Chronic Sleep Issues, Ideas and Training

Bugs and Issues
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My sleep pattern is messed up from working a midnight shift several years ago and has never gotten back to normal.

My current approach is part of CBT-I. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia. The cycling workouts are more just to keep me awake in order to phase shift my sleep patterns. Low intensity exercise combined with light therapy (10k Lumens white light) directed to the eyes to retrain my body/brain (hormones, neurotransmitters etc.) to the proper time of day. I put the kids down at 7:30 and get on the trainer from 8-9 or even till 10pm.

While it’s not the number 1 goal of doing this, it would be nice if I was getting some physiological benefit (mitochondrial biogenesis, increased capillary density, etc.) but I’m not sure the stimulus is strong enough. Correcting the sleep issue is the #1 thing I can do to improve performance right now, better than any input from training. I spent the last year following a CJ plan and while it was fun and I did make some small gains, it didn’t line up with the amount of work I put in.

So for the foreseeable future, it’s back to HR-Controlled Workouts brought to you by Trainer Day!

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HR-Controlled Workouts - They're GREAT!
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Hi,

I actually did CBT-I and I was suggested to do sleep restriction.
From what I read from you I think this could be really beneficial for you to reset your conditioning.

The idea is to rewire your brain to: bed = sleep.

Sleep restriction is mentally very hard but in literature very effective.
You should discuss it with a therapist or physician.

You will restrict your sleep window to force your body into sleep.
It start with only 5,5 hours bed time and then slowly increase every three days for 15 min earlier bed and 15 min later getting up.

Hard when you are a father and also working the same time.

Example:

Bed 11:30 pm Up: 5:00 am

after three days:

Bed 11:15 pm Up: 5:15 am

and so on…

It takes like a month to get to your target times.
Rules are: not sleep at daytime, no naps
Getting up earlier than the target is allowed but not sleeping longer, get up, no matter how hard it is.
Getting later in bed than the actual target also allowed but trust me, you won’t get this urge in the beginning.

Make sleep your number one priority.

This will reset your brain and implement a very high and strong consistency which is absolute key.

That’s just an overview, if you really consider get more into literature and once again discuss it which either a therapist or physician.

Cheers

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@Alex you may want to break this into a new thread?

Good to hear from you Abrams. I had read your post a few days ago about your struggles and thought it would be good to get some input from you.

I have worked with a functional medicine physician about this issue, but unfortunately after 2 visits she left the practice and they never replaced her. She is where I did learn about CBT-I. She suggested an APP called CBT-I Coach. When I used it and loaded up my data, it said I didn’t sleep enough (it couldn’t help me) and to work with a physician. A frustrating loop.

I’ve attempted to find other practitioners for sleep, but it seems everyone I’ve encountered has the same mindset…sleep apnea. If you don’t have sleep apnea, well, they can’t help you. I suspect this is more of a problem with the US healthcare system and insurance incentives/disincentives, but that’s a topic for another forum.

So after a review of the literature over the past several months I’ve come up with a protocol that I’ve refined and am now 2 weeks into.

Since light and exercise are both intense signals for the body to be awake, I’m combining them with sleep restriction. Sleep restriction is very mentally challenging as you said. After I put the kids down all I want to do is pass out, and this is already hours after I’ve wanted to be in bed. I get sleepy at 3-4pm.

My typical bedtime is 8pm with a goal wake time at 4-4:30 am due to work schedule. Prior to this new approach, I would go to bed at 8pm but after 4 hours I’d wake at midnight and be unable to sleep any more.

With the new approach, I’m using a set of light therapy glasses in the late afternoon (~4-5pm) to overcome the urge to fall asleep (they only work if you can keep your eyes open :sleeping:

I have found the days I am consistent with using the glasses and the timing, when I get that super strong urge to fall asleep around 4-5pm, those nights I have slept better.

Yesterday was a good example of this. At 4:30 pm I could not keep my eyes open, so I put on the blue light glasses for 45 minutes. While I did nod off a few times briefly and did not get to exercise due to circumstances, I managed to get to bed at 11pm and slept solid until 4:30 am today. A solid 5.5 hours for me is a win right now.

For the protocol, later I pair the low intensity HR+ workouts with more light therapy in the evening at what would be the normal bedtime in order to stay awake, pushing the bedtime to more around 11pm.

Until last night I’ve been consistent with the exercise, but the timing of things has been a bit off with all the extra family things related to this time of year. There have been times when I didn’t get on the trainer until after 9:30 pm. The mental struggle of starting exercise this late is intense.

I’ve started to notice some small shifts but they’ve been inconsistent. Some days I have been fortunate to make it till 4am, but most days I’m still getting just the 4 hours, it’s just shifted from 11pm to 3am. And the dreams have been wild. I had no idea Taylor Swift was a leader of the Star Wars Rebel Alliance! :crazy_face:

I have read in the literature that this type of dreaming is temporary and a sign things are starting to work perhaps.

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Good call. Maybe I should have taken more message history but this seemed like a clean break.

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