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Comment by elchief | Hacker News Reader

I used to suffer terrible sleep until recently. Always exhausted in the morning. Sore all over. Missed meetings, or called in sick some days. Would wake up around 11 if I could

Now I can wake up around 630 am, lift weights, do HIIT, and be early to work

Melatonin wakes me up in the middle of the night. I take Unisom (Doxylamine) as well. Works pretty well in combination

I have blackout curtains but I need some light to wake me up in the am, so I leave them open about six inches on one side

I eat a small organic meal for dinner, early as I can, usually by 630

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Just an anecdotal warning. Unisom is not recommended for long term use. I didn't know this and used it for a year straight to combat stress induced insomnia during my first startup. It took me a few years before I returned to feeling "normal". YMMV.

Another data point: I've been using it on and off for a year now and it's been a life saver. I can reliably get to sleep when I need to for the first time in my life

As best I can tell it's not recommended for long term use because it hasn't been studied for that purpose and because there are prescription sleep aids that don't cause as much drowsiness

I'm terrified of taking a prescription sleep aid because of all the sleepwalking horror stories.

I take only 5 mg so the drowsiness isn't that big of a problem for me especially if I exercise in the morning. I'll take drowsy and rested over alert and unrested any day.

The first generation antihistamines are strongly anticholinergic, so long term use might have cognative effects and may increase the chance of dementia later in life. They can also interact with a lot of other medication since they are much less specific than most drugs. I agree that they are still quite a bit better than GABA-A agonists. IMO, any sleep medication is best taken with breaks as frequently as possible, which can both increase effectiveness when you take it and reduce side effects of long term use.

Wow, that is good to know. Thank you.

If it helps I found melatonin wakes me up in the middle of the night if I take too much of it.

Do you drink caffeine? Discontinuing caffeine improved my sleep quality dramatically.

Can you share any more details about your life?

It's hard to tell if you're being snarky/sarcastic or sincere

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