
Counterintuitive things that helped me fix my insomnia - jkuria
https://medium.com/@britta.c/8-counterintuitive-things-that-helped-me-fix-my-chronic-insomnia-96c6cc82d75c
======
raducu
I've tried everything, and once my 2 year old daughter goes to kindergarden I
plan on trying again, BUT the only working quick fix has been
300-450micrograms of melatonin taken at exactly the same time every night.

Melatonin at this small dosage is just amazing for me.

I don't want to dismiss all the good practices, but meltonin in the 300-450
mcg range just lets me fall asleep within one hour of taking it, as long as I
take it the same hour everyday.

I'm also searching for some time-release low dosage melatonin because I only
sleep about 7 hours.

~~~
themodelplumber
> 2 year old daughter

Aw man. I feel you there. That's tough. But cute...good memories. Haha.

Melatonin works well for me too, though the effect does wear off as you said.
You might check out the "bi-layer" melatonin tablets. I haven't tried them,
but they are available.

I'm one of those freaks who is OK using doxylamine after researching it, and I
find it really beneficial on top of the melatonin. It has a staying power for
sleep that's really nice. When I take it, I take about 8mg, which is something
like a third of a tablet but they're easy to break up.

I wonder also if one could split up the melatonin effect by putting a second
tablet inside something like a small piece of cheese, for a simple time-
release mechanism.

I also found that sleep cycles matter a lot to my body. If I wake up early,
it's probably right on the button, 4-5 90-minute sleep cycles in. Falling
asleep at this point is hard just because of where I'm at in the natural
cycle. So it's usually a matter of waiting in bed for sleep to come back. I
use these techniques to help me wait it out:

\- Turning on a long lecture or podcast that I've listened to before. There is
a scientific lecture on sleep and dreaming that works really well. :-) I use
an XHDATA D-328 which has tactile playback controls and no screen. I also put
some relaxation / ambient tracks on the memory card.

\- Designing houses, neighborhoods, and vehicles in my imagination. I get into
the most tactile details that I can.

\- Making some quick changes to get more comfortable: Shedding clothing if
necessary, a quick trip to the bathroom, a drink of water, fixing my pillow.

I also like to use this calculator periodically to get a rough idea of how my
sleep cycles are going to work:

[https://sleepyti.me/](https://sleepyti.me/)

Anyway...I know you said you tried everything. So I mainly posted this to
mention the bi-layer melatonin.

------
johnchase
I had intense insomnia when I was younger. The points the author laid out
helped me immensely - particularly limiting sleep. Specifically, I limited
sleep to 7 hours a night, in bed at 10 and up at 5 no matter what.
Additionally, as soon as got out of bed I exercised for 45 minutes. As the
author mentioned the first couple weeks were brutal, exercising at 5 in the
morning on 2 hours of sleep is not fun. After a couple months it stopped being
so painful, and after 6 months I fall asleep in 1-2 minutes. I don't have
children which I imagine would make this much more difficult. I also have a
consistent work schedule which helps as well.

~~~
jfengel
Those sound like two horrific months. I am not exactly insomniac but very much
a night owl. The few times I have tried morning running have been simply
awful. (Adrenaline gets me though my one race a year, though I would love to
try the Las Vegas Marathon, which begins at midnight.)

I don't doubt that my body would adjust if I forced it that hard, but it
sounds excruciating.

------
Maximus9000
One counterintuitive piece of advice I can offer is to take a cold shower
right before bed. Some might think a cold shower would shock the system so
much that your body would be on high alert... but that's very temporary... and
when you slip into your warm bed sheets afterwards, you feel like your in a
safe place.

Your milage may vary. I've seen conflicting science on this. Here is the
positive case: [https://www.sleepadvisor.org/showering-before-
bed/](https://www.sleepadvisor.org/showering-before-bed/)

------
moron4hire
She talks about going to bed only when she actually felt sleepy, not just
physically tired.

Which I feel like isn't real insomnia. If I didn't go to bed until I
_actually_ felt sleepy (as in, almost falling asleep) most nights I wouldn't
go to bed until 5am. That's with or without using my computer in the time
between 9pm and whenever-I-feel-sleepy. And then my kids wake me up at 7:30.
Even if they didn't, I'd be awake by 9am, not able to sleep anymore, but
feeling really dragged out, stretched thin (like too little butter over too
much toast), but not actually feeling sleepy.

