re: Anyone have a “fix” for insomnia?

Mirtazipine works well but causes a good bit of weight gain which is counterproductive to the sleep apnea. The waking up with anxiety may be an event of sleep apnea, usually sleep apnea raises stress hormones, can cause the wake up and the heart racing. Also the second half the night is your REM sleep where sleep apnea is usually more prevalent. If you haven’t had a sleep study I would recommend. There are other options like a dental appliance or CPAP in the interim of your weight loss journey. Not all sleep apnea resolves with Zepbound but does help with severity. From an insomnia perspective, stop clock watching. It’s hard but there is a certain anxiety from knowing what time it is and how much sleep you have left. Good luck!

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How’s that work? Do you have a certain window you’re in bed, then up?

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You pick an anchor time to wake up. Mine is 6:45am. And you limit your sleep to six/seven hours for about 4 days. Then increase the window by thirty minutes every 3–4 days. I’m borderline exhausted right now, but it’s the first time I’ve slept thru the night in consecutive days for awhile. If you want I can pull up the doctors notes.

Yea if you could summarize or whatever. Honestly 6-7 hours of solid sleep sounds golden

Please have the same awake and out of bed time on weekdays and weekends

Limit the time in bed until your sleep problem improves, in other words, don't go to bed until you're tired. You can
then gradually increase the time you spend in bed by going to bed 15 minutes earlier every few days until your
spending about 7-8 hours in bed.

Limit caffeine and no caffeine after 12 pm.

Limit bright light exposure in the evenings and limit screen time, especially 1 hour prior to bed time.

Wind down before going to bed by reading a boring book outside of the bedroom.

Progressive muscle relaxation can also help. For instructions, please go to the following website: https://
www.law.berkeley.edu/files/Progressive_Muscle_Relaxation.pdf

Guided meditation can often help. For free online resources for guided meditation, please check out the following
website: LINK

Wait until you are sleepy, before going to bed.

If you are not able to fall asleep in 15-20 minutes, then leave the bedroom and read the boring book until sleepy, and
then try to go to bed again. Repeat as necessary, until you fall asleep with 15-20 mintues.

Make sure you wake up at
the same time in the morning.
If you wake up and can't fall back to sleep within 15-20 minutes, get out of bedroom and read boring book until sleepy.

No naps during the day.

Please get adequate outdoor light exposure (direct sun exposure not necessary).

Please exercise daily and stay active.

Please keep a sleep log so you can keep track of progress

Melatonin works for me.

Find a MNRI therapist near you. There is something internal that is causing you to wake and creating anxiety. MNRI deals with those types of things.

Go camping...
Science Direct Study Article


My dad, who is a legit insomniac, has been using camping for 25 years to help treat his.

Here's what works for me and it's relatively easy:

1 - walk for at least 30 minutes daily and after a couple of weeks increase to 60 minutes every day - nice normal pace, walk with a purpose - not speed walking and not leisurely - 3-4 mph - get some good comfortable, cushioned, walking shoes - Brooks, HOKA, Saucony, etc. Do this 6-7 days every week.

2 - start taking 5g of creatine every day and after 2 weeks, increase to 10g - 2 doses of 5g - the sleep benefits of creatine are well documented and the increase to 10g will give you deep REM sleep.

Good luck.

10 - 4 is six hours, i'd love to average that much sleep.