
Become a morning person. How to end insomnia for $520.99 - jaf12duke
http://www.humbledmba.com/become-a-morning-person-how-to-end-insomnia-f
======
edw519
Be a morning person. How to end insomnia for free.

1\. Sleep with the curtains open. Wake up with sunrise.

2\. Immediately exercise outside. It could be anything, walking, running,
swimming, biking, calestetics, just as long as its _outside_.

3\. At sundown, turn off all electronics. Using pencil, paper, and a 40 watt
bulb, refactor your code, do design work and the next day's plans. If you feel
like you haven't gotten enough work done on your computer before sundown, then
spend less time screwing around. (Then again, if you refactored and planned
properly the night before, this problem begins to disappear.)

4\. Go to sleep 8 hours (or whatever you require) before sunrise.

BONUS: Get a dog, cat, or child. Although these aren't free, they'll make sure
you're up at sunrise.

Been doing this for years. I may not have DSPS, but this does the same thing
as OP's approach for $520.99 less.

~~~
old-gregg
This doesn't work. I mean it works for people who are like you, but this
doesn't work for the intended audience of the article.

I can do all these things and yes, I achieve 8 hours of good sleep when I do.
The problem is that it requires extraordinary effort to keep up, you can't
shake off the unnatural feeling that you're living on someone else's schedule
and (ultimately) you are not as creative, explosive, productive and even happy
as you are when you fall asleep at 3am and wake up at 11. I've done a few
months of your normal routine and it sucked. Sure I felt rested and in sync
with others, but everything great I've built in life had happened between 10pm
and 4 in the morning.

I am firmly convinced that I am not biologically "wired" to going to sleep at
11pm like a robot, simply because someone turned of the lights. I get this
intense long-lasting spike of energy when the sun goes down. Every time I
switch to a regular people schedule I start missing that feeling and my
productivity suffers a big deal.

Here is what I do: I enjoy my lifestyle. It feels great to be awake when the
time slows down and the city finally comes to a stop, I've tried waking up
really early (someone said it feels the same) but not - not even close. This
precious time offers me relief, relief from the pressures of modern life, our
rat race of schedules, mortgage payments, poor sales and shrinking savings.
It's so much easier to concentrate on a problem at hand.

~~~
enjo
I'm the same way.... the only problem is that there are clear health-risks
associated with the reduced melatonin levels you get from sleeping during the
day (unless you can REALLY effectively darken your room).

Worse, as a company founder it can be very difficult living on that schedule.
A frightening amount of life occurs before 9AM for most people.

I don't really have an answer... I struggle with my sleeping habits every day.
I do know that I'd really like to be on a sun centric schedule, however.

~~~
TheSOB88
If you want a dark room, nail a thick blanket in front of your window, then
put some nails above those to latch the bottoms of the blankets to when you
want sun. It gets REALLY dark, about as dark as 10pm in the winter.

~~~
GFischer
I've got a special "blackout" curtain (and live on an inside-facing
apartment).

[http://www.google.com/search?q=blackout+curtain&btnG=Goo...](http://www.google.com/search?q=blackout+curtain&btnG=Google+Search)

------
YuriNiyazov
I attempted some of the things that you talk about here: tracking sleep +
bright overhanging light + sunrise alarm clock. None of it helped, and I
didn't want to continue spending even more money on "things" - I attempted a
more drastic solution. I changed apartments and made sure to get a room where
the windows face east.

I started waking up with the sun every day. It's still a bit of a problem on
cloudy days, but it feels a more natural way to function than all the gadgets.

~~~
houseabsolute
I'm curious why a simple alarm clock that wakes you up at the desired hour
wasn't sufficient?

