nerdbox

About sleep

20 May 2023

Trouble with sleep is probably something that everyone on this side of the internet can relate to. It is the most annoying thing, when despite your hardest efforts, your eyes are wide open and thoughts racing in your head. Bad sleep can not only be detrimental to your mental health, but physical well-being also. We all know that sleep is good for us, but what can you do to get those desired zzz’s when you just, can’t?

Personal story

I remember not sleeping well even in primary school. I would lie in my bed, be too hot, tossing and turning, with a Formula 1 race of thoughts in my head. Every single, tiny sound would annoy me and break me out of my sleep “focus”. Being a weird kid I was, I was too scared to tell my parents to turn the TV volume down (even though I hadn’t a reason to be scared - they weren’t violent or abusive at all), so I suffered through it. Later, in my teens, I just spent nights listening to music on my iPod or reading books way past my bedtime.

During my early adulthood, I drank alcohol and used other substances that either helped me with sleep or made me stay up for 36 hours. Both options are bad. You may ask, why are substances that help with sleeping (alcohol, weed) bad? Well, because the quality of sleep you get from them is terrible. With alcohol, you get hangovers, obviously, but also your sleep cycle is all fucked up. You wake up during the night multiple times (even if you don’t remember it) and your body is fighting the toxin, instead of regenerating like it should.

Marijuana, on the other hand, has an almost divine reputation as a sleep aid on the internet. From my observations and experiences, it is an illusion. Sure, smoking a bowl just before bed knocks you out almost immediately, but sleep quality suffers again. I often woke up groggy and apathetic, even after 8+ hours. Still, I used those substances to help myself fall asleep for many years. Fortunately, I didn’t get addicted too hard, as I always felt that abusing any kind of substance is a sign of weakness.

What helped me

It is hard to name one singular habit or item that helped me get better sleep, as our organisms are complicated machinery with lots of hidden variables. If I had to choose, I’d say limiting caffeine intake, going to bed early and regular exercise are things that had the most impact. Let’s look at them one by one.

  • Limiting caffeine intake - I used to drink two - three coffee cups per day, which isn’t a lot by some people standards, but it was preventing me from falling asleep earlier. Caffeine has a long half-life of about 5 hours, so even if you don’t feel the rush, there’s still molecules binding to your receptors that can prevent you from getting drowsy. Caffeine doesn’t give you energy, it just stops the “tiredness” signal from being perceived by your brain, so improving your mental and physical health with good diet and exercise can let you limit caffeine intake. I now only drink one coffee per day, in the morning only.
  • Going to bed early - many people roll their eyes when I tell them I went to sleep at 9 PM last night (I wake up at 4 AM for work at 6), or say that it’s impossible for them to do. While real life often gets in the way, it should be paramount to set your bed time and adhere to it. I prepare everything for the next day (meals, clothes etc.) in the afternoon, wind down in the evening (limit social media and smartphone usage, read a book, watch something mindless on youtube) and go to bed usually around the same time every day. On weekends I sometimes go to sleep a bit late, but I also wake up a few hours later. Keep in mind “late” here means 11 PM, not 3 AM. “But I won’t have time to do X if I go to sleep so early!”, you might say. This is a fallacy, in my opinion. If you get good sleep, you will be more productive during the day, and you will have more energy to get “X” done. If your daily schedule is so packed that you only have 6 or less hours of sleep per day, and no time to relax, then you should reconsider your life choices, and start cutting out activities before you inevitably burn out.
  • Regular exercise - we evolved doing all of our work by using our bodies - walking, running, picking up heavy stuff, doing basic movements (squat, push, pull). It is therefore unnatural to sit all day and not use our bodies in the way they’re supposed to be used. Regular exercise, particularly strength training, is one of the best things you can do to improve your overall mental and physical health. It increases your bone density, improves your nervous system’s connections, helps you burn fat and fight inflammation. It takes a lot of time to see good results, but it also helps build discipline and change your mindset. “Lifting heavy rock make sad voice quiet.”

Supplements

Many a pharmaceutical company tries to sell their panacea for any and all ailments you might have. While some are certainly life-saving and needed, many are nothing more than snake oil. Sleep aid supplements are a huge market, but few supplements are widely known and used, with melatonin being probably the most popular.

  • Melatonin - I used melatonin for some time, about a year, not every day, but I’d say, 80% of the days. I didn’t do much research and just bought the biggest dose I could, which is 5 mg per pill, and took one pill each evening to help me get to sleep. While it certainly did, and it gave me awesome, vivid dreams (yes, I actually enjoyed melatonin dreamscapes), its’ effects quickly became less potent. While I was falling asleep rather quickly, I didn’t stay asleep, and woke up multiple times during the night, and felt like I slept maybe 2 hours during the night. Later, I learned that the 5 mg dose I was taking is about 10x the recommended dose, which is 0.6 mg, for optimal effects. Since then I stopped taking melatonin and learned about a new supplement: L-theanine.

  • L-theanine - it is a non-essential amino acid (meaning we don’t need it to synthesise proteins), naturally occuring in black tea. I started taking it in a sleep aid supplement, along with some herb extracts, and while the sleepiness effects aren’t as pronounced as with melatonin, I noticed a drastic increase in my ability to stay asleep for the whole night. Before, I often woke up during the nights and didn’t enter deep sleep, now I often fall asleep and get awoken by my alarm clock, without any interruptions during the night. L-theanine is considered safe, and is a cheap supplement that I can recommend.

Wrapping up

Sleep is probably the most important aspect of our lives, in terms of impact on mental and physical health. Unfortunately, it is often overlooked or sacrificed in pursuit of money, success or fame. While I’m not a preacher, I tend to tell people about benefits of getting good sleep and how to increase the quality of it. Our current world focuses way too much on work and maltreating our bodies in exchange for cash, and I hope we can steer away from that, and find that happiness lies in simple things, that you can enjoy better after a good night’s sleep.