Accumulated Sleep Tips

I’ve been sleeping better–much better–and it feels like a good time to do a complete roundup of all the methods that appear to have helped me, and also mention a few sacred cows of sleep tips that didn’t seem to help at all. For those of you new to this blog, my sleep went to hell in mid-January after the deaths of two family members within a single week. It’s been a slow climb back to a more-or-less normal sleep pattern ever since. Here’s what worked:

Mineral Supplementation

• Before bed I started taking one tablet magnesium taurate (containing 100mg magnesium) and half a tablet of calcium citrate (containing 175mg calcium). Several times a week I also added 6mg boron.
• I increased my dietary zinc, copper, and selenium by eating oysters at least twice a week.

Vitamin D/Sun

• I increased my sun exposure, trying to get at least twenty minutes of sunlight on bare skin per day.
• My vitamin D levels tested within normal range, but slightly on the low side, so I moderately increased my supplementation (to 4000IU every other morning).

Other Supplements

• I found low-dose melatonin (under 1mg) to be helpful in terms of getting to sleep (though not as necessary since I started wearing amber glasses in the evening–see below). Doses over 1mg, for me, result in vivid dreams and less restful sleep.
• I added 25mg niacinamide to my before-bed supplements. Some people use much higher doses for sleep. 25mg is the amount I take anyway (for various reasons) but I’ve switched the timing to right before bed.
• L-ornithine 400mg is also part of my sleep stack, mostly because of this study.

Herbal Sleep Aids

• Various herbals including passionflower, valerian, hops, chamomile, and ashwagandha may reduce sleep latency and improve sleep quality under various conditions. I’ve had mixed results, and I’m also wary of becoming dependent on strong herbal remedies (which I consider to be more like drugs, at least compared to low doses of vitamins, minerals, and amino acids). But a number of times I’ve been able to get back to sleep after waking up in the middle of night (and feeling wide awake) after using various combinations of the above. It’s hard to know what is placebo effect, but at the very least most of them have a calming influence on the nervous system.

General Diet

• I added gelatin to my diet (about a tablespoon of this stuff in my morning coffee). Gelatin contains glycine and other amino acids that may assist relaxation and improve sleep quality.
• I started using a lot of fresh lemon juice as a seasoning. Vitamin C may limit cortisol levels and generally increase stress resilience.
• Though I generally eat a low-carb diet, I made sure to include some starch (beans, starchy vegetables, or brown rice) with dinner. Adequate carbohydrates are required for tryptophan intake in the brain, which is required for serotonin and melatonin production.
• I started drinking tart cherry juice before bed. Tart cherry juice contains melatonin and improves sleep.

Drugs

• I didn’t consider my sleep issues to be severe enough to warrant prescription medication, and I was wary of developing a physical dependency on any substance. However I did experiment with OTC Unisom Sleep tabs, half a tablet (12mg doxylamine succinate), and it did help me sleep when I used it. However sometimes I felt moody or “off” the next day. I never used this more than once a week.
• I also experimented with both CBD oil and small amounts of marijuana edibles. Both helped me relax and contributed to better sleep and reduced sleep anxiety. For me, THC can go from “nice buzz” to complete dysphoria very quickly, so I’ll be sticking with CBD oil going forward, on an as needed basis (not every day).

Light in the Evenings

Bright light and blue-wavelength light block melatonin production, so I took a few steps to modulate my exposure.

• I already had f.lux installed on my laptop, but I added similar software to my phone.
• I bought some blue-blocking (amber colored) glasses and started wearing them in the evening, after 9pm or so.
• I kept the lights down/dimmed in the evenings.

