Sleep: Everything You Need to Know
medium.com
medium.com
So just set an alarm for 11pm, and when you hear it, immediately stop what you're doing, save any open documents, turn the TV or computer off. The next 30 minutes are for brushing teeth, settling into bed, and preparing for the following morning only. By then you should be settling into a good night's sleep.
I've also never been a morning person, but when I keep to a strict go-to-bed time, I feel refreshed and awake in the morning even if its early. I guess part of this is that when I'm careful when I go to bed, I also time that I 1) get a plenty of sleep and 2) get up on a 90-minute boundary.
Unfortunately I have a habit of ignoring my go-to-bed alarm :-(
(Ubuntu user since 2004, OSX since about last year)
Tons of people with 3yo MBP's with an install of Snow Leopard, looking longingly at how pretty and useable my little powerless Netbook with 2GB of RAM is with OpenOffice/Dolphin/Blender/Gwenview/Firefox running and 40+ tabs open. They can barely run Safari, iPhoto, Mail.app, and Skype at the same time without constant beachballing, so they sit in quiet humility while I actually get stuff done.
Once installed on their computers, an install that just works, I grab AppMenu (QML) from kde-look and replace the default one. At this point the MBP owner has a better OS experience than Snow Leopard could/does offer, and we haven't even done any tweaking yet. like f.lux or redshift (which you can grab from a ppa). I don't see the crashes you guys do on these apps, oddly enough. just works for me and my customers.
I love you Mac guys, really. You pay top-dollar for your hardware, and then Apple forgets about you in less than 4 years. I almost feel like I'm a rescue worker for abused and battered Apple customers.
I am skeptical of your anecdote. My 2010 MBP was perfectly happy running Xcode, IntelliJ, and pretty much any other applications I'd care to run, and that was before I put a SSD in it (which, naturally, helped a lot).
I think you're stretching the truth by a great deal.
Notes: I don't drink coffee, green tea once in a while, and minimal late-night stimuli (lights mostly off, no music, ...).
Before I started using F.lux there was an obvious taxing period around 1-2am where my eyes might have started to get blurry or headache would set in, assuming I had woken up and started working by ~8am. From there I would either go to bed or brute force the next few hours, despite being aware of the time in general. Now, I don't get that feeling until much later– either at 22hrs when the sun has come up and F.lux begins fading out, or a little later if I'm not paying attention until after the sun has come up and the screen's been blue for a while. (At that point, I either notice the sun through the trees or get a splitting headache).
To further describe where I work: shaded area, floor to ceiling books, no clock, no phones. I do graphic work during the day and by early evening I'm in the command line until whenever. I can usually get out during the day, but sometimes I just don't. I think the proper advice here would be to stop working at home while living in the city, but that's enough OT– I was simply pointing out my experience using F.lux!
I would imagine that any windows or external lighting is going to have a far greater effect than F.lux. I tried F.lux a while ago when it was recommended in a previous HN post but for me the only difference it seemed to have, was to make my computer monitor more difficult to read by making it too dim.
Also for me, my desk lamp automagically dims from 11 to 1pm, just to make me feel a little more sleepy.
Within two months, I had found a setting I felt comfortable at (right now it's at 3500K).
Use time-boxing as a scheduling mechanism. If you find you have more work to do than time to do it, start lopping off items from your to-do list, and/or identifying how you can accomplish a sufficient effort in the time available.
That is likely to be a far more useful life lesson than whatever subject it is you're studying at the moment.
You also have to learn how to schedule downtime. People cannot run 100% 24/7/365, and attempting to do this is at best very painful, and at worst, literally, suicidal.
Don't expect life to get easier. More rewarding, IMO, but not easier.
My dad is an accountant. He gets to work at 7:30am and gets home at 4:30pm. He spends about as many hours at work as I do at school, but when he logs off for the day, he's done. I can't remember the last time I actually completed my obligations for the day. If you do manage to do a good job on all the problem sets and readings before losing consciousness, there's always a test to be studying for or a paper to be revising. I procrastinate because there is literally no such thing as "after homework is done."
I don't mean to complain - I gave myself this courseload and I've done well enough with it that I'll be going to my dream school next year (UChicago - yes, I know, the workload will increase exponentially). Sleep deprivation is a price I chose to pay. But I do think that most professionals have a day which ends - usually before 7pm, but at some point it ends - and several hours to commit to a social life, family, side projects, pleasure reading etc. as they please. Obviously not in 80hr/week fields like law and not in startups about to ship, but on balance. Is this not accurate?
