Sleep issues - what works best for you ?

so my journey is ongoing

generally, my Lyme and Bart symptoms have been improving now for around 18mths - but very slowly.

my treatment is basically a comprehensive protocol of Buhner Lyme herbs based on his healing Lyme 2nd edition book with a lot of additions for specifics like neuroinflammation, immune support etc.
also, i am gradually increasing a combination of co-infection herb tinctures - including CSA, Houttuynia, Teasel, Berberis,

added to this - and just as important in my view are
-diet modifications - ketogenic paleo whole food diet - 3 meals a day in a 10hrs window
-exercise - walking 4miles a day - plus strength training
-stress reduction
-sleep

together these things have definitely done more for my progress than 12 months of antibiotics combinations - and i am really encouraged with the progress so far - especially in the last 2 months where I have added LDN to my regime

for sleep, i'm doing everything i can to get 8hrs a night - but rarely succeeding.
i have noticed that every time I do get near 8hrs for a couple of nights in a row - I feel so much better and my health and functionality take another little step forward - so all the signs are that better sleep would really help me move forward.

i have a pretty good sleep hygiene routine :

-regular bedtime of 10-15pm each night
-cold room,
-warm duvet
-no screen for 1hrs before bed - and all screen are on nightime mode ( low blue light mode) after dark
-some form of excercise every day
-try to get natural sunlight for at least 45mins in the first half of the day

i have tried dozens of supplements and herbs with very little seeming to have any beneficial effect.
the two i am sticking with at the moment are
1mg of melatonin 1hrs before bed - seem to get a slight benefit from this - though possibly a slightly hungover feeling in the morning too
L-theanine - 250mg 1hrs before bed - again seems calming and easier to go off

mainly i go off OK - but wake early and have trouble going back off to sleep again when i do
my mind is not racing or worrying or anything - my body simply feels awake and too uncomfortable to sleep

i do not really want to take prescription sleep meds if i can help it - as i worry about the issues of dependence and messing with my already messed up system.

i know early awakening is v common with Lyme
so what else have people here found benefit from


many thanks for your input in advance!

Essential oils help me with sleep. I find that a few drops of frankincense, peppermint, and lavender on a handkerchief by my pillow really help me fall and stay asleep. It's not the most powerful solution, but it's another idea for you.

Are you sensitive to electricity at all, or wifi? Some people turn off their wifi routers at night, keep their phones in another room (or at least four feet from the bed), or even power down the whole house at night, depending on their levels of sensitivity.

Any chance you are ingesting something stimulating close to bedtime - cacao nibs, coffee, chocolate, an adaptogen that affects you in a stimulating way, B vitamins? A lot of adaptogens that chill other people out amp me up, but it sounds like you have been using your herbal regimen for a while and would have noticed that effect by now. Just thought I'd mention it in case anything is new.

I'm also trying to figure out a sleep disruption pattern right now. A few days ago, I had eight tiny cacao nibs in a smoothie for breakfast, and that night I slept very little. That's how sensitive I am to caffeine these days! Ever since, my sleep pattern is off because of that night. Time to break out my essential oils, I guess.

Not sleeping well can be so frustrating!

After reading the book Breath by James Nestor, I’ve been taping my mouth. No more dry mouth and unrefreshing, interrupted sleep due to mouth breathing all night. A game-changer.

Would highly recommend the book, fascinating.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/b076cq1nr8?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

The other things that help are simple ones. I go to bed at 10:30pm every day and get up at 6am every day. No coffee past 12 noon (half-life of caffeine is 5 hrs, so there will still be 25% in your body by 10pm), and i use a blue lamp every morning to help my circadian cycle.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/b07mxzgpxw/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=utf8&psc=1

Inositol and taurine are supposed to help sleep too. I havent tried them, nor do i use supplements outside of magensium for sleep. By far the two biggest game changers have been going to bed at the same time every day, and taping my mouth.

Post Edited (dcd2103) : 1/21/2021 1:30:43 PM (GMT-7)

Sleep has been a challenge for me too. I fall asleep but wake up every few hours for bathroom trips and or back discomfort issues. Lyme infected my bladder and created an urgency condition when I have to urinate. Sometimes I make it to the 4 hour point of solid sleep and then only lightly after that. U Tube has tons of guided sleep meditations and hypnotic sleep videos. They have been a blessing for me.

Deep_sleep said...
You already seem to do a lot of great things for sleep.
I can recommend something like an Oura ring to measure your sleep (in flight mode)
https://www.ouraring.com

Some things you can try:
Not eating 3 hours before bedtime.
Make the bedroom darker if you wake up because of light in the morning.
Short muscle relaxation exercise in bed.
Not taking treatment later in the day. This messes up my sleep a lot, so I only take them early in the day.
Earthing. A lot of people notice better sleep after this. I don’t do it that much now, but when I did more I had 7 days in a row without waking up to go the bathroom.
Tape your mouth at night.
Wear an eye mask.

I take liposomal melatonin and a tablet with l-theanine and lemon balm a while before bed.

