Surprisingly I found that instead of having DSPS I have some sort of insomnia

Yesterday I fell asleep 4 AM. Still I’m functioning perfectly, the secret?

Currently my job is scheduled perfectly. I do 80% work weeks, which means I need to wake up around 9 AM and be at work around 10 to 12 AM, so there is plenty of time to wake up at the morning. Five hours sleep does not sound a lot, but usually I’m able to sleep around 2 AM, combined to the long sleeps at weekends, means I’m almost perfect condition to do my work even after days I get less sleep. It took long time to get rid of the sleep deprivation, months at least, I don’t remember any more clearly. I’m different person now, unfortunately the taints my personality had 15 years ago are coming back =)

Quitting caffeine did not cure me not sleeping early enough, but for some reason it gave me more rest and reasonably longer sleep times, just enough to realize how messed up I have been for years. Secondly now I only drink alcohol free or family beer, alcohol too was taking some crucial minutes away from good sleep. Currently I drink coffee before noon, after that decaffeinated coffee.

After gaining some strength from sleeping I can analyze and observe myself a lot clearer way.

Surprisingly I found that instead of having DSPS I have some sort of insomnia.

I try to describe my insomnia:

FAQ:

Q: Do you still think you still have DSPS?

A: I don’t know. In broader sense yes, but I can pinpoint an insomnia, so that sense I don’t have DSPS.

Q: How does it present itself?

A: I don’t want to go to bed, close my eyes and start sleeping.

Q: Why don’t you want to?

A: I don’t know.

Q: Explain your feelings and thoughts at night when you plan to go to bed to sleep?

A: I don’t think about it, I don’t have feelings about it. I keep myself busy with PC, tablet, thinking some problems, making chess problems, book, tv… When I finally decide to sleep I fall asleep instantly.

Q: When you try to sleep too early what happens?

Day time when I normally think ‘things’, subjects in my mind are created in my mind and I can analytically observe and control them. However, at night these thoughts are gaining more visual depth and controlling them is harder, only way to really control them is change topic or stop thinking altogether. Longer I change topics faster my new thoughts are getting too vivid me to stay sleepy. These kind of thoughts are so strong that they wake me very fast and I’m full energy. They are powerful tool if used correctly in my work as a researcher. Is this the reason I don’t want to sleep, I don’t know. I don’t feel peace in me before I’m sleepy enough.

Q: Have you noticed that vivid dreams are stronger or weaker sometimes?

A: Definitely stronger if a) Sleep deprived b) Coffee c) Nicotine d) Lots of gaming e) Stress if I haven’t done anything, and I mean anything compared to something.

I haven’t notice anything that makes them weaker.

Q: Give a list of reasons you think might be the reason you don’t want to go to sleep?

A:

1. Mental disorder (no idea what)
2. Disfunctioning brain or hormonal reasons (I don’t remember names and I had preterm birth. I have used coffee and nicotine way over recommended dozes… way over. Just as an example in one point there was no point of asking me how many cups of coffee you have drank, but instead ‘How man coffee pots?’. I have read through the night with zero sleep to get past of exams whole my life. Btw we should make high schools and university a bit tougher so that one night read would not give you good grades. Actually that my brains have developed a method to learn vast amount of information fast to survive is one possibility)
3. Stress (This is unlikely. Most likely I haven’t been too stressed last 23 years. I’m not really a stress heavy person. However, I have problems to motivate myself at work).
4. Burning my brains too much, so they don’t know how to let go (Too much action combined to no sleep. Constant need to ‘think’ or ‘do’ something.
5. Nightmares (This is possible because I don’t remember seeing nightmares in a sense that I felt scared in 15 years. But surely I do see nightmares?!? My so called nightmares, are stories where I have to survive or solve something, but I find them to be more like exciting stories than nightmares.)
6. Addicted to non sleeping (This is seems reasonable given how addicted person I am. And it would explain my work process of leaving everything as late as possible and pushing my physical limits when deadline is getting the better of me and that wonderful feeling of winning myself when I mostly make it.)

Q: Why don’t you stop burning your brains, stop using nicotine and caffeine?

