Loading…
26
Found a weird trick for beating 3am brain fog with music
Was stuck on a freelance writing project last night around 3am and my brain just turned to mush. Tried coffee, tried a walk around the block, nothing worked. Then out of desperation I put on some lo-fi beats with no lyrics at 80 BPM. Finished the whole article in 45 minutes after struggling for 2 hours before. Apparently the tempo syncs up with your heart rate or something. Has anyone else tried using specific music tempos to push through the late night slump?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
morganl712mo ago
That thing about the BPM syncing up with your heart rate is real. I read somewhere that our brains naturally try to match tempo with external rhythms, it's called entrainment. But here's the twist nobody talks about. The real magic might be that 80 BPM puts you right in a relaxed but alert state where distraction fades away. I started using binaural beats in the 4-7 Hz range for deep focus and it works even better than lo-fi for me. It cuts out the random noise in my head so I can actually follow one thought through. You might want to try layering those over your lo-fi next time.
5
vera_green692mo ago
... and honestly, the first time I tried binaural beats I fell asleep in my chair, like completely zonked out for 20 minutes. My wife found me drooling on my keyboard, it was not my finest moment. I think I had the frequency too low, maybe like 3 Hz or something, because I was aiming for deep focus but my brain just said naptime instead. Now I stick to the 5-6 Hz range and it works way better, really does quiet down the mental chatter. I still use lo-fi for background noise sometimes though, especially if I'm doing mindless data entry stuff where I need a little energy.
2
rowanw912mo ago
Did you just say drooling on your keyboard? That's wild.
2