Feeling sleepy, for me, is just not really a common occurrence. I occasionally
feel sleepy in the mid-afternoon, especially if I've not managed my sleep well
for several days. But if I relied on my sleepy-cue, I'd never get any sleep.

~~~
NikolaeVarius
Yeah I have some pretty bad insomnia, and I don't really feel sleepy. At some
point I just kind of, crash.

I could be drop dead tired from running/hiking, but unless I take sleeping
pills, I have an extremely difficult time sleeping.

------
jniedrauer
Getting up early and going for a run before breakfast 5x/week solved insomnia
for me. I changed from a night owl to a morning person almost immediately.
It's been years now with no regression.

------
elliekelly
I never miss an opportunity to rave about the "Sleep With Me" podcast.[1]
Thanks to Scooter's soothing voice I no longer need medication to sleep every
night.

I have no affiliation other than being a very happy listener.

[1] [https://www.sleepwithmepodcast.com](https://www.sleepwithmepodcast.com)

~~~
zigzaggy
YES! This podcast got me through a very difficult time in my life. I had the
perfect storm of social, family, and work related anxiety going a few years
ago, and suddenly my health crashed. I was a total basket case! Insomnia made
me the WORST decision maker I could possibly be. "Sleep With Me" gave me a
place to go in my head where I found sleep again.

------
bradlys
I want to chime in here and say the number one thing that helped me sleep
better: less stress. Everything else didn't do shit. I tried pills, breathing
exercises, routines, food, etc... Didn't work.

I went from barely being able to pay bills month to month with no luxuries
(people look at what I lived in at the time as a prison jail cell), working on
a degree I hated at a university I hated, living in a city I hated, no
physical affection or love, and overall very lonely ... to perpetually having
a job I hate, being in a decent relationship, not making anywhere near enough
to afford the area but can afford the bills I do have, and still pretty
lonely. Region isn't great either but mostly cause it's so expensive. Life
still sucks but it's not the pure hell I was in before.

I don't fall asleep super fast. But I don't wake up as much in the middle of
the night. (And I can fall back asleep) I don't deal with it taking 3-4 hours
on the regular to fall asleep - about 30 minutes to an hour now. (I watch
random educational YouTube videos) I don't deal with my mind racing and trying
to figure out how to solve every problem... Even if I wish sometimes I did
have that fire under my ass to keep me moving. I don't have more stressful
periods where I sleep maybe 30 minutes to an hour a day and a week feels like
a month or more. I'm less stressed. It was the number 1 thing that helped me
and I noticed it immediately. And I always knew that was the issue.

Because of that, there was no cure except to get rid of the stressors. So I
finally graduated, I got a job after many months of toil that ended up paying
me, I finally met someone who would be in a relationship with me (took 26
years), and I got out of Seattle. It took forever.

Going to be 30 soon enough. I feel like when I do have my birthday, the stress
will come back thanks to feeling wildly underaccomplished. Woo... But I'll
manage as long as I don't live in Seattle again.

------
rathel
Consider checking your D3 vitamin metabolite levels in blood. I had trouble
falling asleep, had single digits of 25(OH) D3 concentration (The norm is 20+
ng/ml).

For now I was prescribed 20k IU of vitamin D3 twice a week. Other things that
helped - no caffeine after 3-4 pm and a cup of raspberry-hibiscus tea in the
evening (It's very relaxing).

~~~
fudged71
20,000IU in a day, only twice a week? Sounds really strange. To everyone else,
don't follow this advice without a doctor prescribing it.

The only reason I've seen for exceeding the potentially toxic 10k limit is for
fighting the flu (D3 Flu Hammer).

~~~
rathel
Yes, obviously doses this high are prescription only. Should have mentioned
that.

Guess I have to trust my doctor, who mentioned this is a saturation dose, and
later on I will switch to lower doses available over-the-counter.

------
munificent
_> Well, it’s often due to a phenomenon called sleep state misperception. When
you’re in lighter stages of sleep, it can sometimes feel like you’re still
awake, because there’s still thought activity occurring in the brain._

I learning about this, uh, experientially. My wife snores. Many times, once
she starts sawing wood, I will poke her and tell her to roll over. Very often,
she'll tell me "I'm not snoring, I wasn't even asleep." Hmm...

 _> There are so many horror stories out there about people who developed a
benzo addiction or did crazy things while they were on Ambien._

One of the real challenges about being inundated with information on the
Internet 24/7 is that there is a fundamental bias that we have a really hard
time compensating for: _No one writes down boring stories._ If you judge the
world based on what you read online, every Ambien pill summons a visit from
the Ambien walrus and setting your kitchen on fire. Every trip to Central
America ends in horrid digestive disease, bot fly infections, or both. Every
politician all the way down to your local city council member is a corrupt
sociopath, and every cop a malevolent scumbag.

The reality is that all of those stories get written down because they are
_interesting_ , which tends to imply that they are _unusual_ , which means
they are the exact _opposite_ of being representative. But it's really hard to
internalize that fact.

~~~
rabidrat
> No one writes down boring stories.

Millions of people on Facebook and Twitter are doing this right now.

------
ebg13
#4 on the list is taking sleeping pills. In a comment thread somewhere else,
the author also said she stopped consuming caffeine, which is notably
dismissed in this list.

I need HN to start accepting eyeroll emojis in comments.

