Happy New Year!

I figured writing about my entire year of sleep troubleshooting was a great way to get things going.  Health and wellness tend to top the list of annual “restarts.”  My personal opinion, everything is always a work in progress and every second is another chance to restart – not just the second before a new calendar year.

 

This blog is a culmination of my many restarts to gain better sleep. I go through possible root causes and my process of troubleshooting. Feel free to skip around to the parts you want to read. All of this is anecdotal though many of the links refer to actual studies or professional sources.

I’d love to hear what worked for you in your sleep journey, what you’ve tried, and what you plan to try for yourself.

My hope is that you can learn from my process and find a way to apply it to yourself.  Everybody is different and just like fitness and nutrition, the process can work for most, but not all. Studying yourself, your habits, your body’s responses is exactly what I do as a coach for my client, starting with a process I know works and tailor from there.

May we all get to know ourselves better.

 

Disclaimer: As you read what I did to overcome this year of sleeplessness, I do not touch upon symptoms of actual sleep disorders to include but not limited to insomnia, sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, diagnosed anxiety or depression.  These are all real possible causes that I am not qualified to talk about yet are worth looking into especially if you’ve tried everything else or you’re diagnosed from a licensed physician.

 

This is a long one so here’s some short cuts for you.

 

Table of Contents:

Where the problems started

1. The Symptoms
2. The Plan: Tackle from All Fronts

Physical and Mental

Lifestyle Change, Habits and Routines

Hormones and Nutrition

1. What Not to Do
2. Gut Health & Nutrition
3. Supplements

What Worked and What to try Next

 

Let me start by saying I used to be a deep sleeper and used to be able to sleep anywhere.  I’m a morning person and tend to enjoy a bedtime between before 11pm. And sometimes I can still sleep anywhere.  Even now as a passenger in a plane I can still pass out with turbulence sitting in an aisle seat.

 

Many know my story.  I had issues before pertaining to my “healthy” fitness lifestyle and sleep.  You can read it here.

 

Feeling tired but not sleepy in the beginning of 2022 pushed me to track my sleeping.  Generally, I’m distrusting of data on fitness monitors such as FitBits, Apple Watches and Oura rings. Even so, having somewhat inaccurate data is better than no data – much like weighing yourself on a scale.  The scale doesn’t tell you everything (body composition lean muscle mass) but it does give you a relative data point to work with.

 

And here starts the combination of monitoring energy levels with quantitative data from my FitBit in order to troubleshoot my sleep.

 

 

Where the Problem Started

Around September or October of 2021, I started to have sleep problems.  Not much was different from the month prior other than ending a year long relationship. But I figured the effects of that were short term – no worries!  Life will return to normal.

 

Fast forward three months to January of 2022: I turned 40 years old and I continued to have issues with sleep, specifically unable to sleep more than 6 hours, despite my bedtime. Feeling young and honestly unprepared for hormone issues for 40 year old women, I started to regularly incorporate meditation to ease mental stress.  

 

Another three months later in April 2022, I started flying again after a 2 year break with the pandemic.  Here are the days of a wildly irregular schedule.  Sleep continued to evade me.

 

Around October and November 2022 I had the most exciting, curious, and fun tour around the world flying my new plane!  Back to back flights from Europe to Asia with 2-3 days rest between trips didn’t pose a problem…I thought.

 

My final moment of sheer desperation came after flying 4 international trips in 4 weeks from Korea to Tahiti to London to Singapore.  Never have I experienced pure fatigue, when you’re so exhausted and tired yet unable to fall asleep.  

 

Sun exposure threw off my body’s circadian rhythm, and I got a second wind of alertness.

 

When my head hit the pillow, the adrenaline kept my mind and body active.

 

I tossed and turned with my eyes closed, wishing and praying for sleep, trying to be patient, but then the alarm goes off.

 

This was me.  With my experience in fitness, nutrition, health and life coaching, I was stunned my immediate efforts weren’t working to improve sleep. 

 

Needless to say, I was tired, frustrated, fatigued, and desperate!

 

As if I was one of my clients, I needed data. I decided to dig deeper by reflecting on my actions and tracking actions, energy and mood. 

 

With any symptoms, we have to identify the source of the problem.  In my case, I couldn’t pinpoint one thing. 

