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Poor sleep drove me insane, and my long path to recovery

writing.samsonhu.com

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Re: Poor sleep drove me insane, and my long path to recovery

#181

Post by Broken_Hippo »

kortilla wrote: post #83
wahnfrieden wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As soon as I realized my healthy sleep and wage work were incompatible, I quit working for others permanently and have been far healthier since then. Overnight and persistent improvement. Now I sleep well and when I don’t at night I just sleep when I want to. Simple

How is an 8 hour a day shift incompatible with healthy sleep?

Lots of folks don't work at the same time daily, and more work a shift that makes them sleep less due to children (Second shift, but has to get up to get the kid off to school). A good deal of other folks have long commutes or can't get out after 8 hours (their shift is 8 hours plus an hour lunch or standard 10 hours).

It doesn't seem that hard to get unhealthy sleep patterns in a workday.

Re: Poor sleep drove me insane, and my long path to recovery

#182

Post by rwl4 »

monroewalker wrote: post #42

Thank you for sharing! Skimmed for now, but saving this to read later. I've had a history as well of never getting good sleep so I'm curious to see what your experience was and the steps you've taken. A few things I've done that have helped a bunch: - Using BreatheRight nasal strips every night - Latex earplugs ("Mack's Pillow Soft Silicone Earplugs"). I could never sleep with foam earplugs in my ears but these are g…

Great tips. But it seems like maybe you should remove the part where you suggest people intentionally buy, use, then return an air monitor.

It's one thing to buy something and return it because you are genuinely dissatisfied, but what you are suggesting is called wardrobing and is pretty unethical, and it incurs costs for retailers and manufacturers.

Also, it can be damaging to the environment if products are needlessly manufactured and disposed of. I don't think it's a good idea to suggest this kind of behavior.

Re: Poor sleep drove me insane, and my long path to recovery

#183

Post by ccvannorman »

inetknght wrote: post #155
_rs wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there any services like 23andme that are more strict when it comes to data privacy or that allow me complete ownership of the data? I would love this type of analysis even at a higher cost but I am scared of what might happen in the future to this data on me and children

> Are there any services like 23andme that are more strict when it comes to data privacy or that allow me complete ownership of the data? https://familytreedna.com . I used to work for them > 2 years ago. 1. Order a Family Finder kit. When you get the kit but before submitting your swab, sign up for the account but opt-out of _all_ matching services. 2. Send your swab in. 3. When you get your results in (~6 weeks usu…

4. Call their support line and ask for your data to be deleted.

I've been burned too many times in the past to ever believe this line, even if the people at the company are well intentioned.

Re: Poor sleep drove me insane, and my long path to recovery

#184

Post by theonemind »

AmericanChopper wrote: post #12
Wagthesam wrote: post #3

This is quite raw and I'm actually somewhat afraid to share this. But I think sleep apnea is criminally under-discussed and underdiagnosed. It can f your life up sideways and can take years to diagnose. So sharing my story and hope I can advocate for it. If you have sleep apnea, no amount of sleep gadgets, good habits, exercise, will help you. You must fix the root cause

> You must fix the root cause The main cause of sleep apnea is obesity, which ruins your health by just about every other metric you could measure as well. It’s good advice to address sleep apnea, but you’d have to dig a little deeper to get to the root cause (in most cases).

As far as I understand it, obesity can aggravate sleep apnea, but actually does not cause sleep apnea, so it is not at all the main cause. For obstructive sleep apnea, say, if you had a perfectly formed jaw, teeth, airway, etc., you could get obese without having sleep apnea.

Which means that obese people shouldn't rely on losing weight as a sleep apnea cure, as obesity is indeed not the main cause, but can likely see reduction in sleep apnea symptoms with weight loss.

Re: Poor sleep drove me insane, and my long path to recovery

#185

Post by rednerrus »

thisismyswamp wrote: post #171
aantix wrote: post #146

I recently discovered that I’m a slow metabolizer of caffeine. Via my raw 23andme data. https://you.23andme.com/tools/data/?query=rs762551 C/C genotype. https://www.geneticlifehacks.com/liver-detox-genes-cyp1a2/#C... Instead of coffee being a net positive, it actually takes caffeine 4X the time to process through my body and increases my cardiac event risk by 2X. I can drink a cup of coffee at 8am and it still impact…

Can't you drink one coffee in the morning? Also would like a source on the 2X cardiac event risk, couldn't find that in the linked article. Big if true!

I have this genotype and if I have a mouthful of coffee at 8 am, I will be able to feel it at 1 AM the following morning.

