This is very useful. You can combine this with another good practice by writing down the first task that you're going to tackle in the morning once you've woken up - e. g. that painful email you've been postponing for the last couple of weeks. This carries the additional benefit of having a clear cut productive start in the day.
This doesn't necessarily work for me. I will start going down the rabbit hole of fleshing out ideas and going down corridors of thought, and I'll soon have filled up four or five pages of a legal pad only to have amplified the circus in my head to a deafening level.
I find a glass of scotch and putting on an old TV episode that I've seen 100 times before to personally be the best cure for insomnia.
I have the same problem. Once I write down what I have to do I start thinking about the best way to do it and all the possible scenarios it could lead to.
I've found that having a regular sleep time has helped me the most. I get up between 7am and 9am everyday and go to bed between 11pm and 12am. If I keep to this schedule I find myself naturally getting tired around 11pm everyday. If I don't keep this schedule (which happens often before I rediscover it's benefits) I find I suffer from bad insomnia and often lie awake all night even when I feel extremely tired.
I never understood the old TV show/movie technique, but I might have to try it now. My girlfriend's mother watches Pride and Prejudice almost every night before bed, and I never really got it.
I'd suspect that it can be helpful because it distracts you from thinking about other things, and if it's a show you're familiar with (or something where you don't need to pay too much attention) then it doesn't require much active effort from you either, hopefully leaving you in a state where you've purged yourself of too many other pressing thoughts and you're relaxed - both of which should help you sleep.
A book might be better though, since blue light is supposed to promote wakefulness and is more prevalent in light coming from screens that from your average light bulb.
(FWIW - I tend to watch cartoons on my iPhone just before I go to sleep, but only ones which I find slightly amusing and wouldn't watch otherwise)
I've found audiobooks work really well - there's no screen glow to keep you up and most players let you set up a shutdown timer.
The Audible edition of Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" has worked really well for me: it's a fascinating panorama of history, but very episodic so you don't miss out on plot points if you actually fall asleep; the writing style is clear, elegant, and often funny; and the narrator has a calming voice and a smooth even tone throughout all 1300+ years of history so you won't be jarred awake by changes in volume.
I was a terribly good sleeper, up to some point a year and some months ago. Since I had travelled, I thought I had a jetlag. But the insomnia continued for months. Then I started to change things:
- Change my bed time from 24:00 to 23:00. Whenever I don't sleep immediately, my mind doesn't go into the 'yet another night' train. Instead it changes to 'there's still plenty time to sleep'. On the upside, when I sleep quickly, I get plenty of sleep compensation.
- Be regular. During the weekends I try to get to bed at most an hour later and get out of bed an hour later. I notice may body gets accustomed to that schedule. I get tired at the right time, and wake up at the right time.
- I stopped reading news sites (including Hacker News) after 21:00. They get me exited and put my mind into overdrive.
- I stopped using a computer or mobile phone after 22:00. Lots of research has shown that prolonged screen use reduces melatolin production.
- End the day with some simple activity that is only mildly interesting. E.g., if you are not too much into sports, watch some boring sports on television.
- Have some melatolin tablets at home, just in case you have some really bad nights. It's said that they do very little harm.
- Have a second place in your house to sleep (e.g. a couch) if you have a partner. You can avoid keeping him/her awake as well.
- Stop worrying about sleep. It's hard, but it helps.
Since I made these changes, I sleep well 95% of the time. The other 5% I still sleep enough ours to make it through the day.
With respect to the Scotch, as much as I like Scotch, I would avoid it. It helps some, but it can quickly turn into an addiction.
Assuming that all that's keeping you thinking is that concrete and thus being able to be written down, and that nothing new comes up while you're settling in. I seriously doubt that writing down sth. like "Does the little red-haired girl like me? Probably not." terminate all distracting thought.
I don't mean to be cynical, but it seems like someone else has just "discovered" the motivation for GTD. After all, that's the entire point of the system; Loading everything you need to remember into a trusted system so that your mind can remain clear, focused, and relaxed.
True, I have the urge to check my mails often when my system lies in front of me, I made it a point to keep my laptop inside its case before sleeping and this has reduced the email urge to a great extent.
I do this - all my technology is in another room of the house. My computer, phone, TV, none of it is in my bedroom. I just plug my phone into a charger in another room overnight.