 

Sure my mind was racing with all sorts of new situations – analyzing my past relationships, new lifestyle and career changes with a new aircraft, promoting my business – but I also turned 40 and was unable to disregard possible changes in my body due to age. Is the problem my racing mind, my hormones or my lifestyle?

 

1. The Symptoms

 

Here’s what I did know. 

 

When things first started, I noticed my short sleep duration made me sleepy throughout the day. (Sleepy)

 

Later, I observed that sleep duration was not affected by sleeping early or sleeping later but I was tired regardless. Sleep deprivation started to accumulated and I wasn’t able to restore my energy. (Tired).

 

Eventually, I stopped becoming sleepy (at anytime). Instead I had low energy throughout the day and an inability to concentrate.  Manual labor and workouts – good to go! However, concentration on mental activities was a chore. (Fatigued)

 

There’s a difference between sleepy, tired and fatigued. 

 

2. The Plan: Tackle from all Fronts

 

My unique situation simultaneously having personal changes, possible hormone related changes and lifestyle changes left me no other choice than to tackle all of these areas.  And here’s what I assigned each possible problem for better sleep.

 

Personal or mental changes: Obviously this is a focus on underlying issues that may need time and space to address or unveil mentally. This seemingly easy task can be difficult in this fast paced, short attention span, controlling Western lifestyle. If you have difficulty sitting still, doing nothing, or sitting in silence, this can be a challenge.

 

Hormone changes: Age related changes happen against our will and not necessarily on time or expected.  Until recently, I had no idea of the status of my hormones.  Get checked out to have a doctor or hormone specialist convey your needs or, if you’re like me, start the process for more sleep, just in case. Lifestyle and nutrition are areas that are controllable without a doctor’s prescription.

 

Lifestyle changes: For the most part, this is controllable… unless you have a profession that dictates that for you. Just kidding! That’s controllable and a decision as well. There are still some aspects you can control within your profession for better sleep.  Like any lifestyle, you have to initiate change, set boundaries on your own and determine your own rules. Self discipline and self mastery take time to … master.  Even so, consistency matters overall.

 

Let’s dive deeper into each one.

 

Physical & Mental Stress

 

Like many human beings, thoughts linger on the mind. Sometimes, those thoughts can literally keep us up at night.

 

Linger thoughts can cause stress and eventually anxiety.  Particularly I hated when a song was stuck in my head before bed.  One area of anxiety that eventually found me: anxiety about sleeping!

 

If you watched my IG Live with Sleep Coach Michael , he talks about sleep anxiety and how thinking about sleeping, looking at the time, forcing my eyes closed, worrying about not getting enough sleeping does not improve sleep; it makes sleep worse. 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

IG Live with Sleep Coach Michael

 

Additionally, catering to your ideal sleeping environment sets you up for success.  It’s grabbing the lowest hanging fruit to make physical adjustments to your sleep environment.

 

Mental Stress:

• Breathwork and Meditation: There are various ways to meditate for more sleep . I like to do this in bed, in my desired sleeping position and preferred sleep physical environment. The one I like to incorporate before bed – focusing on my breath and quieting the mind. Have a thought? That’s okay. Now let it go and refocus on pacing the breath and relaxing the face muscles and muscles in the body. 

 

Breathwork in bed for me initially looks like 4 second inhale, 4 second hold, 8 second exhale. Once I feel my heart rate slow (after about 4-5 rounds), I start the aforementioned bedtime meditation.

 

HACK: Use an Echo Dot. In the beginning my mind was racing so much it was incredibly difficult to meditate – add more frustration and anxiety. So I outsourced it.  Ask Alexa to play “guided meditation for sleep” or “crystal bowls for sleep.” If you have a Calm App or other technology at your convenience, use it!

 

Regulate your breath until you feel relaxed, then breath normally.  During this time I shift from focusing on breath to lying there without thoughts.

 

Morning meditation are also done in bed upon waking up.  I position myself in a manner that’s comfortable but wouldn’t last long such as lying on my back with my knees bent. It’s comfortable but I couldn’t fall asleep that way without my body needing to get more comfortable.

 

Just like my bedtime meditation, I start with conscious breathwork, start to breathe normally and aim to let go of incoming thoughts.  As I’m getting comfortable I ask myself – what energy do I want to bring to the day?  

