I did not read the article (what did you expect, we are on HN ;)
Anyway, my experience has been a little bit different. I would summarize it as "good life, good sleep, good learning". And yes, order matters.
The fact is that recently I was completely in my midlife crisis and was at probably 50% of my mental stamina (memory loss, lack of interest, poor focus, and <i>insomnia</i>). I was ok with the fact that I was getting old and accepted all that as normal. Then things changed (my mortgage ended, my children went out of the primal-youth zone, I lost a really demanding job). Now things are really different. I sleep well, things seem to really get into my mind much like it used to be during my youth.
I am not so sure I understand what is happening. But I definitely consider my previous state as impossible to learn anything whatever method I use.
I am slowly getting out of that.
And I now force me into a mental diet to avoid any unnecessary stimulus that would bring me back to my previous state.
So my learning experience is that external conditions are supremely important. The method comes second.
[And yes, supermemo is pretty cool]
This has been one of my favourite articles for years, on the reading list, but never had the time to fully read such a behemoth.<p>Some stuff I got out of this:<p>1. The ideal sleep pattern is sleeping when tired and walking up without an alarm.<p>2. Biphasic is recommended. Homeostatic is how easy it is to initiate sleep, circadian is how easy it is to maintain it. Circadian cycle is usually nightly, homeostatic peaks with fatigue. It's easy to have a 20 min midday nap but hard to do a midnight one.<p>3. Brainwork is great as soon as you wake up, and if you need caffiene, this is the time for it. Bundle stress and exercise and keep it away from the night.<p>Take note this is all theory and not practical, and the author hints that society should follow these and not the other way around. It took me half a decade to find a way to fit it, and what I did was:<p>A. Force myself to wake real early, about 4 AM. You will feel horrible for a week, but it moves your circadian rhythm forward to wake and sleep naturally without an alarm.<p>B. Naps in the car at lunch. Waking early gave more time to cook, which means packed meals are done in half an hour, followed by a quick nap. I set an alarm but never need it. Exercise is easy; a quick run and a lot of strong deodorant.
It's been a while since there have been posts on Supermemo here (meta: I miss the times when HN was mostly about bootstrapping software businesses, nootropics and self hacking), so I'm wondering - are there people who (still) use Supermemo or similar software for actual learning, and not memorizing for its own sake, as a party trick basically (which I feel is its main use case, at least in the way it's in the news)? Are there any advances in this field, new methods, new implementations of existing methods?
Sleep is incredibly important for forming new connections in the brain. I just want to add another aspect of learning; The importance of focus.<p>I will start by saying: "Do not engage the mind in the intense pursuit of too many things at once; especially things that have no relation to one another"<p>A couple of questions that can help for solve the above issue are:<p>1.How many subjects am I currently learning intensely?<p>2.Do these subjects have any relation to each other?<p>3.Why am I currently learning the subjects?<p>4.Have I truly made progress in any of the subjects?<p>By following the four questions above, you get a sense of what you really need to learn at a particular time.<p>This article <a href="https://leveragethoughts.substack.com/p/do-not-engage-the-mind-in-the-intense" rel="nofollow">https://leveragethoughts.substack.com/p/do-not-engage-the-mi...</a> goes in-depth into the why and how of learning.<p>There are other tools that can contribute to a good life. Some of these tools are
1. Journalling.
2. Daily self reflection.
3. Some form of physical activity.<p>You can find out more on how to improve the mind in <a href="https://leveragethoughts.substack.com/p/three-actionable-insights-to-improve" rel="nofollow">https://leveragethoughts.substack.com/p/three-actionable-ins...</a>
This article is full of pie in the sky things that are impossible for normal people needing to earn a living.<p>> do not wake up kids for school; if they cannot wake up in time, let them skip a class or two, or consider homeschooling<p>This, for instance, is entirely illegal (at least in my country, The Netherlands).
This page has been archived by the Wayback machine if folks are having issues accessing the mediawiki: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://supermemo.guru/wiki/Good_sleep,_good_learning,_good_life#Lark-owl_misconception" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://supermemo.guru/wiki/Go...</a>
My main takeaway from reading this a year ago is different than what most people have focused on in the comments so far. In my current life situation, lack of alarm clock (in the shape of an infant) and free running sleep are simply not possible.<p>However, this article does highlight the importance and naturalness of a mid-day nap. When reading this I started practising mid-day naps at my desk, but I never really learned to do it until other things got in the way and I started forgetting about it. Maybe I should try again.<p>At the very least, I encourage anyone to stand up for the right to take a mid-day nap, even if you don't personally use that right.<p>If you feel like you could use a nap, napping is probably the responsible thing to do. If we defend that position with evidence, maybe we can slowly change the culture at work to not look down upon it.
