<bitter>We need to change the name of this site to “Sleep – is there anything it can’t do?”</bitter>
(My sleep is absolute garbage despite years of attempts to fix it, and all of these articles both scare and dismay me)
(My sleep is absolute garbage despite years of attempts to fix it, and all of these articles both scare and dismay me)
1. See a therapist 2. Avoid taking sleep medication 3. Accept that you're not going to sleep when you aren't sleeping
If you're not taking drugs then everything that you're going through when you're not sleeping is natural. Your body is designed to go without sleep. When you haven't slept in 48 hours don't worry about "not sleeping again tonight" just accept that you may not and that's fine, and you'll sleep eventually.
Following this advice I've gotten into a rhythm where I've slept 7h a night for months. I've had maybe a couple bad nights but it never spirals out.
Have also tried things like yoga, meditation, melatonin, milk before bed, waking at a fixed hour, eating early, eating late, not eating at all, high complex carb diet, paleo diet, exercising early in the day, exercising late in the day, not exercising, and others.
Very grateful for the advice, though. I am very very open to it and am grateful for your caring.
That fixed wake up time concept seems to be the bedrock of sensible sleep programs. It makes massive common sense. Unfortunately it nearly ruined my life. I tried it for a couple of months and it ground my life to a raging headache halt, taking my sleep from two or three hours a night to 30 minutes or an hour if that.
Restricting screen time before bed doesn’t seem to matter for me, but what I did find to be very helpful was not to have any in the periods I wake up at night, which happen at least every hour.
Melatonin does nothing for me, whether it’s 1mg or 10mg.
Very touched that you took the time.
Of course, cleaning up your lifestyle will do wonders for your neurotransmitters over the long term. Focus on diet, exercise, and reducing stress. Good luck