~~~
YuriNiyazov
For the same reason that the OP had to write a long and well researched post,
along with relatively significant financial expense. My body likes sleep, and
for me, "willpower to get out of bed" isn't something that magically occurs at
8am. There are studies that associate willpower and self-control with blood
sugar levels, exercise, and other factors, and I'm under the impression that
people that naturally wake up in a dark room simply from the sound of an alarm
clock have widely differing body chemistry from mine.

~~~
houseabsolute
Interesting. I sometimes have trouble waking up in a dark room as well, but
I've found that increasing the volume of the alarm clock and the distance I
have to travel to get to it normally solves that problem.

~~~
YuriNiyazov
I am abnormally lazy in that respect. I've been known to get up, walk across
the room, turn off the alarm clock, walk back to bed, sit down, think "hmm, 5
more minutes would be great" and then go back to sleep, responsibilities be
damned.

My first job out of college was a start-up in the financial industry;
strolling in at 11am was highly looked down upon, and so ended my budding
career as a finance whore.

~~~
spatulon
I find that, for the first few seconds or minutes after waking up, I'm not
even capable of rationalising that I'd rather get up and deal with the
consequences of being tired. This is far longer than the time it actually
takes me to fall back asleep.

------
johnswamps
I recently changed my sleep cycle by a few hours. I bought a Zeo and started
turning off the computer an hour before going to sleep. During that time I'd
read, do some stretches, brush my teeth, meditate, take 3mg of melatonin, then
go to sleep. When I wake up, I go out for a 20+ min run or go to the gym, then
eat breakfast. I used to wake up anywhere from 10-12. Today I woke up at 6 and
my alarm only needed to go off once. It's a Sunday, I had no reason to wake up
so early but I'm doing it every morning now. My goal is to wake up at 5 every
morning without the use of an alarm clock and without the melatonin. As far as
I know I'm not suffering any negatives from the melatonin, though.

Here's my review of the Zeo: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1358589>

~~~
edkennedy
The negatives from melatonin would be short term memory loss and wild, crazy
dreams. I think the point of changing the light cycles is to use the melatonin
that your brain naturally produces. Generally melatonin is prescribed for
seniors when they stop naturally producing it.

~~~
ahlatimer
Compared to other sleep-aids I've tried, melatonin is much, much better. I
took Ambien for a while (both 5mg and 10mg), and while the onset is much, much
faster than melatonin (15 minutes vs. 1 hour), I grew a tolerance to it rather
quickly. Eventually, it just wouldn't put me to sleep. Instead, I experienced
wild hallucinations, amnesia, and hangovers. Wild and crazy dreams are
nothing, really, compared to actually hallucinating.

~~~
nitrogen
My younger brother had a similar experience with Ambien. He would take it, not
fall asleep, and then get really weird (the only word to describe it). One
time he started listening to dance music after taking an Ambien to try to fall
asleep, and whatever he experienced, his roommates said he was jumping and
screaming at the top of his lungs. And then there were the online posts with
capitalization and spelling that looked like they'd been boiled in radioactive
green goo...

~~~
ahlatimer
I've had a number of really weird experiences with Ambien. I know, from some
things I've said to other people while on it, that there are a number of
things that I experienced of which I have no recollection. The things I _do_
remember are fairly crazy in their own right. I'm not sure if this is the
place to discuss this, but I'll mention a few things that I've experienced. At
the very least, this should serve as a warning to anyone considering taking
Ambien.

I was once convinced I was on the set of the Goonies, because my comforter
happened to look like a cave. I've only seen bits and pieces of that movie, so
I have no idea why I hallucinated about it. I told someone "this lady needs to
sell some chickens" because I saw a woman in the middle of my room selling
chickens. I saw pixies dancing in the middle of my room. I saw a little girl,
about the height of the toilet, that was sucked behind it as I approached. I
also called or texted a number of people and told them a bunch of things that
made absolutely no sense. Things like "I don't trust you. You might read my
books." Or telling them I was flying and how much I loved them. I have a
subtle recollection of the latter, absolutely none of the former. I never had
a "bad trip", in that I never experienced anything that made me fearful or
feel bad. It was all very euphoric, but, from my understanding, this isn't
true for everyone.

If you're into the whole recreational drug thing, I can't say that Ambien is a
bad choice as a hallucinogen. The hangovers were mild, and only came about
from large doses (~30mg). I never took it for that purpose, but I realize
there are people (not necessarily here) that might be interested. As far as
using it as a sleep aid, I wouldn't suggest anyone go near the stuff. It's
great the first few times you take it, but the tolerance sets on rather
quickly. I ended up just hallucinating until the time I would normally fall
asleep. I never became dependent, but it seems that addiction isn't
necessarily uncommon for those that take it for long periods of time. If you
are having trouble sleeping, try melatonin supplements and light therapy.
Melatonin doesn't work for everyone, but, honestly, I'd rather have a few
nights where I'm unable to sleep than the hangovers and hallucinations I got
from Ambien.

TL;DR: Ambien makes for a really shitty sleep-aid.

------
patio11
I really appreciate the recommendation for Flux. My sleep schedule has been
bouncing all over the place since quitting my job, and the last three days
have been unbearably bad. (Awake until 6/7/8 AM.) I'd really like to sync
myself such that I can be awake and productive by mid-morning.

