How to rest well
psyche.co
psyche.co
(though I wouldn't have realized that without your comment, so thanks for that)
Some of these processes to do with elimination and clearance are very much non-linear and are modelled with diff equations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physiologically_based_pharmaco...
It looks like in addition to those, others with zero-order pharmacokinetics include salicylates (salts of salicylic acid incl. aspirin), omeprazole (for indigestion), fluoxetine (antidepressant), phenytoin (for epilepsy), methanol (a poisonous alcohol) and cisplatin (chemo medication.)
Though, in real-life you get things like enzyme saturation, depletion of chemicals consumed in the metabolism of the chemical, etc. Real world pharmacokinetics are probably not exactly constant half-lives.
For example, IIRC, the average American adult male saturates his alcohol dehydrogenase at about 3/4 shot of 80 proof liquor per hour. Below saturation, I presume ethanol has something close to a constant (and short) half-life, but that exponential decrease is only observed at alcohol concentrations where the effects of alcohol aren't very obvious. So, for most practical purposes, the biological half-life of ethanol doesn't apply and its metabolism is better approximated as a constant rate process.
Technically those two phrases mean the same, but people will draw very different conclusions from them.
By explicitly calling out the quarter-life, it prompts people to think if a quarter of the amount would still affect them.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-h...
I’ve been off caffeine for a year or more. Having it actually makes my stomach slightly upset now. Similar to sugary drinks - I can’t do them anymore. Once I gave them up - I couldn’t go back.
Its not strictly true that caffeine has a half life of 6-7 hours, nicotine reduces this to 3-4hrs and some prescription drugs also affect the half life either by shortening it or increasing it, in extreme to 24-48hrs.
I found a few grams of Taurine will improve and increase sleep, the science is out there, the more you take the more you sleep and you can sleep through fire alarms and all sorts so use with caution.
Now a restless mind can also keep people awake, so increasing 5-alpha reductase by consuming Glycine can then break down cortisol. You will laugh your head off with lots of Glycine, so dont blame me if you laugh your head off in a stressful situation and get fired from a job or something!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5%CE%B1-Reductase#List_of_conv...
Sleep is admittedly easily disrupted but I also haven't noticed a difference in sleep quality when skipping my afternoon cup.
This is not true for me. If I get a 20-minute nap in the middle of the day, I wake up wasted. It takes around another 20 minutes for me to get really awaken.
If you haven't do so already, perhaps you could try to experiment within +/- 5/10 minutes, to see where you sleep cycle hits better. It can make a whole lot of a difference.
Would not recommend this unless you’ve studied the Wim Hof method and have medical supervision.
Our brains compensate for sleep deprivation by releasing increased dopamine in the striatum, which is involved in motivation and reward, and the thalamus, which is involved in alertness. On top of that, one of the effects of sleep deprivation is a reduction in your ability to tell how sleep deprived you are.
If you're sleep deprived, you're running on a natural high. If you get just enough sleep to get close to rested, that extra striatum and thalamus dopamine stops, and you also regain your ability to perceive yourself.
That feels really bad. Not only do you forego the high, but you can feel every bit of the lack of rest. It's like the end of a bender. The only good thing is knowing you're making progress back to relatedness.
https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/p/you-cant-optimize...
Takeaway:
There are two key points. First, our exhaustion—in its various material and immaterial dimensions—is a consequence of the part we play in a techno-social milieu whose rhythms, scale, pace, and demands are not conducive to our well-being, to say nothing of the well-being of other creatures and the planet we share. Second, the remedies to which we often turn may themselves be counterproductive because their function is not to alter the larger system which has yielded a state of chronic exhaustion but rather to keep us functioning within it. Moreover, not only do the remedies fail to address the root of the problem, but there’s also a tendency to carry into our efforts to find rest the very same spirit which animates the system that left us tired and burnt out. Rest takes on the character of a project to be completed or an experience to be consumed. In neither case do we ultimately find any sort of meaningful and enduring relief or renewal.>I have no hobby. Not that I am the kind of workaholic, who is incapable of doing anything with his time but applying himself industriously to the required task. But, as far as my activities beyond the bounds of my recognized profession are concerned, I take them all, without exception, very seriously.
Free Time and Rest are actually what makes us intelligent and creative. Work is experienced within its own constraint while free time let us explore and make fortunate mistakes.
10+ years later - 95% comments, 5% reading articles themselves.
That’s the way I almost always use HN, for better or worse.
Be purposeful with sleep. Work out how many hours you need, have a schedule, stick to it. I do 2200-0600, if I’m out late I still get up at 0600, a few ‘short’ nights a week won’t ruin my energy. Also, if I’m stuck at home, nothing interesting happens after 10pm. Distractions like my phone are kept in another room.
