I’m Sleep-Depraved On Accounta I’m Sleep-Deprived!

Well, alcohol and weed will not help the Alzheimer’s either.

Don't worry. You won't remember any of this once you're older.

You need to try prescription sleep pills. Those "natural" remedies just don't work.

Change your habits. Stop reading, watching TV, listening to loud music, etc. one to half an hour before you go to bed. Take a nice warm shower before going to bed. Meditate (empty your mind) before going to bed. Focus on your breathing while trying to sleep (which is similar to counting sheep jumping over a fence).

Sometimes non-drug or alcohol options work.

Most people fall asleep in front of the TV, R4.

Since a slightly traumatising weekend trip a few months ago where I was kept up all night for days in a row, I now find I can't fall asleep til 3 AM or later. It's not so bad rn because my work schedule allows me to sleep in late, but if that changes I'm going to be fucked.

How do I force myself back into going to bed and actually falling asleep before or around midnight?

Try going to bed early enough so you still get six hours even after waking up at three.

OP, I take Sublinox. It is doctor prescribed. I can’t sleep otherwise. You may want to ask your doctor about it.

OP, I've had insomnia as long as I can remember and it's awful. I've taken many different pills for it but I find melatonin works best. I prefer it to prescription because it doesn't leave me feeling groggy the next day.

Two acetamininophen 500 mg, sweet dreams.

The ones that contain diphenhydramine (fancy name for antihistamine).

I have a memory foam mattress and sleep hot - I bought a device called an "Chilisleep Ooli" which is like a reverse electric blanket, and has been a lifesaver.

Melatonin has also helped me. And ashwarganda - I haven't tried it for long enough to form an opinion, but colleagues swear it.

If you can't avoid screens for a few hours before bedtime, put them on night light (removes blue light).

Stick your feet out of the covers to keep them cool.

You need to turn off your conscious brain. When you're in bed, concentrate on your breathing. Feel your extremities - fingers, toes, lips. Exhale completely and hold for as long as you can. This stimulates the vagus nerve, bringing you to the hypnogogic state, which is necessary to fall asleep.

R6 here. My schedule is actually getting worse despite trying to implement a few of the changes above (cooling the bedroom down, antihistamine, box-breathing). Like my body clock now seems firmly set at 3AM sleep time to noon the next day (I WFH). It's horrible. I haven't seen a respectable time of the morning for months. But I can't seem to force myself to bed at midnight or before, or stop my brain activity late at night.

Part of the reason why I know--it's that I want deep quiet and peace in my house, which is communal, and that only happens in the wee hours. There's nowhere else I can go to get this space, not having a car or an office or much money. But the knock-on effect of staying up late to get my private time is poor.

Drink lotsa water during the day, avoid sunlight as much as possible, take hydroxyzine before going to bed, and read some medical journals on National Center for Biotechnology Information, they will put you to sleep right away.

I occasionally have issues like yours OP. After a couple of nights like that, in the evening I'll take half of a cannabis gummy (5 mg) a couple of hours before bedtime and a 10 mg melatonin gummy about 15 minutes before bedtime. I sleep deeply that night and it puts me back on a whole night sleep schedule.

Tylenol PM or a generic brand contains anithistamines which will help. Or you can go full throttle with Benadryl.

Nyquil Chicken!

Seriously OP, I hope you find something that works for you. Give this a shot - won't hurt to try.

My natural sleeping pattern is to fall asleep around 2-4 am and wake up from 10 am to noon. When I don’t have to leave the house for any appointments or scheduled event and force my body into the rest of the world’s schedule, it always ends up there

My life is so much better now without an alarm clock. It’s too bad everyone has to conform to the 8-5 world when there are plenty of us who just aren’t wired that way and think we have sleeping problems when we really are just miserable because we must conform to bank hours.

OP maybe this is your natural biorhythm and you are tired from trying to fight it? Just a thought

Walk two miles a day.

I have the same problem, OP. I listen to something on my Ipad until I fall asleep again. There's one youtuber who has a very monotone voice that usually puts me back to sleep in less than 30 minutes or I listen to an audiobook that I've read before so I already know the story.

THC edible, 10 mg melatonin (the chewables seem to work better for me) right at bedtime. Noise machine set to jumbo jet and I am now getting 6-7 hours per night after years of 4-5 hours.

I still have bad nights every now and then but I can handle it better now. Every few months I sleep 8 hours a night and wake up feeling fucking unbelievable. Is that how regular sleepers feel every day? Not fair.

