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timferriss

sleep's Issues

Which book beyond the basics?

I've suffered from insomnia for the largest part of my adult life, so I've read and researched a fair amount on sleep, meaning I know the basics.

I would like to read a sleep book (or readme) to deepen my knowledge on this subject that isn't all dross with one or two worthwhile pages (I've flicked through a number of sleep books that are mostly a combination of 'here is what we did when we were cavemen' and 'here are some elementary tips for what you need to do now').

Here's what I know about getting better sleep (in no particular order):

  • No blue-light emitting devices for at least an hour (preferably at least 2 hours) before bedtime
  • Have a consistent bedtime and wake up time that you stick to religiously every day
  • Have a night time routine that allows you to wind down and lets your mind know you are preparing to sleep
  • Block out all light from your room and wear a sleep mask if you need one to make sure it's pitch dark
  • Soft lighting in the two hours preceding bedtime to avoid inhibiting melatonin production
  • Block out as much noise as possible
  • Drink a glass of water with magnesium 30-60 minutes before going to bed
  • The bedroom should not be a place of work
  • Bedroom should be kept at a cool temperature
  • If you sleep with a partner, ideally you can each regulate your mattress, duvet and pillow density/material/heat
  • No caffeine after around midday (takes 6 hours - some say 8 - to leave your body)
  • Do not exercise 3 to 4 hours before you go to bed, but do exercise during the day to get your body functioning well
  • Don't eat anything heavy at night and aim not to eat at least in the 2 hours preceding your bedtime
  • Cut back on sugar and refined carbs, particularly with dinner or post-dinner as these inhibit the production of melatonin
  • Don't drink anything for the 2 hours before you go to sleep to avoid needing to wake up to go to the bathroom
  • Do what you need to do as part of your night time routine to both remove yourself from the events of the day and know what you're going to be doing the next day
    • Write down everything that's on your mind that needs to be done
    • Plan for the following morning
    • Meditate or practice mindfulness at the end of the day
    • Drink a herbal calming tea to start your wind down process
    • Take a hot bath
    • Note: these routines or rituals can also (and should) be things you look forward to and give yourself permission to do - this time should not be a catch-all for all the things you didn't get to do during the day
  • Lavender, vetiver or cedarwood essential oils
  • Make sure you get exposure to natural light during the day to regulate your circadian rhythms
  • Don't watch TV or videos late at night as these can keep your brain active even when you're already tired (and the blue light is also bad)
  • Do some deep breathing and light stretching just before bed
  • Don't look at your phone or watch or check the time once you're in bed
  • Wear pijamas as a way of triggering your body into thinking it's time to sleep (only works if you get out of them first thing when you wake up of course
  • Be generally healthy
  • Keep a sleep log so you can identify trends and act upon them

For myself personally I also know that the following hold true, but the jury is out on whether these hold true for everyone:

  • No naps after 15h00
  • No caffeine after 15h00
  • Make sure my feet are warm as this helps me sleep more quickly

My question therefore is: once you know these basics, which book is recommended reading?

Investigate format/content of sleep diary

Need to investigate the format for sleep diary.

E.g: today:
Only fell asleep after 2am last night.
Woke up a few times in the night, because of noise. Got up 06:53 to go bathroom.
Trying to get a nap before now before the day starts.
Don’t feel at all rested.

When I'm exhausted all attempts at focus (Deep) work are futile

Yesterday (Sunday) I made every effort to reset my circadian rhythm (after a couple of late nights - going to bed just after midnight - on Friday and Saturday I was feeling rather tired ...).
I avoided all processed foods (sugar!) and meat, stopped my green tea (caffeine) at 13:00, went for a 40min (high intensity) bike ride and then spent the evening closing off tasks from last week to ensure I had a fresh desk.

Last night I went to bed at 21:30 as per the recommendation in the "Why We Sleep" Book #33
I made a concerted effort during the day to stay extra hydrated, avoided sugar (completely) and tapered off my green tea . Only drank lemon water (squeezed lemon in tap water) followed by a camomile tea with fresh ginger.
I managed to fall asleep around 22:00 and rested well until I was needlessly woken up!

Sadly I was woken up at 03:00 by a "night owl" ... 😞
and despite trying to fall asleep again for over and hour I was not able to ...
so I got up and went to the lounge to read. (as recommended in all books on sleep I've read)
The reading light woke me up and I only felt sleep again at 06:00 ... (The time I should have been waking up!)

When I'm exhausted I lose all focus/motivation and my whole body hurts.
I know I cannot go back to bed and try and rest because I have meetings and doctors appointments today. Meetings I felt prepared for and was even looking forward to (getting out of the way early in the week so that I could focus on more creative work!)

I thought I was setting myself up for a great day and week by doing everything I could.
I even put out the clothes (and swimming gear) I wanted to use on Monday morning.

I feel this is more of a "communication problem" than anything else ...

7 Steps to Sleep Better?

What are the 7 most important factors in getting better quality sleep?

