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Comment by mythhouse | Hacker News Reader

I had unlimited energy till about 40 and then I hit some sort of cliff. This coincided with covid and being indoors using high velocity media like reddit/insta. I am not sure how much is age and how much is habits that caused this.

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My energy levels drop drastically when I'm doing too much "high velocity media" or bottomless wells, be it Reddit, regular news, tv shows, movies, games, etc.

I think it fries your dopamine and other neurological circuits. I don't know the science in depth but I have seen enough anecdotal evidence on myself and others to be persuaded that the relationship is huge.

Do a screen fast for a couple of weeks and check out what happens.

This is turning into a great thread and this comment is the most impactful one for me. I'm going to give it a go. My daughter is 18 and at least half her peer group are in a dreadful state in terms of mental health. You have to wonder if the impact of the modern media environment is way worse than we've comprehended. Of course that's totally unempirical but is the funding there for the studies we need? In any case it's easy to run the personal experiment, as you've suggested.

Recent studies suggest that counter to popular belief our metabolism doesn't change from age 20 to age 60. There are individual factors that can certainly account for your change of energy and I would certainly look for culprits.

I recently did a big change in myself - adjusted sleep, took specific supplements which I was suspect was deficient in and have found my energy to be much fuller. Do not ignore what your body is telling you.

My ex worked on a study that involved testing people's short-term memory. She mentioned a clear and abrupt change around the age of 45, though that wasn't what they studied and of course was not included in the study results. This issue is highly politically charged.

I heard that was related to memory strategy (i.e. the brain focusing on more important methods and information) and not ability. I'd be curious on the results - clearly they aren't published though.

That's right when your eyes change, too. It's so predictable, optometrists can tell you what age you are.

A study https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2019/12/17/aging-research-plas... found some blood protein changes at ages 34, 60 & 78.

I think your last sentence is the crucial one. Up until 40, I could pretty much push through whatever tasks I needed to do regardless of how poor my sleep habits or diet had been. Now, as I approach 50, I really feel it on days where I haven't been taking proper care of myself.

Our metabolism doesn't change in the technical sense, but in the popular sense of the word "metabolism" people absolutely slow down. At 20, missing a night's sleep wasn't even that big a deal. At 50 it is essentially impossible. I don't know what the underlying mechanisms are, but that's what people mean when they (incorrectly, it seems) say "metabolism".

Sleep quality pretty steadily declines with age - your 8 hours of sleep simply count for less than it used to, and you're actually consistently operating on decreased sleep

And that's even without factoring in children!

Out of curiosity how scientific or not of an approach did you take on the supplements. For instance I can't imagine you did double blinds on single supplements but did you start taking a bunch of stuff at once and assess later you felt ok? Tweak one thing at a time? something else?

I used to be able to work 36hrs straight (random work crunch every few years). Hit 40, launched into such a session, 2am hit a wall... "Can't. do. this..." Laid my head down on my desk and slept for 2hrs. Haven't been able to pull an all-nighter since.

It's a feature not a bug.

Easy enough to test, get off the high velocity media and do normal things like socialize / get out of the house (if you're aren't already) for 2-3 months and see if things change.

yes!! . I am in colorado for a 3 month work/ski trip hoping to ski 3 days/week. I don't use my phone on the slow ski lifts. Its amazing to be phone free for the whole day out in the mountains.

If you're male, you might want to check with your physician to see what your testosterone levels are like. You're at the age where it starts declining and it can have a really fatiguing effect.

I've gotten it tested. I am indeed on the lower end of the range. But there is nothing that can be done about it right? I do workout 6 times a week with 3 weight training, eat very decent diet. My weight, bodyfat and muscle tone are in good standing too. All That really hasn't raised my testosterone. I don't want to get on TRT.

Just curious why you don't want to get on TRT?

Even worse: high velocity work distractions, Teams, Slack, etc.

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