11 Comments
Oct 28Liked by Connor Jennings

When I was in high school I was basically in the end, planning stages of suicidal ideation. It was only a few years later that I realized I had locked myself in a cycle of Anxiety -> Staying up Late -> Getting 4 hours of sleep -> Anxiety -> Staying up late and so on until I was so far down the well I almost didn't make it out.

Unironically I think crisis management for suicidal ideation should open by forcing the patient to exercise, eat whole foods, rest, repeat for a few days at least.

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Oct 19Liked by Connor Jennings

I tried reading before bed recently. Unfortunately I'm a nerd and too interested in what I'm reading so it made things worse. Being super ADHD doesn't make it easier to put things down.

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author

Only staring at a blank wall for 30 minutes for you then, it's decided

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And melatonin messes with my psych a good bit of the time

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Try an hour. I don't sleep well without melatonin

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I have bipolar 2 disorder, and after years of struggling I have figured out that sleep is the single most important factor for my well being. Nothing else holds a candle to it. If I get poor sleep, I turn into a Bronte character who sees specters and lights the curtains on fire. Good sleep, for me, is literally the barrier between sanity and madness.

It is for other people, too. The deleterious effects of poor sleep are just slower for them, but no less deadly.

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#8 mystifies me , especially considering this is written from a British perspective.

I find I get the best sleep when it's ~36 degrees C and I just have a sheet rather than a doona over me. Yes, this is sweaty. But at cooler temperatures, whenever my body is less than perfectly covered, I can feel my heart working to compensate.

If I assume that what you say is true, then once I *get* to sleep, I would have better sleep with the room cooler, but it does seem to me that this is gated off by the difficulty of actually getting-to-sleep at such a temperature.

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author

Well, if it works for you, then that's all that matters - I'm the total opposite though! A hot room makes me toss and turn all night. Worst part of summer. A lot of the info from this article I got from the sleep foundation, and the room temp recommendations can be found here: https://www.sleepfoundation.org/bedroom-environment/best-temperature-for-sleep#:~:text=Your%20body's%20temperature%20naturally%20drops,investing%20in%20cooling%20bedding%20materials.

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Thanks, I'll have to look into that more.

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Very good post, sleep is indeed important !

On a side note, is going to bed early really important ? Or is regularity more crucial than the hour of sleeping?

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author

Thanks! I think if you go to bed late, but wake up late, then that's probably fine. Going to bed early is more important if you have to get up early. If sleep from 12am to 6am, you're going to be sleep deprived, even if you do it consistently.

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