Cannot Fall Asleep Despite Late Nights - Any Tips?
I have lately been working until 3-5am almost every night, but I have trouble falling asleep, due to my brain not being able to shut off (I think). Even as I type this, it is 2:15am on Saturday morning, and I have been trying to get my much-needed sleep but just tossing and turning for the last 2 hours. I don’t understand why I can’t fall asleep; I’ve barely slept at all recently and am exhausted. It is very frustrating.
I know others experience this work schedule and sleep difficulty as well; does anyone have any solutions to help? Preferably without taking melatonin. Thanks
On the same boat as you but probably not as bad. White noise, prayer, and meditation.
What helped me when I had insomnia was just adopting the attitude of “fuck it.” I was constantly overthinking my sleep, and the consequences of not sleeping, which caused me to not be able to sleep.
I then changed my attitude to: bring it tf on. If my mind doesn’t want to sleep then fuck it let’s ride! I’m a man, I’ll handle it. People went to sleep in the trenches during WWII, I can handle this without a therapist or meditation or whatever other pussified theory is the new fad. I don’t care what anyone else thinks.
This might not be popular, but once I had this mindset shift, I slept like a baby. So I’m just putting this out there to help anyone who has the same problem, because they don’t teach you this in school. Think “fuck it, we’ll do it live!” by Bill O’Reilly.
Totally agree but they slept in the trenches during WWI fyi
There were trenches in WW2 as well but the war was mobile so the trenches weren’t that deep and soldiers often didn’t spend extensive periods of times in the same trench network like they did in WW1. Trenches were used since Roman times and are used still today in Ukraine.
If you don’t have cover, dig until you do.
Honestly A1 advice. In HS I slept probably 4-5 hours on average. Remember thinking fuck it I did this to myself and got along just fine. Fast forward to my first job, I worried about getting to bed which gave me more insomnia. Attitude changed, sleep patterns got better. +1SB
This is the way to go. Another thing is don’t feel like you have to “utilize this time to get as much sleep in as possible” just think of it as a break. Like just lie there and appreciate that you get 3-4 hours of peace at least.
Yeah, sleep is important, but you are fucked regardless of whether you get 3 hours or 1 hour or 5 hours, point is your health is already fucked, might as well have peace of mind instead of thinking about the number of hours and calculating its correlation to how I’ll fare the next day, ironically that makes work the next day even worse.
Know exactly how this feels… no advice from me unfortunately as I still struggle with this. My mind just replays what I was doing in PowerPoint or emails I wrote over and over again in loop, even if it’s 4:30am. Sometimes this job really gets to you…
Have always struggled with this, even before working in finance. Some things that help:
-Not drinking coffee/caffeine during the day. If anything, a cup with the breakfast, but nothing after that
-Working out: started some months ago and it really helps
-Meditation: Never thought that stuff would work, but gave it a try and somehow it does. I downloaded an app with audio lessons to learn to meditate (App: Ten Percent) and just by listening to the lessons and practicing the most basic meditation technique, I usually relax quite a lot. It is not magic but it helps, as the technique consists in focusing on your respiration and thus clearing your mind as much as possible
-Waking up early in the morning: the earliest you wake up, the more tired you will be at night. If I sleep for too long on a given night, I will have trouble falling asleep the next night, so I always try to wake up reasonably early to make sure I will be tired at night
-Ambien: not as cool as the options above, but when nothing else works or when I have taken stimulants that I know won’t allow me to sleep for hours, I just take half a pill. I try to avoid this as much as possible as it builds up tolerance, but honestly it’s my last resort fix. Before starting to work out and meditate, I used to rely on it way more than now.
Good advice, I'll actually add that coffee lasts in your system ~10 hours after you drink it, so you should try to avoid it at least after 4-5pm so that the caffeine doesn't affect you later at night.
Take a hit of weed
Quick hard exercise and hot shower right before bed might help. Exhausted body and focus your mind on the physical exhaustion. If you can exercise and shower in dim or dark lighting, that should also help. Could try a sleep music, there are 10 hr long videos or you can put a shorter one on loop. Something with a repetitive melody works really well for me. If you need to be on the computer later in the day, maybe dim the screen and wear blue light computer glasses. Sorry to hear about it...not being able to sleep is really tough.
Exercise a few hours before bed. Sometimes even if your mind is tired, your body may not be. If your body is tired, you'll likely sleep much more quickly and for longer.
Try blue light glasses. Working long hours on the computer causes your body to absorb an unhealthy amount of blue light, making it harder for the brain to fully shut off especially if you were doing PowerPoints right before going to sleep. Goodluck man.
This is what worked for me. No caffeine after 2pm, blue light glasses after 5pm (if not all day), and no phone in bed (blue light glasses should be used with phone just as they are with PC/laptop/tablet/TV). With no other changes to your life (e.g., you don't need to further eat into the few available hours for sleep with additional gym time or meditation or whatever) you should have an easier time going to sleep.
you don’t want to keep taking melatonin to fall asleep regularly as it will reduce the amount your body produces and then you become dependent on it to sleep. I highly recommend Ashwagandha, magnesium, lemon palm, and gaba (natural factors has mind retreat that has mag + lemon + gaba in it) you can get it here for cheap https://www.canadianvitaminshop.com/product/natural-factors-stress-rela…. Additionally, meditation, reading, and aromatherapy (essential oils for sleep) will knock you out and give you the most restful sleep ever.
Try meditating or doing something similar to clear your mind. Additionally try to limit caffeine intake in the evening
Very similar situation to you - get night time CBD, shit works wonders. You can buy types to take during the day to help with anxiety / mood, too.
Try this breathing exercise:
It works magic for me when I can't fall asleep. You can repeat it if you still have trouble sleeping.
DELETED
When I couldn't sleep, I started going to medical support groups at night. You can find support groups for all kinds of cancers and illnesses.
Of course, it was awkward at first. So I decided to go by "Cornelius" and not give my real name. I would just sit in the back and listen and be shy. But the less I said, the more people assumed the worst and hugged me. It helped me sleep, babies don't sleep as well as I do!
Eventually I started running into other people that were doing the same thing, we showed up at the same meetings. So we decided to split the schedule to avoid running into each other.
I met some interesting people, including this big bodybuilder guy named Bob (at least I think he gave me his real name). I'll see him the next time I'm back from my business trip this week.
I don’t talk about that.
Bet Bob had big jams
is it a quote from some movie?
Oh, you sound like a quick learner! I think you would be a good applicant for a project I’m starting up. Come to my house on Paper Street. Show up with 2 black shirts, 2 black pants, 2 pairs of black socks and black boots, a bedroll and $300 personal burial money.
Z-quil and a little tug.
+1 for all those that said meditation. To those who don't, it sounds like fufu bullshit.. and I feel you on that. That being said, it really helps you learn how to clear your thoughts in a timely fashion allowing you to drift to sleep much more efficiently. 10/10 recommend. Good luck.
NyQuil
Put on a good movie before bedtime and let your mind drift away
Gratz bro, you have sporadic fatal insomnia
Sauna
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