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Comment by thomasahle | Hacker News Reader

For years I fell asleep thinking about some math problem I was working on. Worked wonders, never had any issues falling asleep.

Then I left academia, and were no longer thinking about math all day. An unforeseen consequence: I started having issues falling asleep.

Now I need to regularly look up puzzles or maybe challenging programming problems, just to have something relaxing to fill my mind while falling asleep.

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This has the exact opposite effect on me because I find it too mentally engaging and it also ends up tied up with anxiety. I can end up in weird spirals and have to stick on some noise to break my brain out of it. I do envy the ability to relax that way though.

This is definitely anti-advice for me. Obsession with a problem is a stimulant, and a mind that doesn't want to put something down will be in pain soon. I noticed this with my kids learning to crawl. They were so intoxicated by the new activity and mobility it represented, they wanted to do it all the time, and so they did it to exhaustion. For a few days, it made them alternate between excited and miserable. Then it became just another thing they knew how to do, ending the oscillation. But I can't help but think there was a good lesson there.

It bears a risk of developing a connection and feeling sleepy every time you need to do some math. :D

I have certain books that I just gave up on for this reason. Once it becomes my "bedtime book" its impossible for me to read a few pages and not nod off!

I have occasionally had an opposite experience with you: sometimes I worked out some math problem in my dream and I woke up to write it down.

If I think about some problems while I'm trying to sleep, it would just keep me awake though.

What kind of problems would you be thinking? How does that work—Is the thinking process making you tired so you fall asleep, or does it make you more relaxing?

For me I sometimes fall asleep to undergrad math problems, the more challenging ones. By then, I'm too tired to want to write things down (since that will wake me up), so it's really hard to make actual progress, or thoroughly plan out the formal steps required to verify a proof approach. So I just keep turning it over while trying to keep everything in my head. The focus required stops my mind from wandering and getting distracted.

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