 

This gets my mind conscious (and avoid sleep) while focusing on the day ahead. I like to ask other questions like what do I want to accomplish, who do I want to be, how do I want to show up today?

 

• Journal: There’s a lot we can get off our minds when we journal. The less in our head, the less we take to bed. Instead of thinking about it, write it down, let it out, and let it go. 

 

I liked pairing this with meditation as some thoughts and ideas I want to keep for later. We always have access to revisit it when those thoughts are written down. 

 

• Enhance faith or beliefs: Ever heard of affirmations? For the religious, faith and beliefs are geared towards God’s plan and trust in God’s plan. For the secular, affirmations may be a way to instill faith and belief in “what is, is meant for me,” as an example. 

 

Whether religious or secular, actions equate to progress.  

 

Before my day starts, I know I am a healthy person. Now I go do the things a healthy person would do.  These actions give me evidence that I am a healthy person and I feel healthy from doing these actions. 

 

Affirmation is action.

 

• Gratitude: Specifically, gratitude in what is currently present AND gratitude with reframing your thoughts.  For example, that 17.5 hour flight to Singapore where I couldn’t actually sleep, the pinnacle of my fatigue. Tired? Absolutely. Grateful I had a chance to rest 7 hours from flying and could close my eyes? Absolutely.  If you find yourself focusing on what you didn’t get, ask yourself, “What did I get?” and be grateful for that.  It’s the same situation with a different perspective.  I like to call this “Flip the Script” and it’s why I started this blog in the first place 🙂

 

Physical Stress:

• Low Impact Workouts: Workouts remain a MUST.  If workouts weren’t present before sleep, add them to your routine and you may find more sleep! For those like me who already have an consistent workout regime, it may be a season to reduce intensity.  Reduction looked like less heavy weight barbell workouts and more circuits, walking, yoga, pilates, and high repetitions with high intensity using moderate weights (not HIIT workouts). 

 

In no way do I correlate less intense workouts directly to more sleep. My lack of energy due to fatigue was not ideal for my preferred type of strength training. Fatigue going into a heavy weighted workouts can cause injury and quite frankly, you’re doing less output anyways. 

 

Additionally, this allowed my central nervous system to get a little break for the high stress compound movements while allowing my body to rest.  This is the equivalent of taking a day off from work when you have a cold. The body still needs to rest to fight the disease.

 

• Sleep Environment: Most of these are known and I’ll reiterate them. Reduce the temperature (I like 66-68F), take a hot bath/shower before bed to reduce the body’s core temperature (I do this on most of my international trips before a nap), turn off or dim lights 1-2 hours before bed, blackout the room, limit exciting the senses such as with heavy news or shows or music, limit blue light from the screens or use blue light blockers to help (Did you know there are red lens blue light blockers? They’re better in the evening when using screens). 

 

Other areas for better sleep: bed and pillow firmness, noise level or white noise presence (I like earplugs), calming scents such as lavender, and sun exposure upon waking up.

 

• Low Stress Activities: Here are all the things we say we’re going to incorporate in the New Year but seem to never get around to it! Surprisingly, I didn’t have to make time for these; I literally turned off my phone or tv and the time was there.  

 

Activities for improved sleep include walking, reading, relaxing, talking to a friend. Who knew? Haha! I actually include napping here. Naps are proven ways to increase mental clarity and alertness especially when deficient in sleep. Limit naps to 20-30 mins or up to 90 mins to avoid sleep inertia – continued sleepiness upon waking up.  

 

And sometimes, we may need to take advantage of sleep anytime we feel sleepy. I recently started to give into this more often. Feeling sleepy is the body communicating its needs. When I can, I give my body this need to feel more restored and energized.

 

Lifestyle Change, Habits & Routines

 

I call this the bread and butter of all change, giving the biggest results AND the hardest to implement.  One reason lifestyle change tends to be so hard for many people including myself is convenience and comfort.

 

From personal experience, once discomfort becomes routine (which takes time or a scary compelling reason), comfort shortly follows.  As stated earlier, I have a scary and compelling reason to improve sleep.  With all these tactics, I did not stop trying something until it worked. Moreso, I vow to continue perfecting my process in the New Year.

 

One book I recommend to either break unwanted habits or create desired habit is “Atomic Habits” by James Clear.  When the convenience and comfort factor is applied to a desired habit, we’re winning and seeing results!