~~~
Ididntdothis
In my view stopping caffeine should be the first thing to do if you have sleep
problems. But somehow even mentioning this seems offensive to people.

~~~
jamesrcole
I have sleep problems, and it’s to do with muscular/nerve problems, and things
like the nerve sensations (mostly _not_ pain) they cause. I’d find it
irritating if you told me that, because I’m thoroughly sick of people assuming
they know —- and that assumption is very common — what the causes and
solutions are when I tell them I have sleep problems.

~~~
Ididntdothis
I am not saying stopping caffeine is the fix for everybody and I am certainly
not trying to take your experience from you.

What I am saying is that it’s worth to try this as one of the first steps
because it’s easy to do, you can see results quickly and for a lot of people
going off caffeine is helpful.

It’s like dealing with backpain. Exercise or yoga won’t cure everybody but
it’s definitely trying to do that before taking other measures.

Or if you are overweight it’s a good first step to look at eating habits.
Often better eating habits will help so it’s worth trying as a first step. If
that doesn’t help definitely look at other things.

~~~
jamesrcole
> _What I am saying is that it’s worth to try this as one of the first steps
> because it’s easy to do_

Why should someone try it if it’s abundantly obvious to them from the outset
that the causes of their problem are of a different sort, for which this could
not possibly help?

You’re still assuming that it is something that is potentially relevant to
everyone.

Put another way, you’re assuming that all sleep problems are of a sort that
could potentially be caused/exacerbated by caffeine, and that the person with
the problems couldn’t possibly tell that caffeine was irrelevant unless they
tried removing it.

~~~
Ididntdothis
“you’re assuming that all sleep problems are of a sort that could potentially
be caused/exacerbated by caffeine, and that the person with the problems
couldn’t possibly tell that caffeine was irrelevant unless they tried removing
it.”

Yes. The keyword is “could” I am not saying “always is”.

~~~
jamesrcole
“Could” is wrong. For someone like me, I know from the outset the kind of
thing that causes the sleep problems. It could not be anything like coffee.

I wish I could wave a magic wand and make you experience what I do.

~~~
oh_sigh
Have you ever tried cutting caffeine out of your diet?

~~~
jamesrcole
I’ve had lots of periods (from months to years) in my life with zero caffeine.

Including all of my childhood, and I’ve had the sleep problems all my life.
Think about what that means for what you’re saying.

Yet people like you are so sure it could be the cause or contribute, and that
I could never know without cutting it out of my diet.

Even aside from what I mentioned above, if you experienced what I experience
you would know that it couldn’t possibly influence why I have sleep problems.

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a_c
> To keep reading this story, create a free account.

Seriously medium? I just wanted to read

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petilon
I have seen many doctors, including sleep specialists, regarding insomnia.
They all pointed to one source as the reason for the sleep issues: stress. And
they all wanted to put me on prescription sleeping pills. I said no to that.
Sleeping pills are addictive and you have to take them for the rest of your
life. As a software developer, I am used to finding and fixing the underlying
problem as opposed to the quickfixes these doctors were offering me.

After much research I figured out the underlying problem, and the fix for it.
The underlying problem is magnesium deficiency. As a software developer I am
using my brain more intensely than most people. This is the stress the doctors
are talking about. Stress depletes magnesium. The cells in our body depend on
two essential minerals for normal function: Calcium and magnesium. Cells go
into ON state when calcium goes in, and OFF state when calcium goes out.
Calcium doesn't go out on its own: magnesium has to go in and displace the
calcium. When you are low on magnesium, cells can't go into OFF state. When
that happens your muscles become stiff and you need massages, and your brain
can't turn off and you can't sleep. The solution is magnesium supplements.
This fixed my muscle stiffness issues and my sleep issues. A special compound
of magnesium called magnesium l-threonate is especially helpful for sleep
because it can penetrate what is known as the "blood brain barrier".

Scientific sources for this are hard to come by. I had to piece together all
this from multiple sources. Here are some:

[https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/abcs-of-
nutrition...](https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/abcs-of-
nutrition/magnificent-magnesium/)

[http://www.drsinatra.com/benefits-of-magnesium-
supplements-f...](http://www.drsinatra.com/benefits-of-magnesium-supplements-
for-heart-health/)

[http://paleoforwomen.com/soul-crushing-stress-and-the-
miracl...](http://paleoforwomen.com/soul-crushing-stress-and-the-miracle-of-
magnesium/)

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5637834/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5637834/)

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3703169/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3703169/)

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23853635](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23853635)

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8232845](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8232845)

Your mileage may vary. Magnesium deficiency turned out to be the cause of my
insomnia but may not be the cause of yours.

~~~
rapsey
Same for me. Two things worked wonders. Magnesium supplements and a Vitamin D
lamp.

There is a massive difference between taking D3 and using a lamp. While
relatively expensive they are worth every penny.

~~~
petilon
Interesting. I never across Vitamin D during my research on insomnia. What is
the theory behind this? I'd like to try this--what brand of Vitamin D lamp
worked for you?

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troughway
Ah, lovely medium paywall.

