What's your favorite sleep aid/tips/tricks to improve sleep while on a climbing trip?

hotlum wrote:

Drop a couple of these in your Nalgene... TKO

I personally dislike these multi-component OTC drugs.  Most people don't know what they are ingesting.  This one has 500 mg aspirin, NSAIDs esp. aspirin not advisable for chronic use due to stomach bleeding issues.  And why add in dextromethorphan which can have lots of complicated side effects? Yes it can be sedative but can also case stimulation.  The thing in this that's making you drowsy is the antihistamine, doxylamine.

Ira OMCwrote:

In addition to all the good tips above,  try sex. 

lmao

A little toot of the devil's lettuce always does it for me. A meditation practice can also help slow your mind down. As far as staying asleep, that's a tricky one

Melatonin + ear plugs works wonders for me.

Mei pronounced as Maywrote:

I'm with you, Cat -- it is common. In my circle of friends who are into endurance sports, this is commonly experienced. I have had many of those frustrating nights. Long distance cycling (road cycling or mountain biking) tends to get one into that state more commonly. In a total exhausted state (e.g. after a 24-hour climb-a-thon), one can indeed fall asleep fast, but then she'd wake up too soon and too frequently. That's my experience anyway.

The challenge is that many energy bars/goo/etc have lots of caffeine. In my experience you can only get so hyped, but large quantities in your system can take a long time to wear off. Also with long endurance events you think sleeping the next afternoon is a good plan, but that can lead to issues the next evening.

For the OP I found that a new sleeping bag worked wonders for me. As a side sleeper all mummy bags are uncomfortable for me, I got a Nemo Disco bag which lets me roll around in the bag without getting twisted up.

As for a sleepless night ruining a climb, that’s all in your head mate. Make sure you get good sleep leading up to the trip.  IMO it’s really the sleep the nights in advance that determines the quality of your efforts.  It’s my belief that any fit person can deal with a night of restlessness with no real effect on their performance. Pretend to sleep…count to 100 and back to 1 with every breath. You likely are getting more rest than you think if you can still your mind and anxiety of not sleeping. It’s likely low grade anxiety about your performance that’s keeping you up in the first place. The Balance app have some good night time meditations that help. 

Kevin Strickerwrote:

The challenge is that many energy bars/goo/etc have lots of caffeine.

That might have been the case in the past. I used to consume those extensively during endurance events. Not much any more as I try to go with whole foods these days. 

Kevin Strickerwrote:

As for a sleepless night ruining a climb, that’s all in your head mate.

Did anyone say anything about that, mate? Kidding aside, I agree that I oftentimes surprised myself how "normal" I performed during my highly exhausting event despite very poor sleep the night(s) prior. I did wonder how "super" I would have felt if I actually had had nights of wonderful sleep. 

Again, all, thanks for sharing good information.

James Mwrote:

comfy sleep setup and 5mg Wana edibles. Enough to go to sleep, not too much to feel groggy. 

Edibles and tinctures are amazing for deep sleep, tincture being faster acting

Nick Niebuhrwrote:

A little toot of the devil's lettuce always does it for me. 

Wow, I have been using it wrong all of these years ...

Mei pronounced as Maywrote:

Thanks! I do take it at home often. However, it does not appear to prevent me from waking up frequently throughout the night, esp. when on a trip. I get the impression that there are many types of insomnia: onset (hard to fall asleep) and sleep maintenance (hard to stay asleep). Melatonin appears to help the most with the former? 

I regularly have this issue too, not necessarily on trips but just in general. I've found that the timed release melatonin capsules can help with this. They're not perfect and I still do wake up from time to time but when I take them it definitely happens less. They help more than just a normal melatonin supplement. So that may be worth a shot. 

Cut out all noise.

Get wax ear plugs.

Earplugs are too uncomfortable for me so I found an app that lets you play white noise, waves, etc on your phone. Works great imo but don’t forget to plug in. 

Hey Mei! What you tried the other day (Diphenhydramine HCL aka Benadryl) is my go to. I always keep a decent supply in my travel toiletries and find it helps me a lot to sleep on the first night (also a good thing to have around for any kind of allergic reaction in the woods). I also find trying hard and getting good and tired during the day is helpful, but there are several days right before my period where I will have trouble sleeping no matter what. Benadryl has been super helpful for me on those couple of days and tracking that stuff has been key for me to know when I'll probably need to take it or not. Good luck!

