Sleeping problems hurting my training

How old are you?

Elaborate on "sleeping problems". Can't sleep, waking up in the middle of the night, whatever. give descriptions and, if you can, times (2am, 10pm ect. )that it happens.

what time do you go to bed?

What time do you wake?

LaWoof wrote:

Elaborate on "sleeping problems".

Okay. Your mom keeps waking me up in the middle of the night, but there's not much I can do about it if she's laying right on top of me.

I'm sorry, was that funny? I missed it entirely. are you saying my mom is sleeping with you? I just don't get it.

What a sad way of entertaining yourself.

Sorry Lawoof, somebody was impersonating me. Well I can't go to sleep any earlier than 1-2am. I only get about 6-7 hours of sleep a night. I just can't get to bed earlier at all. My time clock is completely messed up. I am 22 years old.

Try to get in a routine.

For example, do the same thing right before you go to bed every nite. You can have a glass of milk (there's something in milk that helps you sleep) or a snack or whatever. Also, dont do anything in your bed outside of sex or sleeping. (No reading, watching tv, etc) I also think that sex or masturbation helps me fall asleep too. (I'm not trying to be a smart ass, I'm dead serious)

I take meletonin. I was badly overtrained so couldn`t sleep. The stuff works.

I've been taking melatonin as well and it works great. if you can find the sublingual tabs they work faster then the regular ones.

I take it about 30 minutes before I plan on going to bed and then get in bed 15 minutes later and I'm asleep before I know it and usually will sleep through the night with no problem

Tylenol P.M.

Not habbit forming, doesn't make you groggy in the morning.

I had the same problem. I can always set my routine in a day or so by doing the following. I wanted to start to get up at 5 a.m. to get a run in before work. Typically before this I was staying up past midnight. On a night I was up past midnight, I set my alarm for 5 a.m. and forced myself to get up and run. I did a ton that day. By the time 9:00 to 9:30 p.m. came around I was so tired I fell right to sleep...did it each day thereafter and it was pretty easy. The tricky part is the weekends. Usually I will get up at 5:00 one weekend day and sleep in the other. You don't want to sleep in both days or you will screw up you internal time clock. Hope this helps.

Tylenol PM makes me groggy as hell in the morning. I've used it a couple of times when I've been desperate and hurting and I have one hell of a time getting up to run. Maybe I take it too late, after I'm already having trouble getting to sleep. This is an issue since I do most of my miles in the early AM.

In general I don't think sleep meds make sense as any kind of long-term solution. The only way to do it is slowly work to reset your clock and cut out whatever makes you stay up late -- caffiene, late evening workouts, excessive video gaming, etc.

im serious, just masturbate before bed, and zonk out

I feel groggy as hell every single day. So you all suggest I go with the melatonin? Does that have any effect on running?

When you say that you "can't get to sleep before 1 AM", do you mean that there is a limit due to your work or others' schedules, or just that you lay in bed wide awake for a few hours? I woudn't monkey with drugs until you've exhausted a few simpler routes. For starters, have you considered the time-honored tradition of an afternoon or post-dinner nap? Naps aren't just for kids, ask KK or Radcliffe! You might also look into trying some progressive-relaxation techniques if you tend to lay awake in bed for hours. The general rule that I have heard is that it should take 10-15 minutes to fall asleep. If you konk out 2 minutes after hitting the sheets you're probably over-tired. If it takes forever, you may be obsessing about something (and will also be over-tired). Do you find that you're very groggy after lunch? Many folks who are sleep-deprived (and that's a pretty high percentage of Americans) experience this. Whenever this happens to me I make a point of getting in some Z time. It's important. Think of it as "sleep training" or "recovery/rebuild training" and treat it appropriately. Try to keep a consistent schedule. Don't sleep-in on the weekends as it'll screw up your internal clock for the coming week.

Do you know why you are having a difficult time falling asleep? Are you overtraining? Are you stressed because of school and/or work? Do you feel like there is not enough time in the day to get everything done and get a good nights rest? My suggestion would be to try and figure out the reason(s) you are not falling asleep. Then, try and solve these problems rather than forcing yourself to rely on medication.

melatonin isn't so much a "drug" as the others since it's a naturally occurring chemical in the human body... it doesn't f*** with your system and wont make you groggy and it's never affected my running