Do you ever have trouble sleeping? I’ve found that even the tiniest amount of light can disturb my sleep and one of the things that improved my sleep almost as much as taking magnesium an hour before bed was completely blocking out all the light from my bedroom window.
I know that some places sell blackout shades or blackout film, but I’ve never found those to be fully effective.
The thing that finally worked for me? Duct taping aluminum foil over my windows, and then plastering over them with DAP Plaster of Paris.
17 Responses to “Sleep Tip: Plaster Your Eyes Shut”
April 19
Scott SiskindWhat’s the advantage of this over a sleep mask?
April 19
Denise MelchinYeah, my daughter would probably refuse sleep masks, so I also put aluminium foil on my windows. But what is the DAP stuff for?
April 19
Jordan Ezra FisherI’d go for this if I could find a sunrise lamp that was bright enough to actually feel somewhat like sunrise.
April 19
Luke CockerhamCardboard cutouts work great. And you can quickly take them out when you want light. Use a utility knife to score flaps if you really want to block every sliver of light.
April 19
Paul CrowleyYou need this vastly superior sleep mask. Perfect blackout, and you can comfortably open your eyes. http://www.mindfold.com/
April 19
Louie HelmCardboard may be better if it’s thick. Plaster worked for me to cover the foil and make it really really dark.
April 19
Luke CockerhamYeah normal cardboard box cardboard. You might need to use an appliance box if the window is large enough.
April 19
Thomas EliotMagnesium? Not melatonin?
April 19
Louie HelmI’m a Melatonin non-responder. Magnesium works for me though. http://rockstarresearch.com/sleep-better-with-magnesium-supplements/
April 19
Jim SmyserCardboard on the windows worked really good in college. I don’t think my association would be fond of foil or cardboard windows.
April 19
Luke CockerhamIf you need to get all fancy you could paint the cardboard black. In my car I made my own black vinyl blackout curtains that attach with magnets. Behind tinted windows you can’t really tell if it’s just tinted extremely dark or if it’s completely blacked out.
April 19
Daniel SatanoveGood to learn about magnesium, I can’t take melatonin because it give me pathological lucid dreams. Just took some magnesium, lets see how this goes.
April 20
Evan GaensbauerDaniel Satanove, you receive experimentation points from me. These are redeemable for cash value.
April 20
Daniel SatanoveResult: mildly upset stomach, and maybe better sleep but I can’t tell
April 20
Evan GaensbauerProtip: like (social) CoZE points, or karma on Less Wrong, and Reddit, Eric, and I have made a habit of giving people imaginary points of any category when we believe they’re excelling in some particular, and unique, way others don’t. This gives people warms fuzzies, incentivizing them to take more safe risks trying new things. Further incentive to get people to care about imaginary points is to make writ imaginary points exchangeable for cash. Buying someone a snack, a hot beverage, a lunch, a trinket, etc., for doing cool, and easy, tasks you want someone to try strikes me as a great idea. So, I’m calling for installing this as a new community norm. Try it whenever.
From an economic perspective, I believe it’s in the rational interest of someone like Daniel to accept money from me for self-experimenting with magnesium. For such a simple norm, I hypothesize average people don’t act in this manner because it makes them feel cheap, like they’re being bribed to conform to the preferences of another party, thus forgoing their individuality. However, I don’t care so much about that. Mind-hackers like ourselves can see how far we can get by enthusiastically hiring people for micro-jobs.
April 20
Evan GaensbauerDaniel, I owe you a snack the next time I see you.
April 20
Daniel Satanovetrying again with food in my stomach this time