A: I’m the most addicted person in the world. I can do whatever motivates me, but those things are too sweet to let go.

Q: Suggestion: Try meditation and also keep an active thinking period where you only think, to let your brains to have some free air. Also you should put a stop of using games, internet and tablets at night. Also you should quit nicotine and caffeine. Can you do it?

A: I’m quite sure that I can’t do it like you suggested. I don’t want it enough. What I can do is to have 10 minute break per day with silent room technique and another 10 minutes for meditation. I can also promise to leave it to one normal coffee in a normal day and to 3 decaffeinated ones. Shutting media at night is probably impossible, I think about it. Maybe first two – meditation and active thinking  – give me more tools and capabilities to do that. Quitting nicotine altogether is something I have been working close to 6 years already.

Effect of cutting nicotine and gaming – second round

Day 1: Sleep 3.37, Duration 5.9, Nicotine 1 mg, Alcohol 0, Gaming 0 min

Day 2: Sleep 3.56, Duration 5.9, Nicotine 5 mg, Alcohol 45 ml, Gaming 0 min

Day 3: Sleep 5.15, Duration 5.45, Nicotine 10 mg, Alcohol 106 ml, Gaming 180 min

Day 4: Sleep 4.15, Duration 7.7, Nicotine 5 mg, Alcohol 45 ml, Gaming 60 min

Day 5: Sleep 3.38, Duration 7.8, Nicotine 5 mg, Alcohol 45 ml, Gaming 30 min

Day 6: Sleep 6.19, Duration 5.5 , Nicotine 14 mg, Alcohol 45 ml, Gaming 60 min

Day 7: Sleep 2.53, Duration 7.1, Nicotine 0 mg, Alcohol 78 ml, Gaming 120 min

Day 8: Sleep 3.38, Duration 5.0, Nicotine 4 mg, Alcohol 0 ml, Gaming 120 min

…..

Day 19: Sleep 7.00, Duration 3.0, Nicotine 26 mg, Alcohol 0 ml, Gaming 0 min

Day 20: Seep Zero, Duration Zero, Nicotine 36 mg, Alcohol 0 ml, Gaming 0 min, Caffeine: 110 mg

…..

Day 25: Sleep 4.15, Duration 8.15, Nicotine 0, Alcohol 62 ml, Gaming 0 min

AVERAGE SLEEP: 4.28

….. Trying hard now with nicotine–>

15 August – Day 1X :Sleep 4.30, Duration 8, Nicotine 24 mg, Alcohol 23 ml, Gamin 360 min, Notes: sick

16 August – Day 2X: Sleep 5.55, Duration 6, Nicotine 28 mg, Alcohol 23 ml, Gamin 240 min, Notes: sick. It was close, took my first nicotine 19.00.

17 August – Day 3X: Sleep 00.15 / 7.00, Duration 2 / 5, Nicotine 0 mg, Alcohol 12o ml, Gaming 180 min, Notes: I was sleepy early, but then woke up.

18 August – Day 4X: Sleep 1.15/4.00 Duration 2 / 6, Nicotine 0 mg, Alcohol 106 ml, Gaming 180 min, Notes: Again I had to wake around 3 am.

19 August – Day 5X: Sleep 1.30 Duration 8 , Nicotine 0 mg, Alcohol 136 ml, Gaming 90 min

These sleep times are so sweet 😀 I feel sleepy though, I think it is partly because of the alcohol. I will now start moderating my alchohol drinking  –>

20 August – Day 6X: Sleep 23.30 Duration 8 , Nicotine 0 mg, Alcohol 0 ml, Gaming 60 min, Notes: No nicotine makes me catnap around 3 times a day. Just like last time I quitted.

21 August – Day 7X: Sleep 03.00, Duration 7, Nicotine 0 mg, Alcohol 0 ml, Gaming 45 min, Notes: I feel energetic, but lightheaded and incapable to concentrate.

AVERAGE WEEKLY SLEEP: 3:00

22 August – Day 8X: Sleep 03.30, Duration 7, Nicotine 0 mg, Alcohol 0 ml, Gaming 60 min, Notes: Felt normal, could have slept earlier, but didn’t want to.