The only concession to technology in my bedroom is a DAB clock radio. I'm not interested in checking Twitter or email or whatever from bed, but if it's there, I'll do it instead of sleeping. So just keeping all that stuff in a different room works!
This article is nonsense. It's just a sales pitch for some software. Going on the computer and writing your notes in that software just before bed is likely to harm your sleep, as is going on a computer to do anything right before bed...
But but... My phone is my alarm clock too. And my music player. And bedside flashlight. And the PC is the HTPC for my TV...which I watch when falling asleep.
This is not the reason I can't sleep. I fall asleep just fine. I have a hard time staying asleep because of the small child who climbs into my bed in the middle of the night. Even then, it's not the extra person in the bed as much as getting kicked for the rest of the night.
"The notebook and pen are professional equipment, as it were. Though actually there is something druglike about them, in the sense that their main purpose is to make me feel better. I hardly ever go back and read stuff I write down in notebooks. It's just that if I can't write things down, worrying about remembering one idea gets in the way of having the next. Pen and paper wick ideas."
Although, I find that most of the time I toss-and-turn b/c my mind is continuously thinking about solving some problem at hand. It's 3am and I should go to bed, otherwise I'll be a zombie at the office tomorrow, but there is this problem that I have to stop thinking about first. Creativity doesn't really follow the same schedules as "business hours"; I would suggest that if you can, stay awake thinking/working/doing until you can't anymore.
Brain activity aside, I would recommend everybody to exercise at least half an hour in the evening. It guarantees a nice feeling of tiredness at night, and sleep comes easily. Works wonders for me.
For me and many others, exercising before sleep will just keep us up for a few more hours.
I prefer to get my exercise in the late morning or early afternoon. Unless it's a very hot day, then I like to exercise in the morning while the day is heating up.
For example, I exercise from 19-20 and go to sleep at midnight. But if I have a football match at, say, 23, then it's impossible to go to sleep afterwards, I'm too tired.
Try whatever works for you. Humans are meant to exercise in order to follow their natural metabolism cycle, so an hour of any exercise, just before dinner, works wonders.
As someone with serious insomnia, this post comes across almost as selling snake oil. Caffeine, alcohol, general nutrition, sleep hygiene (good sleep habits), sunlight exposure, temperature, eating habits (time/size of meals), all matter -- most of them more than mental state.
From my 20+ years of personally-motivated research on this, I believe the most influential factors in insomnia are, in order:
(1) A controlled, regular schedule of caffeine; limited alcohol.
(2) If it exists, a week+ long pattern of waking up at the same time.
(3) Exposure to sunlight.
The author's advice is still useful, although I disagree that insomnia "...can be fixed easily and quickly."
The article is called "Why you can't sleep," and the author most often uses the second person "you." Sometimes the post talks about why "we" can't sleep.
So the author's reasoning goes like this: you can't sleep because you think of stuff (1), and you think of stuff because you are afraid to forget it (1). I agree partly with (1). It is definitely one a major reason sleep stays away. (2) however is way to general. Waaaaaaaay. Maybe it's true for tha author, but putting it like it's the next big truth is a reason not to be taken seriously by any psychologist. Or by me and probably the major part of HN.
You know what else can cause racing mind syndrome? Apnea. This is when stop breathing periodically at night. The kind that are caused by the muscles in your throat relaxing and closing off or restricting your airway can be treated.
What happens is you start to drift off, you relax, an apnea happens, and your body gives you a dose of adrenalin to help wake you up to breath. Hence the mind racing. Often you don't even realize you had started to drift off at all, and just think your mind has been spinning wildly keeping you awake.
I flagged this post. The article is not written by anyone with a background in the topic, and is a blatant spam for a to-do list app. There's nothing wrong with promoting one's projects here, but I'd rather see it done honestly, not snuck into an article on sleep.
42 comments
[ 2.0 ms ] story [ 36.2 ms ] threadI find a glass of scotch and putting on an old TV episode that I've seen 100 times before to personally be the best cure for insomnia.
I've found that having a regular sleep time has helped me the most. I get up between 7am and 9am everyday and go to bed between 11pm and 12am. If I keep to this schedule I find myself naturally getting tired around 11pm everyday. If I don't keep this schedule (which happens often before I rediscover it's benefits) I find I suffer from bad insomnia and often lie awake all night even when I feel extremely tired.
