Of all the challenges I have faced on long (> 7 days for me) tours, the cumulative effects of insomnia were the most debilitating and morale-sapping. This was back when I was young and my life was comparatively worry-free. It is a significant part of the reason (in addition to breeding and blimping) I haven't done a > 7 day tour in about 30 years.

Now I am at a period where I should be able to do some more substantial rides, but my ability to get a good night sleep is at an all-time low. Even my local cycling abilities have really slipped as a consequence.

Anyone else facing this, and how did you cope?

(My touring buddy was an ER resident and then doctor, and he told me to take benadryl. I never found it worked well for me, and I was always groggy most of the next day, and highly irritable. Now there are reports of it being linked to dementia. So that's out.)

Get a small bottle of Magnesium vitamin pills, try one just before you go to sleep for a few nights, see if it helps.

I have been taking a 400mg capsule every day with my evening meal for over a decade. It was suggested to me to take it, not for sleep, but a physiologist suggested it for me for other reasons. I weigh about 180 pounds, am male. If you are lighter weight, try a smaller dose.

It helps for some people to get to sleep, does not help for others. Scientific studies are mixed. My sister had trouble sleeping, I suggested she try it, worked great for her for sleep. She takes a lower dose than I take.

But first google it and see if you have any risk factors that could be problematic.

Thanks. I was beginning to think no one was awake at this hour (4:38 am here). I did try Mg++ but backed off due to its laxative effect. Maybe I should try again. It did seem to offer a bit of help. I'm about 175 lb, fwiw.

Not sure if your tour is self contained involving mostly camping or not. If so, my thoughts for a good night sleep while self contained camping involve 1) being warm enough at night & 2) having my bones padded sufficiently while laying on my side on the floor of my tent.

Back in my teens & 20’s when I was doing bike camping tours I literally did not even use a sleep pad at all. I would just roll out my sleeping bag on the floor of my tent and usually sleep adequately due to riding fatigue despite tree roots, rocks, and cold wet conditions. I turn 63 this week and hope my days of doing extended bike camping tours are not behind me.

in the future I look forward to using a premium Therma-rest self inflating pad (I’ve always wanted one but as I said I never even got around to using one. Another thought about good Selle for me at my age (or any age really) is proper neck support. I would love it I could not have to worry about having a good firm pillow that kept my neck aligned while both laying flat and on my side while on the road…just knowing I would have this covered in advance would allow better sleep going into it since there would be much less trepidation regarding potential neck discomfort or misalignment. Also, another thought about traveling and sleep: I see it as an opportunity for better sleep than normal thanks to being on holiday from digital devices and blue screens activating my circadian clock in that nucleus of my brain sensitive to unwanted activation.

I picked up a smart phone a few years ago (late adopter here), and I sometimes use it to help me sleep. Listening to an audiobook with earphones puts me right to sleep. I set a 15 minute sleep timer and seldom need to reset it. Reading a novel does that too, but the phone is lighter and water-resistant, and has other uses.

I also use bike touring as a detox trip away from caffeine and alcohol, both of which disrupt sleep.

I am a bit confused since you say your sleep is at an all-time low. Is this always poor or only after you ride? If always, do you have a partner you sleep with? If not, perhaps you have sleep apnea. My brother is single and had decades of poor sleep, foggy brain, etc. Turns out he had sleep apnea and didn't know because he slept alone. He now uses a CPAP and he sleeps wonderful, is much more energetic, and the brain fog has gone away. Regardless, perhaps a sleep specialist is something you should consider, especially if the lack of sleep is not solely biking related.

You want a good mattress and pillow? Check out Sea to Summit gear.

I have their Comfort Lite Insulated. Favorite mattress I’ve ever owned. If you don’t feel like using your lungs to inflate it, it comes with a bladder of sorts, although I have never used it.


Their pillow packs down small, inflates easily, and stows easily. You customize the firmness with the amount of air you put in. My large weighs about 3.5 ounces.

I also have insomnia, had it for decades. I sleep about 3-4 hours and then I am awake for a few hours, then fight to get another 3 hours of sleep. Last night I slept in the tent and as usual I only got 3.5 hours of rest. Just the way it is. In a few days I will probably get an 8 hour rest period, then the cycle starts anew. In the meantime afternoon naps are a regular feature.
I picked up a inflatable sleep pad from Amazon by Trekology called the Aluf UL80. I'm 230 pounds and this inflatable pad works very well, and doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Comes with an inflation bag that takes 6 inflation cycles to fill the mat to firm. It isn't noisy like many are, and the weight is fine. Have zero issues with soreness and pressure spots. The biggest battle I have is a pillow. have yet to try an inflatable, but the foam pillow I made is near perfect.

Yeah, dealing with the cycling trip/insomnia thing right now.
Luckily I'm not on a tour, so twice this week I've started my ride after noon because of bad sleep.

I am faced with the same problem. After my 35 year marriage ending, living in a small town with little contact with others gave me excessive anxiety/ started to eat away at my sleep.
I found out this can lead to a condition where when you don't get enough sleep your body produces extra cortisol. more cortisol = harder to sleep. This can lead into a vicious cycle.

Wow. I had no idea this issue is so widespread. Thank you all for your responses and advice.

Just to clarify, this is about camping, etc. I have never done a credit-card tour, but usually once a week would hotel it to get a break from the routine, do laundry, etc.

I have some pretty good camping gear, and to my surprise, my ultra-light Thermarest is probably the most comfortable pad I have slept on.