Re: Poor sleep drove me insane, and my long path to recovery

#186

Post by tootie »

Wagthesam wrote: post #3

This is quite raw and I'm actually somewhat afraid to share this. But I think sleep apnea is criminally under-discussed and underdiagnosed. It can f your life up sideways and can take years to diagnose. So sharing my story and hope I can advocate for it. If you have sleep apnea, no amount of sleep gadgets, good habits, exercise, will help you. You must fix the root cause

Similar boat but for me it was narcolepsy. Still working on getting the right prescription but it was definitely a feeling I could describe as "relief" to hear that there was a specific physiological cause my constant fatigue. And that sense of overpowering weakness that I was thinking of as being "really, really tired" was actually cataplexy. Just putting a name on it feels like a weight being lifted. Although I'll actually feel better when I land on a practical treatment.

Re: Poor sleep drove me insane, and my long path to recovery

#187

Post by lobocinza »

Wagthesam wrote: post #115
sweetsocks21 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I appreciate you sharing your story. I had a similar journey over the last couple years because of the pandemic. Looking back now it was definitely an issue at least as far back as early teens. I used to work out a lot, and very intensely as that was the only thing that made me feel "awake". It wasn't until the lockdowns when I couldn't get to the gym that it got bad enough that I also started my own journey to this…

I used to be known as someone that partied hard. Even at work I was the guy on the technical teams that found all the degenerates on the sales teams to go out with. Then after the hangovers got too much (probably due to sleep apnea), I switched to extreme sports. Snowboarding in high consequence terrain, kitesurfing, motorcycle track riding, dirt biking single track. Anything that took the edge off and similarly made…

Alcohol and surprisingly even 0% alcohol beer (not sure how much I can attribute to nocebo effect) completely wrecks my sleep. My nasal mucus thickens so much that I can't breathe properly when lying down. And it's not like I'm not drinking water and keeping hydration in check when I drink. I gave up on alcohol completely.

I confirm that exercises do help. Anecdotally last week I woke up with an obstructed nostril. I tried to fix it by washing it abundantly with saline solution, did it a dozen times without much success. Later I went to ride on my road bike and in less than 30s both nostrils were perfectly cleared.

Re: Poor sleep drove me insane, and my long path to recovery

#188

Post by Balgair »

aantix wrote: post #146

I recently discovered that I’m a slow metabolizer of caffeine. Via my raw 23andme data. https://you.23andme.com/tools/data/?query=rs762551 C/C genotype. https://www.geneticlifehacks.com/liver-detox-genes-cyp1a2/#C... Instead of coffee being a net positive, it actually takes caffeine 4X the time to process through my body and increases my cardiac event risk by 2X. I can drink a cup of coffee at 8am and it still impact…

I did the same, but without any of the data here.

Quitting caffeine got rid of my anxiety nearly entirely and my sleep quality was noticeably better. Literally changed my life.

The 3 days of headaches were very bad. But worth it beyond anything for me.

Open to questions if you have them, though it may take a bit to respond.

Re: Poor sleep drove me insane, and my long path to recovery

#189

Post by brailsafe »

aantix wrote: post #146

I recently discovered that I’m a slow metabolizer of caffeine. Via my raw 23andme data. https://you.23andme.com/tools/data/?query=rs762551 C/C genotype. https://www.geneticlifehacks.com/liver-detox-genes-cyp1a2/#C... Instead of coffee being a net positive, it actually takes caffeine 4X the time to process through my body and increases my cardiac event risk by 2X. I can drink a cup of coffee at 8am and it still impact…

Do your blood pressure problems gp away if you don't drink coffee? Have you blind tested this by getting someone to brew you something that may or may not be decaf?

Re: Poor sleep drove me insane, and my long path to recovery

#190

Post by melling »

Balgair wrote: post #188
aantix wrote: post #146

I recently discovered that I’m a slow metabolizer of caffeine. Via my raw 23andme data. https://you.23andme.com/tools/data/?query=rs762551 C/C genotype. https://www.geneticlifehacks.com/liver-detox-genes-cyp1a2/#C... Instead of coffee being a net positive, it actually takes caffeine 4X the time to process through my body and increases my cardiac event risk by 2X. I can drink a cup of coffee at 8am and it still impact…

I did the same, but without any of the data here. Quitting caffeine got rid of my anxiety nearly entirely and my sleep quality was noticeably better. Literally changed my life. The 3 days of headaches were very bad. But worth it beyond anything for me. Open to questions if you have them, though it may take a bit to respond.

I imagine that simply lowering the dose over a few weeks before quitting might help with the headaches, for anyone else who decides to give up caffeine.
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