I ought to be sleeping like a baby, but I’ve found it takes me a very long time to fall asleep, and I tend to sleep shallowly and wake up repeatedly. When I wake up in the morning, I often feel “coldy” – shivering and stuffed up.
I generally sleep from midnight to 7:30 AM every night, which should be plenty for an adult. About an hour before I sleep, I take 1200mg of lecithin, 100mg of 5-htp (the amino acid Tryptophan, pretty much), and some marijuana.
In the morning, I take a B complex, 1200 more mg of lecithin, 800mg of piracetam (Nootropil), and 1000mg of vitamin C. I get plenty of exercise – I ride a bicycle all around Taipei city, at least 5-10km a day. I eat healthy too. Lots of protein and fruit and antioxidants. I haven’t smoked cigarettes for 2 months now, and I rarely drink alcohol.
I do enjoy a single dose of MDMA every couple months, and like all stimulants legal and not, this can mess up sleep patterns for a little while. But it’s been many weeks since I last took an e!
The most interesting part is that I am often afraid to descend into that borderland between waking and sleeping, where little hallucinations and strange random thoughts and micro-dreams creep in. I used to think that it was a cool feeling, but I don’t feel this way anymore. I used to be barely conscious of this state, and slip into unconsciousness almost before I realized I was in it. Now I feel very lucent during this initial stage, which isn’t conducive to sinking deeper into sleep.
I often awaken feeling unrested and even borderline sick, as I described above. I have a feeling I spend less time than I should in REM sleep, meaning that the healing quality of it is lower. I never remember many dreams anymore.
Any suggestions for lifestyle changes, from people who’ve had insomnia trobles in the past? I don’t want to have to take meds to ensure a good nights sleep. Lecithin and 5htp used to do that for me, and I’ve found they’ve now lost that effect.
