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I do relate to that state of barely getting any sleep and then having a lost day. 2022 Dec was my worst month so far when it comes to sleep. I had a few weeks when I'd sleep for 1-5 hours for many consecutive days and then I couldn't function on those days at all. My performance at work really dropped. I took a sabbatical with the main goal of improving my sleep.
In January I went for 1 week to Morocco (I'm originally from Northern/Eastern Europe) to visit a friend, and my sleep was dramatically better there. I did take my sleep medication on a few nights, but still the quality of sleep was very different. It might have been a combination of psychological (foreign place, less stress) and physical (sun, movement/walking) factors, but the main lesson for me was that improvement is possible.
After going back to my home country my sleep returned to baseline (terrible), but over the last several weeks it's been improving. It'd take a lot of text to describe all the things I've tried during all those years.
One of my recent discoveries was that I probably wasn't consuming enough protein (I'm fairly physically active) and consuming too much fat. Changing that improved my sleep ~15%. Just being on a sabbatical and having no work related thoughts/stress improved my sleep maybe 20%. I'm also currently experimenting with Magnesium L-Threonate and Apigenin (I only started those, but I do seem to notice that I feel better the next day).
Your situation might be very different, but with this comment I wanted to say that your solution might be somewhere out there. Just don't lose hope.
There's also an emerging market of RLCD (reflective LCD) monitors which don't use internal backlight but instead rely on external light. If the monitor receives enough light the image is pretty sharp (they _need_ external light to be usable).
They are mostly available in bigger sizes but their resolution isn't great yet (I haven't seen higher than 1080p). But it seems that due to different technologies used, the text should be quite smooth and not that pixelated.
For example, if you have a new battery you also have 1000 credits. If you swap it for an older battery (which is worth, say, 500 credits), you'll have a battery and 500 credits in your account. Next time if you get a newer battery which is worth 800 credits, you'll have only 200 credits left in your account.
Also those credits could decrease as you use batteries. You could replenish them with payments.
Another thing that helped me is reducing my water intake (this might vary a lot per person). I suspect I had a form of electrolyte imbalance, because I've been drinking a lot of water, but still felt thirsty quite often. I've learned that balance is key when it comes to hydration, so now I drink a bit less of fluids but as a result feel overall a lot better. I also try to include more of magnesium and potassium rich foods in my diet.
I wonder whether there are practical/efficient ways of decreasing humidity in situations like this in closed spaces?
So that you could use a regular fan again to cool yourself by means of evaporation of water off of your skin.
I wonder whether this could be automated, e.g. you click on the macOS toolbar and a macOS app communicates with an Android app and the apps do the needed actions in the respective operating systems (enable tethering on Android, connect to the WiFi network from macOS).
I have neither directly used this package nor have anything to do with arboriculture (what arborists engage in), I just thought that someone chose a very fitting name for an npm package.
After seeing this HN post I couldn't not share this finding.
It was already mentioned in other threads, but you can find valuable insights in the AIP (autoimmune protocol) diet.
Its main principle is that you first eliminate as many foods as possible that are known to cause issues for people (e.g. due to inflammation, autoimmune response) and then you slowly introduce more foods and see how your body reacts.
I recently started following a similar approach in order to try to address some health issues and also to learn more about my body. In my case I'm leaning more towards the carnivore diet with occasional additions of foods allowed in AIP.
In case anyone is curious about the carnivore diet, I found these YouTube channels to contain good content on this topic: KenDBerryMD, Paul Saladino (CarnivoreMD).
I also enjoyed this discussion: https://youtu.be/Xgokvp5bfNg
It's easy to stumble upon conflicting information when it comes to nutrition, but I find that just being exposed to more options (rather than eating what everyone eats by default) can give you an opportunity to make the decisions that make sense to you.
As for someone who has been living in the same city for their whole adult life, the thought of finding a place in a different country/city that would tick as many boxes as possible seems quite daunting.
I used to have occasional symptoms of dry eyes without knowing what it was. It all changed after I got LASEK (a bit different from LASIK, but the ultimate goal is the same) about 2 years ago. It's not clear whether LASEK contributed to my condition, or whether it was a coincidence, but my life changed afterwards.
I used to have days when I was physically unable to look at a computer screen, due to the discomfort (burning sensation) and photophobia (light from the screen would look really uncomfortable).
Right now I've adjusted my life and equipment to make living and work more bearable/comfortable. I also got a bit of medical advice/help.
Posting a short summary of what helped and what didn't, in case someone else will find it useful. I've tried so many things, so I might have omitted something.
What helped:
- Changing displays: now I'm using BenQ EL2870U (I went through multiple "eye-care" and non-eye-care displays before I settled on this one). I'm using low-blue-light configuration in the display as well as in macOS. I'm really sensitive to displays with PWM (e.g. 16" MBP). On my OnePlus 7T Pro I switched to DC dimming, which seemed to help too.
- NuLids (https://nulids.com/). It's a "massager" for the eyelids, which stimulates meibomian glands and cleans the eye lids. Both the device and the tips (I boil them and reuse them several times) are a bit pricey but I did feel the difference.
- Sleep position: make sure your eyes aren't pressing on the pillow, as this can prevent them from closing or create unnecessary pressure on the eye/eyelids.
- E-Ink displays: these are good to look at, but hard to do useful work on due to poor refresh rate. I'm using them for reading only (I have Dasung 13.3" monitor and Boox Max Lumi).
- Natural light in the room. There seems to be something about natural light that makes my eyes feel more comfortable when in front of a screen.
- Preservative-free eye drops targeting the lipid tear part (only for short-term relief, but sometimes that's needed).
Not sure whether it helped:
- IRPL (E-Eye). I'll have the 4th treatment soon, but it's hard too judge this because of other parallel things I'm doing (like NuLids). My eyes feel quite good for several hours after a treatment, but then they're back to the usual state.
- Diet (Omega 3, Vitamin A, vegetables, etc)
What didn't help:
- Optimel Manuka Honey Eye Drops/Gel. Some people said that these were revolutionary for them, but my eyes at first felt better and then I got horrible swelling and redness.
- Blue light glasses (I've tried ~10 different brands, including the more expensive and "science-based" ones (Gunnar, BLUblox).
What I want to try:
- Omega 3 supplements with higher EPA/DHA ratio (like PRN Dry Eye Omega)
- Autologous serum eye drops. I can't find anyone who can produce them in my country, but I'm thinking about getting them from abroad.
- Computer glasses for relaxing eye muscles (as mentioned in other comments).