~~~
ivank
Welcome to delayed-phase sleep (maybe). Here are some of the exciting things
you can experience:

\- working midnight to morning in dead silence

\- sleeping through an overly hot day

\- watching sunset, then watching sunrise

\- being temporarily timezone-synchronized to friends halfway across the globe

\- viewing people's absurdly high energy levels in the morning, while you are
already sleepy

\- being questioned by police for being outside at 3 AM, on your own property

~~~
jmatt
Excellent. This is yet another reason that I love the news.yc community. I
have had many similar experiences over the years, but haven't ran into anyone
else that also understands and appreciates it in the same way. I think the
usually MO is I'm some sort of party animal or lazy. But given high enough
productivity employers don't care.

Specifically "viewing people's absurdly high energy levels in the morning,
while you are already sleepy" has been frustrating. And as they are winding
down and burned out come 4pm or later when I'm speeding up reaching my highest
productivity.

Add to the list:

\- Remember what happened at that party last night \- Volunteer to drive the
"late" shift on trips \- Watch the server and provide customer support from
midnight - 6pm \- Finish that feature when everyone else can barely function
and things still need to get done \- Know every late night restaurant, coffee
shop, bar and convenience store. And when they stop serving food, close and
open.

------
yurisagalov
I've been using F.lux on my macbook and my desktop for a while and can confirm
it is awesome. I can _feel_ the difference in the evening as my eyes are more
relaxed from the usual strain of bright LCD monitors (I have dual monitors,
which doesn't help)...

Additionally, I used to live in a basement with bad lighting and so I would go
to bed at 3am and get up around 10am when the sun would finally shine in my
room. About two weeks ago I moved into an apartment with plenty of natural
light and I've been getting up at 7am and going to bed at midnight, as well as
feeling significantly better and more alert overall

------
russell_h
When I was in high school I did something similar for waking up, albeit on a
much lower budget.

My dad had a bunch of old X10 automation stuff laying around which I used to
rig all of the lights in my room (a light switch unit for the overhead lights
and a wall-wart style unit for my reading light) for remote control. Same with
the stereo.

Then I programmed the control unit to fade in the lights in the morning and
eventually power on the stereo which was looping an ocean sounds file I'd
found somewhere. I came to really enjoy waking up in that way. I would have
preferred natural light, but with Alaskan summers I needed room darkening
blinds, and I didn't have a trivial way to automate those.

The whole project took about an hour and didn't cost me anything. The X10
stuff is pretty cheap now, but there is also a lot of much higher quality
automation equipment available very cheap these days.

------
jbm
For what it is worth, I wake up at 5ish every morning, then go with the
significant other to the gym where we swim or work out. (The membership we got
only allows us to use the gym facilities between 5 AM and 9 AM)

I used to wake up insanely late on weekends (12ish), but this set everything
straight; we can finally enjoy our weekends and go places.

Not saying this will work for everyone, but treating it as a romantic
"together" activity made it something we stuck to.