Regarding sleep: I wondered recently if Matthew Walker responded to the critique from here: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21546850" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21546850</a>
This is a 2018 eBook on sleep by Piotr Woźniak [1], a researcher involved in the Spaced Repetition [2] learning system SuperMemo [3].<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piotr_Woźniak_(researcher)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piotr_Woźniak_(researcher)</a><p>[2] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaced_repetition" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaced_repetition</a><p>[3] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SuperMemo" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SuperMemo</a>
Piotr Wozniak is a fascinating guy, if you want to read more about him: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150613033756/http://archive.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/16-05/ff_wozniak?currentPage=all" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20150613033756/http://archive.wi...</a><p>Is someone using his software here?
If anyone wants an easy way to wake up early, go camping.<p>You are forced to go to bed early once it gets dark, and once it's morning even if you're tired, it's too bright to sleep in.
There is a lot of info here and much I agree with but without reading the whole thing a few things I noticed that I disagree with:<p>1) the fatal result of rats being tortured to deprive them of sleep seems to have been traced to oxidative stress in the gut (there was an article on this here not that long ago)<p>2) while I don't have an easy reference, a number of studies have found that even strenuous exercise before bed does not seem to impair sleep. As with everything sleep related there could easily be lots of individual variation but in general I don't think it usually causes trouble.<p>3) the author seems to consider free running sleep entirely posistive, however I think it is likely to cause circadian issues in a number of people who try it and may be quite dangerous. I think in my case going from a sleep deprived state to free running sleep (in an attempt to deal with insomnia) induced non-24 (it may be that non-24 has both a genetic susceptibility and a trigger event and that once triggered is essentially irreversible). In my case it also seems that there is an issue with internal coherence of the circadian rhythm with different parts of my body proceeding on different scheduled and rarely synchronized, leaving me disabled with memory issues and fatigue. So I encourage everyone to be careful when making changes to sleep schedules. For someone who already has a circadian issue it seems often better to sleep on the delayed or shifting schedule, but few people can do that without significant disruption caused by interacting with the rest of the world and there may still be some issues, at least for some people, due to being awake at night.<p>4) I think alarm clocks can in some cases keep a healthy circadian rhythm synchonized with the sun. Maybe consider them more like a prescription medication than smoking, try to avoid if possible but if using one can help you keep a healthy circadian rhythm then it seems likely to be healthier than a disrupted circadian rhythm. In my experience, when you wake up seems to be more important for setting the circadian rhythm than when you get to sleep.
An influential oldie. This has more up-to-date research to back it up, but references that article - <a href="https://insomniasos.net/" rel="nofollow">https://insomniasos.net/</a> . Plus it isn't broken.
> You can compare the use of alarm clocks to smoking or eating hot dogs.<p>Wow. That’s a big statement, surely comparing alarms to smoking is a bit much?
After covid hit I'm having trouble sleeping too much. I'm doing 9 hours a night and occasional 1 hr nap after lunch, I feel my metabolism is slowing down and I'm putting on weight. I've started doing more aerobic exercise and it just makes me need my after lunch nap.
If the site is down for anyone else, I found a version that has split the chapters into separate pages here:<p><a href="https://supermemo.guru/wiki/Science_of_sleep" rel="nofollow">https://supermemo.guru/wiki/Science_of_sleep</a>
The section about not sleeping being lethal should be changed. First I talks about rats, secondly it's lethal for insomnia sufferers cause it makes them extremely scared and afraid of not sleeping (I'm obviously in this group).
TL;DR: No alarm clock. Follow needs of your body, sleep as much as you need. Free running sleep has no alternative.<p>It's been a while when I first read this excellent article, I always try to follow the advice about free running sleep since then.
Wow, that website is great. Thanks! It goes over learning/ schooling as well. I'd be interested to see how innovators are trying to solve the "10 mortal sins of schooling" or 50 bad habits learned at school.
TL;DR! For me, I can always fall asleep within 5-10 minutes of lying down. However on some nights I wake up EXACTLY between 3-4 hours fully energized as if I had 7-8 hours of sleep. Then going back to sleep becomes a problem. This typically happens if I stay on my laptop after 8 pm and particularly if I spend time coding after 8 pm. I am a morning person.