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(These are 100% unscientific, just uncritical subjective impressions for fun. CQ = cognitive capacity quotient, like generally good at thinky stuff)
Overeat a bit, like 10% more than is satisfying: -4 CQ points for a couple hours.
Overeat a lot, like >80% more than is satisfying: -9 CQ points for 20 hours.
Sleep deprived a little, like stay up really late but without sleep debt: +5 CQ points.
Sleep debt, like a couple days not enough sleep: -11 CQ points.
Major sleep debt, like several days not enough sleep: -20 CQ points.
Oversleep a lot, like 11 hours: +6 CQ points.
Ice cream (without having eaten ice cream in the past week): +5 CQ points.
Being outside: +4 CQ points.
Being in a car: -8 CQ points.
Walking in the hills: +9 CQ points.
Walking specifically up a steep hill: -5 CQ points.
Too much podcasts: -8 CQ points for an hour.
Background music: -6 to -2 CQ points.
Kinda too hot: -3 CQ points.
Kinda too cold: +2 CQ points.
(stimulants not listed because they tend to pull the features of CQ apart; less good at real thinking, more good at relatively rote thinking and doing stuff)
Also,
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That might generalize to "minimizing sound good", in which case I'd suggest trying these earplugs.
Generalizing to sensory deprivation in general, an easy way to do that is to lay in bed with eyes closed and lights off (not to sleep). (I've found this helpful, but maybe it's a side effect of not being distracted by a computer)
I quite dislike earplugs. Partly it's the discomfort, which maybe those can help with; but partly I just don't like being closed away from hearing what's around me. But maybe I'll try those, thanks (even though the last 5 earplugs were just uncomfortable contra promises).
Yeah, I mean I think the music thing is mainly nondistraction. The quiet of night is great for thinking, which doesn't help the sleep situation.
I feel like I’ve really struggled to identify any controllable patterns in when I’m “good at thinky stuff”. Gross patterns are obvious—I’m reliably great in the morning, then my brain kinda peters out in the early afternoon, then pretty good again at night—but I can’t figure out how to intervene on that, except scheduling around it.
I’m extremely sensitive to caffeine, and have a complicated routine (1 coffee every morning, plus in the afternoon I ramp up from zero each weekend to a full-size afternoon tea each Friday), but I’m pretty uncertain whether I’m actually getting anything out of that besides a mild headache every Saturday.
I wonder whether it would be worth investing the time and energy into being more systematic to suss out patterns. But I think my patterns would be pretty subtle, whereas yours sound very obvious and immediate. Hmm, is there an easy and fast way to quantify “CQ”? (This pops into my head but seems time-consuming and testing the wrong thing.) …I’m not really sure where to start tbh.
…I feel like what I want to measure is a 1-dimensional parameter extremely correlated with “ability to do things despite ugh fields”—presumably what I’ve called “innate drive to minimize voluntary attention control” being low a.k.a. “mental energy” being high. Ugh fields are where the parameter is most obvious to me but it also extends into thinking well about other topics that are not particularly aversive, at least for me, I think.