Let's Talk Sleep

[Dave Joksimovic]

So this is one area I've always struggled with is sleep. I was diagnosed with sleep apnea years ago and it seems to have been alleviated with my weight loss, even though I still by no means get "good" sleep. Plenty of external reasons, I have two young boys and a 60 lb pit mix who has a no respect for personal space. Lately it has been pretty bad though. For a while I was consistently waking up (like WIDE awake) at 10:30 and 1:00 (those times, almost on the dot) and I thought maybe I had accidentally trained myself to wake up with my eating schedule. I was eating every 2.5-3 hours, and we typically are in bed by 8 so the timing was uncanny.

Lately I started taking melatonin about an hour before bed, and it seems to have helped a bit but I still wake up at least once during the night. My problem is compounded by having to be up by 3:30am (and that's sleeping in) for work Mon-Thur. I try to get more sleep Fri-Sun but even then I'm usually up by between 4:00 or 5:00.

I understand sleep is crucial to recovery, and I'm wondering if anyone has been through this kind of crappy sleep pattern and if they managed to break it. The wife even thinks I may have some level of insomnia... anybody want to weigh in here?

[super herc]

Dude I am having the EXACT same sleep issues,not sure of your age but i am 57 and i leave for work at 3:30 a.m. and i try and get to bed by 7:30 p.m. i work a 10.5 hr. shift on my feet the whole time servicing C130 engines, i only work a 4 day week Mon-thur. and train on Sun.,Wed,Fri thus i only hit the gym on one work being wed. i head to the gym straight from work and i am toast after that. i can set my watch to the exact time i get up through the night ,once at 10 and again at 1:30 to relieve myself. I have tried melatonin but it wasn't enough so i have a script for Zopiclone which i only take on Sunday night to help get me into the early bed routine. i see my Doc. tomorrow for my annual physical and am going to ask to get referred to a sleep clinic as i also snore like a freight train and was kicked out of our masterbed room and now sleep in a spare room,which i don't particularly like being seperated from my wife. She did record me a few times and i don't blame her. the one other point to make is i ahve never woken to the alarm in 5 yrs on this shift, i always wake abouut 20min. before it goes off, my total night sleep is on avg.6-6.5 hrs which is not enough when you are weight training

[MBasic]

how old are you?

I think its been said shitty sleep is a symptom of low Test levels.
Could that be tail wagging the dog though? or the other way around?
I think most older folks agree, their sleep sucks as they get older.

Re: Melatonin, what I've read, is that taking it MIGHT help you GET TO SLEEP faster, but not necessarily help with better sleep all thru the night.
I tried Melatonin, and the results were bleh. I don't think it helps me very much at all. (My T levels are pretty low for my age...45)


A good night for me is waking up only twice: once to pee; and then 2 hours later for no reason . . .
. . . before its time to get up (3:45am), I wake up about every 15 min three times (from 3-3:45).

A bad night is: waking up about every hour or so.

[Dave Joksimovic]

I'm 30 but super herc and I seem to be living parallel lives lol. My job/hours are similar. 10.5 hrs on my feet a lot as I'm a manufacturing tech, the only one to support my whole cell so I get run ragged most days. If I take the melatonin around 7:00 I'm usually drowsy by 8:00 and its a crap shoot as to whether I stay asleep. I've also been making sure to cut back on my water in the last hour or so before bed but I have noticed I still get up once or twice to take a leak.

This morning I was up at 2:45 instead of my planned 3:30 (OT day) thanks to my idiot dog kicking me in the back of the head.

[kanahan]

Don't want to sound like a dick but have you ever heard or read: "I always had terrible sleep until I did or took this and now I sleep like a baby"

I haven't. Please refer to me if you had. But I'm afraid sleep is something that hasn't really been understood by science yet.

[Dave Joksimovic]

Don't want to sound like a dick but have you ever heard or read: "I always had terrible sleep until I did or took this and now I sleep like a baby"

I haven't. Please refer to me if you had. But I'm afraid sleep is something that hasn't really been understood by science yet.

Don't want to sound like a dick but I throw stuff like this out there in case someone has gone through something similar and had any insight. Maybe somebody has an incredibly similar problem and got diagnosed with insomnia? Maybe someone else's experience could point me in a direction to getting better sleep?

[John Weaver]

Do you drink?

When I used to drink a lot, I'd wake up in the middle of the night anxiety ridden and wide awake for a couple hours. When not drinking, I only wake up once to pee and then usually go right back to sleep.

[Dave Joksimovic]

Do you drink?

When I used to drink a lot, I'd wake up in the middle of the night anxiety ridden and wide awake for a couple hours. When not drinking, I only wake up once to pee and then usually go right back to sleep.

Very very seldomly do I drink anymore. The very few times I do it's maybe a small glass of bourbon, not nearly enough to affect sleep.

[BenM]

My sleep isn't as bad as you guys but I have felt like I've been sleeping more soundly since I started popping a few ZMA pills 30-45 mins before bed.

[Dave Joksimovic]

See this is why I ask... never heard of ZMA before. I'm looking into it though...