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Comment by serguzest | Hacker News Reader

This writing is as unhelpful as telling an obese person simply to exercise and eat less. Everyone is different; I'm one of those people who were made to protect the tribe while they sleep. I'm naturally nocturnal, and the silence of the night makes me more alert. Turning on a not-so-interesting documentary or political commentary on YouTube actually helps me relax and fall asleep.

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For night owls, all these habits are temporary.

I've done a stretch of 2 weeks to 2 months of being an early riser, but inevitably, like clockwork, the sleep schedule drifts back to me going to bed around 2 AM and waking up around 10AM.

And yes, I've tried everything.

As a parent of a 5 and 3 year old, I can confirm. No matter how long I’m forced successfully into getting up early, I’m still more alert and focused and happy as soon as the sun sets, and given the opportunity I’ll instantly slip back into sleeping at 1-2 am again.

My secret has just been consistently going to bed and getting up at the same time as my wife, who is not a night owl, every night. Some nights are frustrating and take me longer to fall asleep, most mornings I feel bit groggy, and I'm overall not thrilled with my experience with sleep, but I'm able to keep a consistent schedule without rubberbanding amounts of sleep, I'm rarely truly exhausted during the day, and my waking hours overlaps consistently with society and businesses.

It's certainly an imperfect compromise, but it works well enough.

I've tried to chase down the literature on the genetic basis for DSPS. It's still a developing field, but there have been some compelling studies that are narrowing down gene loci for night-owls.

1. https://www.nature.com/articles/npp2009230 2. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00125-015-3533-8 3. https://www.sjweh.fi/article/3299

Same, I'm nocturnal and a naturally anxious person. If I lie in bed doing nothing, I will just think about things that make me more anxious.

A nice podcast or documentary will focus my thoughts on whatever I'm listening to and help me fall asleep easier.

Ugh. Does that affect the other people around you?

Asking because I live with a relative who has a similar problem (needs a tv on to fall asleep) and that noise directly stops me from falling asleep in the next room much of the time.

It really sucks. :(

I live alone so no :)

If it was bothering other people around me I'd listen with my airpods.

Interestingly, my parents who are in their 60s, have no problems getting to sleep early, and they both fall asleep together to TV all the time, mostly watching reruns of old shows like Columbo

As said relative to do what I do. For the last 30 years I've fallen asleep with one earphone in my ear. I nod off quick, wife not disturbed.

Unfortunately, the relative isn't receptive to requests nor negotiation. Oh well. :(

I take that back. For the first time ever, last night the relative actually turned down the volume without cracking the shits, turning it up instead, etc. (!)

I wonder how big the cohort of users that turn on mildly interesting content to fall asleep to is?

How would a creator feel to find out most of their views are people falling asleep?

How it's Made does it for me. Based on a lot of the youtube comments, there are quite a lot of others as well!

An advertising supported YouTube creator would be delighted!

No, literally a lot of creators target this market now — for instance by making a mega mix of their existing content which runs for two to three hours. Or releasing a video „xxx hours of yyy to fall asleep to“

It’s the new ‚meta’, apparently a big part of the YouTube algorithm is watch time, and it doesn’t know if the viewers are awake or not. Even if those viewers aren’t being shown adverts, it means your other videos may get additional promotion. Plus if your viewers have YouTube premium I believe watch—time literally translates directly to payment rates.

I've tried to chase down the literature on the genetic basis for DSPS. It's still a developing field, but there have been some compelling studies that are narrowing down gene loci for night-owls.

Edit link: https://x.com/EMSKEPhyto/status/1774210043971305814

It is funny that my comment was upvoted at night and downvoted in the morning by early birds. Dear early birds, your lifestyle is not canonical. Yes, our civilization was built by you guys, but it wouldn't have happened if we night owls had not protected you while you slept.

There are HN readers in almost every time zone, so it's not night owls and early birds. I think it's downvoted because it's a shallow dismissal.

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