The Myth of the Quiet Computer (satire)

Over the past five years, I have used a computer in my bedroom. Although the noise the CPU fan is making doesn't sound loud, I decided to test how loud that noise is.

This is not a professional test but suits me because I have enough data to get an average using the technology I have: three smartphones: the Nexus 4, Nexus 5 and Alcatel One Touch Idol X.

On all of my smartphones, I have installed the Sound Meter app from Smart Tools. Additionally, I also use the Sound Meter plugin in the All in One Tool app on the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5, just in case the phone's microphone is either poorly calibrated or not pointed the right way.

In this test, I have recorded the sound level from my Linux PC which ranges from 51 to 53 dB at 0.5 metre from the nearest fan using the Nexus 5, and ranging from 49 to 51 dB using the Nexus 4. The overall average is thus 51 dB using the Sound Meter app.

Additionally I use the All in One Tool Sensors plugin has a Sound Meter that gives additional sound level data.

At the same 0.5 metre distance, sound levels recorded using the Sound Meter plugin were as low as 46.48 dB or as high as 55.85 dB on the Nexus 5 - averaging to 51.17 dB. For the Nexus 4 using the same Sound Meter plugin, the sound levels ranged from 53.32 dB to 54.62 dB - averaging to 53.97 dB. Overall average is 52.57 dB.

Finally on the Alcatel One Touch Idol X, the sound level measured with the Sound Meter app ranges from 58 to 61 dB for an average of 59.5 dB. Given the high reading, they will be excluded from my brief assessment.

Overall my PC's CPU fan is noisy at a little over 50 dB, which is as noisy as a quiet office or street.

This explains why I don't sleep well after going to bed while forgetting to shut the computer off. Usually my well slept nights happen when my computer is shut off.

After 4 years of living like this, I finally realized my insomnia was because I spent the previous 4 yrs sleep deprived due to a so-called quiet computer.

So now I sleep without the computer on.

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Screen-shots of Sound Meter and All in One Tool Sensors plugin (sound sensor)

NEXUS 4


NEXUS 5


Alcatel Onetouch Idol X

Sleep and Meditation (humor)

As June 19, 2010 at 7:51 AM; I wrote:
Sleep is my hobby. This is why I have Benedryl stocked up, and try to choose an antidepressant based on its antihistamine properties.

I also like that tiredness some medications give you, which render me so unwilling to perform any activity needing sober cognition that I am just sitting.

In my opinion, meditation makes use of such moments since the West frowns on such activities as "excuses to nap".

Yet every hour of napping results in 2 or more hours of productive work — which might explain why Zen masters are able to meditate for more than 2 hours a sitting.

YMMV

Update as of March 10, 2013 at 11:14 PM PDT

Over the past five years, I have discovered that adequate sleep helps to reduce anxiety. For me, the optimal number of hours for a restful night is ten; though the minimum of six and a half hour is barely adequate.

Weekly though I might stay up until five in the morning, which is followed by at least six hours of rest. Usually, midnight is when I prepare for bed.

After ten-thirty in the evening, I'll take my medication (two gabapentin capsules and one cyclobenzaprine). Then, by midnight, my body tells me "It's time for bed" through the symptoms of sleepiness — drowsiness and fatigue.

Once I am in bed, the average time it takes to fall asleep varies between thirty and ninety minutes.

Since the previous two nights, I didn't get to sleep before four in the morning, tonight is the start of getting to bed by midnight, even though it is daylights savings time.

It's actually ten thirty in the evening at the moment.

So good-night!

Update as of January 7, 2014 at 05:24 PM PDT

Adequate sleep has reduced most anxiety for me. During the past week, I have gotten my full ten hours of sleep. My minimum has been on the average eight hours of sleep a day with the rare exception of insomnia.

I do not use benedryl anymore at all, instead opting for the two capsules of gabapentin and one cyclobenzaprine tablet at bedtime. Though, the time when I take them has been from 11:30 PM to as late as 1:30 AM.

Perhaps the reason for the late nights may have been having given up smoking once again.

Even so I have been trying to meditate as time permits.

Update on my Medication: Sleep Deprivation versus Adequate Sleep

Psychiatry is the only profession where sometimes the doctors prescribing the drugs actually have never had any experience with them. My experience with mirtazapine is a good example of this: the psychiatrist described side effects of SSRI antidepressants which mirtazapine actually moderates due to its sedative effects.

As well, mirtazapine's sedation makes it possible to feel sociable because it's not a tranquilizer.

Though, my current usage of 200 mg of gabapentin and 10 mg of flexeril at bedtime is an improvement over the mirtazapine since even when I miss doses, it doesn't impact sleep quality. The only exception to this is when I do graveyard shifts.

In response to sleep deprivation in recent memory, I experienced a few pseudo-hallucinations, none of which actually were severe enough to warrant more than the usual rationalizations I use to treat them as exaggerations of explainable phenomena.

The pseudo-hallucination consisted of "seeing" the electric field of the power cord to my computer. Being well-rested now, I can explain this in two parts: when seen by the eyes, a black power cord could leave an after-image of lighter color. In my sleep-deprived state of mind, it is possible for the mind to add colorful detail that gives the impression of "seeing" the electric field of the power cord.

