
Ask HN: I have been experimenting sleep maintenance insomnia. Any recommendations? - burnedouthacker
To give some context; I have been experiencing what I think it could be called sleep maintenance insomnia.<p>I exercise every day, am in a good shape, watch my diet (by trying to eat the healthiest stuff I can get my hands on), and also try to have good sleep hygiene (I tend to go to sleep everyday at 11:00 p.m.). However, I regularly (almost every day of the week) wake up like 3, 4 or 5 a.m. (it depends) and cant get back to sleep. This results on me feeling like a zombie, and being unable to get done intellectual tasks (4 months aprox. without approaching coding, the way I used to).<p>I can deal with the physical exhaustion, but feeling my intellectual capacity diminished is becoming frustrating (there are days I barely come up with something done!).<p>BTW, I have read and heard about melatonin; could anyone recommend me taking it for the sake of getting rid of this problem?<p>Any recommendations would be extremely appreciated.
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dryicerx
Somewhere... forgot where, I heard there exists a group of people who call
them selves "Doctors", crazy right?

Apparently their in to these crazy practices that involve studying, diagnosing
and treating diseases and injuries of people. So fake!

More about these crazy folks at <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physician>

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gojomo
If your advice is "see a doctor", that's fair.

That 3-word advice isn't improved by extending it to 40-plus-words with
sarcasm, condescension, and misspellings.

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dfranke
I'm having this same problem as well; I'm off from work today and tomorrow in
an effort to recover. I have a doctor's appointment scheduled for tomorrow, so
I'll let you know what he says!

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dfranke
He perscribed me 1.5mg lorazepam, but I've yet to observe any physiological
evidence that they didn't give me a sugar pill by mistake. Just got a new
perscription for 50mg trazodone. We'll see if that fares any better.

~~~
burnedouthacker
Thanks buddy!

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gojomo
Consider eating patterns: do you eat when you get up? If so, defer to the time
you'd rather rise. (Also: when do you last eat before going to sleep? Can that
be shifted later?)

Is there light/noise/roommate/etc. which triggers the early-wake, which you
could mitigate?

Do you know if you snore or have sleep apnea? (You could go to a sleep-
specialist for relevant tests, one of which is a finger-mounted blood-oxygen
meter you take home.)

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jganetsk
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle-of-the-Night_Insomnia>

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barry-cotter
Modafinil. Much, much better than coffee. You're just awake, not wired or
jittery, just awake and alert. Very little in the way of side effects, doesn't
interfere with getting to sleep and no contraindications for long term use
either (ttbomk).

I can personally recommend sleep sometime in the middle of the day too, a nap
when you get home maybe.

Best of luck.

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tokenadult
How much do you get outdoors during daylight hours?

Do you have seasonal allergies, perchance?

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burnedouthacker
Well... regarding this I would count 1 hour/day aprox (commute time) +
1hour/day (running). This is the minimum time I spend outdoors. No allergies.

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amichail
If you are working on your own and it doesn't matter when you are awake, then
only go to sleep when you are really tired.

Trying to sleep at set times can cause anxiety over sleep, which makes it
harder to fall asleep.

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pageman
try this: <http://xkcd.com/320/> and
[http://echochamber.me/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=12882](http://echochamber.me/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=12882)

