I've posted this before, but a key feature that can help with falling back to sleep and/or insomnia is recognizing that we fall asleep when we warm up, not (necessarily) when we are warm. So if you aren't falling asleep, take off the blankets, make sure the room is as cold as possible/practical and then let yourself get really cold. Like shivering cold. When you can't stand it anymore, then cover yourself up lightly. You'll have a much better chance of falling asleep. This approach has helped several people I know, although not everyone that I've told, as we are all different and insomnia comes from many sources.<p>Also, try a sleep study! Sleep apnea is not just something that affects people that are overweight - I had it for nearly all my life, turns out, as do my siblings. It isn't a magic cure but my sleeping is probably 3x better with a cpap.
Sleep is about more than just measuring the time you were asleep. The amount of time spent in N3/4 (Deep Sleep) and REM sleep is very important.<p>The author is using sleep cycle on his phone, which is not a good method of tracking sleep cycles. He says "their ability to wake me in “non-deep” sleep pretty spot on" - you're not in deep sleep in the morning anyway, or very unlikely. So any "app" has a good chance of waking you from REM or N1/2.<p>We've been building a headband which monitors your sleep state, and uses sound to improve your sleep performance. Literally, improving the neurological function of your brain while you sleep.<p>I used one of our early prototypes to win the Sleep World Championships (<a href="https://soundmind.co/blog/neurohacking-the-world-sleep-championships" rel="nofollow">https://soundmind.co/blog/neurohacking-the-world-sleep-champ...</a>).<p>We're currently working on improving the fit and comfort before finalizing industrial design. You can find out more, and join the waitlist at <a href="https://soundmind.co" rel="nofollow">https://soundmind.co</a>
Don't do this! Sleep tracking/optimisation and generally obsessing over sleep can trigger insomnia for a lot of people.<p>I've had chronic insomnia for two years and I wouldn't wish it upon my worst enemy. If your sleep is good enough, leave it alone.
Having sleep issues, I set up a Zoom H4N pro inside a 1meter cardboard box to track low frequency (sub base) noise disturbances and was blown away. Tracked many culprits down and still working on a few (need new windows and pushing landlord upon that). But instances of say another flat up in the wee hours banging about, you get a loud thud, you awake and none the wise and with my setup, was not only able to identify that but have evidence to prove that. Even had instance of waking up chocking, which was again due to a short loud thud noise disturbance by another flat.<p>Equally, noticed changes in flight paths by local airport are seeing some flights use the flight corridor (flying over the country so not originating or departing) at night that also cause resonance in the building.<p>For my part, I've got insulation, added sound dampening to curtail resonance and some frequencies and sound proofing to best I can. Though low frequency noise is hard to cut out beyond source due to the wavelength and a 100mhz low frequency noise you feel( well I do) and that's a 4 meter long soundwave. So hard to block fully, hence rubber dampening strips to curtail harmonic resonance with the building and in this case, my bedroom which is 4 meters in length.<p>Sleep is totally very important for physical and mental health and as somebody who is autistic spectrum, it is key to have a routine with sleep playing a huge factor in this.<p>But I highly recommend recording you night and playing it back and analyzing it with something that you can do spectrum analysis. As seeing a noise trigger you into breathing difficulties, or heart palpitations, or snoring is not good for ones health and being able to identify the issues and address them goes a huge way. Not all issues you can address thru the process's at hand afforded you, but many can and proof is a great asset in progressing that. Not sure if phone best tool to do that as not had great luck myself with those for tracking noise issues, unless blatantly continuous and loud due to microphone's and noise cancelation in such devices as well as varying quality of devices. Equally recording low frequency sounds is not the easiest and in my case, a field recorder inside a box has done the trick nicely, though it is an area of experimentation/learning for myself and still something that may be a better solution. But for me as I had a field recorder, a large cardboard box was a nice cheap modification that did the trick good enough.
