It turns out they were right. The whole time. Assholes. I’ve been doing a pretty consistent midnight to 9-9:30 for a couple of months, no screens in my bedroom, just a nightly podcast. And I’m usually asleep inside half an hour. Sometimes well inside. I still sometimes wake up during the night but that’s mainly cos of painful crampy legs from working on my feet all day.

I regret to report that sleep hygiene is in fact a thing.

  • CrimsonSage [any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Yeah I did my senior thesis on sleep as a joke cus I always slept like shit cus I didn't think it mattered, was really eye opening. Getting good sleep is probably one of the best things you can do for yourself aside from quitting alcohol and smoking. Like it's hard as fuck, you would think sleeping would e easy lol, but like setting up healthy sleep habits has been 10000% life changing for me. Like it makes the crippling depression and anxiety of capitalism mostly bearable so i can be tge sunny bubbly person I am most of the time.

    • UlyssesT [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      It's telling how many techbro creeps are trying to finance research into making sleep obsolete, or at the least, inject ads into it. :doomer:

    • glimmer_twin [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      Yeh I wouldn’t say it’s been a super noticeable effect on my waking life (although I’m sure it has been and I just haven’t observed it gradually taking place), but the fact that my two nightly options aren’t “pass out drunk” or “toss and turn for 1-3 hours before sleep” alone is pretty fucking good tbh.

  • ButtBidet [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Fuck you, playing computer games till 3am is perfectly healthy.

  • Lussy [any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Easy to say improve your sleep, sleep at the same time, get a full 8 hours but it's literally what separates those who excell at 'life' and those who don't.

    I dont doubt for a second that if I was able to maintain proper sleep hygiene, my life would probs be 10x better right now, but I can't because it's literally the hardest thing in the world when you have ADHD that is super charging your anxiety and depresssion

      • Lussy [any]
        ·
        2 years ago

        The one period in life I was able to manage it somewhat was when I perfected my melatonin regimen. Took it 2hours before bed time but those two hours were pretty much forfeit. You could try that.

        Or weed, weed will help you sleep well but maintaining discipline and not letting the secondary effects of it impact your life is hard.

    • Frogmanfromlake [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I've had the same issues with adhd, especially as tech becomes more commonplace. I've tried to just stick with books and old CD players at night because anything with internet access keeps me hooked for too long.

  • LaughingLion [any, any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    "have you tried not having adhd"

    by the time its bedtime my medication has worn off and its time for my brain to consider 20 complex topics all at once

    literally cannot sleep until im exhausted beyond the point of being able to stay awake or i just lay in bed with my mind closed trying to solve imaginary puzzles, plan my life, and address world hunger

    • sirmadness [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I listen to podcasts on my phone with one earplug in. Wired, not bluetooth so no batteries. The podcast shouldn't be anything actually interesting, just enough to keep the brain occupied. I like history, things I'm not really interested in like the Byzantine Empire, the Kingdom of Siam, or super ancient history like Gilgamesh or Ur. Tolkien lore is good, get a 90 minute livestream of Q&A and it keeps the brain busy until sleep arrives.

      • LaughingLion [any, any]
        ·
        2 years ago

        podcast shouldn’t be anything actually interesting

        ive also tried listening to chapo before bed but matts screaming isnt helpful

    • TillieNeuen [she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I have the same problem. I used to put on a movie I found soothing and knew well enough to not keep me awake wondering what would happen next, but the light from the screen wasn't great, so I switched t audiobooks. I have audio editions of several books I've loved since childhood, so they make me feel cozy and keep my brain engaged enough that it won't decide to entertain me with weird bullshit and keep me awake, while not being a new story that's going to keep me awake wondering what happens next. I have no idea if this will work for anyone besides myself, but it might be worth a shot.

    • CTHlurker [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      So I don't really have ADHD, but I used to have a pretty terrible daily rythm, which caused me a lot of trouble in the last year of my bachelor. What I ended up doing was listening to either real deep dives on Game of Thrones lore, or one of the thousands of Dark Souls lore channels. In particular I can recommend SmoughTown, who seems to have a voice that was made to make you fall asleep. Now a days I don't need it quite as much to fall asleep, since my job has me waking up at 5 AM most weekdays. But if I can feel my brain struggle to go to bed, I just put on :rocz-yes: and the :wtyp-gang:. Their episodes are typically long enough that you don't need to look at the phone, and Rocz's voice is so monotone that you end up asleep pretty quick. Also, they have no adds, so you don't suddenly get jolted awake because some fucking eletronics store has a sale they want to tell you about.

  • BerserkPoster [none/use name]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Damn you sleep for 9 hours? If I did that I would feel like I have no time to chill, it would basically be work 8-5 -> workout 5:30-630 -> eat 7- 730 -> chill 730-10 -> get ready for sleep 10-1030 -> sleep 1045- 715 and start over.

      • BerserkPoster [none/use name]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        Honestly the 8-5 workday is new to me and I kinda fuckin hate it. I've always worked 8-4 since starting my job as a professional, but my new job is 8-5 (1 hour lunch). Thankfully I live close to work now though so it's kinda a wash with my last job but I'm also a bit nervous because everyone seems to do overtime here and I don't think we get paid for it (salary).

  • fishnwhistle420 [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Alcohol got to a point where it started working like caffeine on me. More than a few drinks at night and I couldn’t sleep at all so I would just stay up drinking. Not good

  • hahafuck [they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Its important and beneficial but as advice is about as useless as "you should quit smoking and start exercising". Yeah, duh.

  • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I could get more sleep, but like other people here said, it would make my life into a tight regime of wake up, work, go home, sleep, repeat.

    I'd have approximately 90 minutes per day to myself if I even got 8 hours every night. So I don't really know what to do. Most of my lack of sleep comes from a place of frustration and I'm deliberately hurting myself in spite from the lack of time I have.

  • RION [she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    in high school I had the most cursed sleep schedule ever

    • wake up at ~6:30 to get ready for school
    • come back from school around 2:45, immediately fall asleep
    • wake up around 5 or 6, have dinner and goof off for a few hours
    • fall asleep again around 11
    • wake up around 3 to do my homework while nodding off
    • fall asleep again at 4 or 5
    • repeat above

    I was not a well adjusted individual. Still not, but I've gotten better with sleep since.

  • boog [none/use name]
    ·
    2 years ago

    i want to have good sleep hygiene but night time is also when i'm at my most productive so i guess i will draw until 4 am and there's nothing you can do to stop me

  • ssjmarx [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I'm in the habit of taking my dog for a second walk before bed. I turn my computer off before we go and listen to a podcast during it, usually takes a little over an hour. The combination of feeling relived to lay down and walking around in the actual moonlight knocks me right the fuck out, usually sleep 12-830ish.