Getting better now but for me I am lucky if I get 2hrs sleep before a workday. I can lay in bed trying to sleep for 12 hours and it's just horrible, brain won't turn off. Pills do help,but either the dosage is too weak or strong enough to make you grogy or moody when you get up,defeating the whole purpose.
- Maybe is a lot of noise around you, and night is the time for your brain to work cleanly. Reduce it (I find this recently)
- Stop being worry about not get sleep. The more you worry, the less you get.
- If can, sleep when you feel it, get up when not. Not force to get sleep if you know you can't. I think this help to reset the clock. After a while things start to settle.
- Substances amplify what is wrong, maybe. I think is better to fix the macro stuff, the routine, and then maybe use something.
Thanks, I've tried a few those as well. I can't stop from worry about not being asleep once it's been a few hours of trying. I am looking into diet and any new behaviors as well. I use to br able to sleep at will.
I have bad insomnia for many years, since childhood, with symptoms similar to what you report. I would stay away from pills. They lead to dependency, possible mood changes and shallow sleep. I have been able to get better at sleeping over the years after trying many different things. Here are a few of the things that helped me the most:
- Temperature control. I sleep with the AC set at 65, a fan and a BedJet device.
- Blue light control. I wear blue light blocking glasses at night time
- Wind down routine. I am careful not to exercise, watch exciting shows or do anything that raises my hearth rate at least an hour before bed.
- No alarm clock. I have found that when using an alarm clock I invariably get anxious about it going off.
What really helps is silicon earplugs (they warm up to body temperature and mold to fit, so comfortable I've forgotten to take them out until I'm half way to work) - a lot of my issues are I require silence to sleep and stay asleep and the modern world just isn't conducive to that at all.
> Temperature control. I sleep with the AC set at 65, a fan and a BedJet device.
Do you have a thick blanket then? Or are you just covered with a thin bed sheet while the air around you is 65 degrees F (18 degrees C)? That sounds like it would be freezing.
I'm wondering why you find it better to have a cold room but then heat the body with blankets vs. just using fewer (or no) blankets and having a higher room temperature. It's pretty interesting in any case, thanks for the answer!
1) any part of you out from under the blankets (face, perhaps) feels the coolness.
2) I can't sleep with few or no blankets anyway. I mean I could probably adjust to it over time, or if I'd hiked 20 miles that day I bet I could, but I certainly can't right now under ordinary circumstances.
I don't start to think a room's too cold for comfortable sleeping until it's under like 60F. My sleep gets worse if it's over about 68.
Have you tried changing your diet? Keto, Mediterranean, Vegan. I've known people who have all benefited by finding a diet that works for them. I personally never eat past 6:30 or before 6:30 the next morning and eat keto and my energy has rebounded a lot in the past few months. Regular sleep schedule also helps, I'm always in bed by midnight unless it's an emergency (a real one) of some sort.
Knowing I have to get up, that I'm likely to be disturbed early, or that I'm needed at a particular time in the morning makes falling asleep really hard. That and I find it a lot easier if I'm on my own with no-one in my space or interrupting me or chatting or asking for stuff or anything as I'm winding down and relaxing in the ~1hr before sleep. And that's before you throw in any extra actual life stress on top of fairly-normal things like having to be up at a certain time or having a partner.
... so yeah, as a married guy with kids and a job, falling asleep is hell basically every night.
Exercise has consistently been the key for me. About 6 months after I stop exercising, my sleep schedule is a total wreck. Walking briskly for 1 mile a day is enough.
Listening to a podcast that is not too exciting helps me switch my brain off. It needs to be one without a flashy ending which might wake you up. That or you can set a timer to kill it before it ends.
It's worth noting that many allergy meds (like diphenhydramine) are anticholinergic, but only ones which pass the blood-brain barrier are linked to cognitive decline. So newer allergy meds like cetirizine and loratadine are better.
Your link says anticholinergic use later in life has been linked to cognitive decline, not that use by young people results in cognitive decline later in life.
I linked to Wikipedia, but I originally read the abstract of a different study, which might have examined diphenhydramine specifically rather than many anticholinergic drugs. The abstract of the article cited on Wikipedia makes it clear that it's a cumulative effect, and that they studied outcomes in older adults. So I think Wikipedia describes the research incorrectly.
For those people who feel groggy or nauseous/headachy in the morning after Melatonin, try taking 0.3mg. You might find it has the same effect with less pronounced side effects.
