Giving up coffee...to sleep through the night???

Jenny_Rose77

Hello! Ok guys, I am just desperate. I have not slept through the night in years. My sleep got really bad when I was pregnant and when my son was little, but he is 17 months old now and has been sleeping through the night for 9 months! I want to sleep through the night too!!

I have been eating really clean for at least the past few months. I did nearly 30 days of nearly Whole 30 (I allowed myself cream, butter, and bacon that has added sugar). If it is my diet that is messing up my sleep (and it probably is), I can only think of a few things it might be. The first suspect is coffee. I really don't want to give up my coffee. I have it once a day, now with coconut milk. After that, the only ideas I have are that maybe I'm eating too much fruit (sugar!) or eating too late. I often don't have dinner until 8 (which is when my husband usually gets home from work).

Has anyone on here eaten extremely clean and still had trouble sleeping? What worked for you? Did anyone give up coffee and still have crappy sleep? Any thoughts or advice sincerely welcome.

PS: I tried that magnesium supplement (Natural Calm) for nearly a month. That did nothing to help either...

PPS: My food diary is open and pretty accurate. This past week around Memorial Day weekend I fell off the wagon briefly and didn't record much, but otherwise, going back through the months, I'd say I was strict about recording everything.

SteamClutch

Just me on this but I listened to a podcast that made a lot of sense so I will share it. We get really concerned with what's going in out bodies but forget what we put on them or what we are exposed to. I get 6 to 7 hours every night unless something gets me up (like going to the bathroom or a loud noise) and then it is all over for me. I recently stopped using a heavily scented body wash (not natural) and something changed now I am getting deeper sleep and I still drink coffee but only in the mornings. I cannot remember the whole scenario the speaker was talking about but a lot of the scents in those are not good for us and absorb immediately into out bodies. May be worth a look...

Jenny_Rose77

Thanks, Clutch! I actually tried using a homemade coconut milk soap & shampoo today. We'll see how it goes tonight.

Anyone else have a suggestion? Am I the only one who struggles with sleep or do most just kind of suck it up and deal with sleep deprivation?

Edited to add that in the meantime, I'm weaning myself down on the coffee. Plan is to sub one tablespoon of decaf for caf each day until I'm down to decaf. Stick to decaf for a few days, then quit. (Eek!!)

SteamClutch

Today was an exception for me and I had a few cups of coffee but I generally only have one and only in the mornings maybe a tea (non-caffeinated) later in the morning. Having been a coca cola junkie for years I tend to stay away from most caffeinated foods stuff.

It took a few days for the sleep to get deeper so if it is associated with things you were soaking in do not be surprised I am using plain old Ivory soap now and it was all I had ever used for most my life until about 5 years ago.

HaggisWhisperer

I wouldn't say I had "crappy" sleep (at least not often), but I would say my pattern of sleep has changed since having children. I used to be a really deep sleeper and sleep through the night, but since having children I am a much lighter sleeper and often wake up a couple of times during the night and just go back to sleep again. Kids getting up to go to the loo or noises outside will usually wake me as well - pre children I slept through the gas company digging up the road outside the house at 3am to fix an emergency leak! DD1 slept through at about age 2 (used to wake up once during the night) and DD2 woke about 3 times a night until she was 3 (she is 7 now so has been sleeping through for a long time). I'm not sure if in part being a mother just changes how you sleep?

justaspoonfulofsugar

Funny,having kids seemed to have the opposite affect on me.I would hear if my son woke up but as he has rarely woken up since he was 10 months old,I am not worried.
At the moment,I am sleeping a good solid 8 hours.I wake up with the desire to pee,but stay in bed and just wait.My day starts at 5am and I don't want to waste anytime getting up for the toilet.
One thing I have found that really disrupts my sleep is my phone.
If I needed an alarm,I would have it in my room..being connected to wifi,email,etc..sometimes the phones light will wake me in the middle of the night.I find I do best when I put my phone on airplane mode.
As for the coffee,I have never been one to drink it past noon.If it was a problem,I would scale it back and not drink it past 10am..some people are very caffeine sensitive and any amount can disrupt the sleep,no matter what time it's at.
Also,have you tried Mark Sisson's guide for sleeping better?Turning off all electronics at least an hour before bed,closing the curtains,creating a positive sleep environment?I read recently that the lack of darkness in a room can compromise your sleep.
Hope you are able to find some solutions soon.Having suffered insomnia for many years,I know how awful and frustrating it can be

Dragonwolf

Funny,having kids seemed to have the opposite affect on me.I would hear if my son woke up but as he has rarely woken up since he was 10 months old,I am not worried.
At the moment,I am sleeping a good solid 8 hours.I wake up with the desire to pee,but stay in bed and just wait.My day starts at 5am and I don't want to waste anytime getting up for the toilet.
One thing I have found that really disrupts my sleep is my phone.
If I needed an alarm,I would have it in my room..being connected to wifi,email,etc..sometimes the phones light will wake me in the middle of the night.I find I do best when I put my phone on airplane mode.
As for the coffee,I have never been one to drink it past noon.If it was a problem,I would scale it back and not drink it past 10am..some people are very caffeine sensitive and any amount can disrupt the sleep,no matter what time it's at.
Also,have you tried Mark Sisson's guide for sleeping better?Turning off all electronics at least an hour before bed,closing the curtains,creating a positive sleep environment?I read recently that the lack of darkness in a room can compromise your sleep.
Hope you are able to find some solutions soon.Having suffered insomnia for many years,I know how awful and frustrating it can be

I became a feather-light sleeper after my son was born, as well. I used to be able to sleep pretty soundly at night, and not much would wake me, but now? Sometimes I can hear when he gets out of bed (not door opening/closing, his feet landing on the floor!). He's four now, and though it took forever to get him to sleep through the night, he's been doing it for a while now. So, I can sympathize with HaggisWhisperer, especially.

