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bert eats dirt · 04-17-2007, 05:04 PM

Hi everyone, for a while now my sleeping pattern has been a bit inconvenient - not being tired before about 1-2am, (I'm writing this now at 1:42am), and waking up pretty late (anywhere from 9:30am on a good day to 11am or even midday if I got to sleep really late). One thing I can say is that unless I've had to set my alarm to work or go to university, I've always got a full night's sleep. Lately however my sleep has just gone a bit haywire. Most days now I get tired in the afternoon to the point of falling asleep (despite a full night's sleep). During the last week I've woken up a few hours early for no apparent reason, then fell asleep in the afternoon (for even longer than usual) to catch up the sleep.

There are a few things that have changed in the past two months or so that could be contributing to this. I've become a vegetarian (my main guess about my newfound tiredness is iron deficiency), I've been back at university studying (I hear increased mental activity from the likes of studying makes you more tired), and I've started going to the gym doing weights training (although lately because I've been so tired I haven't been going - I tend to get tired right at the most convenient time for me to go, and I just don't feel up to it if I've just been asleep for 2 hours).

I'd really like to get this part of my life handled. For ages now I've been going to sleep really late, or have been taking ages to get to sleep at night, or something. I don't like the sluggishness/mild mental restlessness that comes with falling asleep throughout the day, and it's inconvenient to get tired in the afternoons right when I'm wanting to go the gym :-) I'd like to start waking up/going to sleep at a more reasonable hour too. Does anyone have any suggestions, ideas etc? Any diet/lifestyle changes I could make? Any useful nuggets of knowledge relating to sleep, staying alert for the whole day, etc? Polyphasic sleep, the use of pharaceuticals (ie chemical sleeping pills, caffeine pills or anything like that) and eating meat are out (although I'm sure I would benefit from the easily digested source of iron that meat provides

).

Thanks in advance!

04-17-2007, 05:04 PM	#1 (permalink)
bert eats dirt Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 43	Sleep/rest/wakefulness Hi everyone, for a while now my sleeping pattern has been a bit inconvenient - not being tired before about 1-2am, (I'm writing this now at 1:42am), and waking up pretty late (anywhere from 9:30am on a good day to 11am or even midday if I got to sleep really late). One thing I can say is that unless I've had to set my alarm to work or go to university, I've always got a full night's sleep. Lately however my sleep has just gone a bit haywire. Most days now I get tired in the afternoon to the point of falling asleep (despite a full night's sleep). During the last week I've woken up a few hours early for no apparent reason, then fell asleep in the afternoon (for even longer than usual) to catch up the sleep. There are a few things that have changed in the past two months or so that could be contributing to this. I've become a vegetarian (my main guess about my newfound tiredness is iron deficiency), I've been back at university studying (I hear increased mental activity from the likes of studying makes you more tired), and I've started going to the gym doing weights training (although lately because I've been so tired I haven't been going - I tend to get tired right at the most convenient time for me to go, and I just don't feel up to it if I've just been asleep for 2 hours). I'd really like to get this part of my life handled. For ages now I've been going to sleep really late, or have been taking ages to get to sleep at night, or something. I don't like the sluggishness/mild mental restlessness that comes with falling asleep throughout the day, and it's inconvenient to get tired in the afternoons right when I'm wanting to go the gym :-) I'd like to start waking up/going to sleep at a more reasonable hour too. Does anyone have any suggestions, ideas etc? Any diet/lifestyle changes I could make? Any useful nuggets of knowledge relating to sleep, staying alert for the whole day, etc? Polyphasic sleep, the use of pharaceuticals (ie chemical sleeping pills, caffeine pills or anything like that) and eating meat are out (although I'm sure I would benefit from the easily digested source of iron that meat provides ). Thanks in advance!