It can be hard with Lyme and sleep as there can be so many factors that affect it.

My REM sleep has been low lately.

thanks for all the tips Deep,

i would love one of those ora rings - shiny
but at the moment i am being careful on spending as i am not sure when i can be earning again - in any case i'm pretty clear on how much or little i am sleeping as i am fully awake when i should be sleeping.

i generally do not eat past around 6-30pm also - so this has been constant
dark mornings at the moment - so no issue there - does trouble me a bit in the summer though
i have tried mindfulness meditations in the afternoon or just before bed for around a month as a trial - but despite all the good things its supposed to do for us I didn't really find any actual impact to sleep duration

Garzie said...

mainly i go off OK - but wake early and have trouble going back off to sleep again when i do
my mind is not racing or worrying or anything - my body simply feels awake and too uncomfortable to sleep

I know that wakenings during certain times during the night can be related to a liver that is full of toxins etc. When do you wake up? I used to go to bed about 11 pm and wake up around 3 am a lot before. My mind was racing, so I got up and read some and took more melatonin.
How is your detox?

I recently started using my Oura ring again and its quite nice to see that I just had 1 h 48 min of deep sleep and 2 h 1 min the night before I decided to use the nick Deep_sleep as I was reading so many sleep books then, and to remind myself how important good sleep is to get better.

Garzie said...

liver issues - possible - i have pain/discomfort in that area and that is often a bit stronger when i wake in the early hours - but my liver function tests came back pretty good last week - nothing outside the range - maybe one enzyme a little high - but still inside the normal range.

I had the same with falling asleep easily and then waking up to pee and couldn’t fall asleep. Something is definitely off, but it's hard to say, what that is. I have never taken any liver tests, but that seems to be a strong tell.

Garzie said...

-i take hot long Epsom Salt baths every few days also

That seems very little and could be one of the reasons. I don’t know how we would have survived without our ir-sauna. I go often one day, and max two days a week without doing any detox. I often do multiple per day. Mixing between sauna, Epsom foot baths, oil pulling, and dry skin brushing. That is with me taking Argentyn 23 once a week and quercetin for MCAS, and no other treatment, except for using my massage gun and low levels laser therapy.
Maybe increasing detox methods could help?
NAC, glutathione, milk thistle are great, but I have noticed that I need do to a lot of detox methods also to function well.

My girlfriend also just said that castor oil packs might help. I have never done them myself but she had a lot of help from that.

Post Edited (Deep_sleep) : 1/28/2021 11:13:50 AM (GMT-7)

I've read that taurine + inositol can be quite good at calming you down before bed. Some people try huge doses of inositol, like 10g. I plan on trying 2g + taurine tonight, see what happens.

Girlie said...
I haven’t read all the posts ... but what helped me was Valerian root.

It helped me get to sleep and I’d get a few hours.

thansk Girlie

i have tried it a few times - as a tincture - one of the many things u have tried in teh past for this - i found a very very mild calming effect possibly helped to get off to sleep easier - but didn't seem to help with the early awakening. at the moment i usually fall asleep pretty easily after 15mins of an audiobook novel - but i have some tincture still and may try it again for a week in case i find different now.

what form( tablet/ tincture/ tea etc ) and how much did you find worked for you?

thanks, Astroman

no nicotine habit here - a little coffee one - but try to limit to small dose and early inteh day

i take 750mg of Mag citrate morning and evening - and have a v mild relaxing effect in my muscles ( less tension/tightness ) from it i think.

good to hear another vote for Valerian - what form / dose worked for you?

Melatonin used to work somewhat bt gave me lucid dreams and I felt groggier when waking up in the am. By far the most effective thing I've found for sleep like a baby is magnesium

OK so, so far i have a list of things i am going to try next

- Valerian tincture - i have some and there are v few downsides so will give it a go for a week or so
-TUDCA in case it helps the liver area pain / pressure i have that can sometimes add to my issues at night
- melatonin - 1mg when i wake - just to see if it helps me sleep again - does tend to make me a bit groggy

things i am interested to learn a bit more about
-mouth taping = didn't even know this was a thing!
-hot cold shower / bath thing experiements- my partner works very early shifts and is in bed at 8pm - the shower is en-suite which makes showering before bed a bit tricky - but interested to learn more
-Benadryl = poss one of the safer pharma drugs - may look into it further

have tried in the past 12 months and not found any benefit
-5000IU methyl B12 tried for 2 months - no change i could detect in any symptoms
-changing the time of evening meal - don't tend to eat past 6-30/7pm - bed 10-30 - but if i do it doesn't seem to make a difference
-L-ornithine - again tried for around 2 weeks before bed 2000 to 3000mg - no discernable change
-wild lettuce - again tried in capsule form - no difference
-Magnolia bark extract - poss a v slight effect at high doses - but not significant
-Meditation - tried mindfulness meditations and for 1 month religiously - no change to early wakening


thanks all for the inputs - i will update if i find anything helpful that might help others