OOT - help me sleep soundly

[[Phill]]

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I can't believe you medicine-happy Americans can't think of anything other than drugs.

It sounds cheesy, but eating healthy and working out will go a long way. I'm one of those types that always has bags under his eyes, trouble falling asleep, feeling ridiculously tired in the morning regardless of whether I slept enough etc.

The best period in my life sleep-wise was when I was in wrestling. I ate healthy, busted ass in practice, and fell asleep at nine PM, to wake up well-rested the next morning.

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Hmmmmm, you're from the Netherlands right? I wonder why people in the Netherlands might have less stress and better sleep than we "medicine happy" Americans...



Annual work hours (source: OECD (2004), OECD in Figures, OECD, Paris.

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This is the worst insult ever.

[Leaky Eye]

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I have horrible sleep problems too. My doctor recently prescribed me trazodone. It's not a controlled substance and therefore not a difficult prescription to get. I pay like $2 for a two month supply. It also elevates my mood. For the price and ease of getting a script, I think it avoids most of the usual annoyances of obtaining prescription medication.

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Trazodone is an anti-depressant. It might have other effects on your state of mind as such. That said, I have taken it and it certainly put me into a deep sleep. I personally didn't have any side effects other than a longer groggy period in the morning.

[Blarg]

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Are you wearing earplugs? Those honestly help me a lot, because they prevent small noises from waking me up like they used to. That can really interfere with your rest, even if you're falling back asleep pretty much instantly.

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Yes! This too. [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] earplugs

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This is huge for me. Big big help. Might need to get a second alarm clock in case the first one isn't enough to wake you though.

I've found valerian root very helpful at times, but you get habituated to it really fast. But you also get out of habituation really fast. So for me it works best if I take it at most 3 or 4 times a week, and not all in a row.

I also find reading an excellent knock-out. But if it's fiction, it needs to be something imaginative, not complex or exciting. And if non-fiction, it needs to be something I can page through easily, again not complex.

Sometimes mellower types of classical music can do it too, or mellow jazz.

[Blarg]

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I can't believe you medicine-happy Americans can't think of anything other than drugs.

It sounds cheesy, but eating healthy and working out will go a long way. I'm one of those types that always has bags under his eyes, trouble falling asleep, feeling ridiculously tired in the morning regardless of whether I slept enough etc.

The best period in my life sleep-wise was when I was in wrestling. I ate healthy, busted ass in practice, and fell asleep at nine PM, to wake up well-rested the next morning.

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Good heavy deadlifts can have me coming home happy and upbeat at 6:30 and practically falling over from sleepiness an hour later.

[Borknagar]

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ZMA will deepen your sleep.

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I just read up on that. Does it really help noticeably with working out as well? Any drawbacks?

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No drawbacks. Worked for me. Better sleep = better recovery. I forgot to order some recently and am pretty pissed.

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ZMA gives BIG drawbacks, namely Prostate Cancer. ZMA is a zinc supplement and increases the chance of prostate cancer.

Study on pubmed on zinc supplements

[danvh]

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ZMA will deepen your sleep.

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I just read up on that. Does it really help noticeably with working out as well? Any drawbacks?

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No drawbacks. Worked for me. Better sleep = better recovery. I forgot to order some recently and am pretty pissed.

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ZMA gives BIG drawbacks, namely Prostate Cancer. ZMA is a zinc supplement and increases the chance of prostate cancer.

Study on pubmed on zinc supplements

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For what its worth I was looking into ZMA and checked your link. Unless I am reading it wrong, that study mentions the increase is if you take over 100mg/day. ZMA has 30mg (per serving of 2 pills). So you would have to overuse it to fall into the increase risk category from this study.