~~~
follower
> I used to wake up insanely late on weekends (12ish)

I had to laugh at noon being considered "insanely late". :)

------
caustic
For Linux users there is also redshift application -- that is a f.lux analog.

<http://jonls.dk/redshift/>

~~~
kilian
Having tried both xflux for linux and redshift, I have to say xflux works much
better. It has a more pleasant hue and fades much less noticeable. I'm
actually writing a Gnome-applet for it (with permission of the xflux author)
that should be done soon :)

~~~
zandor
Looking forward to it. You'll post in on your blog I hope? Nice Wordpress
theme by the way.

------
paradox95
It was scary reading that Wikipedia page. It was like it was written for me. I
have been like this since middle school and always wondered if there was a
proper name for it other than insomnia.

------
erikstarck
People interested in this should check out the B-Society:
<http://www.b-society.org/> This is how they describe themselves:

"- Do you love quiet mornings and active evenings?

\- Do you feel life is too short for traffic jams?

\- Are you at your most productive after 10 am?

Then you might be a B-Person"

------
danielle17
I am so excited to try out f.lux, I have been working towards a wake up time
of 5am PST (that way I am awake as business gets started on the East Coast)
but have hit a roadblock at getting up before 7am.

I currently get a ton of natural light in the morning, plus I have a light box
I turn on for 30 minutes while I drink my coffee and do my first work of the
day. By 9amm, I'm usually out he door for my walk to work in the sunshine -
which is when I think my body really wakes up. I bet if I went for a walk to
get a cup of coffee at 7am instead I'd get the benefit and reset my circadian
rhythm earlier.

But falling asleep is the main problem for me actually, I try to go to bed by
11:30pm but I find I am still not able to dose off until around 1am (which
used to be my normal bed time), so what ends up happening is that over the
course of the week I become mildly sleep deprived. I notice this less of an
issue on the weekends, and after reading this post I think this is probably
because I don't end my day with my laptop/iPad in bed.

Anyone know if there is something like f.lux for the iPad? Guessing not, since
it would need to run in the background...

Thanks for the useful post

~~~
whimsy
You could buy the light filter in glasses form. <http://lowbluelights.com/>
sells them, though they look pretty expensive to me.

Then again, so does the iPad.

------
joshu
F.lux was written by a friend and classmate from CMU. It rocks.

------
sunjain
I think light has correctly been identified as the biggest reasons for
insomnia(if you look at plants and animals, light plays a big part in their
daily cycles). I have seen following changes really helpful:

1\. The biggest change that needs to be made, is to have genuine respect for
nature's cycles. That is the mindset needs to change from "We can sleep/wake
whenever we want" to "Aligning oneself with natures rhythms". All animals and
plants do it, except human beings.

2\. When looking for apartment, look for apartment which lets more of sunlight
in. So bedroom should have window/s which lets lot of light in on to the bed
(of course it can be controlled with a blind). 2\. Even during day time,
instead of artificial lights, see if sunlight from windows can be used. 3\.
Minimize use of monitor(meaning staring at monitor) past 9PM and ideally best
to sleep by 10PM. Consistently. Once the pattern is established, your body
automatically falls sleep easily around these times.And, with this patten,
early morning hours (6AM to 9AM) provide freshest of mind. It is about quality
of wakeful hours and not quantity.

I've found this to not only provide the best quality of sleep but great
clarity of mind and improvement in health.

------
ajaimk
I started an internship 3 weeks back and this created a requirement for me to
change from being a night owl.

I didn't spend the $520.99 but I did install F.Lux on my computers and this
works REALLY well.

I have been sleeping around 11pm every night and wake up around 7am. I also
work out around 6 and eat dinner after which probably aids in the wearing down
of my body.

This is mostly due to F.Lux cause I am on the computer till about 5 minutes
before I fall asleep.

------
scotty79
Also you can just take 5mg of melatonin at 21:30 and half an hour later turn
off the lights and go to bed. You'll wake up early in the morning refreshed.
After 3 days of such therapy you turn from owl into lark. First day may be a
bit awkward but effect stabilizes fast. You may stop taking pills after some
time but if you do be super careful not to stay up late because if you do you
will turn into an owl again equally fast.

Falling asleep after taking melatonin in interesting feeling. Your breath
slows down and it gets shallower. It seems that there are some symptoms of
genuinely falling asleep but not all of them. Probably because serotonin
mentioned in the article is still high (or something). Funny thing that you
don't feel drugged. You feel just physical symptoms of falling asleep not the
mental ones. You can easily overcome pill you took and perform any task at
almost unhampered performance. Even pull all-nighter despite the pill. But if
you go to sleep half an hour after the pill you will fall asleep.

520$ buys you 7 year supply of every day melatonin