I’ve been using the WHOOP tracker for the last few months. Initially did some work to determine what my baseline was, but every morning you answer a journal (it’s most differentiating feature, imo) where you add things like alcohol, caffeine, melatonin, etc consumption and other things like airline travel, sleeping in same bed, etc.<p>After seeing what is correlated and not, I have had an extreme increase in sleep quality. Notably, melatonin doesn’t do much for me (I thought it did), working out less than 45 mins doesn’t have much correlation, lots of alcohol is inversely correlated with sleep (a surprise for me, always felt like it put me to sleep faster, which it seems to but st lower efficiency and quality). Plane travel kills my sleep, as does not sleeping in my own bed (hotels).<p>Overall, and anecdotally, highly recommend the approach of tracking things. Also highly recommend a WHOOP[1] activity monitor device, which is free itself (but data subscription). One particularly interesting thing is it doesn’t take into account weather, though it seems like that could be low correlation since I sleep in climate controlled environment.<p>Interestingly, more anecdata, a friend found out they had Covid before they were able to test positive based on whoop data changing. I realize I may sound like an advertisement, but I have zero affiliation, just very satisfied.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.whoop.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.whoop.com/</a>
With regard to sleep tracking apps, I have Idiopathic Hypersomnia, a rare sleep disorder that causes excessive daytime sleepiness, sleeping for long hours, sleep “drunkenness”, central sleep apnea, and resulting short term memory problems. I’ve used literally every sleep app I could get my hands on and they are all terrible. I’ve used the Fitbit and Apple Watch heart monitors, the cpap machine’s app (Philips), and medical grade, at home ones.<p>Most of the apps that supposedly track sleep cycles do so in very lackadaisical fashion. They measure small variations in heart rate to determine the sleep stage you’re on, but I’m the ultimate edge case and they all ways fall short. Even medical grade sleep monitors stuff ends up not working right because half the time it thinks I’ve gone into cardiac arrest because my heart rate falls so low (The random 3 hour block of time in the night being reported as “deceased” was a little jarring).<p>Sleep comes (perhaps too) easy to me, but my partner is not so lucky. She used to obsess over the sleep tracking stuff until the Apple Watch where it just measures time asleep, a way more measurable and meaningful metric. I mean, what are you going to do with the knowledge of being in deep sleep from 1:28am until 2:09am? Nothing. You cannot control it or will it to be better, practicing good sleep hygiene by going to bed at the same time and waking up at the same time is way more important than knowing the stage of sleep you’re in at any given part of the night. The most rested I feel is when I have a consistent sleep routine, and contemporary medical advice supports this.<p>Ditch the sleep apps that track your sleep, it’s just another thing to worry a about.
I feel like any kind of sleep tracking app could only make things worse for my own situation (which I'm guessing is not particularly uncommon), the root of which seems to be around making too much of a big deal about sleep, getting increasingly anxious as I fail to fall asleep, not being able to help but monitor whether I am falling asleep or not etc.<p>When I sleep best are the nights I forget to be concerned about it. Typically once something important comes up (job interview, date, etc.) I remember what a problem inability to sleep has been for me in the past, how it could ruin it all—then it might be another month or two where I'm unable to "forget," lay awake for hours concerned about being unable to sleep.<p>My intuition around tracking is that anything big enough to make a real impact you'd already be aware of. The further micro-optimizing feels good mostly 'cause you've opted into thinking in a framework of sleep optimization so it's goal accomplishment in that context, but probably not a big improvement strictly on a physiological basis.<p>(Or maybe I'm completely wrong and just grumpy I can't find a good solution to <i>my</i> sleep issues :)
I like this. You give actionable advice, it’s not terribly expensive, even if doesn’t work it’s not harmful, and you’re modest enough that right off the bat you disclaim it as anecdotal.<p>Thank you!
Using a sleep tracker for the past year, one discovery has been that on days I practice reduced caloric intake (usually twice a week), my deep sleep increases and my average heart rate drops. Perhaps dedicated fasters have assembled even more such data? I keep expecting the connection between calorie restriction and better sleep to be explored in research, but have not seen any to date.
Lowering the temperature of the bedroom also helps a lot. I've been sleeping at 18º C, but some doctors say that about 20º C is a good temperature (I prefer a little colder).
