How I Put Together My Sleep System

Published: 2024-10-22

Tagged: essay hacking

Roughly half of my friends struggle with getting good enough sleep, and I do too. We end up trading anecdotes and strategies, hoping to help each other out.

My own work on getting better sleep began about four years ago. I was living in Seattle at the time where marijuana has been legal for some time. Out of curiosity, I tried an edible--a sativa one, and enjoyed some laughs and the best tasting strawberries since I had my first one ever. But what I really remember about this experience was the next morning.

When I woke up, I was startled by how clear everything looked around me. I could almost cut myself on the outlines of my pillows and covers. It was like jumping from a game released in the mid-90s to an AAA title produced this year. More interestingly though, my attention felt relaxed. I could direct it wherever I wanted with ease.

Was it the afterglow of a good time with THC? It probably played a role. But what stood out to me more was that I had slept for something around nine hours. At that time, my average was probably six or so.

After a few repeated experiments like this (fueled with fruits and... bread--there's nothing like good, fresh bread when the munchies take you) and I came to realize how poor my sleep was and had been for years. Worse, I noticed the long shadow it cast over my life. Everything was worse, from my work and health to my relationships, even the closest ones.

Frustratingly, it wasn't obvious what was causing it. I could deduce from my memories that it took years for my body to achieve this new, suboptimal equilibrium. That suggested there's no magical one-shot fix. I would have to work it out, probably over a longer period of time.

At the beginning, I tried random things, starting with sleep supplements like valarian root. Experiments would last between a few weeks to a few months to account for variables like work stress or seasons. Probably after the first year, I picked up a CBT-I book--"Say Good Night to Insomnia" by G. D. Jacobs--and began to use pencil and paper to track the quality of each night's sleep. It was a huge step up because it allowed me to track environmental changes. Later, I switched to using a smart watch, a Garmin Forerunner, that registered my stress, heart rate, and heart-rate variability.

A crucial part of the learning and experimenting process was developing a feel for judging my state. My decision-making ability degrades rapidly with bad sleep, which leads to more bad nights--a process that could go on for days or weeks. A death spiral. So the ability to either head off or break a spiral has been a huge help.

Here's my current sleep system:

• L-theanine + apigenin + magnesium threonate
  • My go-to for calm, restful sleep without drowsiness the next morning. Been using it for years at this point, with a couple of longer breaks, and there are no side effects or any rebound that I experienced. I take 50mg apigenin, 200mg l-theanine, and 2000-6000mg magnesium threonate, depending how much assistance I need.
• Chamomile
  • Helps to dampen daily stress levels, which translates to better sleep. Discovered using the stress tracking feature on my watch.
• Ear plugs
  • I have the Howard Leight Max Light ones, which are soft and allow me to sleep on the side. These mainly help with the noises my cats make, like clawing the couch which is surprisingly loud.
• Window shades
  • This became a necessity after moving from the fourth floor to the second and being subject to my neighbor's extremely bright lights.
• Cold
  • Another discovery owed to the smart watch. On colder nights, my stress is lower by some 10-20%, so I try to make my bedroom as cold as possible. 60-67f seems to work well. In the summer, I can get a similar effect without using thousands of dollars of electricity by sleeping under bed sheets and using a quiet DC-motor ceiling fan.
• Japanese futon
  • It's only three inches thick and filled with cotton, which makes it quite firm. It's fantastic to sleep on my back and--more importantly--it isolates me from the jerky movements of my wife.
• Cardio
  • The effect is indirect, but I suppose it has to do something with stress regulation. I try to run 2-3 times a week and get at least 7-10k steps a day. Relaxed evening walks are especially helpful.
• Being careful about food and drink
  • No coffee after 9am and no tea after 2pm. It takes hours and hours to metabolize the stuff, so it might keep you awake even after midnight.
  • Limit drinks. Once or twice a week maximum, and one or two good drinks at most. Liquor like gin seems to have the least impact while beer and wine the most. My watch reports increased stress until 2am (assume drinking at 8pm) and I often wake up feeling hot and sweaty.
  • Eating heavy food has a similar effect to drinking alcohol: high stress, feeling hot. Better to eat more but lighter meals.

I recognize that all of these are a band-aid on a bigger problem. However, I don't know what this bigger problem really is. Maybe it's mental or physical--whatever it is, it's not obvious. I hope it can be mitigated, but if not then at least I have a decent way of managing it.

On the bright side, wrestling with this problem has been a great opportunity to practice certain Rationalist skills, especially those to do with hacking your own perception. After all, all the relevant data is right there, literally inside of me, and it's just a matter of figuring out the right questions to ask. TSUYOKU NARITAI!