There are a lot of great, lucrative careers that give you a clear boundary between work and home. Some of these are that way by nature, but really all can be. There are niches even in law and medicine, that provide for a if not 40 hour work week, something close to that. These often will be the jobs that pay the below-median salary in that field.
But anything that resembles entrepreneurship is going to feel a lot more like what you are doing now than what you see in your dads career. (Also worth noting on the subject of your dad that you presumably didn't see him when he was starting his career.) Sure, what I said in the previous graf applies to entrepreneurship as well, but... the disposition that drives a strong work/life balance seems often orthogonal to the ambition that leads you to working for yourself to begin with.
So if that life interests you -- if building and growing something is your destiny -- then my POV here is to know that everything you wrote about your current life, the "last time I completed", the "always a next thing to do", the "no such thing as done", all of that applies wholly to entrepreneurship.
Of course, like I mentioned a couple days ago, it can be tremendously rewarding.
I'm only 30, I have a lot to figure out still, so take all that with more than a grain of salt.
If you want a little more unorthodox advice I'd offer, "don't buy the textbook unless either (a) it is a workbook which must be submitted for the grade or (b) you were really so powerfully impressed that you want this book as a lifelong reference." Ask the professor to ask the library to put the textbook on reserve in the library -- so that nobody in the course can take it out, but rather you share it at the library. If this leaves you muttering about Kant's categorical imperative, remember that if someone else is using it, you can form an impromptu study group and make a new friend. :D. For that matter, student societies should have copies of the texts, and a study lounge at the department might also have them. If nothing else works, copy homework problems from a friend taking the same course and look up the same material in alternative texts in the library (or on the Internet) -- but that's almost never necessary.
If you sleep set hours, you’ll sometimes go to bed
when you aren’t sleepy enough. If it’s taking you
more than five minutes to fall asleep each night,
you aren’t sleepy enough. You’re wasting time lying
in bed awake and not being asleep. Another problem
is that you’re assuming you need the same number of
hours of sleep every night, which is a false
assumption. Your sleep needs vary from day to day.
...
The solution was to go to bed when I’m sleepy
(and only when I’m sleepy) and get up with
an alarm clock at a fixed time (7 days per week).
[1]: http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/05/how-to-become-an-ea...
It's called sleep envy and, some nights when I can hear my wife drift off in minutes and I'm not even close to it, it throws me into that mental tailspin that goes through multiple stages like the whiny "why-me", plain anger, frustration and more. The only result, of course, is an even more delayed start of sleep phase.
Plus one for F.lux, I have it on everything I use but recently I updated my phone to the standard IOS thinking it wouldn't be missed since it was the only Jailbreak tweak on my phone, but now I'm missing it so hard I'm seriously considering an Android and its equivalent app. With F.lux on my phone my light sensitivity was better in the day and sleep was better at night.
This advice only works for some people.
http://www.juggleware.com/blog/2012/01/sol-sun-clock-for-iph...
I'm not sure what the equivalent on Android might be; if anyone knows, hopefully they'll weigh in.
The app I linked to is basically a clock that shows you your local solar times (day, night, golden hours, and twilight) at a glance, and can set alarms by them. If you want to wake at civil dawn, or at sunrise, for example, it'll do that.
They had an overhyped alpha phase that never really got to a beta. Then they sold that alpha and everything, from the almost laughable unit itself to the broken website interface to the constantly failing android app, was desperately undertested and destined to fail.
Sorry about the rant. Still kinda bummed out over the $70 bucks I lost on this.
It seems like once people realize they're communicating with other real-life human beings, they are much more civil. Couldn't we try to consider that ahead of time, and avoid the off-handed negativity in the first place? It would make HN (and nonverbal communication in general) much more productive and enjoyable.
If the two comments combined fully capture your viewpoint, why not say something along the lines of, "Your advice is good and the post is fairly well-written, but it sort of comes off as a product advertisement. You cite scientific evidence, but you don't provide any sources, which makes it seem unsubstantiated."
Just a suggestion.
In the true spirit of HN let me 2nd what you are saying and wonder why the parent was so quick to back off what he said.
Although the OP has said he will provide links he also said this:
"I walked into the office on January 9th and suddenly had access to some of the most knowledgeable people on sleep out there."
So who are these people and what makes them so knowledgeable about sleep exactly?
I guess the real question is how do you say this "nicer":
'This post seems like one big, long unsubstantiated bunch of app spam for "zeo"'
maybe:
'I'd like some of the claims here substantiated. On the surface it appears to me that this well written post is simply app spam for "zeo"'
Or they're being honest the entire time, and simply posted about the negative part, because who wants to be that chucklehead going '+1' or 'Good post' ("that's what voting is for, dummy!")? Unfortunately, this then leads to comment sections coming off as negative and essentially being a bugtracker for a submission.
