I read a Figenbaum blog post from 2012 about sleep that reiterates a lot of things that recent media has as well as just general life development https://www.barbellmedicine.com/momm…edtime-dangit/
My question is what else have you learned about sleep?
A problem I have, having crossed off apnea, is that my sleep cycle can shift over a couple weeks,ie instead of waking up at 5am consistently. I lose that consistency and wake up later and later. I end up having to wake up later than usual or nap when I get back from work. This affects all aspects of my life from my nutrition to when/if I have enough energy to workout some weeks in a way that the gym is still open. I have read delayed sleep phase disorder affects up to ~15% of the population https://www.inverse.com/article/5285…thm-depression shifting their sleep cycle 25 minutes naturally a day
What other sleep fundamentals help?
Ironically I notice my parents, emigrants from Pakistan/old world, have VERY different sleep cycles from their children. My father, a pathologist, comes home from work around 6pm, goes to bed, usually without eating something light, for 3 or so hours, wakes up, and then goes back to sleep around 2am until 8am. Only one cup of strong chai/tea in the morning. My mother is similar, she wakes up for a morning prayer, and goes back to sleep. I have read that pre-industrial revolutiuon, this waking up in the middle of the night was normal. I have tried it but feel too awake to go back to bed until MUCh later, when I would have to be at work.
This has been a lifelong struggle for me, and although better sleep hygiene has helped be more consistent in my sleep pattern (before every 2 weeks or so my wake up time would shift, now it’s eveyr 2 months after good sleep hygiene), it’s still hard those 2 months.