Can't sleep

Hi everyone

I have one problem, it takes me hours to fall asleep. I may go to bed at 11pm and just fall asleep at 3am. It's horribe and I don't know what to do...

I've tried several things, went to several doctors and nobody knows what's going on.

Can someone help me please?

Nuno

Need more info. Do you have a regular schedule? What's your diet like? Are you spending time in front of screens before bed? How warm's your room? Do you sleep alone? What have you tried?

Rik de Kort said:

Need more info. Do you have a regular schedule? What's your diet like? Are you spending time in front of screens before bed? How warm's your room? Do you sleep alone? What have you tried?

Sorry, I was in a hurry

1 - Yes, going to bed at 12pm and waking up at 9am everyday.

2 - My diet is healthy, enough calories, macronutrients, etc

3 - Busted, I'm in front of the screen until like 11.30pm

4 - Not cold for sure, a bit hot maybe...

5 - I do sleep alone.

6 - Some pills several doctors told me to take...

Banzas said:

(...) go to bed at 11pm and just fall asleep at 3am. (...)

:?: :!: Go to bed at 0245am!

..... sorted!

FredInChina said:

Banzas said:

(...) go to bed at 11pm and just fall asleep at 3am. (...)

:?: :!: Go to bed at 0245am!

..... sorted!

Haha I prefer to go early so my body is resting even if I'm not sleeping... but this is really annoying.

Banzas said:

Haha I prefer to go early so my body is resting even if I'm not sleeping... but this is really annoying.

I understand, I was pulling your leg.

Have you tried going to bed at 9 or 10pm?

FredInChina said:

Banzas said:

Haha I prefer to go early so my body is resting even if I'm not sleeping... but this is really annoying.

I understand, I was pulling your leg.

Have you tried going to bed at 9 or 10pm?

I know!

Yes I tried and maybe sometimes I fall asleep at 1am but 3hours in my bed doing nothing is horrible...

1 - Yes, going to bed at 12pm and waking up at 9am everyday.

Every day? In the weekends as well?

Yes I tried and maybe sometimes I fall asleep at 1am but 3hours in my bed doing nothing is horrible...

Tried this for longer than a week?

Every day? In the weekends as well?

Yes.

Tried this for longer than a week?

No...

Try a hot bath before bed if you the ability to.

Get sun during the day.

Darken the room, get out from behind the screen or TV an hour before sleep.

If no luck, try meletonin 1-3mg or a combination of Theanine (100mg) HTP-5 and Melatonin 45 mins before you want to sleep.

Banzas said:

Tried this for longer than a week?

No...

Well, there's your problem. You do have a regular sleeping schedule: 0:00 to 9:00 is pretty good. However, the daylight throws you off whack. Do you wake up early often and then just decide to nap for a bit?

I don't really know what timezone your in, but I think you should get your rhythm back on track with an earlier schedule. So sleep from 22:30 to 8:00 or so. Here's the protocol: you go to bed every evening at 22:30 and have your alarm set at 8:00. You shouldn't have any screens on the hour before. Then you try to sleep. If you can't sleep after 15 minutes or so (don't look at the clock or you'll be waiting until the 15 minutes are over), get out of bed, go to another room and read a book or something. Then try again. Once it becomes morning (and you've hopefully slept for a while), your alarm will go off. At this point you immediately get out of bed. You then go on to the rest of your day and repeat the same protocol next night.

Keep this up for two weeks and your biological clock should have adjusted itself to the new rhythm. You will feel very tired during the adjustment period, especially towards the end of the first week, but don't nap or sleep in or go to bed early. If you're tired, you'll be able to sleep well at night.

I'll follow your advice and then tell you something about my progress.

Thanks a lot everyone!

A little question to satisfy my curiosity:

Why is it recommended not to be in front of a screen an hour prior to go to bed?

What is the rationale here?

Go to Poliquin's site and search for sleep and you'll see many of your questions becoming answers.

A combination of magnesium, tryptophan, and melatonin has worked for all my insomniac clients.

