The Insomnia thread

Misanthrope · October 5, 2016

So here's the deal: for the past year or so I have kind of an early raiser sleep pattern going to sleep very early at like 9 or 10 pm and getting up at 5 am or so. This has been ok and I managed to get used to that rhythm. However since last week or so there was a couple of days where I passed out at like 8 pm and woke up at 2 am. It's not terribly bad to get 6 hours of sleep but I've found myself to be extremely tired mid day and evenings at work. Usually I get over it.

This week however it's been terrible: it's now going on 3 days of getting up faster and faster unable to fall asleep again for more than 30 minutes or half an hour before I have to get ready to go to work. Yesterday I woke up at like 2 am again, got no more sleep at all and went to work. I was terribly tired so I drank a large coffee on the morning and then after lunch I was again almost passing out in my desk so I went and bought a second large coffee. So I spend the rest of the day on that awkward state of being extremely jittery and with your heart racing but feeling like you're still out of it.

So I held up until about 8:30pm before I let myself pass out thinking "I have been super tired all day even though I drank coffee after lunch it was at like 3:00pm I should be fine" but nope: woke up at 10:30. 2 fucking hours of sleep is all I could manage to get. I'll try again but I usually fail, I am beginning to think that I need some fucking ambient to force myself back into at least 6 hours of continuous sleep.

What do you guys try for insomnia that's starting to get invasive in day to day life? And no, fap and nap doesn't works for me.

Atmos · October 5, 2016

When my horrid sleep pattern becomes a problem I usually reset myself. I'll power through about 32 hours without sleep to get my schedule back on track, and after that my body will slip back into a more normal rhythm.

My current sleep pattern, if you can call it that, is up at 2pm in the afternoon, and back to sleep at around 10am in the morning. Pretty much the exact opposite of what you're doing. Now, that's partly because I honestly strongly prefer nights over day. Now that the mrs is studying abroad I've actually gone through and just blacked out every room in our place, making it perpetually pitch black inside, no matter the time of day, truly wonderful.

My kind of sleep style is not healthy for the average person though, straight up. But, if there's one thing I know how to deal with, its insomnia. I rarely sleep more than a few hours a night, and have since I was 15. Best thing you can do is power through a full day without sleeping one night and then go to bed at a more normal time the next day. You'll be able to fall asleep straight away, and it should help to reset your internal clock. You might need a bit of coffee though, or what I've found work great is a 5 hour energy when you're starting to feel drowsy.

Samsonsuperco · October 5, 2016

My sleeping schedule has gotten pretty bad now that school is back.. My mom says it's like I sleep in "shifts". Normally I go to bed around 2-3am and get up at 7:15am. I get home from school around 3:30pm and end up in bed around 5pm. Then I sleep until about 8 or 9pm and stay up until 2-3am and do the whole thing over again. In the summer I end up going to bed at 5-6am and wake up at 2-3pm,

EDIT: I have tried to fix my schedule in the summer by pulling an all nighter and powering through the next day but it ends up being just as bad in a few days anyways.

Quinnbeast · October 5, 2016

I don't have the magic answer, but there have been a few things that I've recently been reading up (and acting) on.

1) Caffeine has a half-life of around 5-6 hours on average. If you drink a 200mg coffee at 3pm, you'll likely have 100mg still in your system at 9pm. Most of the research that I've looked at shows that this typically results in the shortening of the amount of undisturbed sleep an individual is likely to get. The obvious response is "stop drinking caffeine", but one option is to drink your strongest coffee of the day first thing in the morning, and taper it off a little bit towards lunch. If you're aiming to turn in at 10pm, then a sensible cut-off would be about noon or 1pm. This might be easier said than done, but a shift in habits is likely to help over a single fix.

2) Another big one for me is; screens. Phones, tablets, PC, and to a lesser extent, TV. Turn that shit off at least an hour before you want to turn in. The more interactivity we have with social media, forums, and whatever other hyper-important web-pish we do, the more we want to tap out one last message before bed. Get all of it, to fuck. Take a hot bath, read a book, do some stretching, listen to music, do whatever you find relaxing. But decide on a curfew for turning off all screen-based tech and stick to it. This is actually a two fold issue; I read a lengthy article in New Scientist that highlighted how a lot of modern phone/tablet screens have give off predominantly short-wavelength blue light that can interrupt your bodies release of melatonin (sleep-inducing hormone) in much the same way daylight does. If there's anything really essential that you need to do - be it sending an e-mail or getting stuff ready for work - do it as soon as you get home. The latter part of the evening should be off-limits for anything that might bring some stress or anxiety in to play.

3) Exercise, exercise, exercise. If you can't be bothered, do it anyway. The few people that I know that do physical work for a living, also happen to sleep like rocks. The bastards.

TL;DR - If I find the holy grail, I'll let you know.