 

Among both anecdotal and proven methods, here are four areas to incorporate lifestyle change for better sleep. 

 

• Morning routine: I’m not huge on routines UNLESS they’re intentional for a specific reason (not just to be more productive).  You can design this as you want to – it’s YOUR routine.  I’m naturally a busy body so I made my mornings about rest, energy, alertness and intentionality for the day.  I could list out everything to include hygiene and cooking but I’ll focus instead on what’s giving me better sleep. 

 

Meditation in bed, knees at 90 degrees to prevent falling back asleep. Focus on breath, body connection, “Who do I want to be today?” or “How do I want to spend my energy today?”

 

Gratitude in the form of prayer

Open the blinds for sun

Water intake of 20-32 oz

Dynamic stretching before a 1 mile jog

 

Trust me when I say, this routine still takes time to execute without distraction, but it does happen. And thus far, this routine has served me well, kept me in focus, and feeds my needs.

 

Walking is great too and I could jog longer if I wanted. Full disclosure: with inclement weather, like many, I don’t want to be outside. That 10-15 minute jog is convenient to get outside, move my body, double as my cardio and not endure the rain, cold, or triple digit heat for too long.  Plus it starts the momentum for the day.

 

• Evening routine: All the focus here is on restfulness and sleep. Time is a factor so it starts around 6pm (or 3 hours before bedtime if I can’t judge by time). 

 

Early dinner and last large beverage 6pm or 3 hours prior to bedtime (if able)

Herbal tea one hour after dinner

Dim lights to yellow lights and black out room with curtains

Cool down room

Hot shower and prep for bed

Read physical book and/or journal

Ear plugs and eye mask as needed

Reduce screen consumption by avoiding the news or thriller shows before bed and using blue light blocker glasses

Phone on sleep or off by 9pm and placed away from arms reach or in another room.  This is unable to happen when I’m on call with the airlines but this has taught me to live without checking my phone habitually.

Meditate with lights off, in bed, focused on breath, relaxing muscles in the face and body, and releasing thoughts as they come

 

• Sleep earlier: Due to the nature of aging, no matter male or female, melatonin levels naturally peak EARLIER than when older .  But the recommended amount of sleep doesn’t change as we age.  It’s still 7-9 hours.  Going to bed earlier while those hormone levels are high can help with better sleep and more sleep.  For me, this meant being in bed by 8pm or 9pm, which also meant dinner was earlier. This did require planning my day with an early dinner in mind.  Social dinners I always suggest a time around 6pm.

 

• Give in when tired: Going back to napping, listening to the body and giving the body what it needs is a skill that requires practice.  It’s easy to ignore or say it’s not possible when really asking yourself “what can I do instead?” gives yourself permission to rest, close your eyes, allow for a 5-10 minute nap, meditation or breathwork session. Those are great ways to rest when you’re not able to sleep or nap.

 

Hormones & Nutrition

 

What Not to Do

 

When sleep is evasive but you have a full day ahead, it’s a natural reaction to reach for caffeinated beverages, energy supplements and force the day. Aim to refrain!

 

It’s not natural and society and marketing say the opposite; I get it. Consuming more caffeine while sleep deprived only perpetuated my sleep issue.  

 

I’m not a huge caffeine drinker but I did limit my consumption of black and green teas to one a day and within the first 4 hours of my day.  Even decaffeinated coffees and teas (unless herbal) still have 5-30% caffeine.  This matters when caffeine has a half life of 5 hours.  What that means is after 5 hours, there’s half as much caffeine in the body. It’s still there and can effect sleep.

 

I also cut out alcohol, especially while traveling for work.

 

Alcohol allows many people to sleep faster – who wouldn’t want a nightcap to help things out?  This girl and here’s why.  Though alcohol is a downer, it may put you to sleep but how’s your sleep quality?  My sleep duration tends to shorten and sleep quality is poor so I stayed away from alcohol especially at night. 

 

While not working, I’d limit myself to one servinging of alcohol and ensure I had 2 glasses of water with it.

 

I had to ask myself if it was worth ANOTHER night without sleep.  The answer was always no.  I’d rather have a good night’s sleep than a couple hours dranking. I can still have a great time without the booze! Plus more non-alcoholic beverages are coming on line making the taste available without the negative health effects of alcohol.