23 August – Day 9X: Sleep 02.00, Duration 9, Nicotine 4 mg, Alcohol 184 ml, Gaming 45 min, Notes: Party

24 August – Day 10X: Sleep 03.30, Duration 8, Nicotine 0 mg, Alcohol 0 ml, Gaming 60 min

25 August – Day 11X: Sleep 05.00, Duration 8, Nicotine 4 mg, Alcohol 120 ml, Gaming 0 min, Notes: Party

26 August – Day 12X: Sleep 03.00, Duration 7, Nicotine 0 mg, Alcohol 0 ml, Gaming 0 min

27 August – Day 13X: Sleep 05.00, Duration 5, Nicotine 0 mg, Alcohol 0 ml, Gaming 0 min

28 August – Day 14X: Sleep 03.00, Duration 6, Nicotine 0 mg, Alcohol 0 ml, Gaming 30 min

AVERAGE WEEKLY SLEEP: 3:34

29 August – Day 15X: Sleep 01.30, Duration 7, Nicotine 0 mg, Alcohol 0 ml, Gaming 30 min

30 August – Day 16X: Sleep 01.00, Duration 8, Nicotine 0 mg, Alcohol 0 ml, Gaming 30 min

31 August – Day 17X: Sleep 03.00, Duration 9, Nicotine 12 mg, Alcohol 150 ml, Gaming 30 min

1 September – Day 18X: Sleep 02.00, Duration 7, Nicotine 0 mg, Alcohol 0 ml, Gaming 60 min

2 September – Day 19X: Sleep 02.00, Duration 8, Nicotine 0 mg, Alcohol 0 ml, Gaming 60 min

3 September – Day 20X: Sleep 01.40, Duration 7, Nicotine 0 mg, Alcohol 0 ml, Gaming 30 min

4 September – Day 21X: Sleep 04.40, Duration 7, Nicotine 6 mg, Alcohol 135 ml, Gaming 0 min

5 September – Day 22X: Sleep 02.15, Duration 8, Nicotine 0 mg, Alcohol 0 ml, Gaming 30 min

6 September – Day 23X: Sleep 02.30, Duration 8, Nicotine 10 mg, Alcohol 100 ml, Gaming 60 min

 

**** Updated daily. I need more motivation.****

Messed up sleep times – nicotine / gaming?

Out of blue I’m back to bad DSPS. During seven days, earliest sleep time was around 3 am and the latest 7 am.

This is interesting because I was doing really well for a long time. It’s summer, so the stress level should be at its minimum compared to winter. I had no problems with the quite sunny nights so, nothing has changed too much, when now the night are even brighter.

One possible explanation is nicotine. My colleague from work gave me two packs of Snus and after that I used around 5 days lots of nicotine products. Yesterday was a first day I used very little of nicotine, maybe 2 mg. Sleep time 3 am. Today it is going to be hopefully 2 mg again.

Interestingly my girlfriend has time to time problems to sleep too and he had one of those nights just when I had bought quite powerful nicotine tablets (2 mg) and she used them a lot. The interesting part is that if my memory serves me right, the last time she had sleeping problems was about the same time I last time bought those same strong tablets and she used some of them.  Just to make it clear, I have not been using nicotine products regularly, but when I go to bar / party I will buy a packet of nicotine with me. I have been drinking way too much lately though, this also has an effect to sleep, surely. But the reson for DSPS no, because I started to drink beer only when I was around 20 years old.

Second possibility is that now I have had more time to play PC games. Those massive multiplayer reflex based games. It is just possible that I’m over burning my brains so that they don’t have time to relax and get ready to sleep.

Let’s see what happens when I cut the nicotine and gaming time to minimum.

 

Food War – Phase 3 – Water fasting Days 8 to 9

Day 8

Sleep: 2.15 Duration: 7.15

Tinnitus is back with double decibels. Had a small stomach ache at the morning. Too much carbonated water might have been the reason (4 small bottles) or too much exercise or too little food 😀 Otherwise I felt … somewhat normal. No beer gravins or food gravings at all. Even though when I got the aroma of grill ribs to my nose my mouth got watery (very watery).

