2010-05-03 08:46:39 +02:00
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% Ways to Improve Your Sleep
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Some stuff that I found that actually works.
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f.lux
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=====
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[f.lux] controls the level of blue your monitor shows and tones it down during
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the night to allow you to get tired naturally (and not stay up all night,
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playing ケロロRPG like _some_ people). There's quite a bit of research to back
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2010-05-27 18:17:52 +02:00
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it up and I achieved some really good results with it.
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2010-05-03 08:46:39 +02:00
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(While [f.lux] has a Linux version, it's just an ugly binary. Use [Redshift]
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instead. All good distros have it in their repository (i.e., Gentoo).)
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Easy Exercise
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=============
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> When you stress a leg muscle a lot, presumably one or more chemicals are
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> released that both (a) cause the muscle to grow (the well-known effect of
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> exercise) and (b) cause you to sleep more deeply at night (the effect that
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> interests me). In contrast to [normal exercise], there’s no need for the
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> concept of fitness here because you don’t slowly go up and down in a measure
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> of effectiveness (i.e., become more or less fit). Rather each day you are high
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> or low on this measure, and the next day you start fresh. In contrast to
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> [normal exercise], where the benefits accrue slowly (over weeks and months),
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> the benefits are obvious the next morning (you feel better-rested) and the
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> next day (you’re less tired). (...) The benefits are so large relative to the
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> cost that there’s no motivation problem. Deciding to do it is about as hard as
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> deciding to pick up a $10 bill. Deciding to do conventional exercise is a lot
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> harder.
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>
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> Seth Roberts, [Why Did I Sleep So Well?]
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Basically, putting a ltitle bit of stress on muscles causes good sleep. The
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easiest form of doing this is by standing on one leg, while pulling the other
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one behind you, until it starts to feel painful. This takes about a few minutes,
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10 at most, and takes so little motivation you can easily do it every day. Yes,
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it works. It's very awesome. Conventional exercise works, too, but why bother?
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Why run half an hour or more, when you can just stand a bit while cooking or
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watching TV?
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Waking up gently
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================
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I found that alarms that woke me up instantly always screwed with my mental
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alertness in the morning, leading to brain fog and turning off the alarm as an
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angry reflex. Using something that slowly fades into awareness, like slow music,
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works way better. I also got good results by using TV shows. Waking up to
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something engaging and interesting is always good.
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2010-05-27 18:17:52 +02:00
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Unfortunately, I haven't yet tried a strong, gradual light sources, although I
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do have my 3 TFTs set up to turn on each morning, so I suspect that it would
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help as well. Regardless, all artificial light sources pale in comparison to the
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sun, even on a very cloudy day. You aren't able to consciously tell how bright
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something really is (because most of human vision is processed as relative to
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its surrounding, not in absolutes), so it's easy to get this wrong, but during
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my [polyphasic] experiment I found standing outside for even just 5 minutes to
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be a great help in waking up.
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2010-05-03 08:46:39 +02:00
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Caffeine
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========
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No, not in the morning. (Although that helps, too, especially with brain fog.)
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I'm talking about drinking caffeine before going to bed.
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This hack applies only to some brains, mostly people with bipolar or ADD
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personalities. The best sign is whether uppers like caffeine, cocaine or
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Ritanol, especially in small dosages, make you hyper or calm. I actually get
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sleepy from drinking caffeine. It takes me about 2 to 3 hours, minimum, to
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become more active after a cup of coffee.
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The critical part is getting just the right dosage. Caffeine still affects and
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disrupts your tiredness, so drinking to much will prevent you from getting good
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sleep. The tricky thing is that the negative effects will only kick in very
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late, hours later, while you are working like crazy. I have gone multiple times
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for about 3 or 4 days drinking huge amounts of coffee, like at 10 to 20 cups a
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day, feeling great, sleeping great, until I finally found I suddenly couldn't
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sleep all the way through because my legs were twitching so much they started to
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be really sore and my heartbeat sounded very unhealthy.
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Nonetheless, getting enough caffeine, especially in the evening, each day
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greatly improves my sleep, my breathing and my ability to wake up.
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2010-05-27 18:17:52 +02:00
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Unfortunately, it still blocks adenosine, so I find it harder to fall asleep.
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It's quite a paradox state to be in, when you can't fall asleep, but once you
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do, you sleep great. I had even considered taking *both* an upper and a downer,
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like caffeine and diphenhydramine, but found this too silly (and I dislike all
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available downers, including melatonin).
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2010-05-03 08:46:39 +02:00
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[Why Did I Sleep So Well?]:
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http://www.blog.sethroberts.net/2008/09/03/science-in-action-why-did-i-sleep-so-well-part-10-2/
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[f.lux]: http://www.stereopsis.com/flux/
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[Redshift]: http://jonls.dk/redshift/
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2010-05-27 18:17:52 +02:00
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[polyphasic]: /experiments/sleep/polyphasic_sleep.html
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