~~~
georgieporgie
> Also you can just take 5mg of melatonin at 21:30 and half an hour later turn
> off the lights and go to bed.

I read an article in -- I think -- NYTimes, maybe a year ago, about melatonin.
It revolved around a study which found that the typical 5mg dose of melatonin
causes the body to build a resistance very quickly. They found that 300
_micrograms_ had the same effect on sleepiness, but didn't cause the body to
adapt.

I've been taking 300mcg doses (Nature Valley, I think) most nights for the
last few months and my sleep has been more sound and my dreams much more
entertaining and memorable.

Edit: updated 3mcg to 300mcg because I was an idiot.

~~~
scotty79
First I was taking 5mg. I did not notice any signs of resistance building up,
but I felt it was a bit strong for me. Now I'm taking 3mg which is barely
enough. With such a small dose moving my day to fit social norms takes up to
one week.

------
d_c
I can confirm that daylight bulbs really help, especially during the winter.

~~~
aohtsab
do you know whether they affect seasonal depression?

~~~
d_c
There are models from Phillips that specifically mention it, yes.

------
miri
Yeah. That probably works if you live in a place that has more than two hours
of "darkness" (it's 1:41, and it's twilight) during the summer, and that has
decent quantities of daylight during the winter.

The light adjustment thing works, though, it's just that up north (this being
Trondheim, Norway - not that far north, but far enough) you have to enforce by
using dark curtains, or even aluminium foil taped on the window. Just wish I
had any. The joys of living in student housing - less choice in curtains. So
I've gotten used to sleeping even in daylight, since it usually turns up in my
room at 3:30 in the morning :P

[http://www.heavens-
above.com/sun.asp?lat=63.417&lng=10.4...](http://www.heavens-
above.com/sun.asp?lat=63.417&lng=10.417&alt=0&loc=Trondheim&TZ=CET&SL=1&SN=1&BW=0&SZ=600)

Note how there is no twilight ending or starting time.

------
gte910h
Here is how: Get a job where 11 am is an okay time to go to bed. Don't do
anything but sleep and have sex in your bed. Make your room very very dark
when you sleep. See sunlight within 10 minutes of waking up (or very bright
florescent lights). Stop drinking caffeine within 16 hours of when you'd like
to wake up.

------
ibejoeb
Awesome. Not because I haven't read similar stuff before, but because it's a
plan that considers that I can not make radical lifestyle changes that
endanger my business (e.g., not read or look at a monitor at night).

I thought once I had paid my dues, done the all-nighters, and succeeded that I
wouldn't fall back into the grips of insomnia. Now, almost a decade and a new
venture later, I'm back at it. I've seen 4:30 AM for many consecutive months.
It doesn't feel as easy as it used to, and I'm beginning to think that it's
_really_ not healthy.

I notice that I'm often tired and ready to sleep around 9:00 PM. If I find
myself in a dark place (movie date or something), I'll pass out. Quite
embarrassing. But once I'm "over the hump" I'm good for another 8 hours or so.

------
rjurney
I've had severe insomnia my entire life - I miss at least one night's sleep a
week, often pull overnighters, etc. My mind just won't shut off, or it will
but despite being exhausted I am not sleepy.

I started exercising daily and meditating at least half an hour a day and now
I sleep like a baby. Sometimes it takes a couple hours of reading, but its not
a severe problem for me anymore. Exercise or meditation alone didn't do it.
Together they give me physical tiredness and mental quiet, which means sleep.

Its amazing what physical/mental upkeep will do for you. That being said... I
just install F.lux and may try some of this other stuff too!

------
ErrantX
I've used F.Lux for a bit as part of my sleep cycle; but had to stop. It gave
