Any way to deal with sleep deprivation?

[SeekingLife]

Hey all, 

Just wondering if anyone has had success, or done anything, in regards to coping with symptoms that arise from lack of sleep. Currently, I'm in school, and I really can't afford to be bombing exams and missing assignments as well as skipping classes in pursuit of enough sleep. This also worries me for the future as it severely undercuts my ability to do many careers that I've been interested in my entire life. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[K.B.Fante]

There's lots of posts about sleep here. Many struggle with insomnia. I went through an intense bout after benzo withdrawal where I couldn't sleep more than about four or five hours for three months straight. It pretty much destroyed by brain.

The best things I've found have been meditation, addressing whatever anxiety or substance is leading to your insomnia and then of course there are the medicinals like teas and pills that can help as well. The thing is if you don't locate the exact thing that's causing your anxiety or sleeplessness in the first place then you're not ever going to get the proper sleep you need. Eating healthy, cutting back drastically on carbs, sugars caffeine, etc., will also go a really long way to helping you feel tired at night. As far as teas and pills go, I've had tons of success with chamomile, lavender, lemon balm and some other potent sleep teas. Some magnesium at night will also help a lot. Make sure your bedroom is really dark, quiet, somewhat cold and smells good from a candle or incense or essential oil diffuser too.

If you find the root cause of your insomnia and take a holistic approach to addressing your overall sleep habits you should be able to get it under control sooner rather than later. 

[SeekingLife]

3 hours ago, K.B.Fante said:

There's lots of posts about sleep here. Many struggle with insomnia. I went through an intense bout after benzo withdrawal where I couldn't sleep more than about four or five hours for three months straight. It pretty much destroyed by brain.

The best things I've found have been meditation, addressing whatever anxiety or substance is leading to your insomnia and then of course there are the medicinals like teas and pills that can help as well. The thing is if you don't locate the exact thing that's causing your anxiety or sleeplessness in the first place then you're not ever going to get the proper sleep you need. Eating healthy, cutting back drastically on carbs, sugars caffeine, etc., will also go a really long way to helping you feel tired at night. As far as teas and pills go, I've had tons of success with chamomile, lavender, lemon balm and some other potent sleep teas. Some magnesium at night will also help a lot. Make sure your bedroom is really dark, quiet, somewhat cold and smells good from a candle or incense or essential oil diffuser too.

If you find the root cause of your insomnia and take a holistic approach to addressing your overall sleep habits you should be able to get it under control sooner rather than later. 

My bad, I phrased my original concerns poorly. As of now, I'm getting plenty of sleep and have no insomnia, but to do this I've been skipping early classes, studying less than I should, etc. What I want to do is actually be normal on low amounts of sleep like I used to, as we don't really live in a culture where an 18 year old college student can get 8-9 hours of sleep without compromising valuable time. I was just wondering if there was any way or method to function on little sleep without every HPPD-related effect blowing out of proportion.

[K.B.Fante]

22 hours ago, SeekingLife said:

My bad, I phrased my original concerns poorly. As of now, I'm getting plenty of sleep and have no insomnia, but to do this I've been skipping early classes, studying less than I should, etc. What I want to do is actually be normal on low amounts of sleep like I used to, as we don't really live in a culture where an 18 year old college student can get 8-9 hours of sleep without compromising valuable time. I was just wondering if there was any way or method to function on little sleep without every HPPD-related effect blowing out of proportion.

Ah, the naive days of being a college freshman, how I long for thee...

Some people can operate on less sleep than others but in general anything less than six hours is simply not enough, especially for those in their teens who require upwards of nine to 10 hours per night.

Sleep is when the brain repairs itself. It's also a time when new brain cells are formed. Knowing this, the simple formula "more sleep equals a healthier brain" is pretty elementary mathematics. The reason you don't do well on less sleep with HPPD is because you need more of it to heal. Ask anyone on this forum how they do on less sleep and they'll likely tell you they don't do as well as they do when they get a good night's rest. 

I hate to break it to you, but sleep isn't something that functions on credit. You can't miss out on it for weeks or months on end then just make up for it later on. Your body is like a battery: It runs in the daytime and needs recharged at night. The question you should be asking is not how you can function better on less sleep but rather how you can make more time in the day for more sleep at night. 

I know you're quite busy but trying to cheat on sleep is like trying to to force your body to take less bowel movements or drink less water or not chew your food when you eat. Some bodily processes are simply mandatory for any sort of biological organism to thrive. Sleep is one of them. Unfortunately there just aren't any exceptions when it comes to shuteye. 

[Onemorestep]

Delta sleep inducing peptide is seeming to work pretty well for me. Haven’t had any bad side effects either. Do some research on it. It’s an interesting one.