(Some relevant musings on this topic: http://lesswrong.com/lw/3h/why_our_kind_cant_cooperate/ & http://lesswrong.com/lw/372/defecting_by_accident_a_flaw_com... )
HN tends to err on the side of critical feedback, which is a reflection, in part, of the evidence-driven ethos that permeates hacker culture. This is generally a trait I hold in high regard, and take the downside as par for the course. However, I agree with the parent in that having some empathy for those we critique would improve the general tone of discussion here.
If the same content is rephrased in a "custom" way, chargebacks get cancelled, and you will start to get praise for having amazing customer support even if the resolution is the same and even if the final decision isn't what the customer actually wanted in the first place!
Health advice on internet should be scrutinized for the benefit of the readers (the "negative" comment, facts domain).
Content and its author are separate therefore the effort that was put into the post may be commented on separately for the benefit of the author (the "walking back" comment, social domain).
Though it is always great if a comment could be both honest and nice.
Maybe a reasonable litmus test for the HN crowd is: if the article was instead a speech at a conference, would you go up to the speaker afterwards (or during Q&A) and say what you're going to say? If not, why?
Trying to micromanage everything from your sleep schedule to your work schedule to your calorie intake to your fat intake to your social media intake to your exposure to cell phone radiation results in being even more stressed out than you would be if you weren't attempting to keep track of eighty different pseudoscientific lifestyle prescriptions.
Go to sleep. Wake up. Eat food. Do those things, and try to enjoy life while you have it... burning it trying to "optimize" everything is a painful waste of time.
But the entire point of life optimization isn't to sit around thinking about all of this, it's to build healthy habits that allow our "autopilot" to pilot us down previously consciously decided paths.
You should be unconsciously a better person after reinforcing new healthy habits, quite identical to your final phrase of "wake up, eat," etc.
If you're burning out with optimization, you are literally doing it wrong.
And if they're not, people are going to waste a lot of time trying to learn new habits, then find out that they are no better off or perhaps worse, except now they're stuck with new, bad habits to unlearn.
My argument is less with optimization than with spending too much time and effort attempting it without actually gaining anything, or having a reasonable expectation of the same.
I think the point of this is not to optimize for the sake of optimization but to solve a problem. People have problems and they look for solutions. They try anything that can help once all else fails.
The more you have to "work" to lead a healthy life the less likely it is that you'll stay consistent. Find what works for you and incorporate it into your routine.
If you are actually worrying about it, that is bad. If you are thinking about it a little here and there, and trying to improve what you are doing, that is good. It's all about the balance, which is sort of your point too.
I've been having an increasing issue with sleep (not being able to fall asleep, then waking up early and not being able to fall back asleep). I've tried to combat it by being more aware of my habits and patterns, but that's resulting in sleep anxiety. Compounded with the effects of sleep deprivation and I'm easily losing sleep worrying about my sleep habits.
Sample set of 1, though.
Trust me, I've tried.
AFAIK, worry is the main reason for poor sleep. And encountering posts like this at HN and in newspapers all the time may add to the problem.
For example, I had almost gotten back my sleep a couple of months back. And then, every newspaper (and HN) was full of this new research saying that lack of sleep alters genes. I didn't even have to read the articles, the headlines were enough: "Too little sleep is bad for you, it alters genes! My, oh my!". Thanks! Welcome back, sleep problems.
But on what grounds can they conclude that altered genes is bad for your health? The research sure says that things is happening in your body, and that some processes related to e.g. the immune system has been altered. But how bad is it really? Will you die earlier?
There are many things altering your genes. If I look at a picture of a cute kitten, I am pretty sure you can see that in my genes. Also, meditation dramatically alters you genes. (There are stories about monks who hardly need to sleep at all, because they get the rest they need through meditation.)
So, are there big problems with sleeping too little, are there really reasons to worry? I don't know. But like in in many other fields (e.g. nutrition), results of early studies have been stated as "facts", while later studies show that things are a bit more complicated. Antioxidants comes to mind.
There are research suggesting that too little sleep causes heart disease. (Note the word "suggests".) But, if there is a link, is the reason lack of sleep? Or does other factors add to it or cause it, e.g. eating more junk food, that you get more easily annoyed (increasing blood pressure), etc.?
I am not suggesting that you should sleep less, and I believe sleep is important. But I am unsure about how much you should worry if you sleep poorly.