  1. Light (complete darkness using blackout curtains)
  2. Temperature 16 - 20* Celsius see: https://sleep.org/articles/temperature-for-sleep/
  3. Noise (silence)
  • Eliminate Mosquitos/Bugs that can disrupt sleep: #17
  1. Time of day (hours before midnight)
  2. Comfort: Mattress, Pillow & Covers
  3. Mindset: What is your state of mind when you are falling asleep. (mental clarity / not thinking about work / issues!)
  4. Company ... is your room mate committed to sleep quality? Is your spouse a "good sleeper"?

@iteles thoughts? can you improve on or add to this list?

Is a lack of sleep holding you back in life?

Answer this question:

Q: Do you ever do things when you are tired (besides resting/sleeping) that you would not do when you are fully rested?

When I am fully rested, I feel like I have more willpower to resist distraction and am able to focus on my work. I can easily avoid eating processed-sugary-junk and stick to drinking water.

When I'm tired it's like I'm a different person. I resort to "sweet things" (the worst are chocolate or cookies) to boost my energy that I would otherwise be able to avoid. but I know it's a slippery slope and I will just be even more tired when the temporary sugar rush wares off (usually quite fast!). So I know if I'm craving sugary things, it's a clear sign that I need to sleep, not eat!

Relevant Academic Reading

Sleep Hacking Secrets of World’s Top Athletes Nick Littlehales

Nick Littlehales is one of the foremost experts on Sleep.
He is not a "doctor" or "desk researcher", he is a "field expert" (pun intended)
and has collated the data from the world's highest performers.

His book "Sleep": https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sleep-Change-sleep-this-minute/dp/0241975972
image

Is a an excellent read on the subject. It took em a little longer than 90mins to read,
but it was definitely "worth it" for the insights.
I very much want to build my own "sleep kit" from scratch see: https://www.r90sleepkit.com
image
And do everything I can to improve the effectiveness/quality of my sleep.

This interview/podcast episode is a good intro/summary:

image
https://youtu.be/M0oYt9hPNRU

Dr. Chatterjee talks to elite sports sleep coach and author of the book Sleep: The Myth of 8 Hours, the Power of Naps… and the New Plan to Recharge Your Body and Mind about his unique journey to coaching world famous sports teams, on improving performance through sleep patterns and on daily actionable tips for everyone.

How to have a good day when you have slept badly section?

People are usually actively looking for information on this topic because they already sleep badly and through experience, one of the hardest things about trying to incorporate the habits of better sleep is that there is a learning curve for your body.

Having a consistent bed time for example, often touted as one of the things that makes the most difference to getting better sleep, comes with a difficult adaptation period of insomnia and early wake-up times for most. This often wreaks havoc on people's next day, worsening the situation (that "I really should be asleep by now" thought whirring in your head) and killing motivation.

It dawned on my that the more chaotic nature of 'the day after' a bad night's sleep is particularly unproductive because there is no plan for dealing with it.

I propose therefore that a good addition to this repo would be a section on 'How to cope with a bad night's sleep', both whilst you're adjusting your habits and because in life, for one reason or another, these are inevitable.

The kind of thing to include here are doing your most important task first thing when you have energy, meditation, green tea (short term solutions should come with a disclaimer), nutrition, taking a shower, etc.

Sleep experts explain how to get better sleep

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl0C3Hv0Hxk

image

I've taken some notes on what was particularly interesting to me:

Sleep stages

  • Stage 1: Transitionary state, just getting to sleep which is around 3-4% of the night
  • Stage 2: 45% of the night
  • Stage 3 and 4: Beginning of the night, physical restoration
  • REM sleep: Happens at the end of the night and is brain restoration

Sleep is individual

Sleep schedule consistency is the most important thing and you certainly don't need 8 hours, you need the right amount of time for your chronotype.

To figure out your ideal times to go to sleep: Count back 7.5 hours from your wake-up time (when your whole house wakes up) and see when you wake up naturally without an alarm. Adjust the sleep time based on your natural wake-up time.

Your chronotype can change over time but usually stabilises for the time between 22 and 50 years of age.

Sleep Hygiene

  • Taking sleeping tablets to 'sedate the brain' is the worst thing you can do to calm a racing mind because you're ignoring the problem and you get terrible sleep
  • Benadryl based sleeping tablets almost obliterate stage 3 and 4 sleep where it cleans out your brain and body and are very linked to Alzheimers

Fix Your Sleep Naturally

  • Cut off caffeine around 14h00 (although I've heard 12h00 from others)
  • Try to 'switch off' after dinner
  • Stop alcohol 3 hours before bed
  • Exercise with your chronotype, preferably not just before bed
  • Very consistent bedtime
  • When you wake up in the morning, get 15 minutes of sunlight and drink a bottle of water
    • Sunlight, particularly blue light which is part of the spectrum of the sunlight, hits the melanopsin cells in your eye and that turns off the melatonin in your brain; so if you're feeling terrible in the morning get sunlight in your eyes

The biggest problem for sleep is people not being able to deal with the stress and not knowing how to slow down their brains

Cognitive behavioural therapy is therefore a great way to try treating this Psycho-physiological insomnia:

  • Part 1 is a sleep schedule which restricts people's sleep, dictating the hours they go to bed and get up
    • Go to bed at the time you would normally fall asleep and not earlier
    • Build up the natural sleep deprivation
  • Part 2 is the cognitive portion

www.thesleepdoctor.com

Sleep Tracking: Should we get/use a Dedicated (Wearable) Device or App (Apple Watch)?

