Scouts
Jeremi tracks his sleep; Luca explores London
Welcome back to Jeremi & Luca’s Newsletter, an update every Sunday from two friends connected by a relentless desire to learn and grow. Here’s a closer look at what we’re reading, working on, or thinking about.o
Jeremi: Tracking Sleep
A Christmas present is serving as a wake-up call for me in an area I have long ignored: nighttime routines.
My dad surprised me with a Coros watch, a sport-GPS watch that lets me record my run, bike, and swim workouts, all while getting information on the time I spend in each zone of effort (based on heart-rate), my pace, and metrics like stride length, cadence, and more.
It has been awesome. To not have to take my phone with me on runs, bouncing around in my pocket, to know how many yards I swam without having to stand in the shower and remember the entire workout, has been a great gift. Thank you Dad!
It also records general wellness information, tracking my resting heart-rate, and most importantly, my sleep.
Now, I don’t totally trust the information my watch gives me on my sleep. But generally, it’s a good approximation of when I fall asleep and when I wake up.
Each morning, I wake up and look at my watch’s analysis, where I see the same glaring issue: I can’t fall asleep.
This was most apparent in the last few days when I was sick with a 101F fever. Last night, I went to bed at 10:30pm, and woke up at 7:45am, which would seem like a delightful night of 9+ hrs of sleep. Only I didn’t actually fall asleep until 12:11am…
I don’t psychologically feel the problem, because the time before I fall asleep is precious to me! A moment of calm and stillness, in the dark, to reflect and think before the next day starts. But it’s starting to come at the cost of my sleep and well-being the next day.
A few bad habits I want to knock-out to help this:
Eating late - if I get home late in the day or I procrastinate cooking, I don’t eat until 1-2 hrs before sleeping. This keeps my heart-rate up, and makes it more difficult to sleep1
Stressors - the last thing I do before sleep is typically a work-related task on my big, bright monitor. Or a board game / activity with friends. Both get my heart-rate up and make it more difficult to sleep
I don’t want to be too ambitious about this, or I will never achieve a meaningful change. So I have three relatively attainable goals, which are as follows. (1) Thirty minutes before I turn off the light, turn off all screens and stop stressful activity. (2) Finish dinner before 7:30pm. (3) Try a breathing exercise right before bed.
If I can do these three things, I have hope my sleep can improve.
Luca: Exploring London
Hello from the UK!
I arrived in London early Monday morning and, after taking a bus into the city, hired a black cab the rest of the way to my apartment in South London.
It was interesting hearing the driver talk about how much business Uber is taking away from him. He had to study for four years and memorize over 40,000 roads/landmarks to do what anyone with an app and car can now do at a cheaper rate.
Clearly a lagging indicator compared to the U.S. where thought has shifted to those Uber/Lyft drivers being replaced by driverless cars. Gary, my cab driver, was pretty dismissive of this trend making its way across the pond; I’m not so sure...
A few other initial impressions:
Everyone I’ve met has been super kind and welcoming
Very diverse city with an observably high number of foreigners and immigrants
I’ve nearly been run over too many times looking the wrong way before crossing (luckily, “LOOK RIGHT →” is often painted on the streets)
Great fish & chips and Indian food, never getting Mexican again
We’ve all heard about a homelessness crisis in London but it’s barely noticeable compared to the Bay Area
Besides setting up my room (which is part of a King’s College London dorm suite with other students), I was grateful to have a week to explore the city before classes start.
A lot of that was done with Jacob, a close friend of Jeremi’s and mine who’s been here for a semester since he’s doing a full year at the London School of Economics. It’s obviously really nice to get here and have someone who already knows the area, has friends I can meet, etc.
But also with Lila, my neighbor and good friend from home, who visited Friday and Saturday from Barcelona (where she’s studying abroad). Very full days with her, and a good forcing function to immediately do a lot here.
Some highlights were the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, exploring Westminster, seeing the Tower of London and Crown Jewels, dinner and pubs with Jacob, Borough Market, and the British Museum (Rosetta Stone, Egyptian mummies).
And to proactively answer my dad’s question, I averaged ~22,000 steps per day.
Now trying to get ahead on some readings for my classes, which I’m looking forward to starting tomorrow. Jacob and I will visit the Churchill War Rooms in the afternoon, and the British Museum and its free tours for each collection are just across the street if we ever need a study break.
Relationship between food intake and sleep pattern in healthy individuals, Journal of Clinical Sleep Med., 2011: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3227713/
Jeremi, I find light reading (no textbooks) at bedtime relaxes me and my eyes and you may not even remember falling asleep. If you wake at 3 am, here's an age-old breathing exercise: breathe in thru your nose for 6 counts, hold your breath for 6 counts, exhale thru your mouth for 8 counts. Do this 3 times, and then if you wish, you can simply breathe in for 3 counts and exhale for 3 counts. As a veteran insomniac, I can vouch for this exercise! Luca, my friend Penny spends 6 weeks in London every fall because her husband Dan teaches a seminar in Essex, I believe. All the museums are free so she and Dan have spent many glorious hours steeped in various historical periods and she has shared many photos with me back here. You are in for many museum delights.
Happy about the watch!