me intense headaches and really really strained my eyes. In the end my
optician advised me to stop using it.

YMMV of course but do take care :)

------
samratjp
I am a DSPS person and this reminds me of this old Seinfeld joke in which
Seinfeld talks about how the night guy screws over the morning guy by staying
up and the night guy says that morning guy's responsibility is not mine...
It's somewhat true with me. But there is somewhat of a hack that I use when I
do have to wake up early:

Do what you enjoy doing before bedtime in the morning - but after your most
interesting meeting of the day first over coffee or breakfast. This has helped
me get through the day and reset (at least for the next weekday or two).

------
jaf12duke
Left off my post is the now frequently mentioned problem of bright light from
the ipad at night. The light is bad for going to sleep and solutions like
F.lux don't work on the ipad. Turning down the brightness helps a little, but
as I mention in the post, the real problem is that the blue light is not
filtered out. Currently, I just stop myself from using the iPad at night,
which is so unfortunate--especially since I like it as an e-reader.

Will someone please provide a solution to this problem...I, for one, would be
willing to pay for it.

~~~
bshep
I read the article and I was wondering if you've tried the blue-light blocking
sunglasses ( <https://www.lowbluelights.com/detail.asp?id=48> ) or something
similar?

Also you could check out BluBlocker sunglasses which can be gotten cheap on
eBay. But, I'm not sure if they will work for what you want.

------
stretchwithme
I had this same problem and it really didn't get fixed until I got a regular
job. I have no self-discipline :-)

The light thing does work though. There are studies backing it and I've tried
it and it definitely works.

One funny thing about one of those studies. They somehow found "evidence" that
light on the inside of elbow (I think its called the cubital tunnel area) had
the same effect on circadian rhythms, but I think this was later disproven.

~~~
westbywest
I can definitely sympathize with the lack of self-discipline as well. It's
difficult to discipline yourself when the animus to do so is faltering.

Besides that, I've found myself growing ever more sensitive to lighting,
natural or otherwise. The 'fluorescent sunshine' from the overhead fixtures
typical to most office environments is a definite demotivator. Likewise, I
usually remove those ubiquitous, vinyl miniblinds from any new apartment and
replace them with Chinese-style roll-up blinds with opaque fabric to allow in
natural light.

~~~
stretchwithme
yeah, the window coverings are definitely an issue. I wish there were blinds
available that would go translucent in the morning. I like it pitch black at
night but need the sun in the morning. My first robotic house will handle
this. :-)

~~~
GFischer
Hehe... that doesn't sound so expensive actually (some kind of automatically-
opening blinds or curtains on a schedule) and might help.

Edit: russell_h actually did something of the sort -
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1409313>

------
snitko
This is true, but quite simplified. I always recommend a great book by the
pioneer of sleep science William C. Dement "The Promise Of Sleep"
[http://www.amazon.com/Promise-Sleep-Medicine-Connection-
Happ...](http://www.amazon.com/Promise-Sleep-Medicine-Connection-
Happiness/dp/0440509017/) It explains this and many other aspects of sleep
that you need to know to manage it effectively.

------
callahad
F.lux seems neat, and it has a really wonderful bug on the new Macbook Pro
models: Every time the graphics switch between discrete and integrated, flux
lowers the display's color temperature. Essentially, the already-lowered
temperature gets reinterpreted as the initial daylight temperature. And then
an appropriate adjustment is made to lower it even further for the evening...

