Why does it have to always hit me so randomly? Some nights I beg my brain to stay awake past 9 and then there’s nights like this where I’m wide awake for no reason
My rules to have a higher chance of falling asleep at 11-12
- always wake up early, even after I went to bed late, otherwise I won’t be able to fall asleep on time
- no active brain work (studying, working) after 8pm
- no food after 7-8pm
- no ceiling lights after 8-9 pm, only yellow dim lamps
- no staying in bed if I couldn’t fall asleep. get up, go to another room, try again in 15-20 minutes
To add:
- No visible clocks. If possible don’t check the time at all while trying to sleep. Doing math at night (aka “oh no only 4 hours left”) only makes you angry or sad.
- No alcohol. If unavoidable, try to be sober by the time you want to fall asleep. (Dring sooner, if at all.)
- No coffee after midday. Some bodies suck at metabolising it.
- Bedroom should be as dark and silent and comfy as possible. If there’s any way you can add comfort, do it.
- For persisting sleep problems: Change position or location. (E.g. turn completely around in your bed, feet at the headrest, or sleep on the couch if comfortable.) Brains are very good at linking a location with a state of mind, and changing things around can help if the thought of your bed stresses you out already.
For severe problems it’s probably always wise to check with a physician, or if there’s specific stuff in your head that keeps you awake to consider telling a friend or therapist about it. To distance yourself from your thoughts is something everybody can learn and it can be tremendously helpful with stuff like that.
yes, all of that are very important as well. Sometimes I think about how exhausting it is to follow all these, and try my best to forget about the fear of not falling asleep when going to bed. I’ve noticed that overcoming that psychological “surrender” had a big impact on nights where I experience some problems - it’s important to keep calm and not spiral. But damn, it’s hard living like this.
one more thing: I have to limit the amount of stress inducing activities throughout a day/days so my brain is not in alert mode for too long. I have social anxiety so this mostly means spending enough time at home, not going to more than 2 different places during one day, etc.
You ever get it in weird way that you are just lying in bed, tired but awake, waiting for your body to go sleep, and you start dreaming before actually falling asleep? This happens to me from time to time
I struggled with this for decades and ended up noticing a pattern with the food I ate for dinners that were high in glutamates. Glutamate is an excitatory neurotransmitter and thus if you are sensitive it will put your brain into overdrive and sleep is just not possible as basically you are drugged. Only effects a small portion of the population but I can tell you, I sleep very well now that I avoid high glutamate foods past 5pm as they tend to not make my mind race until several hours after consumption and once the effect kicks in, it does not wain off until 3-5am which kills my sleep. Avoiding glutamate has been the single biggest quality of life improvement along with focusing on my gut biome which when out of balance can make it harder to fall asleep as believe it or not, out guts make a lot of the neurotransmitters we need to function including melatonin which is the sleep neurotransmitters.
I wish you luck no matter the root cause. Feel free to ask me more about this.
Even though you’re right in that glutamate is a neurotransmitter, eating it doesn’t affect our brain chemistry at all. It can’t pass the blood-brain-barrier. Which is relieving since basically every food group contains it and flooding our brain with that would lead to violent epileptic seizures and certain death. Not insomnia.
And melatonin isn’t a neurotransmitter but a hormone.
So maybe you do in fact sleep better when avoiding specific food groups in the evening, but your explanation certainly isn’t correct.
Just putting this out there since glutamate is such a highly misunderstood molecule surrounded by many misconceptions, this one being a very common one.
I think the issue is that there are conflicting studies. Some like this one that has found some people to be glutamate sensitive.
https://myacare.com/blog/part-1-glutamate-sensitivity-real-myths-about-glutamate-msg-and-more
You can also find studies that say there is zero effect. Don’t doubt their results as they never tested me because if they did, they would have a different result. Plenty of other studies have also found some to be sensitive to glutamate so downplaying here might lead someone to dismiss my suggestion which is a real shame as there is Zero harm to cut out high glutamate foods for a period and see how sleep goes.
For me, I absolutely assure you that high glutamate foods really make me hyper. Like zero doubt here as I have experimented a lot with this right down to a teaspoon of MSG with non glutamate dinner that I know has no effect on my sleep to end up absolutely wired for 12hrs as if I slammed 5 cans of red bull and more. It is really awful and while you clearly do not have this issue, I kindly request you do more research before sharing as it is not as black and white as you just presented.
No what I’m saying is maybe you are sensitive (for whatever reason - from a exceptional metabolism to placebo, over other sensitivities/allergies, complex psychological effects, etc everything is possible) but it’s certainly not because glutamate is a neurotransmitter.
Neurotransmitters and the stuff in our bloodstreams (nutrients, hormones and so on) are two very different systems. Think of it as a river and a power grid. We all have this massive stream of different molecules in our bodies, and we have an elaborate information system made from electric and chemical signaling, like cables and batteries, working right beside it. The batteries might happen to utilize the same molecules that swim around in the river, but they still have nothing to do with each other. The river doesn’t touch the batteries, and your body very carefully decides which part it takes out of the water and into the batteries. Highly simplified of course, but that’s kinda how you can imagine why one doesn’t hurt the other.
I should also add that many food additives also can ruin my sleep, although not nearly as much as high glutamate. Red dye no 40 is particularly bad but so are many other additives with names few can pronounce.
If you have vitamin deficiencies, fortified food can also cause you to run at 120%. In some countries (e.g. US) Noodles and flour are fortified with B-vitamins. Maybe that’s what you’re experiencing? It happened to me a few times.
Maybe diary a bit, logging different aspects consistently for a couple weeks, and keeping a sleep log in the morning to see how well you did, if you continue to insomnia without correlation to anyone you’re tracking in your diary, change what you log.
I suggest food, social contacts, feelings during commute, future scheduling, hobby tracking.
You might not come up with the exact stressor at first, but if you find a pattern in something you’re tracking you may be able to determine what’s causing the pattern and be able to take corrective action.
If nothing else journaling can be fun!
I take melatonin daily, it works for me.