It took trial and error to get to where I am, don't give up you need to find the right combination for you.

You need a strong indica gummy or two and you'll be having sweet dreams tonight.

A sound machine is very helpful as well. We've become addicted to ours The light rain setting puts us to sleep right now.

I suffer from the same problem and my doc has prescribed me numerous meds over the years from Trazadone to Ambien and nothing seems to work.

Only thing that seems to help me get to sleep these days is a combination of my white noise machine, a fan, and my wireless earbuds. I line up some Youtube videos or podcasts and listen to them to get to sleep.

Magnesium supplements also seem to help as well, though it's not entirely understood why they work yet.

I almost always fall asleep easily - but if I'm awakened or startled in the middle of the night, I will be awake for the rest of the night (and I'm a pretty light sleeper, so any unfamiliar noise can do that). So I keep a bottle of ambien by the bedside and nibble a tiny bit (never more than 1/4, sometimes 1/8) of a pill and go back to sleep. It's psychological, I know, because the dose is really too small to induce sleep, but I think the idea that I took a sleep aid helps me to fall back into a relatively normal sleep. If I have something very important to wake up to, like an 8 am meeting or a plane to catch, I find I can't fall asleep at all unless I take an ambien AND set two or three independent alarms.

A weighted blanket/duvet has also been linked to better sleep. I notice when we travel if hotels don't provide a duvet or comforter I don't sleep well.

I've actually packed our duvet on a few trips knowing that it makes a considerable difference.

Try a weighted blanket, earplugs and an eye mask, these help me sleep through the night

Why earplugs if you can have a soothing white noise machine. Studies have shown they're effective.. Perhaps you're exposed to city sounds and noisy neighbors. That would make a difference.

R28 earplugs because I have a partner and a pug that snore.

[quote] I listen to something on my Ipad until I fall asleep again. There's one youtuber who has a very monotone voice that usually puts me back to sleep in less than 30 minutes.

All through the height of the pandemic I was having panic attacks nightly and pacing my house in the small hours. It’s been two years and I still haven’t caught up the lost sleep or repaired my adrenals from that stress.

Eventually I found that listening to YouTube or radio commentary/punditry/analysis of football (soccer) matches helped me at least calm down and switch off enough to sleep half a night. Probably because I have a working basic knowledge and mild interest in the football (enough to put it on and follow along for a bit), but not strong enough of an interest to care about taking it all it word for word and paying full attention for hours.

The key is finding that sweet spot of content that for you falls between Deathly Boring and Rather Intriguing on the Venn.

I agree with the sound machine suggestions. Also, when you do get up, try to look at as bright a light as you can stand coming through your windows. Open up all of your blinds/curtains and get as much light into your place as possible in the morning. Even better if you could go outside for a short while in the morning, depending where you live.

If you haven't had a checkup, I'd do that and discuss your sleep problems with your doctor. You definitely want to rule out something like sleep apnea, which will DEFINITELY fuck you up permanently.

Love this thread, as I identify as both constantly Sleepy and also Depraved.

Don't drive or operate heavy machinery if you're super tired!

Can anyone recommend effective and accurate but affordable trackers? Wearable or otherwise is fine.

Lately I’ve been crushed to realise that for years I’ve essentially been punishing myself and worsening my depression as well as my weight and mood struggles with subconscious sleep procrastination/deprivation. Despite staying in bed physically for ages, I’m actually only sleeping for about half the time (say four or five hours) that I’m actually spending in there, and it’s fitful exhausted irregular sleep.

But I find sticking to regular hours difficult because though I have the time and freedom to go to bed early, apparently my brain hates me that much and won’t let me crash til past 2AM, plus the people I have to share a house with (moving not an imminent viable option, don’t ask) cause me stress with their habits that even ear calmers and blindfolds and sensory-gating doesn’t help.

So I figure if I could track what’s going on, maybe I’d be more motivated and committed to setting it right, or at least my logical brain could take over sorting it out rather than me getting stuck in this constant cycle of shame and self-abuse for not sleeping like a normal person. It’s been years of anxiety and sleep debt so I have no idea if it’s too little too late at this point, but I have to try.

Melatonin or Tylenol PM works for me.

The problem with the Tylenol PM, when waking up, some people report they feel as if they took a really strong prescription sleep medication. They feel tired and sluggish. Maybe start with just one Tylenol PM.

Heroin OP. It works.

Watch stuff like the video linked below. I never thought I'd fall asleep to stuff like that, but with me it does work. There are shitloads of videos of that kind on youtube.