FredInChina said:

A little question to satisfy my curiosity:

Why is it recommended not to be in front of a screen an hour prior to go to bed?

What is the rationale here?

Think about it... how does a screen work? It's basically just a huge, very bright lamp. That you're shining right into your face. The quality of this light is not unlike mid daylight in terms of colour composition (it doesn't have a whole lot of red like you have during twilight, though there is a neat little program called F.Lux for that). So you're basically telling yourself "it's afternoon, it's afternoon, it's afternoon!". You can see why that works.

I remember from the Beijing Olympics that some of the atlethes from my country had to wake up in the morning and used a huge lamp shining in their face to wake up in the morning and adjust to the rhythm quicker.

There is a piece of software, simple, but really helpful. It changes color temperature on your screen and dims it as it gets darker outside, in effect screen becomes darker and reddish (color temperature change) this is to send signal to the brain that it is not a day and brain activity should be slowing down - why, because LCD monitors these days have very strong backlight lamps and default brightness and contrast setting are set way to high, usually people don't realize how bright these are - and this is hurting eyes (and brain during night time as it sends it wrong signals).

Try this software if you spend time in front of your PC before going to sleep, I had problems with sleep and I can say it has helped me:

http://stereopsis.com/flux/

Note: when you start using it first, most likely you will think that screen gets really to dark when it does its stuff - after couple of days eyes get used to that (what is a change from much too bright screens) then it is opposite - switching it off hurts eyes , I use it for over year now, switch it off only for photo/color work, etc.

Banzas - also, when you go to bed, are you thinking about anything, any thoughts in your head that keep returning, etc?. It is quite often simple (but not simple to achieve) - you need to have clear mind, this helps getting sleep (or be so tired that it doesn't matter ).

PS. Just realized Rik just mentioned flux and screen brightness/color issue.

The recommendations have been very good. I use f.lux on my computer, take ZMA, shower and static stretch before bed.

The stretching will depress your nervous system and is especially useful if you have a high volume of training that might keep you awake. I usually stretch after the shower with about 20 second per stretch. I use simple stretches like pike pancake, etc...

Also I try to think positive thoughts before bed. This limits the amount of stress that I feel before going to bed. These good thoughts could be a list of things you are thankful for, or if you are religious maybe a prayer.

So the rationale is to limit the stimuli on the brain & restore the circadian cycle.

Thanks everyone.

stop drinking so much caffeine

Thanks for all your help guys

When my problems started, I had never drank coffee (or maybe 2 or 3 in my life) so that's not the problem.

That software looks good, thanks!

I don't know why I can't sleep because I exercise about 5 hours a day so I should be tired!

About my head I think that's the problem. Sometimes my head feels like an old computer with windows 95 and 99% fragmented that can't shut down even if he hasn't virus. Some random stuff come in my head and I don't know how to shut down, probably that's the problem. I need to learn this, stop thinking! Strange is: I don't remember what I think but I have no worries, no problems in life... I think it's just me planning the other days but I don't want to waste my sleep time on that!

Anyway, after these long training days I should feel my eyes tired and 90% nights I don't. Yesteday I started to read a book and in 10minutes my eyes started to be tired... maybe that's a good sign!

Hope to get better

Banzas said:

I don't know why I can't sleep because I exercise about 5 hours a day so I should be tired!

How's your appetite? And what are you eating?

Rik de Kort said:

Banzas said:

I don't know why I can't sleep because I exercise about 5 hours a day so I should be tired!

How's your appetite? And what are you eating?

I eat fairly well I think, enough calories, protein, etc. I never go to bed feeling hungry if that's what you want to know. Any kind of foods I should avoid? I try to avoid carbs at night.

The more important part was: "how's your appetite", in general I mean. Because insomnia can be a symptom of overtraining and if you're exercising FIVE hours a day, I would think it very likely if you aren't very advanced.

5 hours a day includes flexibility and lots of prehab so I don't think overtraining is an issue. :?