just wanted to pick your brains. i have trouble fallin asleep all the time. i think its mostly because my brain never stops. what are some of the tricks that you guys use to help you out when this is an issue? i have some unisom but i dont like having to take them. i took one last nite and slept ten hours, almost missing my first class and missed my training session in the morning. but i almost garuntee that tonight i will lay down around ten and not feel tired till one in the morning. i feel this is really starting to affect my training and desperately need to get on a solid sleep schedule. i have already read the sleep articles on this site, so no real need to point me there… thanks for your help.
Routine, routine, routine. Or booze. If you are a student I know it is tough but go to bed at the same time each night and wake up at the same time each morning. Also, make sure you are winding down before bedtime. You can’t be going a thousand miles an hour and then jump in bed and expect to fall asleep. Mentally, either. Anxiety can also keep you awake, so make sure your days are productive and you are not procrastinating and leaving things undone.
Like apayne said routine. You need to habituate to a good sleep pattern. To initially start it even if you don’t fall asleep till four in the morning still get up early that first day and stay awake the entire day no napping. That night you should be tired and ready for bed.
Also try relaxing or soothing music. I have had relaxation CDs that are very good or I can throw on some Moody Blues or Beck’s Sea Change and it usually relaxes me to the point of sleep. Again, get up early have a full day hit the gym hard eat right and you should be tired by bedtime. Its breaking the bad routine you’re in now thats hard, but it will become easier with some effort!
A piece of ass before bedtime never hurts either; if you don’t have a piece of ass available then…well you already know what to do.
ALl the above is great advice and sounds like it will definatly get you in the right direction.
If all else fails, well thank your parents. Insomnia is genetic from what I understand and definatly runs in my family… I’m currently running on 3 1/2 hours of sleep right now because of insonia but still drug my ass out of bed this morning. The worste thing you can do which is something I do all to often is to sleep in. I’m natorius for turning off my alarm clock or changing the time in my slep and this screws everything up.
I have had trouble falling asleep most of my life. twelve years ago, a friend recommended over-the-counter Melatonin. Since then, not only do I routinely fall asleep in less than ten minutes, but no matter the length of my sleep, I wake up feeling rested. The only side effect is vivid dreams. Any brand has worked, make sure it has vitamin B-6 for time release. I use 3mg/night.
Winding down for at least an hour is helpful for me.
Almost every night I take 200mg of Phosphatidyl Serine about an hour before bedtime. This will calm you brain that is always active.
To absolutely put you to sleep try 100mg of 5HTP about an hour before your target bedtime. 5HTP is a synthetic version of Tryptophan and is very effective at causing drowsiness. I have found that it causes 3-4 hours of deep sleep then I wake up fairly wide awake. At this point I force myself back to sleep but that is fairly easy.
[quote]Snoop wrote:
A piece of ass before bedtime never hurts either; if you don’t have a piece of ass available then…well you already know what to do. [/quote]
Seriously this is GREAT advice. Women always moan about guys falling asleep after sex - it’s not our fault - it’s a hormonal thing but it definitely works!
I have terrible problems with insomnia if I don’t stay on a strict (really strict!) sleep schedule. Actually, this is the first week in a long time where I’ve actually managed to fall asleep before 2 or 3 in the morning.
If you can’t keep a schedule and most can’t, then try reading in bed until you feel sleepy then turn off the lights immediatly and lay down before your body perks back up. This sometimes helps me. Also, try not to habitually sleep in on your off days. Sleeping in will destroy any kind of sleeping habits your body is forming. Get out of bed even if you were drinking 'til 0800, and you’re gonna drag ass all day.
One more thing that works for me is working out in the morning. For some reason working out later in the day really hurts my chances of sleeping well that night. I try to run or go to the gym first thing in the morning after a light snack.
Hopefully, you’ll manage to find something that works. Insomnia’s a real bitch.
Environment:
–Cool room
–Absolute darkness
–Ear plugs
–Don’t “lounge” in your bed. Your bed is for sleep and boom-boom only.
–Turn the TV off and read. Also, no video games before bed.
As far as supplements:
–Melotonin
–Benadryl
–The OTC sleep aid (something succinate)
–moderate alcohol (red wine is awesome)
Also, don’t go to bed on an empty stomach. I take a protein and fish oil shake before lights-out, and it keeps me from lying in bed thinking about my hunger.
