I have a hard time terminating certain subroutines in my brain. This most regularly happens when I am thinking about a strategy game or math that I am really interested in. I will continue thinking about whatever it is that is distracting me even when I try not to.
The most visible consequence of this is that it sometimes interferes with my sleep. I usually get to bed at a regular time, but if I get distracted it could take hours for me to get to sleep, even if I cut myself off from outside stimulus. It can also be a problem when I am in a class that I find less interesting that whatever math I was working on before the class.
I know there are drugs to help with sleep, but I am especially interested in a meta-thinking solution to this problem. Is there a way that I can force myself to clear my brain and get it to stop thinking about something for a while?
One idea I had is to give my brain another distracting activity that causes it to think, but has no way to actively stay in my head after the activity is finished. For example, perhaps I could solve a Sudoku or similar logic puzzle? I have not tried this yet, but I will next time I am in this situation.
Any other ideas? Is this a problem many people face?
I use certain videogames for something similar. I’ve collected a bunch of (Nintendo DS, generally) games that I can play for five minutes or so to pretty much reset my mind. Mostly it’s something I use for emotions, but the basic idea is to focus on something that takes up all of that kind of attention—that fully focuses that part of my brain which gets stuck on things.
Key to this was finding games that took all my attention while playing, but had an easy stopping point after five minutes or so of play—Game Center CX / Retro Game Challenge is my go-to, with arcade style gameplay where a win or loss comes up fairly quick.
StepMania is great for this (needs specialized hardware). It needs the mind and the body. When playing on a challenging level, I must pay full attention to the game—if my mind starts focusing on any idea, I lose immediately.
Intensive exercise—I remember P.J.Eby saying he’d use intensive exercise (in his case I thin it was running across his house) as a “reset button” for the mind. It’s pretty cheap to try! (I have occasionally did that—pushups, usually—though it’s more often to get rid of angry annoyance than distractions)
Physical pain will do it. Exercise is one option, but for me it always seems to be the bad “I am destroying my joints” kind of pain so I stop before it hurts enough to reset my thought patterns. Holding a mug of tea that’s almost but not quite hot enough to burn, and concentrating on that feeling to the exclusion of everything else, seems to work decently. A properly forceful backrub is better, though it requires a partner. And if your partner is a sadist then you begin to have many excellent options.
Addressing the sleep half: if meditation or sleep visualization exercises are hard for you, try coloring something really intricate and symmetrical. Like these. The idea is to keep your brain engaged enough to not think about the intrusive thing you were thinking about before, but calm enough to move towards sleep.
I don’t know if a citation would help—alcohol’s effect on sleep (and other things) is fairly personal. If you don’t already know, you’ll need to experiment and find out how it works for you.
In any case, alcohol is just the easiest of the hit-the-brain-below-the-cortex options. There are other alternatives, too, e.g. sex or stress.
Here is a problem that I regularly face:
I have a hard time terminating certain subroutines in my brain. This most regularly happens when I am thinking about a strategy game or math that I am really interested in. I will continue thinking about whatever it is that is distracting me even when I try not to.
The most visible consequence of this is that it sometimes interferes with my sleep. I usually get to bed at a regular time, but if I get distracted it could take hours for me to get to sleep, even if I cut myself off from outside stimulus. It can also be a problem when I am in a class that I find less interesting that whatever math I was working on before the class.
I know there are drugs to help with sleep, but I am especially interested in a meta-thinking solution to this problem. Is there a way that I can force myself to clear my brain and get it to stop thinking about something for a while?
One idea I had is to give my brain another distracting activity that causes it to think, but has no way to actively stay in my head after the activity is finished. For example, perhaps I could solve a Sudoku or similar logic puzzle? I have not tried this yet, but I will next time I am in this situation.
Any other ideas? Is this a problem many people face?
This is pretty much what meditation is for — minus the “force”, that is.
I use certain videogames for something similar. I’ve collected a bunch of (Nintendo DS, generally) games that I can play for five minutes or so to pretty much reset my mind. Mostly it’s something I use for emotions, but the basic idea is to focus on something that takes up all of that kind of attention—that fully focuses that part of my brain which gets stuck on things.
Key to this was finding games that took all my attention while playing, but had an easy stopping point after five minutes or so of play—Game Center CX / Retro Game Challenge is my go-to, with arcade style gameplay where a win or loss comes up fairly quick.
StepMania is great for this (needs specialized hardware). It needs the mind and the body. When playing on a challenging level, I must pay full attention to the game—if my mind starts focusing on any idea, I lose immediately.
Intensive exercise—I remember P.J.Eby saying he’d use intensive exercise (in his case I thin it was running across his house) as a “reset button” for the mind. It’s pretty cheap to try! (I have occasionally did that—pushups, usually—though it’s more often to get rid of angry annoyance than distractions)
Physical pain will do it. Exercise is one option, but for me it always seems to be the bad “I am destroying my joints” kind of pain so I stop before it hurts enough to reset my thought patterns. Holding a mug of tea that’s almost but not quite hot enough to burn, and concentrating on that feeling to the exclusion of everything else, seems to work decently. A properly forceful backrub is better, though it requires a partner. And if your partner is a sadist then you begin to have many excellent options.
Addressing the sleep half: if meditation or sleep visualization exercises are hard for you, try coloring something really intricate and symmetrical. Like these. The idea is to keep your brain engaged enough to not think about the intrusive thing you were thinking about before, but calm enough to move towards sleep.
I read fiction or easy nonfiction. This distracts me from other thoughts, but isn’t engaging enough to keep me awake.
Alcohol.
I don’t have a citation, but I’ve heard that alcohol will screw with your sleep. Might want to Google if you’re thinking about going that route.
I don’t know if a citation would help—alcohol’s effect on sleep (and other things) is fairly personal. If you don’t already know, you’ll need to experiment and find out how it works for you.
In any case, alcohol is just the easiest of the hit-the-brain-below-the-cortex options. There are other alternatives, too, e.g. sex or stress.
I find reading LW helps with this.