 

Other energy driven aids I limited or restricted: multivitamins, vitamin B12, vitamin D3. Due to my crossing date lines and time zone changes, I changed when I took these supplements.  I took these at the start of my work block (which many times happens at night).  If I was home, it would always be in the morning.

 

Here’s what nutrition and supplement protocols can help for better sleep.

 

1. Gut Health & Nutrition

 

Food is medicine – this is not a myth. For better sleep, you’ve already experienced some of these foods. 

 

Gut Health is often overlooked, but its THE BASIS of everything health related!

 

I recommend Shawn Stevonson book “Eat Smarter”  and “Sleep Smarter” for a more in depth look of naturally biohacking through the body’s actual brain, the gut. 

  

If you want more sleep and better sleep, pay attention to your gut biome, which means you also pay attention to your diet.  Taking care of your gut also leads to better moods, especially when anxiety and depression can cause poor sleep. 

 

Here are foods I incorporated more of.

 

• Foods with tryptophan: The amino acid tryptophan is the precursor to serotonin.  Neurotransmitter serotonin is the precursor to the hormone melatonin. The serotonin that’s made in the gut, travels through the gut-brain axis (vagus nerve) to the brain where melatonin is subsequently produced.

 

 So yes we want it all! Turkey, eggs, tofu, salmon, milk, cheese

 

• Nighttime snacks to reduce cortisol while sleeping: Nuts, warm milk, chamomile tea.

 

• Avoid acid reflux to allow sleep: for some this includes spicy foods. I love spicy foods.  Thankfully I don’t have this issue. 

 

• Eat foods that promote serotonin.  As aforementioned, serotonin is the precursor to melatonin, the hormone that makes you sleepy.  Rice, oatmeal, nuts, eggs, salmon, banana, kiwi, grapes

 

• Foods with magnesium: Magnesium helps you relax. Seeds and nuts, dark green leafy veggies, dark chocolate, bananas, tofu, avocados

 

• Fibrous foods: The gut biome needs all the fiber, ideally from whole foods, to create the environment best for your bacteria flora. 

 

Is it me or are you also seeing a lot of the same types of food being repeated? 

 

2. Supplements

 

This section comes last on purpose.  Supplementation is the easy way to “fix” the problem or ease the symptoms. 

 

Do they help? Absolutely. As I like to remind my clients, supplements are NOT replacements. Therefore, I placed them last in this long list of tips to get better sleep.

 

Just as I opted to limit any caffeine while fixing my sleep issues, I also limited my use of Vitamin B12 and Vitamin D3. These are fantastic supplements for energy that are naturally found in foods.  However, to aid in my long experiment of fixing the root cause, I also had to observe if and/or when these vitamins were contributing to my nighttime alertness. Out they went… until I solidified my root cause of my sleep deprivation and altered my lifestyle for better sleep. 

 

There are 4 big supplements I used to aid in more sleep and better sleep: Magnesium, Ashwagandha, DHEA and of course, Melatonin. Let’s go through them and discuss how I took these. 

 

Magnesium

 

In a nutshell, magnesium helps the mind and body relax.  Here is an illustration of some of the benefits of magnesium with referenced studies. 

 

I like to reiterate to my clients, supplements are not replacements. Diet and lifestyle tend to be root causes to many deficiencies, alignments, and shortfalls. Food quality and only being able to control so much food distribution invites supplementation.

 

Always check with your doctor if supplements are right for you or agreeable with your medications and your conditions.

 

Most supplements are consumed orally. However, this supplement is consumed multiple ways – and I tried them all for better sleep. With magnesium, the options are oral, topical and intravenously (supplemental IV drip). 

 

Orally, I started taking 500 mg during the day.  Even though there are great benefits to magnesium that aren’t sleep related, I did want to take advantage of the sleep benefits so I switched to taking this in the evening. Taking magnesium 1-2 prior to bed may help one fall asleep and taking it immediately before bed may help one stay asleep. 

 

Topically, magnesium comes as a spray or surprisingly as a salt, as in epsom salt. Those salt baths or scrubs with epsom salt are 100% magnesium citrate. Some people reported feeling itchy when magnesium is topically applied which could be a sign of magnesium deficiency. I like to mix a bit of argon or olive oil with a scented epsom salt and apply it as a moisturizing shower scrub.  You can even add this to your shower gel as a cleaning scrub. 

