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141 points by showmypost about 10 hours ago | 148 comments | [HN]
[hidden] — dev360's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
dev360 about 9 hours ago q=0.62
My mom would love this one :) .. she told me recently about a long-running chat gpt session that she's had for over a week, where she was going back and forth trying to figure out the source of some strange sound in the building.
[hidden] — _dain_'s reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
_dain_ about 9 hours ago q=0.62
This is cool don't get me wrong, but surely overcomplicated? Why not just record audio to disk the whole night then eyeball the waveform for loudness spikes? If you just don't connect it to any network at all, there's no data breach risk (or am I misunderstanding the justification for the noise-detection toggle thing?).

Also the AI-generated hero image looks vile.

[hidden] — showmypost's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
showmypost about 9 hours ago q=0.62
Thx for the feedback about the hero image. I just removed it. (you weren’t the only one pointing it out)

The intention was to have something less detailed than the screenshot in the post.

About the other thing: yes this would have worked for a night or so. I wanted to be able to go back and forth between nights and compare. I also had concerns about the SD-card durability and storage capacity. Still, after an hour into letting the coding agent do its thing, I was impressed by the result, so more and more ideas popped into my head

[hidden] — _dain_'s reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
_dain_ about 8 hours ago q=0.19
Makes sense. Hope you get better sleep!
[hidden] — phainopepla2's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
phainopepla2 about 9 hours ago q=0.62
I'm surprised that AI didn't tell him that the most likely cause of regularly waking up around 3 am is a cortisol spike. Try some breathing exercises or some other type of stress relief throughout the day, and you might sleep better.

In my case, thinking too much about the causes of bad sleep actually contributed to making sleep worse, so if this guy is anything like me then this whole project could be hurting his sleep rather than helping.

[hidden] — showmypost's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
showmypost about 9 hours ago q=0.62
I’m actually the author of the post and doing regular breathing exercises and some additional things. Pretty sure my cortisol levels at night are (currently) not an issue. Morning walks looking up into the sky also help me a lot. Falling asleep isn’t my issue

I grew up in the country side and unfortunately, where I live now, double glassing isn’t a thing unless you live in a recently built house.

That doesn’t nullify what you’re saying, obviously putting worries into sleep affects the sleep itself. Still thought it was an interesting project to build as I’m anyways cautious about noise and air pollution topics :)

[hidden] — phainopepla2's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
phainopepla2 about 9 hours ago q=0.62
If you're regularly waking around 3 (as opposed to random times throughout the night) you might want to reconsider cortisol as a possibility, at least as setting a baseline wakefulness that allows you to be easily woken up from a noise. There is a natural cortisol spike at that time, and that combined with elevated levels from background stress causes the same problem for many people who fall asleep without issues, myself included.
[hidden] — tpolm's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
tpolm about 8 hours ago q=0.62
Second this

Have the same pattern, issue is cortisol/stress, not sounds / etc that happen precisely at night

Built simular things tonwhat Op did (thoug using Oura for sleep tracking, not Garmin)

Result: no statistically significant variations in sounds, CO2 normal etc. Cortisol is what doctors/AI told me first

[hidden] — showmypost's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
showmypost about 8 hours ago q=0.62
The 3am part was just a random picked time. But interesting to know, thanks for sharing! I had some stress related sleeping issues about a year ago, that’s why I started with proactively provoking morning cortisol spikes and preventing them in the evenings which definitely helped. At that time I went through some personal challenges, so it made sense
[hidden] — nekooooo's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
nekooooo about 9 hours ago q=0.62
what a waste of technology. you could have had a pen and graph paper hooked up to an microphone 100 years ago and looked for the spikes in the time set.
[hidden] — jijji's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
jijji about 9 hours ago q=0.62
it could also be common sense.. you live in a noisy city and you are wondering what the noise is.... maybe it could be the city itself? how about sleep in a different smaller town and then ask yourself the same question, you'll probably get a different answer.
[hidden] — kube-system's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
kube-system about 9 hours ago q=0.58
I'm not sure if things are really that simple, at least from my personal experience. I think the quality of noise and noise floor can make a difference
[hidden] — codazoda's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
codazoda about 9 hours ago q=0.62
This reminds me of a weird story...

I went to work at a BBB office once. They turned all their computers off at night and every morning they were back on. It was just "normal" for them.

I can't even remember what problem I was troubleshooting. At the time I was working on IVR systems.

Anwayz, I was working late in their office. Everyone had turned off their computers and went home. At exactly Midnight, every computer in the office turned back on.

I walked around the office looking at desks wondering what had happened. On one persons desk was an alarm clock with a very quiet alarm buzzing. I checked the clock and it was set for midnight (probably a default). About two minutes later it turned off automatically.

