SLEEP
For starters, I have never written out like this and tend to keep things to myself, however like most people this year I have severe trouble sleeping to the point where I don't sleep at all and even when I do it feels like my body just rejects it and I wake up. Now I am an athlete and am In the gym training 5 times a week as well as my normal training also 5 times a week with games on weekends, and I maintain a strict healthy diet so for me to be having trouble sleeping is really getting to me and I have seen numerous "experts" in which most of the time just give me a prescription without really giving me any helpful information to get to the bottom of it and I really am not a fan and taking a prescription is not going to help in the long run. I desperately need sleep and am really just wondering if there is other people out there going through this and whether their is anything helpful they've tried/worked. even just having people to talk to about it would be great. cheers.
Comments
Hey @number20 ! This sounds super frustrating- I know when I have a bad sleep I feel absolutely horrible the next day. It ruins my mood and I struggle to focus. I struggle to sleep sometimes and the root of my bad sleeps is often stress. Sometimes I just find it really hard to switch off and can't sleep at all. If I'm feeling this way I lie on my back with my legs flat on the bed, my hands on my stomach and focus on my breathing. I try not to move from this position and often I am able to fall asleep as I'm not focusing on anything but my breathing. Maybe you could try this too?
Hi @number20 ,
I hope you are feeling alright and that there haven't been too many negative effects of your lack of sleep. From all the visits from experts did they ever tell you what might be the source of your struggle with sleep?
@number20 Hey, I have mild sleep apnea and train 6-7 days a week (3 days lifting and 3 days running/some kind of conditioning). It can be frustrating as poor sleep can get in the way of making progress or gains. On the training side of things, I usually eat more food than usual to make up for the lack of sleep I get. This is because food is a means of recovery just like sleep. I am no expert, but this has worked for me so far (the progress might not be optimal, but heck, when are things ever 100% when we train?).
As other have mentioned above, meditation or doing something relaxing before bed has helped me quite a bit.
Hey @number20 I really hear you on this and can see the frustration the lack of sleep is having on you. As you know, sleep is super important and essential to the functioning of everyday life so i would recommend giving these articles a read through and see if they are of any help!
I see that you have contacted professionals and first of all, well done with that! But i'm sorry to hear that the prescriptions haven't been working for you. Another thing you could consider is to see if you could find a doctor that specialises in sleep or even doctors who prefer to use more natural remedies to fix your sleep.
When i find that i'm struggling to sleep, it is because something else is going on in my life. Sometimes there is family or friend issues, my anxiety is high, exams are coming up, etc... Have you thought about if there is any external things that are going on that may be causing this?
Hi @number20 this must be really frustrating for you as sleep can be so important, especially for someone who is as busy as yourself. That must also be frustrating seeing experts but not really getting the answers you need.
Every now and again when I struggle to get to sleep because of stress or because my brain won't stop thinking about everything, I try taking deep breaths and engage in mindfulness. I try to clear my mind and relax my muscles. This works pretty well for me, but I know this doesn't work for everyone. A friend of mine also listens to a rain app on her phone that plays the sound of rain on the roof. This really relaxes her and helps her sleep as she has had trouble sleeping for a long time.
I've also heard that meditation techniques can be really helpful to relax the mind and body before sleep.
I hope this helps 
Hi @number20 I'm sorry to hear sleep is such a battle at the moment. For me when I struggle to sleep it can be because I've eaten or worked out too close to when I'm sleeping and I'm full of restless energy, especially high-energy stuff compared to lighter conditioning or yoga. Stretching before sleep is something that I find helps, as well as meditating or listening to relaxing music. My dad takes magnesium supplements at night when he can't sleep which help him because magnesium can alleviate muscle cramps and tension- you can buy it as dissolvable powder or they make magnesium lemonades now! Other things I do is having a completely dark and cold room to sleep in, and I listen to music I like until I'm too tired to keep listening and turn it off. I've also read my textbooks because they're so dense they literally put me to sleep 
Another thing I've found myself doing is when I have time I let myself take a nap during the day when I'm really tired. Sometimes I think that you can be so tired that you can't sleep. I've also read that when you can't sleep for half an hour you should get up and do something rather than just lying there. Finally, there's quite a few resources out there about sleep hygiene which can be useful because they talk about the behavioural side of sleep. I hope this helps!
