O/T: HEALTH I don’t feel well rested

[random_9492]

I’ve been struggling with sleep for a few weeks now. When I wake up in the morning, I don’t feel as fresh as I should, even after a 7-8 hour sleep. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, maybe it’s my sleep habits getting in the way. Do you guys have any tips related to getting a better sleep and feeling energised when waking up in the morning?

 

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[Parks]

Are you overweight?

 

[random_9492]

Are you overweight?

Nope, pretty lean actually.

 

[WJK]

I’ve been struggling with sleep for a few weeks now. When I wake up in the morning, I don’t feel as fresh as I should, even after a 7-8 hour sleep. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, maybe it’s my sleep habits getting in the way. Do you guys have any tips related to getting a better sleep and feeling energised when waking up in the morning?

Try:
Don't eat for a few hours before bedtime.
Stop watching TV and using your computer before bedtime.
Start a journal and write down everything that's bothering you before you go to sleep. Ask yourself to come up with answers to your problems while you're asleep. You'll be amazed at the answers your mind will produce.
Exercise every day and make yourself physically tired.
Vary what you do day by day. Make your life more interesting.
Read yourself to sleep.
Laugh. Find ways to laugh during your day. Life is not all that serious.

Something in your life isn't working for you. Figure it out. What's keeping you up at night? Only you can determine what is bothering you.

 

[EVMaso]

I’ve been struggling with sleep for a few weeks now. When I wake up in the morning, I don’t feel as fresh as I should, even after a 7-8 hour sleep. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, maybe it’s my sleep habits getting in the way. Do you guys have any tips related to getting a better sleep and feeling energised when waking up in the morning?

Sometimes you just need a good deep knockout sleep. Try some melatonin, 5-10 mg. It's available off the shelf here in Canada, not sure about the states (I know in Europe/Australia you need a prescription for it). Warning: make sure you don't need to drive/work for at least 6 hours after taking some, it sometimes takes a while to fully shake off any grogginess.

If you don't want to go that route, perhaps you are being disturbed at night by things like outside noises, lights, etc. These can momentarily wake you and interrupt your deep sleep phase without you noticing or remembering. So try some earplugs, light blocking curtains, eye masks, etc.

 

[runnaboi]

I’ve been struggling with sleep for a few weeks now. When I wake up in the morning, I don’t feel as fresh as I should, even after a 7-8 hour sleep. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, maybe it’s my sleep habits getting in the way. Do you guys have any tips related to getting a better sleep and feeling energised when waking up in the morning?

If your 7-8 hour sleep is rested - ie you don't toss and turn half the night - and you are feeling tired, I recommend getting it properly checked out by a Dr.

If having a decent rested sleep is the trouble, try having a small high fat snack (Celery with almond butter) about an hour before turning the light out, and 30 minutes before light out take: huperzine, poppy seed extract, magnesium and melatonin. Also, make sure your room is cold.

 

[sparechange]

You might be dehydrated.. check the color of #1 next time in the morning, and if you are having any kind of caffeine, get rid of it.

 

[Simon Angel]

Make sure you are well-hydrated before bed and in the morning. Also, you may have sleep apnea, which can contribute to what you're describing.

Do you snore? Do you have allergies or a stuffy nose?

 

[fridge]

I've struggled with sleep problems off and on in 2020 due to severe stress from life events. For deeper sleep, try the supplement ZMA. For help falling asleep, definitely follow sleep hygeine, everything WJK suggested is very wise. As long as you're sleeping more than 6 hours you should be ok, but anxiety and stress can interfere with sleep quality.

 

[Ronak]

All good suggestions. I would add: no caffeine after 4pm, cotton sheets, good pillow, and comfortable temperature in the bedroom.

I've had good luck with a supplement called Tranquil, a bit steep $, but works well.

Do you exercise?

If all the above don't work, it could be a sleep disorder requiring a doctor's visit and possibly a sleep study.