I turned off computers and re-set the alarm to go off a few minutes later.

When that alarm clock went off it somehow caused either draw or feedback in the wiring that caused all the computers to turn back on. At the time I wondered if it had something to do with wake on lan.

In any case, I suggested that person take their alarm clock home.

[hidden] — manuisin's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
manuisin about 9 hours ago q=0.58
you could’ve been a great start of a horror movie.
[hidden] — tppiotrowski's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
tppiotrowski about 9 hours ago q=0.62
Related project I did in 2014 tried to do this. I was a web developer so used the web audio APIs to trigger a recording when the decibel level exceeded a certain value. I was living in a big tent in my friends back yard in Sydney at the time and was convinced it was airplanes coming into SYD that were waking me up at 4am but never really captured conclusive evidence because my laptop battery couldn't make it through the night :)
[hidden] — nevi-me's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
nevi-me about 9 hours ago q=0.62
That CO2 concentration looks unhealthy, I wonder to what extent it's affecting your sleep quality (as opposed to waking you up).

> Measure before you fix

In my case, I got a few IKEA CO2 sensors, and after leaving them in the bedrooms for a few days, we found that leaving an outside window slightly open + the bedroom door open, kept the CO2 levels below 600PPM at night.

We're 1000ft/300m away from a motorway, but fortunately the noise pollution isn't bad. So ventilating (even as it's getting cold) turned out to be a simple fix. I hadn't thought of collecting sleep data from our devices, but maybe I'll get an AI to do that, so I can correlate our sleep quality with the environment.

[hidden] — showmypost's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
showmypost about 8 hours ago q=0.62
The levels I have at night indeed are unhealthy, I’m still trying to find the best way to tackle this challenge..

Most wakeups are from noise (I can see it in the data) but high CO2 levels can also make me a lighter sleeper.

Not sure where you’re based but in Europe the priority is mostly on heat isolation, so air movement suffers. The US is better in that regard. There was a big thread on that topic on X the other week (Peter the indie hacker initiated it and there were some good recommendations in case you’re the owner of the flat)

[hidden] — iknowSFR's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
iknowSFR about 5 hours ago q=0.58
https://archive.ph/dd5Kl

“Almost 2%. The reduction in carbon-dioxide concentration when 60 square centimetres of plants were placed in an office, according to one study.”

[hidden] — Eric_WVGG's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
Eric_WVGG about 8 hours ago q=0.58
plants plants plants. Most of these are dummy easy to care for, too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Clean_Air_Study#List_of_p...
[hidden] — jdsnape's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
jdsnape about 8 hours ago q=0.62
Plants are nice…but, from your link:

“These results are not applicable to typical buildings, where outdoor-to-indoor air exchange already removes volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at a rate that could only be matched by the placement of 10–1000 plants/m2 of a building's floor space.[2]

The results also failed to replicate in future studies”

[hidden] — showmypost's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
showmypost about 8 hours ago q=0.62
You’d need a forest in your room to see a proper change. There was a whole discussion in the Indie hacking scene on X on that topic around 1-2 weeks ago

Big fan of plants though, help me feel calm

[hidden] — jdsnape's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
jdsnape about 8 hours ago q=0.58
I also agree co2 levels are super important, but I’m wondering: in your situation isn’t air pollution from the motorway a concern? Not sure how to balance that one
[hidden] — megous's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
megous about 8 hours ago q=0.58
3k+ is well into the headache / feel really bad range

we rarely get over 1k here

[hidden] — doctorpangloss's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
doctorpangloss about 7 hours ago q=0.58
yeah... the problem is that his vibecoded dashboard or sensor readings are buggy
[hidden] — bad_username's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
bad_username about 9 hours ago q=0.62
> I get the sleep data from my Garmin* watch. Every watch and ring calculates sleep slightly differently, and to be honest, I don't fully trust any of them on the exact sleep stage I was in at any given second.

I love my Garmin, but it's one of the worst smart watches to track sleep with. It consistently ranks poorly in tests that stack it up against pro sleep equipment, and from my experience it struggles to even detect sleep times properly. That 3:32 event that the watch said has pulled you out of deep sleep may not have been real.

[hidden] — showmypost's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
showmypost about 8 hours ago q=0.62
Totally agree with you, that’s why I wanted to check. I btw turned off the morning report long time ago, so it’s more about me checking the sleep stages after realizing that I feel without energy. Also my sleep outside the city is much better. In the end it turns out that most times it is real and an external noise woke me up. Not always, there are false positives and sometimes you just wake up (nightmare, stress, sickness, ..)
[hidden] — pizzly's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
pizzly about 9 hours ago q=0.62
This is really cool. We did a similar thing around 2 years ago but didn't use AI in that case. Just used a phone to record a few nights sleeping. Then a python script. I manually listened for some time in order to find the threshold amplitude (where all sounds would be ignored below and tracked above). Generated a graph that should the spikes of interest. Clicked on the spikes which went to the timestamp in the audio and listened. Not super scientific I know.

