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Why Can’t I Sleep?

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Re: Why Can’t I Sleep?

#191

Post by Uroboric »

What finally worked for me is listening to history audio books/lectures.

It takes my mind off of real life things, and since it's just audio there is no light involved. History is perfect because there aren't many conceptual hurdles to understanding the material that would require really intense focus. I start to drift off after 30 minutes to 1.5 hours very consistently. It's also easy to find new listening material since there's practically an infinite amount of it.

As a bonus, I've learned a lot about history this way.

Re: Why Can’t I Sleep?

#192

Post by inigojonesguy »

Mayzie wrote: post #37
sarsway wrote: post #31

Always the same old advise. Sleep hygiene, exercise, caffeine. Anyone with chronic insomnia can tell you none of that really works. For me it's always been impossible to fall into a regular day/night routine, it's actually whenever I try to force it I'm starting to rapidly feel worse. So the solution has been to just flow with it, I sleep when I can, stay awake otherwise. It's fine and I feel good, the real problem t…

Perhaps you have delayed sleep phase syndrome[1] or an N24 disorder[2]? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_sleep_phase_disorder [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-24-hour_sleep%E2%80%93wake...

[1] fits exactly my behaviour, thanks for the link :) I don't experience it as a disorder, except when I'm faced with early morning nazis.

Re: Why Can’t I Sleep?

#193

Post by swader999 »

travisjungroth wrote: post #160
swader999 wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cutting after mid day is wise. Every liver clears caffeine differently. There's a threshold where your liver won't actively process caffeine if you don't drink enough. For me, I sleep better on two cups in the morning but just one will keep me up all night.

Do you have a source on this I can look into? Caffeine really keeps me up. I thought small amounts would do that less, but it sounds like that might make it worse.

It was just a conversation with my doctor that gave me this insight. Then I played around with my 'dose'. For me at least, the dose effects happen right away, if I get it right I sleep that night. Maybe check this when sleep isn't critical. Try adding half a cup more each day and note the your ability to fall asleep.

Of course I will have trouble if I have too much coffee.

Re: Why Can’t I Sleep?

#194

Post by toomanybeersies »

bloqs wrote: post #91

I have yet to meet someone who complains about insomnia who actually accurately follows all of the advice. Notably usually absent or poorly followed: - waking up early, at the exact same time, every day. - as SOON as you get up, you need to eat a heavy breakfast of fats and protiens with as few carbs as possible. Some people think they are special snowflakes who "have never been able to eat in the morning", you need…

I have a genuine pathological inability to wake up early in the morning.

Even if I eat 10 mg dexamphetamine and a Red Bull as soon as I wake up, I will sometimes fall back asleep. Some mornings I don't even get that far, and manage to sleep though half a dozen alarms.

Re: Why Can’t I Sleep?

#195

Post by jacksonkmarley »

bloqs wrote: post #91

I have yet to meet someone who complains about insomnia who actually accurately follows all of the advice. Notably usually absent or poorly followed: - waking up early, at the exact same time, every day. - as SOON as you get up, you need to eat a heavy breakfast of fats and protiens with as few carbs as possible. Some people think they are special snowflakes who "have never been able to eat in the morning", you need…

> Notably usually absent or poorly followed: - waking up early, at the exact same time, every day.

I think not being able to wake up early at the same time every day is actually a symptom of insomnia. If you've been up half the night and only fell asleep an hour or 2 ago, jumping out of bed when the alarm goes off is pretty hard actually.

Re: Why Can’t I Sleep?

#196

Post by toomanybeersies »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #105
DixieDev wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know anyone without insomnia who does all that.

You probably also don't know any life-long skinny people who count calories.

I also don't know any former obese people who count calories.

Re: Why Can’t I Sleep?

#197

Post by dcolkitt »

enominezerum wrote: post #104

Over here I have the opposite. I can't stand waking up and will sleep for half the day if I can. Always have been like this. Morning are the worst. Though, I would attribute this to my mom being a major nightowl and me being one as well. 2nd and 3rd shifts have been the highlight of my life, but those roles are so hard to come by that I just accept a WFH job where I skirt the system and work later while still handlin…

I always had pretty severe DSPS for most of my adult life. Luckily I usually had the flexibility to accommodate a super night owl schedule.

What "cured" me was having kids. I now have no problem falling asleep at 10 PM. I would guess it's due to pretty brutal sleep deprivation (our first took a very long time to get through the night). I'm guessing this pretty much smashed my pre-existing circadian rhythm.

Re: Why Can’t I Sleep?

#198

Post by silpol »

jillesvangurp wrote: post #62
sarsway wrote: post #31

Always the same old advise. Sleep hygiene, exercise, caffeine. Anyone with chronic insomnia can tell you none of that really works. For me it's always been impossible to fall into a regular day/night routine, it's actually whenever I try to force it I'm starting to rapidly feel worse. So the solution has been to just flow with it, I sleep when I can, stay awake otherwise. It's fine and I feel good, the real problem t…

There are a few things that actually make things worse that lead people to get stuck in a negative spiral. Basically alcohol makes you drowsy and helps you fall asleep. But you wake up dehydrated, not very well rested, and in some cases hungover. People drink coffee to fix that, which makes it harder to sleep. Stress levels feed into that as well as it leads to drinking and other ways for people to relieve stress. So…

for item 4, one has to have limited responsibilities towards society.

Re: Why Can’t I Sleep?

#199

Post by jedberg »

codingdave wrote: post #68
sarsway wrote: post #31

Always the same old advise. Sleep hygiene, exercise, caffeine. Anyone with chronic insomnia can tell you none of that really works. For me it's always been impossible to fall into a regular day/night routine, it's actually whenever I try to force it I'm starting to rapidly feel worse. So the solution has been to just flow with it, I sleep when I can, stay awake otherwise. It's fine and I feel good, the real problem t…

> Anyone with chronic insomnia can tell you none of that really works. True, but that is a self-fulfilling definition. For most people, that advice will work. For the minority for whom it does not work, they have chronic insomnia. It does not invalidate the advice, it just means that some people are out of the norm and need something else. That being said, I agree with you. We all would be healthier if we'd just slee…

> We all would be healthier if we'd just sleep when tired, eat when hungry. But that isn't how our society rolls.

Last year, at the beginning of the pandemic, our whole family basically went with no alarms or bedtimes. We slept when we were tired, we ate when we were hungry.

We all basically ended up going to bed between 2-4am (including the 3 and 5 year old) and waking around 11am. Sometimes we would take naps too.

The only reason we got away with that of course was because the pandemic had removed all requirements to interact with society. We literally had no where to go and no one to meet with (all my work meetings start after 1pm).

It was amazing and glorious.

Re: Why Can’t I Sleep?

#200

Post by ishjoh »

linsomniac wrote: post #184

For the past couple months I've had success with this "one weird trick" to help get to sleep: I go through the alphabet and for every letter I think of 3 unrelated words that start with each letter. When I'm tired by my mind is running, this helps me slip into sleep. My wife and daughter have also had success with it. I also have had success with listening to audio books or podcasts, but don't like doing that if my w…

I'm a loud snorer, I see the marketing for Sleepbuds says they help sleepers from being disturbed by snoring. Do you know if it effective for snoring?
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