I track sleep simply to note the amount, not quality. I tried a number of sleep trackers - Android apps, smartwatches - all of the "automated" solutions felt having spotty precision. Not talking about minutes, but hours, when I was staring at my phone or been awake without moving. The only precise auto trackers seem to be bulky headbands.<p>The most comfortable method I found is simply manual button pushing. I track my phone usage, and log time between screen-on time (+-10m to account for time to actually fall asleep). When I can't sleep for longer times, or get up for toilet, I quickly press the power button (phone lights up for a few sec accounting to screen time). I know this probably just _feels_ more precise and needs to have a phone around (generally not that good for sleep), but it still seems to be closer to what I experienced. It baffles me that all the gyro/heartrate based smartwatch platforms don't account for screen time this way.
I've never tried the apps that claim to track your sleep, so I will not comment on those. But recently I was about to buy a consumer fitness band until I read a couple of technical reviews that show how they are all essentially worthless except for the Apple watch.
Here is reviewed an iOS app but since the Apple watch is not mentioned, I don't know how precise his measurings are. IMHO the phone alone is not enough to track your sleep cycles meaningfully.<p>Anecdotally I've noticed that when I smoke weed I don't remember what I dreamt, every single time. I suspect it alters my sleep cycle in some way.
Thanks for the tips!<p>Add to your mix air quality. I found when the air has more oxygen - less build up of co2 we sleep better. We have an awair air quality sensor.
They mentioned how the sound of rain and white noise improves sleep quality, but throughout history humans lived and slept in tribes. In the spring there would have been sounds of waking babies, and in the warm summer night the sound of making babies.<p>I wonder if silence produces anxiety and poor sleep…a spring without babies should be a trigger for the tribe to take some sort of action.
I used to sleep really bad, in part this was because I thought I was sleeping really bad. In a way I convinced myself that I (always) had awful sleep and it became a self fulfilling prophecy. Waking up in the middle of the night would cause severe stress about bad sleep which would then lead to bad sleep.<p>What helped me snap out of it was having a sleep dairy. Everyday for a month or so I would write down the qualitative experience of my sleep and soon realized that sometimes I might not sleep that good but most of the times I did. So now when I wake up in the middle of the night I just enjoy lying in bed awake resting knowing that it is not all bad.<p>Also, taking 100mg of 5HTP before going to bed transforms my (now) good sleep into pretty damn good sleep.
Lying on the side, cat purring and curring snuggled against your chest, throat and chin, paws clamped crosswise over the hand holding her chest and throat with three fingers, thumb and little finger around/under her 'armpits'. Autonomously releasing 'clutch' if she moves/turns/leaves. Autonomously re-enagagiging 'clutch/coupling' if another one takes over, or comes back.<p>Nothing is more relaxing for me.
Get a sleep test. It turned out that I had severe sleep apnea and using cPap has been god send. I rarely dreamed before cPap, but now I dream almost everyday and dreams are vivid too.
Like most of you, I myself have been investigating how to sleep better for quite a number of years.<p>The problem with most of what I read here is that you're (which is what I did too) using anecdotal reports to experiment on yourself to come up with something that you feel works for you.<p>I eventually stumbled on a podcast by Andrew Huberman (Neuroscientist/ophthalmology at Stanford) where he shares details of their research.
Just a couple of items from my notes (and there are much more)<p><pre><code> - The quality of light during sunrise, as perceived through your eyes, sets off a "count down timer" of sorts in your brain
- The quality of light during sunset, reduces the sensitivity to light you encounter after sunset
- Your eye's structure is such that light coming from above enters the eye different from light coming from below.
- - Which is why in the morning you want to go outside to allow the sun light from above to enter, and,
- - in the evening to switch off the ceiling lights and instead use lamps that are set low.
- The old story about "don't use screens and bright lights in the evening" is true to some extent, but there is more to this
- - Candle light ; I've decided to go to the extreme, and switch to candle light at 9pm, set at desk or floor height
- - - I use this time to perform activities that dont require a lot of light (tidying, dishes, clothes, etc)
- circadian rhythms are key
- - when you eat and exercise is a way to set your clock
...
