I'd like to have a series of discussion posts, where each post is of the form "Let's brainstorm things you might consider when optimizing X", where X is something like sleep, exercise, commuting, studying, etc. Think of it like a specialized repository.
In the spirit of try more things, the direct benefit is to provide insights like "Oh, I never realized that BLAH is a knob I can fiddle. This gives me an idea of how I might change BLAH given my particular circumstances. I will try this and see what happens!"
The indirect benefit is to practice instrumental rationality using the "toy problem" provided by a general prompt.
Accordingly, participation could be in many forms:
* Pointers to scientific research * General directions to consider * Personal experience * Boring advice * Intersections with other community ideas, biases * Cost-benefit, value-of-information analysis * Related questions * Other musings, thoughts, speculation, links, theories, etc.
I've successfully shifted my sleep timing earlier over the past year. Here's my notes on that:
I had being an extreme night person as part of my identity. Realizing that waking up like a normal person would actually improve my life was step one.
You have more hooks available to wake yourself up than make yourself fall asleep. If you can adjust waking time, bed time may be easier to change.
What do you think about when falling asleep? I found that "free-association" thinking and non-verbal visualizations help me fall asleep faster than my default, which is to think verbally about a single topic.
I shifted other rhythmic activities earlier in the day: I eat breakfast earlier, exercise in the morning instead of night, try to do social things in the morning, and I open my blinds as soon as I wake up.
Some other notes:
Wash your pillowcases. They add very little to a laundry load. This is recommended if you have acne problems.
If you have a cheap bed, you can get a foam pad to put on top. Some people really like this, the pad is cheap, and you can store and transfer the foam pad easily.
I'd like to have a series of discussion posts, where each post is of the form "Let's brainstorm things you might consider when optimizing X", where X is something like sleep, exercise, commuting, studying, etc. Think of it like a specialized repository.
In the spirit of try more things, the direct benefit is to provide insights like "Oh, I never realized that BLAH is a knob I can fiddle. This gives me an idea of how I might change BLAH given my particular circumstances. I will try this and see what happens!"
The indirect benefit is to practice instrumental rationality using the "toy problem" provided by a general prompt.
Accordingly, participation could be in many forms:
* Pointers to scientific research
* General directions to consider
* Personal experience
* Boring advice
* Intersections with other community ideas, biases
* Cost-benefit, value-of-information analysis
* Related questions
* Other musings, thoughts, speculation, links, theories, etc.
This post is on sleep and circadian rhythms.