This shortform just reminded me to buy a CO2 sensor and, holy shit, turns out my room is at ~1500ppm.
While it’s too soon to say for sure, this may actually be the underlying reason for a bunch of problems I noticed myself having primarily in my room (insomnia, inability to focus or read, high irritability, etc).
Although I always suspected bad air quality, it really is something to actually see the number with your own eyes, wow. Thank you so, so much for posting about this!!
It is maddening otherwise; focus is my most valuable good, and the reasons for it failing can be so varied and hard to pinpoint. The very air your breathe undetectably fucking with you is just awful.
I also have the insomnia and irritability issue, it is insane. I’ve had instances where me and my girlfriend are snapping at each other like annoyed cats, repeatedly apologising and yet then snapping again over absolutely nothing (who ate more of the protein bars, why there is a cat toy on the floor, total nonsense), both of us upset at how we are behaving and confused… when one of us will see the sensor and go, damn it, oh just look at those levels, we should have opened the window cooking… and then we snuggle up briefly in the garden while it airs out and everything is fine. It is eerie. (I find it deeply objectionable that my perception of reality is distorted because the air composition around me is mildly altered, and that this leads to snapping at my favourite person. This is really no way to run a mental substrate.)
I’ve also gotten tested for sleep apnea, because I tend to wake with severe headaches, a stiff distorted neck, dry mouth, fatigue and brain fog, wake gasping from nightmares where I suffocate, and cannot fall asleep on my back. I’m hyperflexible and with narrow airways, so it looks like my airway doesn’t seal entirely, but partially collapses when I sleep, so I end up getting too little air through the narrowed airway, and then distorting into painful positions to open my airway. Simply improving the air quality in my room massively improved this issue. My airway presumably still partially collapses, because my ligaments consider their current positions mere recommendations to be upheld while muscles keep them on it, but if the air is really excellent, I still get enough to wake refreshed. I’m also anaemic and very sensitive to metabolic changes, and wonder whether that is part of the reason that I react so intensely to CO2. There are apparently people who are barely impacted at all until much later.
I recently tried to join a new gym, and had a godawful time there. Horrible workout performance, terrible mood, headache, brainfog. I eventually entered a cardio room and ended up just staring at a simple device in confusion, I couldn’t figure out how to make it work, and forgot why I had even gone in there. I really did not want to join this gym, despite them having such a good financial offer and more classes and pretty facilities. I thought I ought to join, and felt irrational for my immense reluctance, which I could not pinpoint. It finally clicked to me that it might be their ventilation system completely failing, because I recognised the experience and the cause I had seen illustrated at home. Came back with a sensor, and it hit alarm levels almost instantly. I told them, and it was interesting—they had no idea that this was happening in particular, but they had been losing a lot of customers, and a lot of them had complained that they could not get enough air, that the place had bad vibes, they felt like they could almost smell something bad, they somehow couldn’t be energetic there… I seriously wonder whether 50 years from now, we will look back at this like we now look at Victorian lead paint.
If this affects you, a habit I have also been trying is waking up, and immediately after, going to a window, opening it, and just breathing fresh morning air for a minute. Wakes me up surprisingly well. I’ve also found I love reading in the garden for this reason, and that this is part of why a forest walk makes me feel so much better than using an indoor treadmill.
This shortform just reminded me to buy a CO2 sensor and, holy shit, turns out my room is at ~1500ppm.
While it’s too soon to say for sure, this may actually be the underlying reason for a bunch of problems I noticed myself having primarily in my room (insomnia, inability to focus or read, high irritability, etc).
Although I always suspected bad air quality, it really is something to actually see the number with your own eyes, wow. Thank you so, so much for posting about this!!
I am so glad it helped. :)))
It is maddening otherwise; focus is my most valuable good, and the reasons for it failing can be so varied and hard to pinpoint. The very air your breathe undetectably fucking with you is just awful.
I also have the insomnia and irritability issue, it is insane. I’ve had instances where me and my girlfriend are snapping at each other like annoyed cats, repeatedly apologising and yet then snapping again over absolutely nothing (who ate more of the protein bars, why there is a cat toy on the floor, total nonsense), both of us upset at how we are behaving and confused… when one of us will see the sensor and go, damn it, oh just look at those levels, we should have opened the window cooking… and then we snuggle up briefly in the garden while it airs out and everything is fine. It is eerie. (I find it deeply objectionable that my perception of reality is distorted because the air composition around me is mildly altered, and that this leads to snapping at my favourite person. This is really no way to run a mental substrate.)
I’ve also gotten tested for sleep apnea, because I tend to wake with severe headaches, a stiff distorted neck, dry mouth, fatigue and brain fog, wake gasping from nightmares where I suffocate, and cannot fall asleep on my back. I’m hyperflexible and with narrow airways, so it looks like my airway doesn’t seal entirely, but partially collapses when I sleep, so I end up getting too little air through the narrowed airway, and then distorting into painful positions to open my airway. Simply improving the air quality in my room massively improved this issue. My airway presumably still partially collapses, because my ligaments consider their current positions mere recommendations to be upheld while muscles keep them on it, but if the air is really excellent, I still get enough to wake refreshed. I’m also anaemic and very sensitive to metabolic changes, and wonder whether that is part of the reason that I react so intensely to CO2. There are apparently people who are barely impacted at all until much later.
I recently tried to join a new gym, and had a godawful time there. Horrible workout performance, terrible mood, headache, brainfog. I eventually entered a cardio room and ended up just staring at a simple device in confusion, I couldn’t figure out how to make it work, and forgot why I had even gone in there. I really did not want to join this gym, despite them having such a good financial offer and more classes and pretty facilities. I thought I ought to join, and felt irrational for my immense reluctance, which I could not pinpoint. It finally clicked to me that it might be their ventilation system completely failing, because I recognised the experience and the cause I had seen illustrated at home. Came back with a sensor, and it hit alarm levels almost instantly. I told them, and it was interesting—they had no idea that this was happening in particular, but they had been losing a lot of customers, and a lot of them had complained that they could not get enough air, that the place had bad vibes, they felt like they could almost smell something bad, they somehow couldn’t be energetic there… I seriously wonder whether 50 years from now, we will look back at this like we now look at Victorian lead paint.
If this affects you, a habit I have also been trying is waking up, and immediately after, going to a window, opening it, and just breathing fresh morning air for a minute. Wakes me up surprisingly well. I’ve also found I love reading in the garden for this reason, and that this is part of why a forest walk makes me feel so much better than using an indoor treadmill.