It's no secret that I'm terrible at sleeping.
if I don't fall asleep when I'm tired (e.g. I'm stressed about work) then I often stay awake till 3/4am ...
if I'm woken in the middle of the night e.g. 1am I often won't be able to go back to sleep and end up just reading/working instead.

Living @ 2 Palmer's Road has been atrocious for my sleep.
The intermittent traffic noise from Roman Road is loud even with fairly decent double glazing.

TODO: Upload screenshot of decibel meter reading

A bit research indicates that FitBits are still the best sleep trackers:
http://www.nosleeplessnights.com/best-sleep-tracker

I was briefly tempted to buy a New FitBit Flex 2 (Waterproof) Sleep & Fitness Tracker
see: https://www.fitbit.com/uk/flex2 on the basis that it's waterproof and has a much better battery life than Apple Watch ... but maybe I don't need to spend another $70 ...

this Apple Watch App appears to have good reviews: http://autosleep.tantsissa.com
Going to try it out today.

Investigate how Sleep Trackers Work

This appears to be a good starting point:
http://www.nosleeplessnights.com/how-do-sleep-trackers-work
How Do Sleep Trackers Work And Are They Reliable_.pdf (PDF in case the article disappears)

Tasks / Todo

  • Do research into sleep tracking wearables, apps and devices
  • Write a summary of the existing research.

Please summarise your findings in the README of this repo. thanks! 🎉
(if the research get's "too big" we can always split it out into a separate file e.g: sleep-tracker-research.md and link to it from the main README...)

Flux

https://justgetflux.com/

  • Your body has a natural body clock (circadian rhythm) that is affected by the sun
  • The blue spectrum of artificial light from computer screens can mimic the affect the sun has
  • Flux reduces blue light emitted from computer screens during the nighttime
  • Blue light affects melatonin production and disrupts natural circadian rhythms and sleep cycles
  • Therefore flux can improve sleep management

It's free!

Investigate Sleep Center

From reading Arianna Huffington's "Sleep Revolution" I noted that there are sleep-quality focussed hotels in several major cities. I want to invest the money to visit at least one of them to see for myself what they are like and if they are worth the cash for the improvement in sleep.
http://ariannahuffington.com/sleep-resources

How to get up in the morning when it's cold and you're exhausted

Winter is here and heating has to be moderately low overnight or the air dries out and we all wake up with a headache.

I've been trying to make sure I switch off the lights by 22h30 every night (which I've so far done for 12 nights in a row) but am still battling the usual insomnia that keeps me awake past midnight. Result = I'm always exhausted when I wake up in the morning.

There are lots of things to be done for better sleep (as per this repo), but what can be done when you've already woken up and you're exhausted to help you cope? (Both practical tips and 'one must have a plan' type tips very welcome!)

Mattresses & pillows for optimal sleep for as many people as possible

We have been working remotely for the last month and a half.

During this time I have noticed that mattresses across Portugal appear to all be hard as rock and that a thin memory foam mattress topper makes a huge difference to my sleep quality. But the conversations I have had with people show that there are different preferences - some because they've never tried anything else and some because firm mattresses are their 'thing'.

So if we were to try to furnish a dwyl summer hq with beds, mattresses and pillows to promote optimal sleep for the most people (with the knowledge that one size does not fit all), what kinds would these be?

Respio sleep coach

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/respio/respio-sleep-coach-track-manage-improve-your-sleep/
image

I'm almost at the stage where I'm keen to get 'one of each' of the latest sleep gadgets (obviously within reason and only those backed by some scientific rigour) to test out in https://github.com/dwyl/home and see if any are helpful in our mission to improve people's sleep as the number 1 contributor to health and longevity.

But the challenge for me is data leakage. None of the apps, coaches, gadgets are even close to open source, so effectively we're just paying to give some startup a lot of important data. This particular app also gives you the option of granting the app control of your microphone 'to record snoring'. Big brother much?

This is, however, a problem with ALL current solutions and to do better, it might also behoove us to learn from some of these to see what works for people and what doesn't.
I'm opening this issue therefore to log the existence of this gadget and app, should we choose to test it out.

NB: Of course my assumption is that most reviews at this stage are paid for as the product doesn't really exist and reviews like this have zero additional information other than the product's own blurb: https://thegadgetflow.com/portfolio/biometric-sleep-coach/

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