Insomnia and Commuting
 

Occasionally I get insomnia and have a hard time getting to sleep before 2am. In order for my commute to be successful on a bike, I have to be on the bike at 7:15. These are by far the hardest days to get on the bike, knowing that I could have an extra 45 minutes of sleep if I took the car. I allow myself one of these sleep-in days a week at most. However today was the 2nd insomnia day in a row. It was hard, I struggled, I tried to rationalize why I could sleep in. But in the end, I got out of the house on time on the bike. Having a weekly 100 miles mileage goal and a target date for big-mileage milestones for me, is a big driver of doing the "right thing".

Anyone else have these morning arguments with yourself? What drives the motivation on the tough days? I'm here at work, 10 miles later, still half-asleep, but glad I won my mental fight. :thumb:

I used to be a night owl. Recently I started commuting in at 5:30 AM ... I get to work by 6:00 and can leave at 2:30, and spend the rest of the afternoon with my kids, or doing stuff during daylight hours (as opposed to formerly working 9am-5:30pm)

For me, I try to be as passive as possible for the hour or so before bed. Read or work on the computer and listen to the radio. The other thing that really helps me is a routine. I make my lunch for the next day, set out a bowl of cereal for the next morning, clothes, etc. If you have a routine then your body, eventually, will pick up on the hints and figure out that bed comes next.

Finally, do it every day of the week - don't sleep in weekends. Yeah, this can suck, but it's also nice to have a few quiet hours in the morning. Take a ride or do something fun. But if you get in the cycle of 5 days on, 2 days off (or whatever) that first day back on is very hard and a hit to your body.

Good luck!

I can relate. I have the worst time falling asleep, and if I'm getting up at 5am to ride in, then any later than 9pm to bed is less than 8 hours of sleep. It's pretty impossible.

Every morning when the alarm goes off, I have an initial reaction of pressing snooze and sleeping more, but I guess I'm so tired I can't even rationalize or debate this with myself, so I just get up (like a zombie) and routinely put on my bike shorts, get my lunch (my Red Bull x 3) and leave. :)

I fight that battle endlessly. I need to get into a routine but right now everything is so tossed around and upside down it's hard to find the time.

Anyway, by leaving my car at work, I have no choice but to drag my ass out of bed at 5:30, walk the dogs, and get on the bike by 6:30. :)

Regular schedule has me hitting the sack around 22:00 and up at 04:15. That's about 6h of actual sleep, giving myself 15m to wind down and actually fall asleep.

On nights when I can't sleep, I'm up until midnight and might wake up every hour to 90 minutes until the alarm goes off. I've ridden to work 3 days in a row on 3 - 4 hours of sleep before, and it's horrible. I consider taking the car, then usually get on the bike with the realization that the cool morning air will wake me up, but being closed in the cage I'm likely to zone out. :eek:

I think technically insomnia not only involves having a hard time falling asleep but also includes waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to fall back asleep. The current term for what's been described here is Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed...phase_syndrome

I find taking a small dose of melatonin (1-2 mg) about a half-hour before going to bed helps a lot. I don't take it regularly but will do so every so often - especially if I've got to get up extra early in the morning to do a long ride, for example.

It's also really important to wake up at the same time every day (including weekends) to help reset your circadian rhythms. Do this for two weeks and all but the most stubborn sleep problems should resolve themselves.

Scott

If I wake up before 6am on both weekend days, than I'm up by 5am during the week, even though I don't have to be to work until 10am. My body is done resting, so if I allow myself to go back to sleep I'm tired all day long.

Hey that's a good trick! Last Saturday night I went to bed at 9 in order to get up at 4am. I fell asleep right away, which almost never happens. I'm always too wired to fall asleep right away before an early morning event.

Unless I'm completely exhausted I sleep 3 hours at a time. Sometimes lay back down within an hour but its usually 3-4 hrs before my second nap. Haven't used an alarm clock in ages and its still flashing from the last power outage 2 wks ago. My watch alarms are set 1.5hr and 1hr before work. I think it was a bad habit developed working 2 full time jobs for several years and currently working just 3rds for several years. Plan to try the melatonin as well.

I do the same, just like an old man. :innocent: I can stay up late, but I still wake up early. I find it helps my system to get up to the bedroom at the same time every night, chill out for a half hour or hour and fall asleep. Some days I still wake up much too early, but I'm able to fall back asleep as long as I went to bed early.

It's good to be regular. Yeah, I take Metamucil, too. :D

Yep-- definitely, especially on cold rainy mornings in the Pacific Northwest where I live. Wish I was one of the many cyclists who can cheerfully rocket out of bed and straight onto the bike; can't do it. Also, in my case, I have an old knee injury that won't permit me to cycle until I've been up and moving around for an hour or more, otherwise it will flare up and put me off the bike for days. Fortunately I can multi-mode commute; usually ride 3 miles in the morning to the bus and get my mileage in late in the evening with a 24 mile ride home.

I've heard this as well, but I love the simple luxury of sleeping in until 8:30 or 9 (or later, sometimes) on the weekends. I just can't see myself waking up at 6:15 on saturday or sunday.

I also have a difficult time falling asleep (another reason I catch up by sleeping in on weekends), and find that I do have less trouble when I'm exercising frequently. I also try to transition from my evening activities by taking a bath or listening to music and reading for 30 minutes to an hour.

