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Comment by okareaman | Hacker News Reader

I'm bipolar so I've gone through periods where I sleep 18 hours a day and periods where I sleep 2 hours a night if at all. Caffeine intake doesn't seem to matter. Medication and good mental hygiene helps a lot with this issue.

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Lately my body seems to be waking me up after around 4.5 hours of sleep. I'm alert and well rested, but if I wake up I'll be tired in an hour or two. If I push myself to sleep more, I wake up around 7-8 hours feeling more tired, and I can easily sleep to 10 hours at that point. It's really frustrating, because there doesn't seem to be a perfect amount of sleep for me anymore.

I'm 45, Bipolar type II. Ever since trying intermittent fasting I'm extremely tired after meals, and my caffeine tolerance is way up. I always drank half a cup at most, now I need 2.5 a day just to function. I have sleep apnea, but it's well controlled with a CPAP(AHI<5). I feel like I need a couple month sabbatical to reset myself but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

Try taking melatonin when you wake up too early (0.3 mg, from NootropicsDepot). Taken in the morning it pushes your wakeup time later. Won't make you fall asleep, but in a few days it shoulx be noticeable.

I'm managing the same insomnia with very low dose of mirtazepine (1mg per evening) and the occasional ambien when I wake up.

How does taking melatonin in the morning help?

Small doses of melatonin shift your sleep cycle. In the morning if you want to delay your cycle, and in the evening if you want to advance it.

People use larger doses of melatonin as a hypnotic to make them fall asleep right away, but that's not the only use.

How are you measuring your sleep? I have an Oura ring and while it's not the most accurate thing in the world it does a pretty good job of total sleep and phases for me. The readiness scores are also really useful as a yardstick and comparison against how rested you feel. I got one because I have mild sleep apnea and wanted to be able to track the efficacy of the solutions I was trying out.

I feel for you. I've been through all these problems including sleep apnea, which seems to have mostly gone away, but I have a cpap just in case. I take a low dose of Quetiapine (25mg) which means I can sleep 5 to 6 hours and wake up fairly refreshed (after a cup of coffee) and can write code without getting obsessed about it.

Try cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia. The overly simplified summary: restrict your sleep -- just wake up when you wake up -- and don't take naps and go to the bad when you're really really tired. Keep repeating and you'll fall into a natural rhythm of sleep.

I forgot to mention. I don't eat anything with added sugar. I eat very little food that contains natural sugar. A low sugar diet really improved my mood and sleep.

How does only 2 hours sleep a night affect you? For example at work, or studies / learning new things? Or when together with others?

(Personally I get upset at the computer more easily, if I'm tired. Hmm maybe I should stop working now)

Is ineffectiveness of caffeine a symptom / indicator of a mental difference? I, too, am not phased in the slightest by caffeine and have had sleep schedules vary, though not as large of a range... just curious

I'm not sure. I have learned in my treatments that stimulants the opposite effect on people with ADHD and calms them down. I don't suffer from that so I couldn't really say.

You could have a genetic insensitivity to caffeine, or your body might be very used to it, but as another commenter mentioned an atypical response to stimulants is common with ADHD.

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