At what point would I try going to a psychiatrist to get some pills that make me sleep for 9 hours at a time to get "out of this loop"?
Btw I'm not very overweight (230lbs @ 6"2) and do some exercise daily.
Waking up tired everyday could be a sign of something mundane and easily fixable. Try to take a shower before bed too.
I try to do some exercise to get my heart rate up to 70-80% of max, sweat, and feel worn out almost daily. I take magnesium l-threonate twice a day (yes it’s expensive and other forms of magnesium are different). Melatonin to set my sleep time but not at all regularly. Melatonin helps for going to a new time zone or fixing staying up late and resetting on Sunday nights. L-theanine occasionally if too anxious morning or evening. Desperate to fall asleep OTC: 2 Benadryl. Huberman podcast has a whole series on sleep, light, supplements, etc. Guided meditation could help.
It’s easy to get hooked on using melatonin, Benadryl, or prescription sleep aids. I’ve felt a bit of a worn out and slow feeling in the morning if I take something too many times in a row.
0. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diagnostics/12131-slee...
Eye masks have also helped tremendously.
Doctors prescribed pills, but they don't work for me.
1. Meditation more than 40min will help me.
Warm blood flowing in my hands and feet after that. It seems I'm focusing on parts of my body instead of my useless thoughts.
2. If you don't wanna meditate, just like my mom lol. Buy a anti-snoring mouth seal.
We both wake up the second day fresh. You can see that breathing & mental state can actually harm your sleeping quality badly.
I've been doing 2 hourly sessions each day since I came back from a vipassana retreat. One in the morning and one before bed.
I used to do 20-30 min just like you (also advised by some local pratitioners who told me to not overdoing it). But as I experienment further I think it's probably not enough for us in the software industry, where we receive and process large amount of information each day. It will be even worse if some of your friends retire early LOL. Subconciously we're more burdened than those who mildly use their mind each day.
Try sleeping in an off-grid, no-wireless setting (cabin, in a car* in the woods etc.) and if that gets you proper sleep, you can suspect electromagnetic fields.
Also, try magnesium supplements for muscle relaxation, sleep improvement.
*= not a Tesla, obviously, which is WiFi-on-wheels.
So, it can be a lot of all the things together. May be it's stress because of work and life. May be the coffee, which is also reduced a lot, to one or two cups milk latte. Not any later as after 0 pm. Take care what you eat. Like, if I drink a glas of red wine, I scratch my skin off without medicine AND can't sleep although being really tired and .. if, finally.. 2am... Wake again. But not anymore as tired, as in the beginning ;)
Living was turning into a hellish nightmare, one sorry day at a time.
There were a few aspects to this for me, most of which I'd be cancelled for bringing up here -- so won't venture there. What I can say is:
Do the opposite.
Which means, stay awake till you can't physically stay awake anymore. But your wake up time is fixed.
You wake up at 6am now. Don't stress the bed time.
Like another poster said, go all out physical activity-wise. I'm not necessarily talking gym. We move our body a miniscule amount compared to even 100 years ago. This is manifesting itself in many diseases, the mildest of which is sleeplessness.
- do some gardening or spending time with soil and nature
- does it take only 2 type to bring in groceries? Make it take 5.
- always take the stairs.
- can you walk or bicycle to work/grocery?
Your intent should be to fall dead when you hit the sack at night.
What helped me was eating freshly made food only. Either raw or just cooked. No food from the fridge. Eating twice a day - brunch and dinner.
This will actually reduce the amount you sleep, but when you sleep the quality is much higher.
I also stopped eating anything meat-based and dropped all caffeine, but that's up to you.
It's been a complete 180 -- energy, mood, clarity and enthusiasm. I don't feel half dead everyday.
1) Temperature - If my bedding is too hot or too cold I found that I would wake up in the early morning. I now have three duvets a Winter, Autumn/Spring and Summer. If I find myself waking up in the night I shift to one of the others, it helped a lot.
2) Fresh air - I cannot say why but having a window open even if it's just a couple mm makes a huge difference to me.
You didn't mention caffeine, but the half life of caffeine can be over 12 hours. Even if you limit yourself to two cups of coffee at 8 am, you'd still have as much caffeine in you as if you had one cup of coffee at 8pm. The rule of thumb about "no caffeine after noon" is just unreasonable, it really should be "almost no caffeine".
On the physical side of things: sleep apnea. This can be caused by enlarged tonsils, enlarged adenoids (if you still have them), deviated septum, and obesity, and probably other things that I don't know about.
On the mental side of things: I don't know.
Point is that seeing a doctor is probably going to get you better solutions than here.
1. Don't eat or drink _anything_ except water at least 2-3h before bed
2. No alcohol or caffeine after noon.
3. Starting a sleep earlier, rather than later at night
4. Physical activity not too late (to leave >2h before bed), so that you feel tired
5. Low stress and relaxed mood as early as possible before bed
6. Dark room
7. Quiet room
8. No screens at least 1h before bed
- Set an alarm for bedtime.
- Decaf coffee is not caffeine free.
- cold room (bedroom too warm, toss and turn at night)
- earplugs
- check sleep apnea (even young or skinny people have it)
OTOH I like fresh air, but then you get some light in from moon, lights from the street, and maybe the bit of wind stops at 3am...
Don't assume you know what the treatment will be.
Go to a psychiatrist and tell them your issues. They'll run some tests to rule out any low-hanging physiological fruit like anemia and likely recommend getting a sleep study to rule out things like sleep apnea. From there, they'll narrow down the possible causes until they find a solution that will work for you. Might end up being garden-variety insomnia treatable with CBT for insomnia.
Make sure you're doing the following, or work towards doing them: https://www.barbellmedicine.com/blog/where-should-my-priorit...
As someone in a very similar scenario who just started taking sleeping pills, they don’t work like that … IME they helped me not wake up in the middle of the night, but I still wake up feeling groggy.
You should talk to your doctor and try them if you want but don’t expect them to be a magic loop-bucking silver bullet.
A sleep study is not a bad idea.
For me, limiting caffeine intake, limiting late night screen time, having a more regular bedtime, spending time outside. I found that if I spent too much time at a screen after 8pm, I would wake up at around 2am and feel "awake" but exhausted.
I have also heard that lettuce latex processed into a drink can help with this in a very mild way but I have not tried that myself.
If that doesn't work then a common culpit is sleep apnea... { do you snore, do you drink alcohol, do you have a deviated septum, overweight => sleep apnea }
No. Seriously. Quit caffeine. For at least a few months. You sound like you have a mild issue with anxiety. The caffeine isn't helping. Do not listen to its lies of productivity.
Start this weekend, and see what happens.
Getting out of caffeine is the most important.
Regular exercise, daily walk in a forrest, good sex and right diet also helps but it’s the caffeine that keeps you anxious and tired. You should be getting 7-9 hours of deep, regenerative sleep on most days….
Trazadone is a good sleep medication. It basically lowers your anxiety and helps you fall asleep. But it should be taken with minimal dose (like 1/3 of a pill) when you really can’t fall asleep. milk with glycine also helps fall asleep…
The TLDR is: "sleep a lot less before you can sleep more"
Recently discussed on HN: https://hw.leftium.com/#/item/40539997
earlier bedtime (no later than 11:00 pm unless super necessary).
earplugs. I seem to sleep deeper. I think sometimes I'd be woken up and not remember from random sounds outside or even my air conditioning going on.
melatonin/cbd/ashwaganda gummy. Very very small dosage of all of the above.
Not eating for an hour+ before bed. I used to love snacking right before bed, but I don't sleep as well.
Coffee finished before 10:00 am.