A book might be better though, since blue light is supposed to promote wakefulness and is more prevalent in light coming from screens that from your average light bulb.
(FWIW - I tend to watch cartoons on my iPhone just before I go to sleep, but only ones which I find slightly amusing and wouldn't watch otherwise)
The Audible edition of Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" has worked really well for me: it's a fascinating panorama of history, but very episodic so you don't miss out on plot points if you actually fall asleep; the writing style is clear, elegant, and often funny; and the narrator has a calming voice and a smooth even tone throughout all 1300+ years of history so you won't be jarred awake by changes in volume.
- Change my bed time from 24:00 to 23:00. Whenever I don't sleep immediately, my mind doesn't go into the 'yet another night' train. Instead it changes to 'there's still plenty time to sleep'. On the upside, when I sleep quickly, I get plenty of sleep compensation.
- Be regular. During the weekends I try to get to bed at most an hour later and get out of bed an hour later. I notice may body gets accustomed to that schedule. I get tired at the right time, and wake up at the right time.
- I stopped reading news sites (including Hacker News) after 21:00. They get me exited and put my mind into overdrive.
- I stopped using a computer or mobile phone after 22:00. Lots of research has shown that prolonged screen use reduces melatolin production.
- End the day with some simple activity that is only mildly interesting. E.g., if you are not too much into sports, watch some boring sports on television.
- Have some melatolin tablets at home, just in case you have some really bad nights. It's said that they do very little harm.
- Have a second place in your house to sleep (e.g. a couch) if you have a partner. You can avoid keeping him/her awake as well.
- Stop worrying about sleep. It's hard, but it helps.
Since I made these changes, I sleep well 95% of the time. The other 5% I still sleep enough ours to make it through the day.
With respect to the Scotch, as much as I like Scotch, I would avoid it. It helps some, but it can quickly turn into an addiction.
Works like a charm for me.
But if you are not well organized, then this 1 simple technique comes in handy.
The only concession to technology in my bedroom is a DAB clock radio. I'm not interested in checking Twitter or email or whatever from bed, but if it's there, I'll do it instead of sleeping. So just keeping all that stuff in a different room works!
This article is nonsense. It's just a sales pitch for some software. Going on the computer and writing your notes in that software just before bed is likely to harm your sleep, as is going on a computer to do anything right before bed...
Nice advert though.
"The notebook and pen are professional equipment, as it were. Though actually there is something druglike about them, in the sense that their main purpose is to make me feel better. I hardly ever go back and read stuff I write down in notebooks. It's just that if I can't write things down, worrying about remembering one idea gets in the way of having the next. Pen and paper wick ideas."
Although, I find that most of the time I toss-and-turn b/c my mind is continuously thinking about solving some problem at hand. It's 3am and I should go to bed, otherwise I'll be a zombie at the office tomorrow, but there is this problem that I have to stop thinking about first. Creativity doesn't really follow the same schedules as "business hours"; I would suggest that if you can, stay awake thinking/working/doing until you can't anymore.
At least in my personal case, I've solved the hardest problems while being asleep.
I prefer to get my exercise in the late morning or early afternoon. Unless it's a very hot day, then I like to exercise in the morning while the day is heating up.
For example, I exercise from 19-20 and go to sleep at midnight. But if I have a football match at, say, 23, then it's impossible to go to sleep afterwards, I'm too tired.
Try whatever works for you. Humans are meant to exercise in order to follow their natural metabolism cycle, so an hour of any exercise, just before dinner, works wonders.
From my 20+ years of personally-motivated research on this, I believe the most influential factors in insomnia are, in order:
(1) A controlled, regular schedule of caffeine; limited alcohol. (2) If it exists, a week+ long pattern of waking up at the same time. (3) Exposure to sunlight.
The author's advice is still useful, although I disagree that insomnia "...can be fixed easily and quickly."
As somebody who doesn't sleep well or much, how do you define 'serious'?
In the context of this article, by 'serious' insomnia, I meant cases that are not just psychological (eg stress).
I didn't mean to downplay significant sleep troubles due to stress alone. Even in those cases, non-psychological factors should be considered.
What happens is you start to drift off, you relax, an apnea happens, and your body gives you a dose of adrenalin to help wake you up to breath. Hence the mind racing. Often you don't even realize you had started to drift off at all, and just think your mind has been spinning wildly keeping you awake.