If you’re not dieting, a great insomnia fix is a bowl of nasty, sugary kids’ cereal in a bowl of protein powder mixed with water or skim milk.
and all this time i thought i was all alone. thanks for the help thus far…
I gotta agree with most of the above. The following works for me:
Cool room -
About 1 hr of down time after work -
nekkidness - the only way to sleep
A semi full stomach - usually eat some
cottage cheese, 1 glass of water, and maybe 1 glass of milk before bed
No noise → music tends to keep me
awake despite the relaxing effects
I’ve never used sleeping aids but I do find it comfortable to sleep with a pillow between my knees if I have been on my feet 12-16 hrs a day.
mike
Here are some important things to consider:
First, getting on a routine is important, not because it’s boring, but because it’s what your body needs. Keeping a consistent biological rhythm is very important for optimum health. Get up at the same time every morning, no matter when you fall asleep. Soon you’ll be falling asleep when you need to.
Second, be careful with the alcohol. A glass, maybe, not more. Alcohol sleep is shallow sleep. Have you ever noticed when you’re really blitzed how you might fall asleep, but you keep waking up through the night? Alcohol will not give you quality sleep. If a little bit will help put you to sleep, that’s OK, but no more.
You have to have down time before bed. If your mind is working like crazy on stuff right before bed it seems like it never slows down.
You might want to check if you have hypoglycemia. It is one of the many unfortunate side effects I have.
I found that if you wake up and can not go back to sleep take Melatonin. Go climb back into bed and relax.
Tricks I use are:
- Put a fan on in the room. It tends to drown out any other noise.
- Make sure the room is dark. Close all the doors, shut all curtains, etc…
- Lie still and concentrate on relaxing. Mentally start at your feet and work your way up, tense and relax each muscle. I find that I occationally have some area tense.
- Mentally think about how you feel in the morning. Visualze how tired you feel after a bad night sleep. Concentrate on how tired you felt.
Lots of good advice above. I would add being careful with caffeine. Try to limit yourself to one cup of coffee a day, or the equivalent, and have that at breakfast. Also, try drinking water when you first get up and before breakfast as being dehydrated, I have found, adds to caffeine’s potency.
man, there is some great advice in these posts…
With my job I am on the road quite a bit and I can usually guarantee being in a hotel away from my magnificent bed and gorgeous (and nekkid!) wife a minimum of 2 nights/week. I also have (or, HAD) quite a bit of experience with insomnia, so here’s a few tips:
- someone mentioned melatonin, and it works. Keep the dosage low at first as I had a great deal of grogginess at first using this supp.
-alcohol works, yet I am reluctant to advise it. It became the only way for me to get to sleep after awhile and became a crutch.
-enviroment is key. Something as simple as earplugs, darkness, and a tidy sleeping area can do wonders.
-bodywieght. Anvil is on a diet because all of the powerlifting and eating has made him big and strong, but also a bit of a fatty and his wife’s sleep suffers, so Anvil’s sleep suffers (my wife told me to write that, apparently I snore, yet I have never heard it.)
-bed. I you are sleeping on a shitty futon, and spending $400 a month on every supp. on the market, your priorites are out of whack (except Biotest stuff…), so go get yourself a killer sealy or something. A great investment.
Stay away from the computer, for sure. I find that if I’m online near bedtime, it takes a lot longer to get to sleep once I motivate myself from the couch to my bed.
this advice is really top notch!!!
i do sleep with a fan because the breeze and white noise helps my mind and it feels good.
i rarely ever drink anymore and dont really want to go down that road because of what im trying to accomplish with my body.
its funny that you mention the futon. the apt. i live in came with a bed and whatever but i sleep on my futon anyways. i just dont like the way it feels. that and its not in a good spot, im very particular where i sleep and if it does not “feel” right then i have a hard time sleeping. ive tried moving it obviously, but no luck. so i store my clothes in one room, and eat, homework, compute, write, and sleep in another.
ill check on that hypoglycemia bit.
no caffeine because im very stimulant sensitive. actually i had a bad addiction to the e/c stack a while back. i think the most i ever took was like forteen pills of ripped fuel. pretty sure i quit soon after. i drink green tea at least once a day and never very late, mostly a morn/afternoon thing.
again, great info and thanks for the advice
On a side note:
Sleep apnea
This is what led to Reggie White’s death. Many football linemen have it. Over time they develop pulmonary hypertension.
Obstructive sleep apnea is accompanied by snoring. Some have obstruction of the airway because of enlarged tonsils and or adenoids. Some have it because there is so much fat around the neck that it starts to constrict the air passage ways when they are lying down. Unfortunately any large amount of tissue around the neck will do the same thing… this includes muscles (ugh).
An ENT doc can fix the tonsil or adenoid problem. Exercise and diet can get rid of the neck fat.