As for Benadryl (or Diphenhydramine HCL sleep aid in my case), I'm new to it. I had two nights of good, mostly uninterrupted sleep after taking them. However, on Saturday night, it did not help me while I was out camping. And that was after a long physically demanding day -- up at 4:30am, hiking/climbing from 6:30am to 9:15pm, and sleeping at 11:20pm. Despite a very quiet camping spot and very effective earplugs, despite pleasant temperature and a comfortable soft foam mattress pad underneath me, and despite taking melatonin and sleep aid, I still woke up often and slept lightly throughout the night. That said, it did not affect how I felt on Sunday as I had another very enjoyable adventurous day. 

One comment up thread caught my attention, and I Googled for association between Benadryl and dementia. The literature is abundant about it (one example; another example). That scares me. Even though I never intended to use the sleep aid long term, the strong association makes me hesitate to use the sleep aid again. 

The search for the sleep solution continues....

Mark Bwrote:

Exercise + lots of sun + staying hydrated + no screens before bed = no need for pills to sleep/stay asleep.

Melatonin is also credited. I would also recommend some powerful, sublingual Indica strains about a half hour before bed.

Sure but some people have worse insomnia for various reasons, and just general everyday wellness stuff isn't gonna solve it. That's where the tricks come in, and yeah, for me indica works but there is somewhat of a hangover the next day

Benadryl works but causes a hangover the next day, indica works too but imo causes a bit of tiredness the next day as well. Melatonin is pretty worthless for the hardcore insomniacs tbh. The prescription pills can be good but if you time it wrong you run the risk of having to get up in the morning when you feel like you're dead. I haven't found a great solution yet. But for now I smoke some flower. Also, everyone saying she should climb harder, oh how I wish it was that simple.

1:1 gummies work well for me. I've got my med card; you know, for my "joint" pain. Edibles create a more somatic high that lends itself well to somnolence.

There's an orange drink at City Market in the nootropics section called "Sleep" that works well for me on an occasional basis. It doesn't contain diphenhydramine.

Valerian root is helpful. Yes, I heard about it from watching Fight Club.

Costco has a triple layered melatonin that works a bit better for me than normal. Supposedly it has different dosages that kick in at different zones of the night as you sleep.

F r i t zwrote:

This is heart melting

Mei pronounced as Maywrote:

As for Benadryl (or Diphenhydramine HCL sleep aid in my case), I'm new to it. I had two nights of good, mostly uninterrupted sleep after taking them. However, on Saturday night, it did not help me while I was out camping. And that was after a long physically demanding day -- up at 4:30am, hiking/climbing from 6:30am to 9:15pm, and sleeping at 11:20pm. Despite a very quiet camping spot and very effective earplugs, despite pleasant temperature and a comfortable soft foam mattress pad underneath me, and despite taking melatonin and sleep aid, I still woke up often and slept lightly throughout the night. That said, it did not affect how I felt on Sunday as I had another very enjoyable adventurous day. 

One comment up thread caught my attention, and I Googled for association between Benadryl and dementia. The literature is abundant about it (one example; another example). That scares me. Even though I never intended to use the sleep aid long term, the strong association makes me hesitate to use the sleep aid again. 

The search for the sleep solution continues....

Yikes. Thanks Mei. 

I had heard about this years ago in a newspaper article, but then lost the article (hmm, is that a sign...). I had often used diphenhydramine to treat migraines, but then a doctor prescribed a different antihistamine (cypraheptadine)  as a daily preventative (which works incredibly well). However, the latter also has the same anticholinergic property as diphenhydramine, and I've been using diphenhydramine whenever my prescription lapses. Time to rethink both of those. 

Mei pronounced as Maywrote:

I feel like going to a doctor might be warranted, they definitely don't want to prescribe you pills unless they have too. Do you consider yourself an anxious person? Anxiety could be the actual problem here.

Princess Puppy Lovrwrote:

I feel like going to a doctor might be warranted, they definitely don't want to prescribe you pills unless they have too. Do you consider yourself an anxious person? Anxiety could be the actual problem here.

Many doctors get kickbacks for prescribing certain meds enough so definitely not true, in fact many are under such time constraints they just write scripts and move on to the next victim.