Though, I'd be happier to see a Buddha appear out of the blue. That's never happened to me ever. Most likely, this is because a Buddha is a metaphysical phenomenon while my pseudo-hallucination is the result of an overtired mind playing with a physical phenomenon.

Given the power of the mind when tired to conjure a hallucination I knew not to be real — which is what a pseudo-hallucination is — imagine what the mind could do when well-rested: analyze the recent experience of sleep deprivation and provide a rational explanation for it.

To explain how this has come about, I am going to attribute this to two causes: getting daily exercise during work shifts this week and getting regular sleep.

Rethinking social networking & social isolation

Online social networking barely meets the challenges of social isolation - mainly because no matter how long I have been in contact with a person online, if I am socially isolated, then the risks of social networking include trust (who do I trust?) and self-disclosure.

Usually the rule-of-thumb here is to trust only persons you know in real life. For a socially isolated person such as I, the number of people I know who I trust in real life is at minimum of 6 or less people.

Given that most of the friends on your online social network (internet messengers such as MSN Messenger and Yahoo Chat) are strangers who you will never meet, the best practice is to keep your self-disclosures to a minimum with them and thus follow a "don't ask, don't tell" rule i.e. unless a person asks, you don't disclose personal information.

Personal information includes any information which identifies me such as first name, last name, address, phone number, date of birth, bank account number, etc.

Likewise, I make it a rule not to disclose my personal information unless I totally trust that person. If anyone asks, and I don't trust them, then I reserve the right to not disclose such information.

If you do give a deeper self-disclosure online, then the rule is to be pro-active if and when other strangers online who don't know you that well try to use that information to bully, harass, insult and intimidate you. This includes avoidance of revenge even when the insults lead you to focus on the negative rather than the positive.

Rather than revenge, the proper response is silence. Since that person does not know you and is trying harass you, by not responding, you do not look like someone who is reacting to what he or she divulges about you. Nothing stops an internet bully like silence.

Ultimately I am responsible for the amount of self-disclosure I make online.

Returning to online social networking, social isolation may lead to embarrassing side effects, such as being too forward in online social networking services. The counteraction to this forwardness is to limit my use of social network services.

In my case, I have found that most of my embarrassing moments in social networking services has occurred when I am extremely fatigued i.e. the result of inadequate rest. It is remedied by going to sleep at or around midnight rather than 3 AM.

Why Psychosis Sucks: the Hidden Agenda for Early Detection

"When sleep deprivation becomes great enough, the effects mimic those of psychosis." -- Stanley Coren, Ph.D., "Sleep Deprivation, Psychosis and Mental Efficiency"

Early detection of psychosis in today's youth may indicate a hidden agenda by the State to manufacture mental health consumers amongst susceptible young adults aged 18-24.

Once this targeted group of consumer normalize mental illness and recover from sleep deprivation, they may do everything to avoid a relapse including moderating behavior leading to sleep deprivation via naps and mainly calling it a night earlier than they used to do.

Although any youth who is not compliant might be a walking time bomb, it is useful for mental health professionals to overlook use of the life-or-death scenario to facilitate compliance but to order a blood test to show the side effects of burning the candle at both ends.

IMHO the stress from short sleep periods will impact the body such that even a basic non-fasting blood test would reveal warning signs such as low white blood cell (WBC) counts and associated changes in the kinds of white blood cells.

My opinion is based on three blood tests done over the past decade. My recent blood test shows everything normal with no low WBC counts, while the test from two years shows low WBC and neutrophil counts and the test from circa 2004 shows at least four low counts.

I can affirm that my sleep pattern in 2008 was not the greatest (about 5-7 hours a night), and it was probably much worse in 2004 (4-6 hours), but it's been averaging 8-9 hours a night.

Also when I am tired from 1 to 3 PM, refraining from reading or doing any heavy physical acitivity usually tides me over until the fatigue passes.

Currently, with the Remeron regiment of 30 mg a day in 4 divided doses, I am in top mental condition compared to a month ago, 3 months ago and even 6 months ago.




Reference:

Stanley Coren, Ph.D., "Sleep Deprivation, Psychosis and Mental Efficiency" http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/display/article/10168/54471?pageNumber=2

The Relief of Insomnia & The Chemical Joy of Rhodiola and Reactine

IMHO rhodiola and cetirizine beats diphenhydramine.

Rhodiola tweaks my opioid receptors, which are hedonism's tie in with the brain.

Cetirizine basically affects histamine receptors, but also cholinergic receptors, and consequently, the usual serotonin-dopamine-noradrenalin-adrenalin circus. it helps to have a benzhydryl head and a piperazine tail. The benzhydryl head tweaks the dopamine receptor, resulting in sleep. The piperazine tail tweaks serotonin receptors such that hypocretin is suppressed for at least 6 hours. Then it rises again, resulting in a fitful rest and no first-generation anti-histamine hangover.

However, wise users of anti-histamines should stop taking Reactine after using it for a full week to prevent the body from building tolerance.

Please note that vigorous morning exercise, not drinking caffeinated beverages and not arising from bed after retiring for the night is more effective in relieving insomnia.