Two observations. 1. Often you wake up after a loud noise but like 5 minutes later with no memory of it. 2. even if you don't wake up from the noise your breathing changes, more likely to talk in sleep and shuffle more. So even if you not waking up your quality of sleep is disrupted.

Our case had some random construction like noise in the early morning, lasted around 10 seconds and disappeared. However, we noted even ordinary sounds we didn't think was loud was effecting our sleep.

Solution for that place was earplugs and a loud fan to generate white noise.

[hidden] — showmypost's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
showmypost about 8 hours ago q=0.62
You definitely went for a simpler solution!

And thanks for sharing that comment, I can second your two observations

For multiple months, I thought I’m waking up at night because I need to go to the bathroom so often (even checked for insulin resistance but markers were perfect). Interestingly enough, most of the times (not always) there are one or multiple louder sounds just before I wake up to go to the bathroom. Zero memory or conscious perception of the noise, still woke up and feeling like I need to go to the bathroom

[hidden] — kmm's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
kmm about 9 hours ago q=0.62
I like the temperate graph halfway down the page. It looks like two decaying exponentials alternating every ~40 minutes, with the downward one steeper than the upward one. It's a neat visualization of hysteresis, where the thermostat presumably has a different temperature threshold for turning off or turning on (or perhaps there's a minimum time between state switches). Without the scale it's hard to know for sure.
[hidden] — showmypost's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
showmypost about 8 hours ago q=0.62
Yes it’s the AC keeping the temperature. I have different targets set depending on season and time of night (cooler to fall asleep, warmer in the morning). Added this data because I already have it in Home Assistant and you never know what other crazy conclusions you can get from looking at the data :D
[hidden] — curtisblaine's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
curtisblaine about 9 hours ago q=0.62
This is cool, but a simple circular buffer audio recorder connected to stdin would have been sufficient. The recorder records continuously on a circular buffer that stores the last 5 minutes, and whenever OP wakes up, he can press any key on the keyboard to dump the current 5 minutes on storage, with the timestamp as file name. False positives are much less possible, and the whole system can just be a small CLI program.
[hidden] — showmypost's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
showmypost about 9 hours ago q=0.62
Not sure I understand how this would work. The whole point is that you often don’t realize that you even woke up. And not sure jumping to go to the computer to hit a key is the smoothest way to fall back asleep

I spend most of my days in front of CLIs but here I really think a cli wouldn’t be the right tool for the job..

[hidden] — vzaliva's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
vzaliva about 8 hours ago q=0.62
We may be entering the age of "disposable software" (some people politely call it "on-demand software"). Until recently, coding was a highly specialised skill and was relatively expensive. So writing custom code for personal whimsy was a luxury only software developers could afford. Not anymore.
[hidden] — foo-bar-baz529's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
foo-bar-baz529 about 8 hours ago q=0.62
This seems quite over engineered. They could’ve just left their phone recording overnight and done much simpler analysis on the big file. Maybe leverage LLM to write a 20-line python script, at most
[hidden] — jmspring's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
jmspring about 6 hours ago q=0.62
Interesting. I may need to add some sensors.

I spend time in two places. San Juan Islands WA and Santa Cruz, CA.

On island, nights are too quiet. During the day, a float plane a mile away sounds like it is next door.

In Santa Cruz, the house is on a major street. Busses, ambulances all sorts of yahoos.

I sleep better quiet. But I sleep even better when settled - mind not going, etc.

I generally don’t sleep well at all. The biggest factor is - has my brain settled. Background and noise don’t matter.

[hidden] — j_bum's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
j_bum about 6 hours ago q=0.62
“Has my brain settled” I feel this.

I started meditating recently (~10mins per day) and have found it to be surprisingly effective. It’s a combination of body scanning & mindfulness meditation.

It doesn’t always help, but tends to.

[hidden] — ssgodderidge's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
ssgodderidge about 6 hours ago q=0.62
Hey OP, would love to know more about your thoughts on Garmin you reference at the bottom? Why would they be any better/worse than Coros?

> *= I do not like Garmin, I think they're a fraudulent company systematically breaching consumer rights and I'm looking for alternatives. Already converted multiple people to Coros.