 

Intravenously applying magnesium was a very new experience for me. Suffice it to say, I only did this one time.

 

What’s the deal with IV supplementation?

 

 

I had a friend years ago recommend supplemental IV drips for vitamin B12 – but I was feeling positive effects from my pills so I dismissed it.

 

Because my sleep deficiency and sleep schedule were so bad all year, I was willing to try an extreme (extreme for me). Though I wasn’t exactly sure of the dosage or how this worked in the body compared to oral or topical supplementation, I figured this was the most bioavailable way to consume magnesium. 

 

After filling out paperwork and a 30 min consultation with a nurse practitioner, I was set up for my 45 minute IV drip. It was actually a pleasant and relaxing experience under the supervision of a nurse.  And I didn’t mind the extra hydration from the IV drip.

 

Did it work? Yes it did and it worked quickly!  Though effects only lasted 2 weeks for me, which was a warning from my consultation with the nurse practitioner.  Everyone’s body is different when it comes to lasting effects of IV supplements.

 

After $150 IV drip, this type of supplementation is an option but not my preferred choice of consumption. It’s too expensive for my taste when diet and lifestyle are still within my control.  Admittedly, in addition to magnesium, I also took glycine and lysine as part of my “IV cocktail.”  These could also contribute to my favorable results.

 

Furthermore, there are no concrete studies showing IV supplementation is superior to any other type of supplementation. Just like with oral pills, your kidneys still process fluids and vitamins even with an IV drip. I had so many questions even the nurse recommended to get tested for deficiencies to ensure there’s no risk of overdosage.  Generally, most of the supplements administered via IV drip are water soluble or fat soluble. With good kidneys and livers, you may not have any issues.

 

After all this, I opted to commit to oral supplementation 1-2 hours prior to bed and topical consumption of magnesium during evening showers.

 

Ashwagandha

 

This herb has been around for years and is colloquially known as Indian Ginsing. You can read about its origins and its benefits here.  I first heard about it from the Health Model Show with Shawn Stevenson – one of my favorite health podcasts by a clinical nutrition researcher – entertaining too.

 

There are so many benefits to this adaptogen – adapts to the body’s needs.  Among the well known benefits for sleep include reduced stress and anxiety, increased energy, anti-inflammatory properties, blood sugar reduction, and hormone support.

 

To obtain this herb, I found it in the spice aisle of my co-op grocery store. These are in the bulk spices you can weigh out.  I decided to try it, not knowing how much to consume.  I measured out ½ teaspoon, mixed it with hot water and sipped it like tea. It’s nowhere near as pleasant as tea! So I started making it into a shot, mixing it in smoothies, and still experimenting with it in herbal teas.

 

After a few nights of shooting this herb, I found myself more able to sleep on planes, across time zones, and release a bit of the anxiety I had about sleeping in general.  Personally, I like the stuff.  

 

I also started to enjoy more of my evening and morning meditations due to less internal chatter in my brain.

 

Since this experience, I bought pills to better travel with me and bought the herb in bulk for my regular consumption when home.  I started taking this both morning and evening for continual mood, stress, and energy management.

 

DHEA

 

This supplement stands for dehydroepiandrosterone.  It’s a hormone produced by the body’s adrenal glands, the same place cortisol and adrenaline are produced.

 

I started taking this as a fix for possible insomnia and hormone related onset to insomnia.  After all, stressed out adrenals can lead to increased cortisol and increased adrenaline levels in the body causing sleepless nights.

 

I started adding this to my night time supps because why not?!  I would do anything to make rest and sleep better and more consistent.  

 

After some more extensive research, this supplement will not be consumed by me much more. There’s more than a few studies that relate the added hormone may not be good for long term use (over 2 years) and its side effects are extensive especially if you have underlying conditions. 

 

I had to ask myself if this hormone was worth the risk.  For me, it was a no.  Plus I didn’t feel that much difference after taking the supplement.  So Pass!

 

Melatonin

 

Last but not least is melatonin. Why did I put this last? Because it’s the one most known and most overused (in my observations) hormone supplement.  

 

Taking melatonin on a regular basis actually decreases the body’s ability to produce melatonin on its own. If it’s coming from somewhere else, the body doesn’t want to make more of it. 