In general, I believe more and more in eating balanced, exercising moderately (walking is good!), and most importantly, taking a break when my body tells me it's time to rest (listening to your body is underrated, and we learn from early childhood to suppress what it tells us). And, very important, stop reading health news. Because adding to almost any problem, is how media (and others) report findings to sell more of their products. They skew reality, and you probably end up worrying more than you should.
Also, your ears are very adaptable: plugging your ears with earbuds will decrease the sound pressure by about 10 dB, which isn't really all that much. As a hearing loss, it would not require treatment. Your ears will adapt and you will still hear most startling sounds. In fact, your ears will have to "concentrate" more, which is known to lead to fatigue.
I wear ear plugs at night, but no mask. I suffer from "night terrors" however, and when they strike I am very disoriented. The earplugs make that worse, and I imagine a mask would be a bad idea too.
I use these earplugs because we go through a lot. http://www.amazon.com/SparkPlugs-Disposable-Earplugs-Nascar-...
They are large, but still comfortable.
Between the eye mask, limiting eating large meals later at night, and cutting back on caffeine, I've reduced my night terrors by about 90% in the past 2 years. YMMV.
Also, I'm not entirely sure where I heard/read it, but I thought it's actually good to wake up with (natural) light, which brings you into a more natural cycle or something. I think I also heard it could help with jet lag, releasing melatonin or something of that sort.
However if you're sleeping at home you want your body to sleep for as long as it needs to, uninterrupted. That means no sunlight, no noise and no alarms. If you get into a consistent schedule you're body will wake up at around the same time everyday. However if you have sleep debt that you need to make up, you also want to give your body the chance to sleep a little extra.
However, perfect consistency is hard to maintain. Even if one avoids the late parties and whatnot, eventually emergencies get in the way or illness comes along and increases the amount of sleep required.
My question is, when consistency must falter, what piece is most important? Going to bed at the same time, getting up at the same time, getting the same amount of sleep, or getting at least some particular amount of sleep? The article here claims it is not the last.
Samsung Android devices like the Note and the Galaxy S3 have AMOLED. On the Play Store, there is a free app called Galactic Night that will let you run the device in red only. Add on another free app called Screen Filter, and suddenly you have a device with perfect lighting that allows you to keep your night vision and let your eyes rest while you drift off to sleep. CyanogenMod used to have this feature; not sure if it still does.
Backlit LCD screens (even ones that use Flux or Red profiles) won't work because even the black pixels are backlit. I've tried using a jailbroken iPad with Color Profiles and it's just not the same.
Finally, you can use an e-reader but I recommend a light source you can add a red gel to. This will have the same effect.
Source: I've been reading on a screen before bed since the days of the Palm III. Also, I used to develop film in a real darkroom.
She settled in on the soft silicone variety, like these http://www.amazon.com/Macks-Pillow-Silicone-Earplugs-Value/d... but she gets the pharmacy or grocery store brand. They let in enough noise that you're not completely isolated, but dampen enough that you're able to sleep through usual noise like spouse snoring, dogs waking up to stretch/scratch/re-position, baby gurgling over the monitor, etc.
Edit: And they're much much more comfortable than the foam varieties tried.
Source: I read a book on it once about a year or so ago. The name of the book was [Buzz: The Science and Lore of Alcohol and Caffeine](http://www.amazon.com/Buzz-Science-Lore-Alcohol-Caffeine/dp/...).
Edit: My source is a knowledgeable person on the subject, feel free to contradict or doubt the truthfulness of the answer - makes sense to me at least.
Cold water is like shock to your system. It wakes your body up.
Your body needs to work on warming the water first.
Although water itself should be good, warm/hand temperature water should be best.
I lift 5 times a week, with another day of cardio and I'm in my mid 30's. My life is pretty good.
> Don't do that, bud.
Based on what information? Many popular lifting schedules call for 5 days on and 2 off per week. I think your projecting your own personal experiences here.
Do you go to a gym or have a home gym? What kind of program are you following?
I'm thinking of half hour max early morning, rotating between major body parts.
The basic outline is that it's 5 exercises, three times a week, with three exercises per day - you alternate some of them. It should take about an hour including warm ups.