Cognitive/Psychological/Behavioral

• I reframed my “insomnia” as a temporary reduced need for sleep. That’s what it felt like. I’ve experienced sleep deprivation–times during my life when I didn’t dedicate enough time to sleep–and this was completely different. It was as if my nervous system was telling me “Shit is going down, now is not the time for sleep.” I had many days operating on a just a couple hours of sleep where I basically felt normal. I didn’t feel good necessarily, but I could function.
• I decided not to worry about the health effects of sleeping less. Reduced sleep is associated with all kinds of health risks, but so is poor eating and not exercising. I decided to focus on the aspects of my health that I could fully control (diet, exercise, meditation, etc.) and not worry about my sleep beyond taking certain common sense actions (reasonable supplementation, good sleep hygiene, and cognitive behavioral therapy).
• I read up on cognitive behavior therapy for insomnia, and implemented a number of those practices. Limiting my time in bed to about seven hours (11-6) was helpful for a period of time, though I’ve since relaxed that to eight hours. Currently I stay up until I’m sleepy, and get up no later than 7am (usually closer to 6). Trying to catch up on sleep by going to bed early (around 9pm) only resulted in more time in bed and a biphasic sleep cycle (two chunks of sleep with hours of being awake in the middle of the night). There’s nothing wrong with biphasic sleep (and I’ve tried it before, on purpose) but I found that a more compressed sleep cycle reduced my sleep anxiety.
• While I do choose to share my health issues and troubleshooting/solutions publicly, I’ve always made it a point to not identify with any particular health condition, and I’ll continue that practice. Even if I go through another bad patch of sleep, I won’t be labeling myself an insomniac. 100% of human beings have health issues, and 100% of human beings eventually die of something–most often from complications of some kind of chronic health issue. But there are plenty of positive ways we can identify ourselves (by our profession, by our family roles, by our aspirations), and ultimately I believe that’s more healthful (psychologically, and ultimately physically) than identifying with any personal pathology (even for people with severe and/or chronic conditions).
• I found that fear of sleep/sleep anxiety to be a real challenge, especially after my first few nights of almost no sleep. These feelings reduced over time by practicing acceptance, self-forgiveness (for some reason I felt guilty for not sleeping, as if I was doing something wrong), and various progressive muscle relaxation exercises. As much as possible, I tried to let go of trying to go sleep. This is easier said than done.
• Unless I was wide awake and feeling restless, I tried to stay in bed and relax when I woke up in the middle of the night. This is somewhat contrary to what is recommended in CBT-I … I believe the general guideline is to get up and do something relaxing if you find yourself awake for more than twenty minutes. But often lying in bed, focussing on physical relaxation, calming images, and pleasant thoughts leads to drifting off without even realizing it. Many times I found myself in bed thinking “Oh well, I didn’t sleep for the last two hours” and then remembering a dream I had just had. But that didn’t happen when I got up every time I found myself awake.

Other Things That Helped

• Wearing earplugs to block out distracting noise (but not wearing them all the time–sometimes background noise is calming).
• A cool room.
• A comfortable bed.
• Enough blankets and clothing to feel warm (and/or a hot shower or bath before bed, the latter with Epsom salts). Wool socks/warm feet in particular helped me fall asleep faster.
• Keeping the bedroom window slightly open to circulate more fresh air.
• Very short naps or lie-downs (less than 20 minutes) were mentally refreshing on days following nights of poor sleep, and didn’t seem to reduce my sleep quality the following night.

What Didn’t Help Or Made Things Worse

• Both supplemental tryptophan and 5HTP gave me strange dreams, restless sleep, and asthma symptoms.
• Turning off the wifi router ultimately didn’t seem to make any difference (though I no longer sleep with my phone next to the bed).
• Exercising hard, even up to an hour before bed, improves my sleep (the general recommendation is to avoid strenuous exercise with three or four hours of bedtime).
• Reading listicle articles of sleep tips written by people who has obviously never experienced a sleepless night didn’t help. But reading pubmed studies about sleep did help.
• Completely cutting out caffeine didn’t help, and adding back in moderate amounts of coffee, tea, and/or dark chocolate before 2pm (which was my previous rule before experiencing major sleep issues) may have even improved my sleep.

Going forward I still feel a small amount of sleep anxiety, and I’m still taking supplements to help my sleep, but I like the direction I’m trending. Hopefully, if you’re having trouble with sleep yourself, you’ll find something helpful in this post.