Just realized my 'perfect' coworking spot was ruining my sleep

Spent 6 months bouncing between cafes and hostels in Chiang Mai, thinking I found the dream spot at this 24/7 coworking place with free coffee. Turns out the constant hum of the espresso machine and the blinking router lights were messing with my brain. I started crashing at 9pm every night and waking up at 3am with a foggy head. Switched to a library with a 5pm closing time last week, and I've slept 8 hours straight three nights in a row. Anyone else find that their workspace environment messes with their sleep more than the actual timezone changes?

1 comments

1 Comment

the_joel20d ago

Two years ago I worked from a coworking space that had this giant LED sign outside, and I noticed my sleep got super shallow right around when they switched it to a brighter setting. It's funny how we treat sleep like it only depends on our brain, but really it's picking up all this background noise we stopped noticing. The espresso machine hum is exactly the kind of thing you tune out during the day, but at night your nervous system is still replaying it or something. I read somewhere that our bodies track light and sound patterns even when we think we're ignoring them, and constant low level stuff might keep you in a lighter sleep stage. For me, switching to a place with natural light and a set closing time did way more than any melatonin or sleep app ever did. Bottom line, your workspace is basically setting your internal clock whether you realize it or not.