</code></pre>
It just goes on and on with details that I would've taken a lifetime to find.<p>I'd suggest you start at ep1 as it sets you up with some understanding of how your brain works,
ep2 & 3 is all about sleep
ep 4 - goes into finding your temp minimum, jetlag, sleeplessness<p>I'm sure beyond ep4 [4] the topic of sleep will come up again, as it is the #1 thing that determines the quality of everything else in your life.<p><pre><code> [1] Podcast https://hubermanlab.com/category/podcast-episodes/
[2] Notes https://podcastnotes.org/category/huberman-lab/
[3] Transcripts https://github.com/lord-denning/Huberman-Lab-Podcast-Transcripts
[4] Search 'sleep' https://www.google.com/search?channel=fs&client=ubuntu&q=sleep+site%3Ahubermanlab.com%2F</code></pre>
This advice is spot on from what I've experienced as well. Those weighted blankets are pretty awesome. Now if I could just get to sleep at a more consistent time...
Want sleep advice? Build physical things and do manual labor. I hauled 10 tons of gravel today and my wife and I chopped up a 15 ft diameter bush and put it in our trailer to be taken to the green waste tomorrow. Tomorrow digging holes for a small shed foundation.<p>Of course that you may not have the same problem we do but we have a 14 pound maine coon that walks all over us when we sleep at random hours of the night. That part doesn't help.
Interesting, I don't like my morning routine but I'm not certain about what to do about it though. I usually get water, bathroom and scroll through apps or jump on my work laptop until I figure out something to do that day. I'm not sure how to effectively use the morning, but I feel like filling it with scrolling isn't ideal
Married with kids, I don’t even know where to start with sleep tracking. I had an app that measured movement and noise, but it could be my spouse. I think a watch would work, but I don’t want to wear a watch to sleep
I heard that the Google Nest Hub (2nd gen) is pretty good for sleep tracking, but there's also a rumor that they will charge like $10 a month for the "fitness tracking" in about a year.
How feasible is it to DIY a monitoring system?<p>I’ve got cameras, motion sensors temp sensor co2 sensor and an array microphone so tempted to try<p>No good way of measuring REM though
Here's my anecdata on getting better sleep. I've struggled with sleep a lot, I still do but not as much to the extent of previous years. I used to be at "Welcome to Hell, prepare to suffer, you'd wish you'd not be awake." (if one would follow this to its logical conclusion, one could see why this is problematic) And it is now at: "If you'd have slept 9 hours instead of 8, you'd probably feel at peak mental condition mate, try to sleep 9 hours, you can feel you could use the extra hour in this particular case :)"<p>I suffer from two things: being able to fall asleep and waking up after 4 hours.<p>Here's what I currently do/use/what works:<p>1. Airpods Max for suppressing noise in my room [1]. Plane flying by? I didn't hear it. The soft white noise is also nice. Playing music at night can sometimes regulate my mood. I don't sleep with it every night, only when I notice things in my room are too loud.<p>2. 0.3mg melatonin (taken 1 hour before sleep).<p>3. 10mg CBD (taken 1 hour before sleep).<p>4. A girlfriend to hug with during the night.<p>5. Meditation: in most cases this doesn't work at all, but around 10 to 20% of the time it knocks me out cold and then it's all I need.<p>6. Blue light blocking glasses (Flux for real life :) ).<p>7. A cold-ish room.<p>8. A heavy weighted blanket. This is especially helpful when I really feel like turning all the time, the heavy weight tires me out physically.<p>9. A sleeping mask.<p>These 9 things completely solve for being able to fall asleep. I don't have issues with it. They partially solve for being able to stay asleep. I sometimes still wake up. However, I have a higher likelihood to fall back asleep because the CBD + melatonin make me feel a bit woozy. Moreover, my girlfriend (if she's around), meditation, my heavy weighted blanket and chill music with Spotify + Airpods Max can all play their part.<p>[1] I have tinnitus so I need something over my ear as earplugs will amplify my tinnitus. Because of this, I need the best noise cancellation for headphones, and in my testing the Airpods Max won hands down. Moreover, it was the only white noise I could tolerate. I've tested Sony and Bose as well. Their white noise sound is too loud for me to be able to comfortably fall asleep. The white noise of the Airpods Max lowers my tinnitus a bit, but in return I hear white noise, which to me feels like a different tinnitus, albeit a bit nicer. I do suffer a bit in comfort and need to fix that with extra pillows which makes my position in bed a bit weird. If anyone has alternatives for this tip / setup (e.g. something else than the Airpods Max?), I'm curious :)
Some people have other bigger issue in life to deal with then fixing sleep cycle. They work very hard for the entire life and never have problem with sleep.