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Ask HN: I have been experimenting sleep maintenance insomnia. Any recommendations?

6 points| burnedouthacker | 17 years ago

To give some context; I have been experiencing what I think it could be called sleep maintenance insomnia.

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).

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!).

BTW, I have read and heard about melatonin; could anyone recommend me taking it for the sake of getting rid of this problem?

Any recommendations would be extremely appreciated.

12 comments

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[+] dryicerx|17 years ago|reply
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

[+] gojomo|17 years ago|reply
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.

[+] dfranke|17 years ago|reply
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!
[+] dfranke|17 years ago|reply
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.
[+] gojomo|17 years ago|reply
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.)

[+] barry-cotter|17 years ago|reply
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.

[+] tokenadult|17 years ago|reply
How much do you get outdoors during daylight hours?

Do you have seasonal allergies, perchance?

[+] burnedouthacker|17 years ago|reply
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.
[+] amichail|17 years ago|reply
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.