Lecarpetron
Member
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2016
- Messages
- 192
I've posted several times about my decade long issues with severe sleep onset insomnia. I had, for many years, a flip-flopped diurnal temperature signal...I felt exhausted and freezing all day, then popped wide awake and up to 98+ around 8pm. After very careful note taking over the last year and a half, I've made some progress in both decreasing nighttime temps to allow myself to get sleepy, and increasing daytime temps for improved energy. In no particular order, here are the factors:
1. Cypro - I took 1-4 mg per day for about 6 months. Nothing kills stress hormones like cypro, especially when salty/sugary snacks just don't get it done and you need to look beyond diet for help. I knew it was time to stop taking it, btw, when my temps/energy levels dropped so low 24/7 that I could barely function.
2. Active heat transfer - @JohnA recently opined in the Steve Richfield thread that body temp isn't simply a lagging indicator of metabolic function, but is also something you can directly manipulate to improve metabolism, and I 100% agree. If my temp is below 98 at 10am, and I'm not hungry, I'll take a hot shower, sunbathe/sit under my red light, and/or have an espresso. I work full time but work from home, so I can flex my schedule and take 30 min here or there to right the ship.
3. Eat sufficient quantity of satiating food. Attempting to follow any restrictive diet plan leads to instant sleep failure for me. To those saintly posters who haven't consumed more phosphorus than calcium in any given day since the Bush administration, I tip my hat to you. But if I don't sleep, nothing else matters - and I will not sleep if I don't eat three hot, delicious-to-me meals. As long as I have the energy to cook, it's not hard to reasonably Peatify what I, as someone raised in the US, recognize as normal meal options. I favor high quality fruit and dairy and cook with coconut oil...but the dietary minutiae has to end there for me, at least at this time.
*Corollary 3b: Eating when not hungry leads to sluggish digestion, which increases stress and kills sleepiness. For a while I forced myself to have a little something once every 3 hours during the day, but I completely stopped having normal hunger cues.
4. Exercise - after quitting running three years ago, I lost the ability to exercise even moderately without plummeting my temps to 96's and derailing sleep. I slowwwwwly increased movement, and while my temp still drops in the moment, it now rises to above 98 afterwards. I'm now surprised at how much exercise I need to create the hunger to drive the digestion to process sufficient calories to allow my body to go the f&^% to sleep. I used to privately mock my "basic" friends for attending studio exercise classes...but I tried Barre on a whim recently and must admit that it improved my sleep situation instantly. I now spend at least an hour a day walking my dog, plus yoga class/weight sesh/or sprinting with dog. Just the walking won't cut it.
*Corollary 4b: Exercise all day is a recipe for stress reaction and zero sleep that night. 10 mile hike with 3000 ft vertical is too much. Snowboarding for 8 hours is too much for me, sadly.
5. Avoid psychological stress - I prioritize the avoidance of social tension. I jumped at the opportunity to move from High Stress Major Metro Area to a small mountain town. I've cut back on travel, facebook/MSM, certain family gatherings, and even lifelong friendships with "political activist" types.
6. Structural changes - this one is probably most specific to my individual situation, but I have taken measures to improve my posture, jaw function, and joint mobility/stability. I've been pleasantly surprised at the general sense of well-being such improvements provide. These mechanical issues come up on the forum from time to time, for good reason I think since so many of us have desk jobs.
Other things that I think have been helpful but not necessarily primary drivers of regaining sleep:
1. K2 - I wrote a thread about how megadosing K2 gave me "muscle crunchies," which could have been calcium being redirected to places it should actually go?
2. Gut Sense supplements - most of the time, I have zero reaction to supplements. For whatever reason, the only ones that really aid digestion are the program from gutsense.org, by the Fiber Menace guy.
3. Progest-E. I'm a lady. During the few days of my cycle with highest progesterone, I'm invincible, and eating just about anything will set me up at 98.8+ for hours. So cruelly fleeting, though.
4. Thyroid - this one is hit or miss for me, sometimes it raises temps and sometimes I feel nothing.
Sleep begets sleep. The metabolic problem of insomnia might feature the strongest positive reinforcement of any of the major problems discussed on this forum, even moreso than dealing with excess body fat. It's hard to correct because extremism in food or movement doesn't help - both require a sweet spot that can be difficult to intuit. This middle ground fluctuates constantly based on current metabolic status. And once you realize that you aren't naturally going to get sleepy (between 11-midnight for me), corrective measures take 3-5 hours to kick in.
So, to my fellow insomniacs, may I suggest: keep a journal. Don't record your starch vs. sugar intake, or fret over your tryptophan-to-niacin conversion efficiency. Don't polish the silver while your house is on fire. Just write down these three things daily: 1) what did you do - anything special in terms of exercise, food, temperature manipulation, socializing, etc.? 2) did you feel sleepy at nightfall? and 3) what was your temp/pulse at 10am? You might see some patterns emerge.
