<story><title>Dealing with Insomnia</title><url>https://jacquesmattheij.com/dealing-with-insomnia/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>caymanjim</author><text>I think my biggest problem is that I don&amp;#x27;t exhaust myself physically. Humans are built for constant labor. We&amp;#x27;re the endurance-running champions of the animal kingdom. As recently as last century, almost all jobs were physically exhausting.&lt;p&gt;Mind work is exhausting as well, but in a different way. At the end of a strenuous day of coding, and endless meetings, I&amp;#x27;m drained. Completely wiped out. I &lt;i&gt;feel&lt;/i&gt; physically exhausted, but I&amp;#x27;m not, at all.&lt;p&gt;On the rare occasions that I physically exhaust myself, be it home remodeling, yard work, or canoeing, I sleep like the dead. No insomnia, solid rest. I still have all the same things going on in my life; the same job, same bills, all the anxieties large and small that &amp;quot;keep me awake&amp;quot; other nights. Which is why I don&amp;#x27;t think any of it is psychological. My body just isn&amp;#x27;t worn out enough.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not looking for advice. &amp;quot;You should exercise more! Have you tried X?&amp;quot; This is my observation. We aren&amp;#x27;t constructed for office work.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>derefr</author><text>&amp;gt;  Humans are built for constant labor. We&amp;#x27;re the endurance-running champions of the animal kingdom.&lt;p&gt;I mean, sure, we &lt;i&gt;can&lt;/i&gt; do that. But most of our ape relatives lay about all day socializing and taking advantage of their social cohesiveness to hunt-and-gather very quickly (and then get back to lazing around.) They have many capabilities, but rarely use them, because social organization is just so OP compared to the defenses of most of the animal kingdom.&lt;p&gt;The big strong apes (e.g. gorillas) don&amp;#x27;t use their strength for &lt;i&gt;anything&lt;/i&gt; day-to-day; they just use it in occasional tribal territorial disputes and social-hierarchy disputes, which don&amp;#x27;t take up all that much of their time, all-said. Certainly not enough to wear them out by the end of the day, every day.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t see any reason that our sleeping habits would have gone through a big evolutionary shift relative to all the other apes; so if they can—and do—sleep just fine without exhausting themselves, we very likely can as well. If we can&amp;#x27;t, it&amp;#x27;s very likely not &amp;quot;lack of exhaustion&amp;quot; that&amp;#x27;s the cause.&lt;p&gt;IMHO, exhaustion seems to just be a hack, overriding the concerns of some other part of us that thinks it important for us to stay awake; rather than the proper resolution of that mechanism&amp;#x27;s concerns.</text></comment>
<story><title>Dealing with Insomnia</title><url>https://jacquesmattheij.com/dealing-with-insomnia/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>caymanjim</author><text>I think my biggest problem is that I don&amp;#x27;t exhaust myself physically. Humans are built for constant labor. We&amp;#x27;re the endurance-running champions of the animal kingdom. As recently as last century, almost all jobs were physically exhausting.&lt;p&gt;Mind work is exhausting as well, but in a different way. At the end of a strenuous day of coding, and endless meetings, I&amp;#x27;m drained. Completely wiped out. I &lt;i&gt;feel&lt;/i&gt; physically exhausted, but I&amp;#x27;m not, at all.&lt;p&gt;On the rare occasions that I physically exhaust myself, be it home remodeling, yard work, or canoeing, I sleep like the dead. No insomnia, solid rest. I still have all the same things going on in my life; the same job, same bills, all the anxieties large and small that &amp;quot;keep me awake&amp;quot; other nights. Which is why I don&amp;#x27;t think any of it is psychological. My body just isn&amp;#x27;t worn out enough.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not looking for advice. &amp;quot;You should exercise more! Have you tried X?&amp;quot; This is my observation. We aren&amp;#x27;t constructed for office work.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ulisesrmzroche</author><text>I was about to post that. It&amp;#x27;s definitely true in my experience. Only thing that&amp;#x27;s ever worked for when I get real bad insomnia is strenuous cardio&amp;#x2F;HIIT-type workouts.&lt;p&gt;But that&amp;#x27;s something people can&amp;#x27;t sell you so that&amp;#x27;s the last thing people try.&lt;p&gt;Even this advice that Jacques says about no napping during the day. IF I&amp;#x27;m working out, I need that nap. I suggest he try cutting everything out except for the morning bike ride and see how far it takes you.&lt;p&gt;And yeah, people shit far too much on that book, &amp;quot;While We Sleep&amp;quot; maybe some of the findings need more data but they do ring true, especially the part about underestimating lack of sleep does to our mind and body.&lt;p&gt;Btw, didn&amp;#x27;t know you played synths.</text></comment>