Supplements for deeper sleep?

Teaching for a living :laughing:…by the time I’ve worked and trained I’m in door mouse territory! :mouse2:

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A CPAP machine was recommended to reduce my Apnea events, which it does, ie, from 20-30 per hour to 1-2.
I’m no sleep expert, but I understand that the Apnea events themselves are not a danger, rather the impact of such disturbed sleep is detrimental to general health and to high quality training adaption.

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Be interesting to hear about the impact of the 6pm workouts.

What do you mean by ‘hard to relax from’? How long does that feeling last, etc. Is that to do with your interaction with your family, eg, your hyper they are sleepy, … More importantly does it impact your sleep?

I suspect it require a trial of a few sessions, maybe over a couple of weeks.

Why did you go for a sleep test in the first place?

I changed my GP and she arranged a number of tests for me, the sleep test being one of them. At that time, it was coincidental, I was sleep deprived from a couple months of very early morning starts, but hadn’t changed my bedtime, but started feeling sleepy during the day. At that time she said, based on my general health, athleticism, etc, that it was unlikely to be apnea, but such a test will provide facts one way or the other. So, she was as surprised as me that I had a serious Apnea issue. The apnea sufferer is completely unaware of their breathing stopping, it doesn’t wake them up, give them insomnia, etc, although snoring can be indicative.

I can do easier night time stuff and it’ll have little effect (like colosseum-3. Or low tempo like holt hill) but once the intensity creeps up i find it hard to de-stress. Last night was needs must. Hard physical day on the farm landscaping

Last night was spencer -4 (4x3min @120ftp) with an extra hour low intensity on the end. Once I was off the trainer I was ravenous but buzzing. Just mentally awake and stimulated which doesn’t wear off for a while. In bed for 10pm but had to make an effort to close my eyes and body scan. On the really hard ones the legs are restless and twitching too. I’m re introducing intensity after a race 10days ago and having a week off/couple of easy days

I’ve been doing 90-Min workouts starting anywhere from 16:00 to 19:00 depending on how the work day pans out. I’m a night owl type, so find it easier to complete a workout in the afternoons than to try get up (regularly) at 04:00.

I seldom suffer from poor sleep because of a workout. The podcasts I shared mentioned two hours to wind down after a workout should be enough.

This is what I came here to recommend. Started this trifecta about 2 months ago. Has made a significant improvement to my sleep.

I’m no sleep expert, but I understand that the Apnea events themselves are not a danger, rather the impact of such disturbed sleep is detrimental to general health and to high quality training adaption.

I remember a teacher in my high school who lost his 15 year old brother due to sleep apnea. I wasn’t privy to the details but he died in his sleep, I imagine from some sort of cardiac issue. You’re right that you likely won’t die from sleep apnea, but it’s playing with fire when it comes to hypertension, stress, heart issues, etc. The bike adventure Iohan Gueorgoriev recently committed suicide after struggling with chronic lack of sleep due to his apnea. All that to say… If anyone thinks they might have sleep apnea, get it checked out as soon as you can.

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a few fingers and drams of something peaty should do the trick :slight_smile:

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is melatonin available by prescription? 1mg 2-3hrs before bed has worked amazingly for me. I also use blue light blocking glasses 2-3hrs before bed, as well as keeping the room dark, things like that. Ear plugs work wonders as well, though they are sometimes uncomfortable. I have found white noise to be a good solution in that instance. Sorry if these have been repeated in the thread, I’m too lazy to read the rest :wink:

Consider the possibility that your device doesn’t know what the heck it’s measuring. :smiley:

If I was gonna make lifestyle alterations or dietary changes to improve my sleep…first thing I would do is make sure sleep was really getting measured accurately. A lot of wearables might not be doing the job. On the other hand, I have no advice here…not sure what the best option is to really characterize sleep quality/content.

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One thing to keep in mind…just like taking exogenous testosterone can cause your testosterone-producing glands to shrink down and not bounce back all that well…so to taking exogenous melatonin can cause your pineal gland to shrink. So keep in mind that chronic dosing of melatonin could lead to permanently reduced endogenous production of melatonin.

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that’s an interesting point, I’ll have to do some research. I’ll ask my sleep doc at my next appointment as he recommended the melatonin in that dose.

For me this is good to fall asleep but I observed it is more difficult to wake up in morning + sometimes if I get awaken during night I cannot asleep again…

Mouth taping has been a huge help for me. My wife and I tape our mouths shut before bed, and we just think it’s hilarious. It forces nose breathing, which is better for 100 reasons. It took three nights of trying to get to where it didn’t feel disruptively weird. I’m on my way to bed now, please pass the tape.

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I do like the oxygen advantage podcasts, he makes a very compelling/convincing case!

I have only done it 10 times or so, but I like the idea of slowing everything down (safely). It does mean I have to trim my beard, I guess I’m sue for an image makeover

I make a point of nose breathing during easy stuff (above tempo gets a real struggle) but randomly I can run at almost threshold with the mouth closed. It’s just another layer/stress I guess to adapt to

Eliminate coffee completely definitely helps.

Good prep and being productive in other areas of life also gives good psychological foundation for sleep.

Supplements for sleep unless medicinal sleeping tablets are mostly just snake oil.

It is well-known that a good night’s nap can have a major positive effect on our lives. But sometimes it seems impossible to wake up without feeling already tired. Luckily, there are apps that can help with that!

There are lots of free sleep cycle apps that can upgrade your bedtime routine. These apps observe the way you sleep and determine the best hours for you to do so.

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Check out https://hubermanlab.com. I’ve listened to him interviewed twice and decided to dive into his podcasts. He does at least 4 episodes on sleep sort of starting with Episode #1. Be ready for deep dive because that’s what he seems to do. He’s one more data point in the sea of info for me now.

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