Seriously, a drink and a bit of light reading followed by 5-10 minutes of pillow talk works fine for me. I avoid the computer for at least a half hour before going to sleep: it's the routine of settling down for the evening that helps me sleep, rather than any individual components. The reading material is usually something I've read before rather than something new which I Must Complete.
A while ago I tried eliminating all caffeine (I typically drink a lot of diet Coke and coffee). The first few days were hell, and I pretty much sat staring blankly at my computer. Then I had a couple of really magical days where I felt quite alert even in the typically drowsy afternoons. And what was weird was that I seemed to dream more vividly (and remember my dreams). Then I fell off the wagon... at some point I need to try that experiment again, because I think I was onto something.
- Reduce Caffein intake. the half life of caffein is 6h on average...
- Reduce sugar intake.
- Try to go to bed at a regular time.
- Eat more fruits and vegetables.
- No coffee or tea in the afternoon.
- try to respect sleep cycles.
www.supermemo.com/articles/sleep.htm
www.sleepwarrior.comIf it applies, then a change in career is probably best. I'm happy freelancing anyways :) Probably the most interesting thing to take out of this is that being tired will not help you get to sleep earlier - but being rested will.
Other than that, I now use black tea as a caffeine source (only two cups, at the time of day I'm most likely to be drowsy), put a couple variators instead of light switches to be able to dim the lights, use f.lux on my comp and don't read in bed. It works pretty well.
has anyone else had and overcome this problem? i'm talking about a sleep-through-your-alarm-and-never-remember-it-going-off inability to wake up.
i once read that you could try "rehearsing" waking up (getting ready for bed, turning out the light, having your alarm clock 5 minutes later and springing out of bed, repeat ad infinitum). but i don't know if that'll help.
The key realisation is that there are several aspects of me that can be brought up. Daniel-the-heavy-sleeper doesn't give a damn about alarm clocks, work, commitments, etc, and will stay in bed at every opportunity. Daniel-the-hacker, on the other hand, has no problems doing difficult stuff that requires a log of willpower. So the question is, how do I get Daniel-the-hacker to wake up, rather than the other guy.
My latest solution: set up a TED talk as an alarm clock. Since those talks are almost all very interesting, it immediately brings out the higher Daniel in me, who likes to pay attention to the interesting points being made. This Daniel has no problem making a decision to stay awake long enough to have a caffeinated drink (a Red Bull at the moment, but I might switch back to coffee, depending), which pretty much guarantees I'll wake up fully.
And of course there is the secondary but important advantage of watching one new mind-expanding TED talk every day...
Now, when I need to wake up at a certain time, I set the timer accordingly, lock the cardboard box lid shut with a padlock, and place the key somewhere outside.
In the morning, the water wakes me up and I can't go back to sleep without turning it off. To do that I need to get up and go outside to get the key, and by the time I've returned, I'm awake enough to make a rational decision to stay awake.
Do people want such a fancy alarm wake up sound; we hope so!
What I would like is an alarm clock with a graduated volume control, as opposed to the silence followed by loud noise that usually prevails, and which is guaranteed to put me in a pissy mood. Mrs Browl has a blackberry, which sounds so obnoxious out of the box I had to insist on changing the alarm sound.
We have made the noise extremely short and it repeats til you stop it. This weekend I was gonna go on a hike that was 2 hours away with some friends. Forecast woke me saying hot with thunderstorms. In my slumber and fumble to stop noise I only grasped one point - thunderstorms and went back to sleep! 2 hours to hike in thunderstorms no thanks.
It's good-looking too:
http://www.now-zen.com/cgi-bin/orders/shop.pl?ACTION=ENTER+S...!
*Presuming you could train yourself to sleep sufficiently better to work 5% better (in whatever units better is)
meditation (15-30min) - settles the whirring mind before sleep
following through with the meditation once i'm lying down (as in not getting hooked by thoughts of the day - keeping focused on inhaling and exhaling)