 

[AceVentures]

Is your circadian rhythm in check?

Are you blasting blue light deep until it's time to sleep? Are you checking your phone throughout the night?

Cut out blue light starting 3h before you wish to go to sleep. Do that for a week. The difference is astonishing, you'll never go back to bathing in blue light like everybody else I know.

99% people I tell this to ignore my advice. Oh it's too hard. Oh I need my phone. Oh this oh that. Almost NOBODY wants to accept it, and there's so much strong scientific evidence to support it.

 

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[Madame Peccato]

Is your circadian rhythm in check?

Are you blasting blue light deep until it's time to sleep? Are you checking your phone throughout the night?

Cut out blue light starting 3h before you wish to go to sleep. Do that for a week. The difference is astonishing, you'll never go back to bathing in blue light like everybody else I know.

99% people I tell this to ignore my advice. Oh it's too hard. Oh I need my phone. Oh this oh that. Almost NOBODY wants to accept it, and there's so much strong scientific evidence to support it.

You can disable blue lights on phone (at least on Android) / pc screens after a certain hour. Android has it natively in the Display settings, while on PC you can try f.lux to alleviate the problem.

Personally I don't use my phone after 8 PM anyway, but I still have it disable blue lights after 8 PM, so I don't blast my eyes with them when I turn it off at 10:30 PM (when I go to bed).

 

[VicFountain]

I had insomnia for years. Meditation helped me cure my insomnia and made me stop my (light) benzo addiction.

If you lift, don't lift so much that you can't recover. That was my main struggle for insomnia. I wasn't recovering from my workouts.

 

[AceVentures]

You can disable blue lights on phone (at least on Android) / pc screens after a certain hour. Android has it natively in the Display settings, while on PC you can try f.lux to alleviate the problem.

Personally I don't use my phone after 8 PM anyway, but I still have it disable blue lights after 8 PM, so I don't blast my eyes with them when I turn it off at 10:30 PM (when I go to bed).

That's an easy first step.

Let's take it a step further: what about the rest of the lights in the house?

Personally, I've replaced a set of lights throughout the place with red lights. In the evening, it's only these lights that are turned on.

A clever solution would be adjustable lights with scheduled settings to dim and redden lights.

I had insomnia for years. Meditation helped me cure my insomnia and made me stop my (light) benzo addiction.

If you lift, don't lift so much that you can't recover. That was my main struggle for insomnia. I wasn't recovering from my workouts.

This.

Working out late in the evening could keep you up too. Working out too much does necessitate adequate recovery and rehabilitation.

Meditation in the evenings is the best thing you could do for yourself. Time for reflection and healing.

Ultimately: listen to your body. Listen to yourself. Another reason you might be restless is because you're uneasy with your relationship with yourself and your relationship with the world. There might be something you're not addressing.

In either case, taking time to unplug from whatever is seemingly urgent and making the conscious effort to FOCUS on yourself and to simply listen seems warranted.

 

[Knugs]

I’ve been struggling with sleep for a few weeks now. When I wake up in the morning, I don’t feel as fresh as I should, even after a 7-8 hour sleep. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, maybe it’s my sleep habits getting in the way. Do you guys have any tips related to getting a better sleep and feeling energised when waking up in the morning?

Some of my patients have sleeping disorders but perhaps answer these questions first
1) What is your sleep hygiene like? (read up on sleep hygiene)
2) Do you have any physical health conditions/medications/drugs (caffeine etc) that could affect your sleep?
3) Are there any mental health issues or do you currently suffer from a significant amount of stress?

Walk us through your evening habbits and morning routine and I might be able to offer you some suggestions.

 

[Paul David]

Is your circadian rhythm in check?

Are you blasting blue light deep until it's time to sleep? Are you checking your phone throughout the night?

Cut out blue light starting 3h before you wish to go to sleep. Do that for a week. The difference is astonishing, you'll never go back to bathing in blue light like everybody else I know.