My sleep issues aren't limited to touring, but I really want to do something this summer and the main problem I foresee is that lack of sleep at night is making me tired and weak during the day, already, before I add touring/camping to the mix.

This is essentially me, but it sounds like I am a whole 11 months younger.

Do it. Good gear is worth every penny, and some of the ultra-light stuff for me at least has been the most comfortable.

Agreed. I have an app called "Sleep Machine" which has helped tremendously. Basically it is a programmable white/ambient noise generator that goes all night and doesn't hugely impact your battery. I use it at home a lot, too.

I limit myself to 2 cups of instant coffee first thing in the morning. Maybe I should ditch it completely.

Yeah, she says no sign of sleep apnea. Lately I have been getting fatigue-type pains in my legs and that makes undisturbed sleeping harder to attain, which results in a vicious circle....

Also, teaching quantum mechanics at 8:00 am during winter term made me go to bed really early, and I think that never helps me.

All of what I quoted describes my experiences nearly exactly, except the afternoon nap I find really interferes with getting to sleep.

As someone who has suffered from insomnia for about 15 years now I know that unsolicited advice regarding the insomnia can be annoying, as you likely have tried just about everything, but I'll share my experience as my solution was a little unique. I was at a point where I would be awake for 3-4 days in a row without falling asleep at all and it was affecting my life in all the way you can imagine. I had tried many medications up to and including benzos and ambien (not recommended). One day I was listening to a podcast and learned about Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia. CBT is a therapy method used for typical therapeutic practice, but CBT intended for insomnia is a newer technique. Seeing a sleep therapist is the one thing I had not tried though of course many people had suggested it to me. I liked what I heard on the podcast and found that there was a practitioner in my state (it isn't a very widespread practice yet).

I saw her monthly for about 8 months and it greatly improved my ability to fall asleep. It has been about two years now and while I still have trouble sleeping many nights, I at least fall asleep almost every night of the week and am probably getting about 6 hours on average. The most important things I gained from the experience were:

1. It turns out that much of the generic sleep hygeine you find from a simple google search on insomnia does make a world of difference when you actually apply all of it in a structured way and stick to it for months. Paying the money I was paying to see this therapist and having to keep a sleep diary that I showed her monthly made me really stick to the routines and I realized that I was only half assing a lot of this stuff before.

2. She worked with my sleep/wake times, regularly adjusting them by minutes or hours to get as close to we could to what my natural cycle might be. After the first month and a half I was getting drowsy by 9pm, something that never happened to me before. I never got the heavy eyes feeling of wanting to go to sleep like other people seem to. As soon as this started hitting me it was a profound revelation that I COULD have a normal sleep schedule again. This was a major mentality shift and a huge morale booster. After my first few nights of falling asleep naturally I knew that I could do it, it was proven. Once that barrier was broken through it was basically a matter of sticking to all of the routines and techniques I learned through the process.

3. Waking up at the exact same time every day is far more important than when you go to sleep (though this is also important). Once my wake time was decided upon I had to wake up at that time daily even I had only finally fallen asleep two hours before that time. I still stick to this.

I'd recomend it to anyone.

Lifelong insomniac, though it has gotten better as i get older (66 now). Just home from a few hundred miles on the Empire State Trail.

Though i had slept better than usual while touring, but fell asleep at 4pm yesterday and awoke in the morning.

Here are the things that have worked for me: 1) get older (easy to do!); 2) don't drink any coffee/tea/colas; 3) consume enormous amounts of a certain plant legal in NY, and 23 other states (also great for stamina/endurance during the day; i use it by prescription, in case any mods are shocked by this information).

Re Magnesium: I'm no expert, but the bioavailability of magnesium oxide is very low. It exerts its laxative effect by not being absorbed, staying in the gut, raising the molarity of the gut contents and thus pulling in water. Magnesium, remember, will burn under water, pulling oxygen off of water molecules, your gut is not likely to overcome much of that avidity. I'm trying magnesium glycinate, made by Natrol, to see if it will help with cramping. There are other organic magnesium compounds out there too, the Supplement section of a drug store will provide plenty of reading.
Good luck.

So, this morning when I could not sleep, I just got up early instead so that I could post this at 4:25 central time.

Yes, mine was the opposite of the OP; Getting plenty of sleep each night, but not realizing it was poor quality sleep for years. Went to sleep doctor due to snoring bothering partners, slight obstructive apnea, enough to justify surgery to correct, fixed, then a couple years later, not fixed. Went to sleep doctor again about 10 years later, this time obstructive apnea a lot worse, event once per minute, continuously, O2 a lot lower than in past. Got on CPAP machine, thankfully. virtually silent (unlike in past), and eliminates snoring. Getting much better sleep, not drowsy on relatively short drives like in past. But need to lug it when traveling, visiting anywhere, and if I ever bike tour again, I need big lithium battery AND a place to charge it every couple of days.

Look up Biphasic sleep. I think that's what I've had all my life and I don't fight it. It's not a problem now that I'm retired.
When camping I'll even get up and have coffee or tea then go back to sleep for another 3-4 hours.
I really enjoy being up in the wee hours. So peaceful. Time to read and just be.

Sounds like many of us have similar sleep habits. I've attempted a few natural solutions with no success, my family has gone to sleep therapists with little success.
I believe it is an age thing and that's why many older people are grumpy.
I just finished a week off from work and slept a little longer. For an unknown reason I had fewer bathroom trips. Same coffee habits and diet.
Today is my first day back at work and I slept ok, but was awake earlier for no good reason

It is 3:57 am here. NTTAWWT

3:30 still counts as last night.

There is that, too. I wonder if I should bring some tubing.