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Insomnia, but not lack of sleep, may hasten brain shrinkage: study

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Re: Insomnia, but not lack of sleep, may hasten brain shrinkage: study

#51
post #21

I'm approaching midlife and noticing the quality of my sleep has declined. I can't sleep in anymore. Sometimes I'm waking up in the middle of the night occasionally and something I'm wide awake because I'm thinking about work or something like that. Very frustrating. Another reminder to try to pull myself away from the screens late at night.

Two low impact things to try are: * A very small amount of melatonin. .300 to .500 mg. * Breathe right strips, these increase airflow Other health issues can also cause wakefulness.

1 mg sublingual (dissolve under the tongue) melatonin works for me. I find it works best if I wait until I'm well settled in and should be asleep, but aren't. That's the time to quietly pop the tablet so it nudges me over the edge.

Biggest problem is that 1mg sublingual is hard to find. Walgreens/CVS is excited to sell you 5, 10 even 20 mg pills and gummies. But, those are so strong they are counter-productive.

Re: Insomnia, but not lack of sleep, may hasten brain shrinkage: study

#53

I'm approaching midlife and noticing the quality of my sleep has declined. I can't sleep in anymore. Sometimes I'm waking up in the middle of the night occasionally and something I'm wide awake because I'm thinking about work or something like that. Very frustrating. Another reminder to try to pull myself away from the screens late at night.

I started exercising (a lot) in the year and found that has helped me fall asleep faster. It doesn't have to be a whole lot either. 30 minutes of jogging or fast walking is enough to do it for me. I definitely feel it on days where I sit and do nothing. I have a harder time falling asleep.

Re: Insomnia, but not lack of sleep, may hasten brain shrinkage: study

#54
post #53

I'm approaching midlife and noticing the quality of my sleep has declined. I can't sleep in anymore. Sometimes I'm waking up in the middle of the night occasionally and something I'm wide awake because I'm thinking about work or something like that. Very frustrating. Another reminder to try to pull myself away from the screens late at night.

I started exercising (a lot) in the year and found that has helped me fall asleep faster. It doesn't have to be a whole lot either. 30 minutes of jogging or fast walking is enough to do it for me. I definitely feel it on days where I sit and do nothing. I have a harder time falling asleep.

I find a light exercise for extended duration of time right before sleep helps my sleep the best. The key for me seems not doing anything stressful right before sleep after the exercise, and drinking plenty of water but not food/sugar. I wonder blood sugar level is associated with some of the sleep problems.

Re: Insomnia, but not lack of sleep, may hasten brain shrinkage: study

#55
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two low impact things to try are: * A very small amount of melatonin. .300 to .500 mg. * Breathe right strips, these increase airflow Other health issues can also cause wakefulness.

1 mg sublingual (dissolve under the tongue) melatonin works for me. I find it works best if I wait until I'm well settled in and should be asleep, but aren't. That's the time to quietly pop the tablet so it nudges me over the edge. Biggest problem is that 1mg sublingual is hard to find. Walgreens/CVS is excited to sell you 5, 10 even 20 mg pills and gummies. But, those are so strong they are counter-productive.

Have you found somewhere else to get it?

Re: Insomnia, but not lack of sleep, may hasten brain shrinkage: study

#56

I'm approaching midlife and noticing the quality of my sleep has declined. I can't sleep in anymore. Sometimes I'm waking up in the middle of the night occasionally and something I'm wide awake because I'm thinking about work or something like that. Very frustrating. Another reminder to try to pull myself away from the screens late at night.

Taking a magnesium vitamin pill before sleep helps a lot. Try it out.

Re: Insomnia, but not lack of sleep, may hasten brain shrinkage: study

#57
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two low impact things to try are: * A very small amount of melatonin. .300 to .500 mg. * Breathe right strips, these increase airflow Other health issues can also cause wakefulness.

Don't forget: Try pausing caffeine intake.

At least 8 hours before sleep [1].

[1] https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nutrition/caffeine-and-sleep....

Re: Insomnia, but not lack of sleep, may hasten brain shrinkage: study

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1 mg sublingual (dissolve under the tongue) melatonin works for me. I find it works best if I wait until I'm well settled in and should be asleep, but aren't. That's the time to quietly pop the tablet so it nudges me over the edge. Biggest problem is that 1mg sublingual is hard to find. Walgreens/CVS is excited to sell you 5, 10 even 20 mg pills and gummies. But, those are so strong they are counter-productive.

Have you found somewhere else to get it?

I get the lowest dose and then break them up. Not precise, but if you get a 2-2.5 mg pill, it's pretty ok.

Re: Insomnia, but not lack of sleep, may hasten brain shrinkage: study

#59

We work in the sleep space, and this isn't new. I was at a conference last week, and for the first time heard about a study that suggested that the cycle is that a build up of amyloid, tau, lew bodies, and other metabolic waste in the brain reduces the slow-wave power which is responsible for clearing out this metabolic waste (via the glymphatic system). This cycle is still not proven, but it was an interesting early…

> We work in the sleep space Is this another way of saying you work from bed?

Joop Zoetemelk once famously said: "You win the Tour de France in your bed"

https://www.teamvismaleaseabike.com/longread/winningtogether...

Re: Insomnia, but not lack of sleep, may hasten brain shrinkage: study

#60
This study is just awful. Can we stop funding epidemiological studies with little to no reproducibility? At least use more frequent objective sleep measurements, and account for confounding variables.

- They openly acknowledge they "can't say that poor sleep causes dementia" aka they established a correlation but no direction of causality

- There's self-reporting bias where participants were "asked about" their sleep patterns

- There's selection and survival bias: the participants were around 40 y/o, the ones that remained for 10 years might be different than those who dropped

- The sample was for a cardiovascular disease study

- They didn't control for unmeasured confounders other than "age, sex, education, health and lifestyle factors"

- The 1.6-2.6 years of brain aging were measured using ML algorithms and this is a small enough effect to be within a margin of error...

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