Day 9

Sleep: 1.15 Duration: 6.55

Had stomach ache (it burned) at the morning. I will quit at the instant stomach ache gets bad. To be honest I hope it gets bad so I can quit. This is the first day that I feel my energy is running out. When walking I feel old, when sitting I feel sleepy.

OFF! Later at the evening when I was watching a movie my discomfort level rouse so high that I gave up. Nothing major, just that I don’t believe making myself suffer is healthy.

I went to store and crapped the things my hands automatically picked: Cheese, Bread and Mettwurst sausage. I ate a lot without a problem.

Day 10 – After

Sleep: 2.15 Duration: 6.30

Normal day. I ate normally until I ate chicken at lunch and after that my stomach hurt so bad I almost yelled like a dog. That lasted 6 hours. After my first trip to toilet it got better in very fast rate. So maybe those people who say you should eat carefully and light after fasting really are right 😀

Day 11 – After

Sleep: 1.15 Duration: 8.10

Totally normal day. Nothing to report.

What I learned? Nothing much. I did not notice any effect to sleep or tinnitus. The most surprising thing about the whole thing was that I felt no hunger. I did not get cravings, except for beer. My taste did not suddenly get better and my taste for salt was as it was before the fast.

If I learned something, it was that I won’t do it again. It is like jumping from aero plain. You can easily skydive, but later you think that it was a stupid thing to do.

Food War – Phase 3 – Water fasting Days 5 to 7

Day 5

Sleep: 1.15 Duration: 7.45

Felt somewhat normal. Small hunger. Had to be careful not to walk too fast. I did take sauna and some garden work – no problems there.

Day 6

Sleep: 1.00 Duration: 7.55 – I went to bed at 24.00, but then I got up.

Felt somewhat normal. Small hunger. Had to be careful not to walk too fast. Had to stop once when climbing stairs.

Day 7

Sleep: 1.30 Duration 7.30

Felt somewhat normal. Small hunger. Had to be careful not to walk too fast. Tinnitus was close to muted. I had to stop and concentrate to hear it, even when in silent environment. Biked 15 km and spend 6 hours outdoors. My graving to beer is almost non existent. I still don’t get any gravings for food.

Effect to sleep: I have not seen any effect. There was a one night I had to step out of the bed. Maybe it was because of the fasting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Food War – Phase 3 – Water fasting Days 1 to 4

I decided to try water fasting. Reasons were prioritised as follows:

1. I have never tried this one.
2. There are some hints that sometimes very rarely fasting helps to tinnitus.
3. I wanted to break my urge to eat all the time. It gets me fat.
4. I wanted to break my habit to go to shop for food every day and buy what I please. This is not economical.
5. I wanted to break my habit to drink beer at evenings.
6. I wanted to see what it does to my sleeping times.

 

My goal was to try first two days. If everything goes well my final aim is ten days of fasting. I will stop at the moment it feels discomfortable.

As you can see the effect to sleeping was quite low in the order. The reasons behind this: Firstly internet is full of stories about how people transform to DSPS-people when they are fasting and secondly last time I restricted my time frame to eat the results were quite bad.

Preparations before the fasting: None

My guide to water fasting was Google and Wikihow. It has to be said though that most writers about fasting are really weird so you need to learn to skip 90% of the stuff they say.

When you look the sleep times you have to remember that after quitting caffeine (and somewhat nicotine) it is not abnormal to me to fall in sleep around midnight if I’m really tired.

 

Day 1

Sleep: 0.12 Duration: 8.50

Felt normal. Small hunger all day.

 

Day 2

Sleep: 1.15 Duration: 7.50

Felt normal. Small hunger all day.

 

Day 3

Sleep: 3.15 Duration: 4.75

Felt somewhat normal. Small hunger. Had to be careful not to walk stairs too fast. Feeling was like having a tiny mountain sickness.

