How to sleep:
Step 1. No phone/TV/screens in the bedroom
Step 2. No screens 30 min before going to bed
Step 3. Go to bed at the same time each night
Step 4. Set yourself up to actually get enough sleepTry this for 6 weeks and then if you seriously still cant sleep discuss with a doctor.
It seems obvious but also: don’t drink anything with caffeine before bed and don’t eat a good couple of hours before sleep too.
I’ve had many friends who’d have a tea before going to sleep to ‘calm’ them without realising most have quite a lot still. Or guzzling down a soda too.
You’re missing the only one that actually works for me. Get up at roughly the same time every morning. I won’t do it, but I should.
There are alarm apps that can be set up to require taking a picture of a specific thing to turn the alarm off. I used one in college, where I had to take a picture of my toilet. Ten years later I still wake up around 6am every day with no alarm.
I think you were being used to train AI dude
thing is, this is basically just saying “just sleep bro”, i can’t do any of these things.
if i go without screens i will go mad from boredom, if i go to bed the same time each night i will lie awake in bed until i go mad with boredom or get up because fuck that noise, and what does “set yourself up to get enough sleep” even mean? that’s terribly vague.
i have yet to find anything that lets me get even vaguely consistently good sleep, i’ve tried all the things people say to do and it does NOTHING if it’s even feasible in the first place.
Yeah people giving simplistic life advice generally don’t understand the actual issues because they don’t have the problem, it’s painfully common especially with things like insomnia, anxiety, and similar ‘just don’t worry about things’, ‘have you tried not being depressed and just going out and doing stuff?’, ‘just lay down and wait until you sleep’
I can lay my head on a pillow after a long walk, no screen time and all the other shit they say and still spend the entire night caught in churning and bubbling anxiety that builds and builds until I’m as wired as a crackhead.
I’m not saying don’t try things people suggest but I guess don’t expect them to work and beat yourself up with them. If you can’t find something that works for you then see a doctor about getting sleep drugs, while you meme seems to be pushing the Puritanical idea that anything but a natural life is bad that’s totally stupid and op should be ashamed.
We’re complex biological machines that go wrong in a myriad of ways, it’s perfectly fine to require the addition of outside substances to moderate and control your health - honestly future generations will probably be shocked how few people used sleep aids.
Of course not every drug works the same on everyone and many can have negative side effects so it can take some shopping around but talk to medical professionals.
(Full disclosure I don’t take medical sleep aids due to other complications but I know many who do and swear by them)
Has no one in this thread never considered the root cause with these:
Anxiety. Americans are an anxious society. And that is with good cause, no social safety net, work 2 jobs to get ahead and a mass shooting every goddamn day.
Hey man, an entire society of people in survival mode is how a degree of essentialism is maintained
No caffeine or stimulants after noon. A considerable percentage shouldn’t have it after 10 am frankly.
Try this: 1 week of no caffeine and no chocolate At least 20 minutes of exercise - can be split upper day Finish eating dinner and snacks by 7pm No gaming or stimulating entertainment 30-60 minutes before bed. Manage noise, light and other triggers.
Smart watches or similar are good for watching your sleep quality.
“Literally everyone”
You keep saying that. I do not think it means what you think it means.
I don’t get why it grinds everyone gears. Isn’t it just an hyperbole? (y’know like for the hypersoups ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )
I think because it’s a pretty gross mischaracterization of the demographic? Usually hyperbole is used for effect to more emphatically illustrate a generally true or accepted point.
The number of Americans who use nightly sleep aids is extremely low. Like, a vast vast majority of people never take them. I don’t know anyone who regularly takes them, and honestly I don’t know many who take them even occasionally.
So this meme uses hyperbole to drive home the idea that Americans have a pill problem regarding sleep aids and no one in Europe does. I have no idea how the numbers shake out in Europe but I can say in America it is not as characterized. So it’s less hyperbole (exaggeration of a fact) and more like a lie.
Ok so I did a quick search and:
- 2% of americans declare using sleeping aids daily.
- 18% declare using some some
So yeah the amount of people “litteraly using medication to sleep every night” ia quite low. The use amongst the population is still generally high so I wouldn’t directly classify that hyperbole as a lie. (but I’m not claiming I’m right on that it’s a feelings calculation).
I’m also pretty sure these numbers are underreported for example because of the stigma around using “recreational drugs” as an illegal mean to self medicate.
Also it’s nice for you to have nobody (that you know of ofc) struggling to sleep.
Where I’d personally feel more nitpicky about that meme is the opposition with Europe. I don’t think we sleep much better. A lot of people around me (and myself included) heavily rely on sedation in one form or another to have any semblance of sleep. Although there might be some selection bias since alot of folks I know are handicaped in one way or another so we don’t tend to have the best physical and psychic health ^^’
Appreciate you finding numbers when I didn’t go to that effort. It makes me wonder if numbers are pretty similar globally. 2% having chronic insomnia doesn’t sound completely out of line to me.
Hey \o
The planet litterally when halfway around the sun during the time I took to respond to you.
The definition of chronic insomnia is “at least 3 times a week for at least 3 monthes” (simplified but that’s the idea)
So the real number of people with chronic insomnia is at the very least 2% but it’s probably closer to those 18%.
I hope time has been kind to you in those last 6 monthes. I’ve got a new treatment that allows me to have a good night of sleep almost everyday and it’s a godsend ^^