[hidden] — ziml77's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
ziml77 about 9 hours ago q=0.58
Why use a generated image in that weird dirty yellow style when you have a real screenshot to show?
[hidden] — usernametaken29's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
usernametaken29 about 9 hours ago q=0.58
My sleep was not good so I installed panelling and now I sleep better. There you go. Saved you 8 hours and using AI
[hidden] — bovinegambler's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
bovinegambler about 9 hours ago q=0.58
Can you tell me more about this panelling?
[hidden] — showmypost's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
showmypost about 9 hours ago q=0.62
They’re called “MITTZON”, made for offices. Also great room separators. I’ve tested them for a few nights and they work surprisingly well.

Otherwise making sure the windows are properly sealed is first resort. And if you’re living with other people (partner, flatmates, family) it also helps to check the doors

[hidden] — cyanydeez's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
cyanydeez about 9 hours ago q=0.58
hint: your watch is probably lying to you and you're following a normal bifurcated sleep pattern.

AI is melting your real world understanding: https://www.sleepfoundation.org/how-sleep-works/biphasic-sle...

[hidden] — showmypost's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
showmypost about 9 hours ago q=0.62
Good article! Not agreeing with the statement before the link

Also, not sure if you’ve taken the time to read the post but it clearly states that I’m not using AI to analyze the data. The point of posting this was a different one

I’m happy because I can clearly hear what wakes me up at night. I knew I wake up from noise and now I can clearly see it in the data that I wake up right after door slams, noisy motorbikes, car horning, and dishes from the kitchen (own and neighbors)

After taking action I now sleep better and don’t have those random wake-up moments.

[hidden] — lbrito's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
lbrito about 9 hours ago q=0.58
Plot twist: the existential dread of an AI-ified world where "AI" is the answer to everything was what was waking him.
[hidden] — sciencesama's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
sciencesama about 9 hours ago q=0.58
long time back i had this sense orb that did something similar and it was night sounds made me wake up !
[hidden] — sciencesama's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
sciencesama about 9 hours ago q=0.02
[hidden] — amelius's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
amelius about 9 hours ago q=0.58
I was under the impression that the pattern "I have a problem -> let's ask AI" is frowned upon here.
[hidden] — showmypost's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
showmypost about 9 hours ago q=0.77
I’m also a little surprised about it. The reason I wrote this post was to send the message: I wouldn’t have done this if it wasn’t for the AI tooling
[hidden] — nevi-me's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
nevi-me about 9 hours ago q=0.58
It seems fine if you express what you did without focusing on the code.

It resonates well with what some people have been saying about building software for 1 person.

[hidden] — sneak's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
sneak about 9 hours ago q=0.58
Earplugs also solve this problem with many fewer tokens.
[hidden] — kube-system's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
kube-system about 9 hours ago q=0.58
What is the front end built with? It looks nice.
[hidden] — baconhigh's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
baconhigh about 8 hours ago q=0.58
Not OP - but it's Ghost:

    <meta name="generator" content="Ghost 6.19">
[hidden] — babblingfish's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
babblingfish about 8 hours ago q=0.58
Hey, OP, consider sleeping with ear plugs. They're scientifically proven to reduce night time awakenings due to audio disturbances. [1]

[1] https://academic.oup.com/sleep/advance-article/doi/10.1093/s...

[hidden] — showmypost's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
showmypost about 8 hours ago q=0.62
I have custom molded ones. They help a lot, however high pitched sudden noises still get through and wake me up. I never managed to sleep without earplugs since moving to this city. Not considering moving due to the quality of life (apart from the noise)
[hidden] — joenot443's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
joenot443 about 6 hours ago q=0.58
Are custom molded ones better?

I’ve been using swimmers plugs for a few years now and they’ve been fine. Do you use an eye mask too?

[hidden] — b3ing's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
b3ing about 8 hours ago q=0.58
I would think earwax build up would increase with that
[hidden] — apt-apt-apt-apt's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
apt-apt-apt-apt about 5 hours ago q=0.58
Don't listen to him– he is a cat burglar, and you being deaf at night helps him steal your cats.
[hidden] — lo_fye's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
lo_fye about 6 hours ago q=0.58
You let it? It really wanted to, but you kept denying it until you finally gave in and let it?
[hidden] — ulfw's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
ulfw about 6 hours ago q=0.58
AI bros are insufferable. I am daily being reminded of 2020 crypto bros.
[hidden] — ajkjk's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
ajkjk about 5 hours ago q=0.58
I'm much more interested in the app and what they learned than anything to do with AI. Leave that part out, imo.
[hidden] — ElFitz's reply was filtered, but the responses below were kept
ElFitz about 2 hours ago q=0.58
Sounds like "observability, for sleep".

It’s funny how many things can boil down to "rich distributed traces" and events / logs.