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Comment by christiangenco | Hacker News Reader

If anyone here has trouble falling asleep, I have two hacks I've recently implemented that have reduced my TTFA (time to fall asleep) from over two hours to about 15 minutes:

1. Don't look at a screen for an hour before going to bed.

2. Wear a sleep mask. If you can open your eyes and see any sliver of light or a distinguishable shape, you need something different.

The effect is complete lack of visual stimulus making it really easy to start hallucinating (an overly strong word) which is an easy ramp into deeper sleep. The lack of bright blue light beforehand does something something melatonin, and you'll feel significantly more tired before bed (the lack of stimulus will also help).

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> Wear a sleep mask. If you can open your eyes and see any sliver of light or a distinguishable shape, you need something different.

But couldn't this cause the opposite problem? In the morning, the rising sun levels tell your body to start waking up. I'm not an expert, but I would guess that this also stimulates (or de-stimulates) certain chemicals or hormones in the body needed for normal waking. So without your eyes seeing the sunlight increasing as a cue to wake up, doesn't that just cause a different problem?

Do you think something like f-lux would help for reducing blue light and can be replacement for not seing screen at all?

Flux definitely helps me, but it is always better to just read a book an hour before bed :)

Same. It helps but there's no replacement for no screen time before bed.

But...so...hard..!

Use F.lux any time > 7PM-ish. But still make sure you turn off any screens 1-2hrs before bed. It makes a huge difference.

If you spend a significant amount of time in front of a screen you should try to reduce blue light at all times just to reduce eye strain. flux is great but just a simple orange background / window theme will go a long way. This isn't a replacement for putting down your device an hour before you go to bed. Even if the light is orange / yellow you're still shining it in your eyes.

I lived in a tent for a year (long bicycle trip), and I started sleeping in a hat because it was cold most nights. I started pulling the hat slightly over my eyes at night, and my sleep has been better ever since. I probably couldn't wear a sleep mask, but I can't fall asleep well without a hat anymore.

There are some very comfortable sleep masks out there, you should give one a shot.

If you're in the US, I've found https://m.bedbathandbeyond.com/1/1/254570-bucky-40-blinks-ul... to be the most effective and comfortable ones.

It's like a miniature bra. For your eyes.

Yeah, I've gotten some strange looks on planes for wearing mine. It looks exactly like a face-bra.

source: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CCI4YU?psc=1&redirect=t...

iBra

Random, but I've discovered that "Buff" headwear (or equivalent, the fabric "loops" designed for outdoor sports etc: http://www.buffwear.co.uk/) over the eyes to be loads more comfortable than any eye mask I've tried, they're really soft and thin and do a great job blocking light out. Definitely worth a try if you don't like conventional eye masks.

3. if you have trouble staying asleep. get a sleep study. using a cpap machine has changed my life.

How much does a study cost? I think cost is the major problem here.

Assuming your health insurance doesn't cover it -- which would be odd if you have health insurance -- it will be around a thousand dollars. Your physician will order it for you; it takes a night.

Make sure your doctor leaves orders to titrate for a CPAP, APAP or biPAP setting if you show more than N apneations/hour. That will save you another sleep study and get you set up faster.

Can you elaborate more? I'm curious.

if you have a problem, getting it fixed makes it better!

I sleep with a fan on, which helps a lot. I find the white noise filters out a lot of creaks and clicks and cars in the street by raising the bar for noises to be noticeable.

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