I'm always kinda tired. I wake up at 4h30, or 5h30, instead of 7am... not sure why. Not sleepy but tired. Never "rested". Always anxious about work (its not that important). Wanting the first cup of coffee.
At what point would I try going to a psychiatrist to get some pills that make me sleep for 9 hours at a time to get "out of this loop"?
Btw I'm not very overweight (230lbs @ 6"2) and do some exercise daily.
Waking up tired everyday could be a sign of something mundane and easily fixable. Try to take a shower before bed too.
I try to do some exercise to get my heart rate up to 70-80% of max, sweat, and feel worn out almost daily. I take magnesium l-threonate twice a day (yes it’s expensive and other forms of magnesium are different). Melatonin to set my sleep time but not at all regularly. Melatonin helps for going to a new time zone or fixing staying up late and resetting on Sunday nights. L-theanine occasionally if too anxious morning or evening. Desperate to fall asleep OTC: 2 Benadryl. Huberman podcast has a whole series on sleep, light, supplements, etc. Guided meditation could help.
It’s easy to get hooked on using melatonin, Benadryl, or prescription sleep aids. I’ve felt a bit of a worn out and slow feeling in the morning if I take something too many times in a row.
0. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diagnostics/12131-slee...
Eye masks have also helped tremendously.
Doctors prescribed pills, but they don't work for me.
1. Meditation more than 40min will help me.
Warm blood flowing in my hands and feet after that. It seems I'm focusing on parts of my body instead of my useless thoughts.
2. If you don't wanna meditate, just like my mom lol. Buy a anti-snoring mouth seal.
We both wake up the second day fresh. You can see that breathing & mental state can actually harm your sleeping quality badly.
I've been doing 2 hourly sessions each day since I came back from a vipassana retreat. One in the morning and one before bed.
I used to do 20-30 min just like you (also advised by some local pratitioners who told me to not overdoing it). But as I experienment further I think it's probably not enough for us in the software industry, where we receive and process large amount of information each day. It will be even worse if some of your friends retire early LOL. Subconciously we're more burdened than those who mildly use their mind each day.
Try sleeping in an off-grid, no-wireless setting (cabin, in a car* in the woods etc.) and if that gets you proper sleep, you can suspect electromagnetic fields.
Also, try magnesium supplements for muscle relaxation, sleep improvement.
*= not a Tesla, obviously, which is WiFi-on-wheels.
So, it can be a lot of all the things together. May be it's stress because of work and life. May be the coffee, which is also reduced a lot, to one or two cups milk latte. Not any later as after 0 pm. Take care what you eat. Like, if I drink a glas of red wine, I scratch my skin off without medicine AND can't sleep although being really tired and .. if, finally.. 2am... Wake again. But not anymore as tired, as in the beginning ;)
Living was turning into a hellish nightmare, one sorry day at a time.
There were a few aspects to this for me, most of which I'd be cancelled for bringing up here -- so won't venture there. What I can say is:
Do the opposite.
Which means, stay awake till you can't physically stay awake anymore. But your wake up time is fixed.
You wake up at 6am now. Don't stress the bed time.
Like another poster said, go all out physical activity-wise. I'm not necessarily talking gym. We move our body a miniscule amount compared to even 100 years ago. This is manifesting itself in many diseases, the mildest of which is sleeplessness.
- do some gardening or spending time with soil and nature
- does it take only 2 type to bring in groceries? Make it take 5.
- always take the stairs.
- can you walk or bicycle to work/grocery?
Your intent should be to fall dead when you hit the sack at night.
What helped me was eating freshly made food only. Either raw or just cooked. No food from the fridge. Eating twice a day - brunch and dinner.
This will actually reduce the amount you sleep, but when you sleep the quality is much higher.
I also stopped eating anything meat-based and dropped all caffeine, but that's up to you.
It's been a complete 180 -- energy, mood, clarity and enthusiasm. I don't feel half dead everyday.
1) Temperature - If my bedding is too hot or too cold I found that I would wake up in the early morning. I now have three duvets a Winter, Autumn/Spring and Summer. If I find myself waking up in the night I shift to one of the others, it helped a lot.
2) Fresh air - I cannot say why but having a window open even if it's just a couple mm makes a huge difference to me.