[pmjordan]

2 things that in combination completely eliminate sleep issues for me:

- f.lux (time of day dependent display colour temperature)

- physical exercise

If I drop either for more than a few days, I'm back in insomnia land. If I exercised every single day, I'm sure I wouldn't need f.lux. Unfortunately, exercise takes quite a bit of willpower in winter (no nearby gyms).

[mtomczak]

I wonder if there's correlation between below-average physical activity and insomnia? I assume that a lot of coders---by necessity of their task and the tools they use---spend most of a week sitting as opposed to, say, a mail carrier or store clerk. Given that we're a species that evolved to leverage mobility for our survival, it's not a stretch to imagine that our bodies developed a dependency on lactic acid buildup and other "fatigue toxins" as one of the signals that sleepytime is at hand.

Has anyone done this study? It seems like a pretty straightforward study to do if some grad student out there is looking for a paper.

[pmjordan]

It's a recurring topic on HN. There seems to be plenty of anecdotal evidence for it.

[charlesdm]

f.lux is really great, it helped me a lot as well.

[pjacob]

Same here. I've been using f.lux for the past month or so, it seems to help with getting back to a 'normal' sleep schedule. I mostly wanted to start sleeping earlier so that I would get more daylight during the winter.