I don't seem to have much trouble getting out of bed, because I look forward to the ride in, but it does suck when I've been tossing and turning till 2 am and I'm operating on 4 hours sleep. I need 7-8.

I've found good results with herbal teas that have lavender, chamomile, etc. Yogi, celestial seasonings and other brands have some great "sleepy" blends.

This is very true. I work at a place that does sleep studies so i know quite a bit about good sleep hygiene. not only should you wake up at the same time but you really should go to sleep at the same time. in a perfect world your bedroom would be a place that you only slept. No sex, no getting dressed, no reading, no watching tv, no computer, no working out, no talking with wife/gf, ect. realistically all that isn't possible for most people (including myself). it is important to limit what you do in your bedroom. the least you do in your room the better. your body will know that when you're in your bedroom its time to sleep. most important is to not have a tv, don't read in bed, keep the room dark and cool, and going to bed and getting up the same time 7 days a week. i'm also a big fan of the alarm clocks that simulate the sun rise. i almost always wake up a minute or so before the alarm goes off in the morning.

The excessive use of beer is also a good way to make sure that you fall asleep right when you hit the bed.

I am with Clifton here. I have lost many great commuting days to insomnia. But, my performance at work is far more important than whether or not I get to ride a bike to work. So I just bag it for the day and take the extra 1/2 hour of sleep.

I struggle with this too. Today's ride got bagged when I went to bed late around 11, tossed and turned until after 2; awoke at 4 with a mosquito buzzing around; and then before the alarm clock I awoke when somebody rang the front door bell. (In my area there was a recent case of a gangbanger firing a shotgun through the front door of his drug dealer at 4AM after ringing the doorbell; and in my neighborhood of tract homes it's common for people to stop at the wrong house.)

Last year I had brain surgery and as an unfortunate side-effect I sometimes have simple partial seizures. The seizures are most strongly correlated to going short on sleep. I'm on medication but the neurologist and I are still calibrating the medication/dosing. Plus, I don't have good performance at work when I am tired and I really don't want to lose my job over my desire to bike to work.

Yes, I hate getting up in the morning!

Fortunately, I don't have to hit the road until 9:30 to get to work on time.

Even when I'm tired like that I find I am more functional at work on days that I ride than on days that I don't.

Riding on a bike in the morning actually wakes me up a lot more than passive transportation. I tend to hit a wall later in the day, but I would say that's from sleep deprivation and bike commuting.

I pick a reasonable time to go to bed, and an hour before that I take a good healthy dose of Unisom. I work a rotating shift and this helps a lot when I go from night shift back to day shift for those first few days when I simply don't want to sleep at night. I don't know if I would routinely take Unisom on a continual basis anymore, but years ago I had this delay sleep thing and I was taking Unisom almost every weekday. At one point I was up to 150mg (3 dose, I'm a big guy). Now I just take 2 and it does the job.

I have them all the time!

In order to shower, eat breakfast and get ready with no lazing around before my 11 mile commute, and have a 10 minute cool-down at the end, I need to be up no later than 5:45 in order to start work at 8:00. On the other hand, I am fortunate in that my job is salaried, not hourly, so it's no big deal if I don't make it exactly on time.

The thing that usually gets me going is knowing that after warming up in the first mile, the zombie feeling will be gone. This does much more for my morning wakefulness than an extra 40 minutes in the sack.

Also, I try to avoid the snooze button, because I am very capable of hitting it while barely waking up. I keep the the clock is just out of reach.

+1 it's like a drug if I go w/o riding I get annoyed by customers and coworkers easier. I also find the days I ride more I need less sleep. I work 2nd shift and go to bed around 2:30a then get up about 8:30a. On days I don't ride I sleep until 10:30a on the following day. I seem to sleep more effectively on the days I ride its really strange, I often wonder if the extra exercise gives me a deeper sleep needing less then. Does anyone else notice the same?

I used to have insomnia, no more. Things I changed: less coffee, less welbutrin, more exercise.

PS - Have you tried melatonin, theanine, and valerian root to help you sleep? They go up in potency from left to right.

I fight with this a lot. I live in a house with 2 other bachelors, and sometimes the evenings events are not conducive to getting a lot of sleep.

When riding I have to be up by 6:40, and leave the house by 7. Driving lets me sleep till 7:20, leaving by 7:45. I've noticed the days I drive I'm a LOT more tired throughout the day. Riding leaves me tired, but not falling asleep @ my desk tired.

Never had any problems sleeping. My problem is making myself go to bed. I'm a night owl.

As for missing commutes, it generally only happens on days like today, when, alas, I am dealing with yet another broken spoke.

One thing in my favor - biking actually allows me to sleep a little longer than I would otherwise. My other most viable way to get to work is the DC Metro. Commuting that way takes me an hour. Cycling to work, even with a shower and a change of clothes when I get there, takes me about 45 minutes. Love those extra 15 minutes!!!

i too struggle with this- on those days where i'm really tired i do a partial commute of 15 miles each way instead of the 21. It allows me an extra 40 minutes of sleep. the other issue i have is around 3pm I hit this wall here at work. It's like a curtain of extreme fatigue hits me- i've actually nodded off at my desk before. it takes me about an hour to fight it off and by 4 i'm ok.