~~~
herf
(beta) fix for new MBP posted <https://secure.herf.org/flux/Flux9d.zip>

Not that I want to ruin your fun or anything. :)

~~~
callahad
With today's sunset, I can report that my fun has been successfully ruined.

------
mhd
I've got no trouble getting up at 6-8 am. If left to my own devices, I get up
quite a bit later, though. But never mind my actual sleep phase (or whether I
sleep 6,8 or 10 hours), it still takes me 30-60 minutes to fall asleep. So
becoming a morning person isn't a good fix for everyone.

(and the "3 Guinness" method has its flaws in the long run.)

~~~
Snoddas
Yeah. After 3 pints of Guinness I have to go to the bathroom. I have the
bladder of a chipmunk.

------
watmough
Wow, this sounds like me. I generally hit the hay around 3am-5a and sleep for
5 or 6 hours.

However, when I do go to bed, I fall immediately asleep for 5 or 6 hours and
I'm pretty awake and alert in the mornings generally.

Great article, and gives me some ideas for if I ever have to adjust to
'normal' hours.

------
tibbon
This is really intriguing. I've the tendency to slip into a 10am-2am schedule
really easily if allowed. The only reason I'm on a good schedule now is my
gf's work is an 8am job. Having something like this would certainly make it
easier. Just might have to do this.

------
TeHCrAzY
Can anyone offer some more evidence that this is effective? I would love for
it to work (if left to my own natural rhythm, I get sleepy at 4am and wake
late afternoon), but a single person is to small a sample to convince me of
the general application.

------
dingle_thunk
On a mac, you can press command + shift + 8 to invert the colours of your
display. This can be done on Windows 7 by pressing ctrl + + and modifying the
magnifier settings, or on linux UIs by setting a key binding in the keyboard
settings.

------
rsaarelm
This might work as a way for adjusting wake-up time:
[http://www.aleph.se/andart/archives/2007/11/the_early_bird_g...](http://www.aleph.se/andart/archives/2007/11/the_early_bird_gets_the_caffeine_pill.html)

------
ImFatYoureFat
This was a great article if for no other reason than that it just helped me
diagnose my insomnia. Knew my symptoms but didn't know the name for my
particular type. And F.lux seems like a great first step. Thanks

------
chipsy
Inspired by this guide, I purchased $8 sunglasses today and wore them when it
turned evening. So far they seem effective in lulling me to sleep :P

------
eogas
Is it bad that I'm reading this guide at 3 AM, on a bright computer screen,
wide awake, when I have work tomorrow at 9 AM?

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zokier
Feels extremely relevant after pulling an allnighter and sleeping 12 hours
after that. And now I should head to work...

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jobu
Same solution for $20 or less: <http://www.blublocker.com/>

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matrixownsyou
thank you for the post. i feel this pain for years.

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georgieporgie
I found this to be absolutely fascinating, and I'm extremely excited about the
linked f.lux application!

I read about this melatonin-suppressing blue light theory recently. It seems
very plausible to me, since I have the tendency to stay up arbitrarily late
doing absolutely nothing productive on the computer. I thought it would be
brilliant to modify the display settings to ramp down the blue light after a
certain time.

This struck me as such a novel approach to the issue that it never even
occurred to me that such an application might already exist! I also didn't
know that so many other people had the same general set of problems with
sleeping.

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erlanger
This describes a mild form of insomnia. The sort where you have a hard time
falling asleep, staying asleep, and having quality sleep when you do, is the
most difficult to treat. I don't enjoy it.

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thethimble
Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome?? That's called being in college...