99% people I tell this to ignore my advice. Oh it's too hard. Oh I need my phone. Oh this oh that. Almost NOBODY wants to accept it, and there's so much strong scientific evidence to support it.

whats classed as blue light? Just phone and computer/laptop?

 

[Luis Weiland]

Meditate before sleeping
Try sleep hypnoses/ meditations to listen to
Eg Jason Stephenson

1 hour no screens before sleep
Exercise
Food: Only soup before going to sleep (easily digestible food)

Sleep cycle app to track sleep

 

[AceVentures]

whats classed as blue light? Just phone and computer/laptop?

The electromagnetic spectrum spans much wider than the narrow band that our eyes see (visible light).

Higher frequency waves carry more energy. Hence why UV radiation is dangerous. In fact, if you notice in the chart, there is a curve showing the sun's radiation - which cutsoff near the UV spectrum thanks to our atmosphere.

Photons with varying energy levels can be observed within a span of visible light. "Blue light" is simply a window within this spectrum of observable light. Within this window of observable light, blue is the highest energy and red is the lowest energy.

My suggestion is to eliminate ALL light in the evenings, with the exception of a few red lights (or candles, as the light omitted from fire is pretty far out in the spectrum).

Think about it: you've biologically evolved for billions of years following the cycle of the stars. And all of a sudden, we're exposing ourselves to daily light radiation without understanding the effects it has on our organism.

 

[Meerten]

I had exactly the same problem.

For me it had to do with my bedtime.

If I would go to bed late (12pm), then even if I slept 8-9 hours I would still wake up tired.

Like was said first rule out if your problem is with the quality of your sleep.
Noise, too warm room temperature, not dark enough, bad matress or pillow, sleep apnea etc.

In my case the problem was rather hormonal.
And I solved it with the following:

- no caffeïne after 2pm
- skip the nightcap
- install F.lux on PC and Twilight on phone

- treat yourself a special candy as early as 8:00pm:
Natural Factors, Stress-Relax, Tranquil Sleep, Chewable Tablets.
If you're sensitive enough to melatonin then these tablets offer THE ultimate formula - with a touch of 5-HTP to set your mood to 'satisfied' before sleep. And the sugary nature of the tablet makes it easier to be loyal.

- I will become pretty tired starting at 9:30pm, sometimes earlier

- do not stimulate yourself at this point in any way. watching a comedy or something stupid is cool, ditto for loungy/chillouty kind of music, but refrain from playing e.g. videogames or watching action series or listening to upbeat music.

- aim to sleep about two hours after chewing, in my case that would be about 10:00pm

- if you're going to fail your bedtime, then beware that there is a point that your artificially induced melatonin boost subsides. so if you push to 11:30pm while you took melatonin as early as e.g. 8:00pm (bedtime 10pm), then you will start becoming active and awake again until like 0:30am, and your circadian rhythm will take a hit. you will wake up feeling tired the next morning.

- the beauty of all this is that you won't even have to set an alarm clock. when your body is done sleeping, it's done sleeping. it will wake up by itself ready to blast. you will naturally wake up fully rested at about 6:30-7:30am. ofcourse if you need to wake up earlier then you have to chew your candy earlier.

I truly believe the vast majority of humans function better if they are active during daytime and sleeping at night. Many a person have reported extreme amounts of energy from their cortisol boost when waking up as early as 5:00am. The only problem with it is that you'd have to hit your bed at like 9:15pm, which is way too early for most, including myself. But when I do it, it is AWEsome.

So go play around a bit with this and find your sweet spot.
See what makes you wake up bursting with energy without having to set an alarm clock.

If your problem is indeed hormonal then this will fix it.
However if a low amount of melatonin doesn't do anything for you, then you may want to consult with your GP to take high-dose. It is not comparable with a typical sleeping pill (benzo); melatonin is way less dangerous to 'play' with.