Day 4

Sleep: 1.15 Duration: 6.45

Felt somewhat normal. Small hunger. Had to be careful not to walk too fast. I cooked really awesome dinner for others – at least so they say 😀

 

Food War – Phase 2– Caffeine Out: One year, Nicotine Out: one week

Average Sleep Time: around 2.15 AM

Average Sleep Duration: around 7.5 hours

I don’t actually keep sleep time data anymore so the times above are approximations. Things are just going too smoothly for me that I would find the trouble of writing times down worth of my time. Firstly my sleep patterns are good and secondly I have been able to start my work at 10 AM.

Sleeping is regular and refreshing and most importantly if I get too sleepy I can now sleep earlier. No more need to skip one night sleep. Last time I had real trouble to fall sleep was when I was visiting in the Rome and drank so many coffees. Well, that was something I predecided before the trip – “Drinking coffee is the Roman way” – and so I did.

Caffeine free is not an absolute miracle maker for me though. I feel not wanting to sleep before 2 AM. I don’t know why. The difference now is that I just can’t fight the sleep anymore; the sleepiness gets overwhelming and forces me to sleep. No more ‘ping – you are totally awake’ instead I get more and more tired. I fall in sleep fast too around 2 to 10 minutes.

Nicotine Out. Quitting nicotine was very easy after I made the resolution. Quitting tobacco was THE hardest task I have ever done, but nicotine medical products just are not the same, at least for me. There is a connection with nicotine and sleep that I’m sure about -> now after one week without nicotine I find myself catnap at work sometimes when reading internet. Only for a second or two, but definitely something I have never done before. There is a known link between sleep and nicotine as nicotine is a stimulant.

Overall this week has been a bit dizzy so far. My alertness level has stuck to low and steady. It seems there are no ups and downs but gray.

Early days of human civilization best hunters hunted at night

Interesting newspaper article by Telegraph “Are you feeling sleepy? Here’s why…”

It always made sense to me that there is a place for late sleepers to help groups to survive. However, I would have never guessed this ‘skill’ was so fundamental:

“It was an advantage for young adults to be late sleepers, so they, the best athletes, could hunt at night. In fact, young adults still tend to be late sleepers.”

Hmm, maybe we are the best hunters world has to offer 😉

Food War – Phase 1– Caffeine Out: Results 3 Months

Average Sleep Time = 2.16 AM

Average Sleep Duration = 7.0 hours

After three months now without caffeine average sleep time has fallen 1 hour and 15 minutes. From 3.30 AM to 2.16 AM. Is the only reason the caffeine, I can’t tell, but there hasn’t been big changes in my life.

Quitting caffeine was hard first week, somewhat hard second week and after that it went smoothly. It’s annoying time to time though not being able to drink caffeine drink – like in the meetings! I have a habit nowadays just tell a story that my stomach couldn’t take coffee anymore.

Sleep times are annoyingly irregular and I had to skip sleep from one night. I have had ZERO too intense dreaming nights in last two months, but regularly those suddenly from sleepy to very awake nights.

Is it worth to try? Yes. It’s just too easy not to give it a go. It probably will help you to alter your rhythm – at least a bit if you are heavy user.  Just remember, no cold turkeys if you are regular caffeine addict.

Heading to Food War – Phase 2

Next to crack is nicotine. I start to phase down my nicotine consumption.  I will change my nicotine tablets to nicotine patch and candies. This might be thought job to handle though, so no promises how long this phase will take time.

Food War – Phase 1– Caffeine Out: Results Week 2

On average I slept 1.45am (normal 3.30am,  last week 0.05am)

Had two too intense dreaming before sleeping – Monday slept 4.00am and Wednesday slept 12am.

To be honest on average I  had wonderful sleep week and at the moment I’m in very happy mood.

Quitting caffeine did something to me even though I cant quite pinpoint what that exactly is. Should I make a guess, I would say that transition from wake to sleepy is sharper than earlier.

Withdrawal from coffee is not complete yet. I get tiny headaches time to time and also sometimes small to medium tiredness periods during the daytime. The most annoying thing is that recovery time after sports has almost tripled – even though this is highly speculative there seems to be no other explanation.

Links:

Caffeine: Cup of Pain, Liquid Stress