It's that light sleeping that makes having a phone in my room really problematic, but we use it for music and have to keep them with us in case something happens with work (ah, the joys of working in tech, 24/7 on-call...). Thankfully, the model we have has a "quiet time" option, that keeps notifications from sounding and the phone from ringing unless it's someone that I've whitelisted, and I can deal with the light/LED by turning it face-down or turning the LED off entirely.

Howbouto

I strongly recommend a sleep mask. I never realized how crappy I slept until I started using one. We are not meant to have all the ambient light we get. Another option is covering all light sources and investing in black out shades. I choose the sleep mask, it took me about 2 weeks to get used to it, but now I have to have it.

Jenny_Rose77

I strongly recommend a sleep mask. I never realized how crappy I slept until I started using one. We are not meant to have all the ambient light we get. Another option is covering all light sources and investing in black out shades. I choose the sleep mask, it took me about 2 weeks to get used to it, but now I have to have it.

^^Which sleep mask do you use? I have one from when I delivered in the hospital. It helps a little when going to sleep, but it seems to fall off in the middle of the night. Another one I bought was totally uncomfortable. Any brand you recommend?

Also, thank you everyone for all the suggestions! I am seriously going to try everything. Ha!

justaspoonfulofsugar

I can't believe I forgot..
My best friend suffers with severe insomnia in the winter due to her s.a.d
I did some research for her and came across a book called potatoes not prozac..
The basics,eat a potato before bed,no protein with it but butter is fine..
It completely took away the s.a.d and stopped the insomnia
It might be an idea to have a look at the book.

justaspoonfulofsugar

I strongly recommend a sleep mask. I never realized how crappy I slept until I started using one. We are not meant to have all the ambient light we get. Another option is covering all light sources and investing in black out shades. I choose the sleep mask, it took me about 2 weeks to get used to it, but now I have to have it.

My 7 year old has been sleeping with one since he was 4 and he doesn't have the same sleep if he doesn't have it.

sportyredhead01

I used to have awful sleep issues (no kids but I used to walk into things and wake up all the time) and I was given one of those white noise sound machines by a nurse friend who swore by the thing. It works great for blocking out distractions...if distractions tend to be the problem, I'd highly recommend it.

Also, if I have more than 2 cups of coffee, I will wake up in the middle of the night in a soaking cold sweat...like soaking through the bedsheets sweat...so I *try* to limit my coffee intake to one only then skip a few days a week. That has seemed to help me a lot.

Good luck to you.

butterbear1980

Sorry I am just now seeing this! I had horrible sleep problems. Waking at 2 and not being able to go back to sleep; it was awful. I eat really well too and suspected something was up with my adrenal glands. I had a whole laundry list of other problems that had crept up on me in the last year including low libido, waking at 2, gained 30# in a year, cranky/moody and kind of crazy blood work. This was all pretty scary because I eat really well and didn't know what to change. I did strict AIP for a month and was sleeping and had returned labido in the first week, normal energy, bm, better mood by week three. I have since gone back to 'primal' and found the two things I am sensitive to are coffee and chocolate oh and nuts and coconut manna. I think the coffee and excessive life change/stress all combined with weaning our littlest just whacked my body out; hopefully I'll be able to enjoy coffee chocolate and nuts again someday. I hate to tell you to give up your coffee, but sadly I had to cut it out. I tried reintroduction with decaf and I was wide awake at 2am the next day. Crazy!! Also during AIP I didn't just cut things out but added lots of good stuff in sardines,liver,kraut, pro biotic,digestive enzyme. Oh and I uppped my carbs too. I realized my symptoms had all gotten worse sense going low carb. So, I made a lot of changes hard to say for sure if it was the coffee, looking back I should have made changes more slowly so I'd know for sure but I was at the end of my rope with frustration!

Akimajuktuq

Diet changed a lot for me in regards to sleep, but I still drink lots of coffee. I am a slow sleeper, and had trouble getting any deep sleep. As an adult, and before Paleo lifestyle, sleep apnea became severe enough as to be life threatening.

Other factors that affect sleep IMMENSELY are light and EMFs. Seriously, eliminate light from your bedroom and especially eliminate things that emit blue light right before bed. Also most CFL bulbs emit the blue light so get something else to use in the bedroom, such as a warm white incandescent or LED light. TV and computer screens (including smartphones) are the worst. I also won't use digital clocks because they light up the room. I live with 24 hr sunlight right now and my room is not completely black but as close as I can get it. I watch tv in the bedroom too but would stop if my sleep were affected or if I didn't have so much time to devote to sleep (8-10 hours per night). When the body doesn't produce melatonin all kinds of very bad things start to happen (most notably, cancer).

EMFS are a more difficult issue to address. Just start researching it. Even though I can't eliminate all of them, I choose to have no wifi network in my house and refuse to use things like fitbit on my body. Just by living in the Arctic my EMF load is substantially less.

Howbouto

Sorry I just looked at it again, I use the one from Brookstone. I was pricey but 5 years later it is still kicking. My falls off mid night but I typically find and put it back on, but I don't like it super tight. You can make it as tight as you like.

http://www.brookstone.com/NapForm-Eye-Mask?bkeid=compare|mercent|googlebaseads|search&mr:trackingCode=DA38F426-EE8C-DE11-9EF7-0019B9C2BEFD&mr:referralID=NA&mr:device=c&mr:adType=pla&mr:ad=20923705044&mr:keyword=&mr:match=&mr:filter=48899812044&gclid=CNae0rja6L4CFQcSMwodelwAGA