Forums >Health and Nutrition>Insomnia is screwing up my running.
Sorry, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to have sleepless nights now just mulling over the idea that someone intentionally created the term "sleep hygiene".
Stevie Ray likes his sleep dirty.
"Because in the end, you won't remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain."
Jack Kerouac
Have you tried reading Daniels?
Ostrich runner
GHB is so much more effective than alcohol. Crap, I better make sure that statement isn't taken out of context.
http://www.runningahead.com/groups/Indy/forum
I had the same problem when I first suffered insomnia...Some things that I found helped me were doing something relaxing right before I went to sleep (usually tea and a book), writing in a diary to get some things off my mind, writing a 'to-do' list for the next day so I didn't have to worry about forgetting anything, avoiding caffeine in the evening, once in bed concentrating on deep breaths and slowly flexing and relaxing each muscle group. My problems mostly consisted on not getting to sleep in the first place, but it then extended into waking up once I was asleep (which never happened before). Maybe try some of the stuff I did when you wake up at 2am instead of reaching for your phone (bad! bad!)
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I read the whole bottle. Still couldn't sleep.
Runners run
Hehe, dirty sleep. Obviously I need to wash the sheets more often.
As for falling asleep, I have found relaxing/meditating in a dark room for an hour before bed to be helpful. Destroys an hour of a day, but after awhile my brain realizes it should turn off at a certain time each night and I can shorten the time.
I found NOT looking at the clock when I would wake up in the middle of the night to be very helpful. It only causes anxiety. Seriously, turn that sucker around to face the wall.
But I have also read that the classic 4am wake up is usually hormonal, or linked to depression/anxiety. Is it worse, you know, the week before?
Melantonin never worked for me, but I only tried it two or three times.
"During a marathon, I run about two-thirds of the time. That's plenty." - Margaret Davis, 85 Ed Whitlock regarding his 2:54:48 marathon at age 73, "That was a good day. It was never a struggle."
Melatonin isn't a sleeping pill in the sense of the prescriptions. It does seem to help if I'm diligent about taking it nightly though - trying it here and there won't work much.
MIT study on melatonin:
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/melatonin.html
I find it works to reset the sleep clock in a very low dose (I break a 1 milligram pill in 3rds, and take a 3rd, or .3 milligram) in conjunction with making sure sunlight hits the eyes at about the time you want to get up in the morning. Usually takes about a week.
Youtube also has some nice hypnotic music that helps you relax and fall asleep.
I've seen several references recently that talk about sleep cycles being about 90 minutes in length. After about 90 minutes of sleep, you are at your lightest level of sleep so it's easy for something to wake you up. When I'm ready for lights out, I mentally calculate when the 90 minute intervals will be during the night. If I wake up at one of those points, it's pretty easy for me to tell myself that I'm not really awake, just at a light level of sleep and go back into a deeper level. If I wake up off cycle, I usually have more trouble getting back to sleep. They also say that you should time your bedtime to those 90 minute intervals. So if you want to wake up at 4:30 AM, go to bed 6 or 7.5 or 9 hours earlier.
Marathon Maniac #991 Half Fanatic #58 Double Agent #22 It's a perfect day and I feel great!