Push mindless binging out for more intensive activities. As OP says, rest does not have to be relaxed. It doesn’t have to be solitary, although it can be. The things I do (and what they bring me) are: board gaming (social), tennis (social, competition, exercise), running (solitary, calming, exercise), woodworking (solitary, satisfaction), Age of Empires II (competition), and piano (solitary, creative). It seems a lot when I write it down, but I still have a fair amount of downtime.
If I understand the article correct then rest is not about “not thinking”. Rest can also be about engagement (for example sports or a making music). Just using different parts of your brain which are usually not directly used for work.
If it never stops thinking try meditation practice, it will help after a couple times already (for me at least).
Also sometimes it can be good to “reset” the brain by going into the wilderness or a retreat or have a day nap.
Yoga Nidra version https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=yoga+nidra+20+m...
try either, and see how you feel compared to your usual rest methods, gl
Something like this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086PYS5VG?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&ref_...
Additionally, I find a bit of boredom is helpful in making an activity restful. For example, I love The Expanse TV show but sometimes it's very slow moving and I find myself wanting to stimulate my brain more than it's currently being stimulated by the show if that makes sense. However, I've found that if I embrace the boredom, resist the urge to take my eyes off of the TV, and just "float" in the moment so to speak, after about 15-20 mins the discomfort fades and I lose myself in the narrative. I find this "losing of oneself" in an activity or experience to be very restful and rejuvenating.
Have a bed that you sleep in.
Don't do anything in that bed other than sleep. If you are laying trying to sleep and find you cannot, get out of that bed and go elsewhere.
This trains you to associate that bed with sleep and nothing else. It makes it so that when you go there in the future you have an ingrained habit that tells you it is time to sleep. Even reading in bed screwed it up for me.
I think basically the same approach fits any other activity. If you want to get deeply in the flow for learning karate you have a dojo that you associate with it. You get way less distracted because you only do one thing there.
I think sleep or laying still and meditating is about the most useful kind of rest for me, so I originally mostly talked about sleep. I think that the ability to get deeply into a task is generally strongly associated with environmental cues. Bowing before you start karate practice is a formal way to move into deep practice, even if you're practicing on your own.
L-theanine is fantastic too with my morning coffee. Alertness without the jitters.
I never had any problem sleeping, I just wouldn't let myself do it enough.
So the book is mostly documenting his research into the negative effects of a lack of sleep. Totally worthy and interesting. But the great thing for YOU is that you don't need to read the book. Just those 12 tips.
I'm 41. Over the years I have tried lots of ways to sleep well: various herbs, pills, etc. Ultimately I found, for me, there's no way to hack it. Good sleep is a part of lifestyle. Matthew Walker says the most important thing is routine: now I get in bed at 9:30pm, I read for an hour, I fall asleep around 11pm, I wake up at 6:55, etc. Almost every day, I allow some flex on the weekend. And a party is a party, I give myself a freebie on those (sadly increasingly rare) occasions.
You must get reasonable daily exercise. You can't drink a lot of alcohol and expect to sleep well. Don't bring your devices into the bedroom, read a paper book. Try to get cozy at night. Chamomile tea is wonderful. Look into sleep masks as I found as I got older I became more sensitive to light & a sleep mask helps. Spend some money on your bedroom: a good mattress, fan, blinds, the right temperature, etc.
It totally works! I sleep fantastic these days! Best of luck to you in turn.
Everything I've ever heard about the publishing industry contradicts what you have supposed. But I don't have any real evidence!
EDIT: 90% sure it was on one of these https://duckduckgo.com/?q=matthew+walker+site%3Apeterattiamd...
To be fair though (not that it excuses it) but pop-science/livestyle book written by academics to gain more notoriety usually suffer from this issue that a lot could be fixed by doing X. Livespan by David Sinclair also does this by basically pinning everything on aging.
It makes for a good read but I think it's best to always keep a healthy skepticism.
https://hubermanlab.com/toolkit-for-sleep/
Thanks for the second suggestion, I’ll have a look.
Typically, you want to avoid even water some time before going to sleep, such that you won’t wake up to go to the bathroom.
To better understand what leisure is, Pieper points to the etymological roots of words like "school" (from the Greek word for "leisure") and points to the distinction between the liberal arts and the servile arts (the former are superior to the latter and what the latter exist to enable). By definition, work is for the sake of something; you don't work for work's sake. Our culture either worships work for its own sake (an absurdity and largely a neurotic distraction from our own nihilism) or it terminates with a preoccupation with consumption and indulgence of various appetites. A culture frustrated by a false materialistic/mechanistic anthropology will produce this kind of vulgar ethos.