An Algorithmic Solution to Insomnia (2017)

My entire life, but especially in graduate school, I've had horrible sleep. Both falling asleep, and staying asleep. I did multiple sleep studies, used sleeping medications, took supplements, tried to meditate, etc. and had no luck. I went and did CBT-I, where they had me change my sleep hygeine (all your standard recommendations of "no TV in the bedroom", etc). But the biggest thing was they had me start off by going to bed at 1 am and waking up…

I’ve had huge issues with falling asleep for years, and have had two big changes in the last 2 years that have completely changed things for me. The first was being diagnosed with anxiety and learning about mindful breathing activities, essentially just throwing on the headspace or calm apps while in bed allowed me to drift off very quickly after a 10-20min session. The second big thing was having a baby. 7 months in and I can fall asleep anywhere…

No screens and no light brighter than single-digit candle power after sundown is a pretty good cure for, I suspect, a whole lot of modern cases of sleeplessness. Light your whole house up brighter than the mirrored hall at Versailles and engage with devices that put entertainments better than a pre-modern emperor could command at the grandest, most expensive carnival he could assemble at your fingertips and sleep becomes elusive. “The emperor’s having trouble sleeping! We lit up the palace…