 

So take this supplement with a protocol, occasionally and as needed.  And many neurologists do suggest taking this to help with sleep.

 

One way I consumed this is after crossing time zones I needed help with initiating sleep onset or feeling sleepy. This is how I used it on occasion when I come home WIDE awake from a trip. 

 

Melatonin is NOT guaranteed to increase quality or duration of sleep.  It mostly helps you fall asleep.

 

For me, I did have problems falling asleep but more so I had problems staying asleep. Time-release melatonin can help with staying asleep.  

 

Depending on your specific sleep issues, melatonin may or may not be a good option for you.  Try a little at first like 1-2 mg before getting up to 5-10 mg.  This still requires one to have the intention of going to sleep.  If you take melatonin and stare at the tv for the next hour, the lack of intention to sleep does not allow melatonin to do its thing. 

 

What Worked and What’s Next?

 

In conclusion, there are so many things that are actually in my control to fix my chronic sleep issues.  Here’s the funny part, the conclusion of my 2017 sleep study said the same thing as my year long battle with better sleep. 

 

When will I learn?!

 

Lifestyle and diet have a lot to do with sleep habits, sleep quality and duration. Supplements are there when we need them to help us; they’re not there to fix everything.

 

The process that worked for me:

 

1. Track current sleep, mood, and energy
2. Improve the sleep environment
3. Address my mental state with meditation, breathwork, journaling, coaching
4. Change nutrition
5. Improve lifestyle and habits
6. Start supplementing
7. Seek outside help  

 

You will need to study your body and understand what feels best for you. When all this fails outside of your control, seek professional help with a neurologist to perform a sleep study, a psychologist/therapist to uncover other areas that could have an affect on your sleep, or a physician or nutritionist to examine your adrenals, hormone levels, and gut biome.

 

What I want to try next:

 

GABA/L-Theanine

 

These two go hand in hand.  GABA is a hormone and neurotransmitter that helps relax the central nervous system while L-theanine is the supplement that helps the body promote the natural production of GABA . 

 

Take one or the other they both help with relaxation, anxiety and sleep.

 

For those addicted to caffeine, L-Theanine helps reduce the caffeine crash.

 

Another change I started to make is adhering to my home time zone sleep patterns to somewhat maintain the same sleep time and wake time as home. To be realistic, its more like +/- 3 hours of my normal sleep and wake times.  At the moment, it’s the best I can do while flying this plane.

 

This sleep timeline was very difficult not only from a logistical standpoint but also from a FOMO standpoint (fear of missing out). I LOVE traveling and diving into exploration when the sun is out!  I can still do it but now in smaller doses. This feels like telling a client you can still have bread, just in smaller doses.  It’s not as fulfilling at first, but you still get a taste.  Overtime, we learn to love moderation.

 

I also elected to volunteer for shorter trips or domestic trips on a regular basis.  This allows me “rest” periods from wildly drastic irregular schedules – or even picking one month to fly to Europe and the other to fly to Asia.

 

Changing habits and lifestyle is difficult at first but when addressed one problem at a time, with consistency and good adherence, adding the next change becomes easier. 

 

As a fitness, nutrition, and life coach, I offer a systematic approach to help make changes that work for specific lifestyles as well as accountability, resources and support throughout the journey. 

 

My process took all year with a multitude of personal changes, professional changes, and physiological changes. It was a lot to tackle, and I’m still working to improve my process. What I can say is at the beginning of this year, I felt hopelessly tired with 5/7 days with less than 6 hours of sleep.  At the end of 2022, I have 5/7 days with more than 6 hours of sleep PLUS naps, feeling rested and functional.

 

Ultimately, sleep quality is far superior than sleep quantity.  The quantity of my sleep isn’t a huge jump, but the quality did improve as well as my mindset allowing for more naps, monitoring my sleep hygiene, establishing morning and evening routines, and prioritizing stress management.

 

It’s tough to be the hard working professional going through life and work changes without having the time to research ways to alleviate the fatigue.

 

Sleep and stress management are pillars in my health and fitness programs.  I hope this extensive post helped give you some education and relief knowing there are options for better sleep. 

 

Just like a diet, health isn’t a seasonal plan. Better sleep = Lifestyle change.

 

Comment if you found something interesting, worthwhile or have any questions.