There's a wiki, but buy the book. For equipment, you'll need weights, a barbell, squat rack, and bench. It's all stuff a gym should have, or is relatively easy to find on craigslist for cheap.
here's the basic workout, among other beginner programs:
http://i.imgur.com/FvuUb.gif (cheatsheet) or http://pastebin.com/FqDwRp8m (text).
one of the best thing about powerlifting is that it helps correcting some typical programmer ailments like an hollow back or forward slumping shoulders (both are unhealthy and, honestly, just plain unsexy).
you can do SS at home or in a gym; doing it at home requires space and upfront investments for the barbell, bench and squat rack.
gyms differ in quality. most chains don't want their customers to do real training. read this: http://www.mensjournal.com/magazine/everything-you-know-abou... - tl;dr: lift free weights and don't unquestioningly trust the gym (-trainers) - their primary interest is money, not your progress. the gym i went to had just one squat rack, so i often had to wait (can take 20mins). also, gyms, of course, add commute time.
the good thing about gyms is that you can ask others to form-check you, but you have to be able to identify the competent athletes. imo at the cheaper gyms most people know even less about proper workout than i do; they focus on upper body and biceps. i've heard this is called "prison style" workout, but i'm pretty sure most convicts know more about proper form than your average gym-goer :)
if money isn't a problem, you could also try crossfit. it's fun and very effective, but usually not cheap. crossfit venues usually have competent trainers.
alternatively, see if there's an olympic lifting club near you. membership is usually even cheaper than a gym subscription (mine is just 25 euros a year), people are competent, they have enough barbells for everyone and workout is basically the same (full body strength, but more focus on legs, hips and back).
I see alot of comments for starting strength. It's popular if you go to reddit/r/fitness. I don't really happen to like it that much if your starting out on your own. If you have a partner I think its a great work out.
In my opinion, if you're working out at home I'd just buy 2 kettlebells and work out with those instead.
As for my work out it's always anchored by one of the big 3 lifts( squat, deadlift, and bench, though I never do barbell bench anymore I use dumbells).
I then follow up with one of planks, dips and pull ups, followed by 20 minutes of streching and cardio.
The statement that resonated most ith me is "everyone has the same 24 hours in a day. Everyone makes sacrifices to do the things they want, even of they don't realize it."
I've got two kids so I never workout until 8 pm at night. Cardio is running to work. I work at a fund so I can't leave my desk from 9:30 through 4.
I'm also a big fan of flux which lowers the amount of blue light emitted by your monitor: http://stereopsis.com/flux/
Its one page from my first django project which has been abandoned for a while. Its basically a curated affiliate link site (similar to what refer.ly has become)
The beauty of Medium is that I can have people help me proofread my posts before I publish them :).
This is just speculation, but perhaps you sleep better on your side, so that you don't remember your dreams as easily? E.g. if you wake up several times a night, you will remember more dreams than if you don't wake up during the night.
I also like to think the act of putting on my sleeping cap is also a nice subconscious cue that it's sleep time.
Take a moment to thank your parents, everyone, if only because you ruined about a year of their sleep (at least).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EEG
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_consumer_brain–co...
Check out this post for more information: http://dustincurtis.com/sleep.html
However even if you're wearing earplugs you'll be able to hear an alarm, they don't block off noise that much.
For example, if I wear my earplugs in the library, it'll completely muffle the sound of people whispering around me, but I'll still be able to hear the oblivious jock talking at full volume to his buddy at the table across from me.
you should not forget that people are very different. so don't try to impose all these rules on everyone just because it works for you.
I didn't mean to impose anything on anyone, just trying to share some of the things I've learnt :).
The Zeo is the most accurate (since it picks up brainwaves), however it's also slightly uncomfortable and buggy. I personally use the Jawbone UP which works good enough. All of the apps that say they do that aren't the most accurate since they rely on the movement of your mattress. However I know some people who swear by them.
You have sophisticated systems in you to govern consumption of sleep and food. Just don't screw things up with drugs, digital stimulation, social isolation, or junk food. It's all the same issue.
Wants to be hyper-rational and metric-aware about his sleep but didn't know anything about caffeine?
Okay.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/print/caffeine/AN01211/METHOD=prin...
Espresso, restaurant-style 1 oz. (30 mL) 40-75 mg
Generic brewed 8 oz. (240 mL) 95-200 mg
The brewed coffee thus has between 11.9 mg and 25 mg of caffeine per oz.
If you added a shot of espresso (let's assume the weakest one at 40 mg of caffeine) to an 8 oz of very strong coffee (at 200 mg of caffeine), you'd still be increasing the concentration to ~26.7 mg/oz.
And that's stretching the limits of these calculations; a 200 mg 8 oz coffee is crazy strong, amounting to two and a half cans of Red Bull.
Can I just halve the time required if tea has half the caffeine (let's say)?
If you're in the US, the Stash decaf range is IMO the best of the common supermarket brands (the normal American teas like Lipton and Tetley are pretty terrible in their decaf versions). If there's a gourmet store around, they may have the English brands such as Typhoo or PG Tips in decaf, which are pretty great. If you're in the UK then any advice on tea from the likes of me should just be ignored out of hand... :)