I welcome feedback or suggestions on all of this, as always.
1. Cypro - I took 1-4 mg per day for about 6 months. Nothing kills stress hormones like cypro, especially when salty/sugary snacks just don't get it done and you need to look beyond diet for help. I knew it was time to stop taking it, btw, when my temps/energy levels dropped so low 24/7 that I could barely function.
2. Active heat transfer - @JohnA recently opined in the Steve Richfield thread that body temp isn't simply a lagging indicator of metabolic function, but is also something you can directly manipulate to improve metabolism, and I 100% agree. If my temp is below 98 at 10am, and I'm not hungry, I'll take a hot shower, sunbathe/sit under my red light, and/or have an espresso. I work full time but work from home, so I can flex my schedule and take 30 min here or there to right the ship.
3. Eat sufficient quantity of satiating food. Attempting to follow any restrictive diet plan leads to instant sleep failure for me. To those saintly posters who haven't consumed more phosphorus than calcium in any given day since the Bush administration, I tip my hat to you. But if I don't sleep, nothing else matters - and I will not sleep if I don't eat three hot, delicious-to-me meals. As long as I have the energy to cook, it's not hard to reasonably Peatify what I, as someone raised in the US, recognize as normal meal options. I favor high quality fruit and dairy and cook with coconut oil...but the dietary minutiae has to end there for me, at least at this time.
*Corollary 3b: Eating when not hungry leads to sluggish digestion, which increases stress and kills sleepiness. For a while I forced myself to have a little something once every 3 hours during the day, but I completely stopped having normal hunger cues.
4. Exercise - after quitting running three years ago, I lost the ability to exercise even moderately without plummeting my temps to 96's and derailing sleep. I slowwwwwly increased movement, and while my temp still drops in the moment, it now rises to above 98 afterwards. I'm now surprised at how much exercise I need to create the hunger to drive the digestion to process sufficient calories to allow my body to go the f&^% to sleep. I used to privately mock my "basic" friends for attending studio exercise classes...but I tried Barre on a whim recently and must admit that it improved my sleep situation instantly. I now spend at least an hour a day walking my dog, plus yoga class/weight sesh/or sprinting with dog. Just the walking won't cut it.
*Corollary 4b: Exercise all day is a recipe for stress reaction and zero sleep that night. 10 mile hike with 3000 ft vertical is too much. Snowboarding for 8 hours is too much for me, sadly.
5. Avoid psychological stress - I prioritize the avoidance of social tension. I jumped at the opportunity to move from High Stress Major Metro Area to a small mountain town. I've cut back on travel, facebook/MSM, certain family gatherings, and even lifelong friendships with "political activist" types.
6. Structural changes - this one is probably most specific to my individual situation, but I have taken measures to improve my posture, jaw function, and joint mobility/stability. I've been pleasantly surprised at the general sense of well-being such improvements provide. These mechanical issues come up on the forum from time to time, for good reason I think since so many of us have desk jobs.
Other things that I think have been helpful but not necessarily primary drivers of regaining sleep:
1. K2 - I wrote a thread about how megadosing K2 gave me "muscle crunchies," which could have been calcium being redirected to places it should actually go?
2. Gut Sense supplements - most of the time, I have zero reaction to supplements. For whatever reason, the only ones that really aid digestion are the program from gutsense.org, by the Fiber Menace guy.
3. Progest-E. I'm a lady. During the few days of my cycle with highest progesterone, I'm invincible, and eating just about anything will set me up at 98.8+ for hours. So cruelly fleeting, though.
4. Thyroid - this one is hit or miss for me, sometimes it raises temps and sometimes I feel nothing.
Sleep begets sleep. The metabolic problem of insomnia might feature the strongest positive reinforcement of any of the major problems discussed on this forum, even moreso than dealing with excess body fat. It's hard to correct because extremism in food or movement doesn't help - both require a sweet spot that can be difficult to intuit. This middle ground fluctuates constantly based on current metabolic status. And once you realize that you aren't naturally going to get sleepy (between 11-midnight for me), corrective measures take 3-5 hours to kick in.
So, to my fellow insomniacs, may I suggest: keep a journal. Don't record your starch vs. sugar intake, or fret over your tryptophan-to-niacin conversion efficiency. Don't polish the silver while your house is on fire. Just write down these three things daily: 1) what did you do - anything special in terms of exercise, food, temperature manipulation, socializing, etc.? 2) did you feel sleepy at nightfall? and 3) what was your temp/pulse at 10am? You might see some patterns emerge.
I welcome feedback or suggestions on all of this, as always.
