can't sleep .... you're not sleepy. Get up, do something. (Listen to your body)

Hell, I can go a few days on 2 hours sleep, then sleep like, 8 hours or 12 hours. Or I'll sleep 5 hours (from 5pm to 10pm) then sleep maybe from 4am to 7am ...

There's plenty of chores to do, or a bit of DIY or watching tv...

Get a diary. Write the stuff in there. Next time you wake up, tell your brain, thank you for reminding me, but we already wrote this down - look. And read it aloud. Eventually your brain will get it and stop waking you up (you should read The Chimp Paradox -- about how your brain works)

I got an advice from a renowned psychiatrist to avoid naps at all cost. He was the fan of sleep fuel theory, where if you nap during the day, you'll lose sleep fuel and won't be able to have fully restorative sleep at night. It is important to pick a time in the morning and always wake up at that time no matter what. After a few weeks you'll get your sleep pattern right and won't need any naps etc.

You can try doing things, but in the end your stressor will still be there and until you reduce your dependency and the importance of your stressor, you won't solve anything.

I mean, for me, cardio makes the biggest difference on my stress levels. Lifting alone made me more stressed out and in pain. I made a mistake listening to the powerlifter/bodybuilder crowd. The amount of stress it creates on your body is insane, not in a good way.

Learning how to not work. I realized that sitting down on the couch caused me anxiety as if I wasn't getting shit done.

Once I forced myself to be okay with "I'm taking an hour off right now", I started to re-learn how to relax.

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