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Comment by budsniffer952 | Hacker News Reader

I love that people have developed a "sleep stack" without ever even knowing if what they take is improving the effects of sleep.

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People would rather get a wifi connected smart bed and track their sleep stats with a smart watch than put their phone away and read a book before bed

To be fair, the 8sleep is pretty nice because it heats and cools you so you get better sleep, and you can still put your phone away if you have one.

Better sleep than what?

Humans have been sleeping for at least 400 years

at least!

I get what you're saying, but let's not pretend the modern world isn't meaningfully different. Artificial light is a big factor, yes. So are odd and constantly changing work hours from a world that now operates 24/7. So is the common expectation of monophasic sleep in general. So is travel and jet lag that we now have to endure, and dietary changes, and stimulants especially for folks who just don't even have 8 uninterrupted hours available for sleep. So are dramatic global temperature changes. The list goes on, and there is more data in this paper https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11152632/

I can hardly blame anyone for wanting to "hack" or "optimize" their sleep. It seems more necessary now than it has ever been.

I suspect their point was that optimising sleep is relatively simple. Go to bed in a timely manner, keep your bedroom cool, use blackout blinds and sunrise lamps. Don't drink caffeine in the afternoon or evening. It's not rocket science.

Are you sceptical if people have slept before 1600, or what's with the "at least?"

Conservative estimate

I know an obese individual who has one and I'm sure having a ventilated bed helps them sleep more comfortably.

Health concerns make sense

I wonder what the actual sleep quality of people 400 years ago looked like

My guess would be "not great"

Sure and health-science hasn't improved since then right?

Which is total unrelated and therefore i dont know what you want to commit to the discussion.

It’s not unrelated. Avoiding light before bed, seeing sunlight in the morning, and keeping a regular waketime, has a great impact on sleep.

They said that putting your phone away and reading a book before going to sleep improves the quality of your sleep. That's just not true.

It is actually true!

"Americans have a special horror of giving up control, of letting things happen in their own way without interference. They would like to jump down into their stomachs and digest the food and shovel the shit out."

William Burroughs - Naked Lunch

"sleep stack" gets my vote for winner of the 2026 "How You Know You're On HN" award

It's common in the biohacking community especially on X. I've heard about it there much earlier and more frequently than I ever did here.

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