The meditation one in particular sounds interesting. I’ll try it. flux is something I’ve already experimented with, and I do exercise regularly.
I’ve had the opposite experience with eating – if I eat a lot right before going to bed, it seems to help. But I guess it’s not too surprising if that one differs from person to person.
Well, the disclaimer here is that I wrote that without giving it conscious thought, so I have to examine why I believe it retroactively. I notice that I’m pretty confident.
I think the biggest reason is just that it feels that way. The second is that I sometimes intent to go to bed, notice that I’m hungry, then eat something and go back to bed, and I seem to sleep better than average on those cases.
I’ve only tried to use it deliberately once. It was recently; I failed to fall asleep for about an hour, at which point I usually give up and just stay awake longer. Instead I got up, deliberately ate too much and went back to bed. It actually worked.
As far as I understand eating before sleep raises your pulse as more blood has to flow through your intestines and thus usually leads to less deep sleep.
It might damage your sleep in a way that leads you to be less rested the next morning even through you don’t notice that you had trouble entering sleep.
It might be useful to be more clear about what kind of food to eat when you find that eating something is good.
Personally, I can eat a bit of soup before going to bed without producing much spike in heart-rate.
Thanks!
The meditation one in particular sounds interesting. I’ll try it. flux is something I’ve already experimented with, and I do exercise regularly.
I’ve had the opposite experience with eating – if I eat a lot right before going to bed, it seems to help. But I guess it’s not too surprising if that one differs from person to person.
What metric do you use to determine it works to eat right before bed?
Well, the disclaimer here is that I wrote that without giving it conscious thought, so I have to examine why I believe it retroactively. I notice that I’m pretty confident.
I think the biggest reason is just that it feels that way. The second is that I sometimes intent to go to bed, notice that I’m hungry, then eat something and go back to bed, and I seem to sleep better than average on those cases.
I’ve only tried to use it deliberately once. It was recently; I failed to fall asleep for about an hour, at which point I usually give up and just stay awake longer. Instead I got up, deliberately ate too much and went back to bed. It actually worked.
As far as I understand eating before sleep raises your pulse as more blood has to flow through your intestines and thus usually leads to less deep sleep.
It might damage your sleep in a way that leads you to be less rested the next morning even through you don’t notice that you had trouble entering sleep.
It might be useful to be more clear about what kind of food to eat when you find that eating something is good.
Personally, I can eat a bit of soup before going to bed without producing much spike in heart-rate.
Usually bread and/or cereal.
Your point that it might make sleep less effective even if it reduces falling asleep time is well taken.
Did you try the meditation one? I’m curious to know how it worked for you.
Only made some fairly halfhearted attempts at that one; it didn’t really lead to anything.