Sleep
Showing only #5206 and its comments.
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Adhere to standard sleep hygiene. That will help you fall asleep in a reasonable time (<30mins?) and get a healthy 7-8 hours.
On days when I have extensively exercised, worked, socialized or all of the above, my trouble falling asleep seems largely unchanged. (It still often takes ~2 hours, without chemical intervention.)
If I had a large dinner only two hours before attempting sleep, the trouble to fall asleep seems about the same as if I have an empty stomach, or any other degree of fullness on that continuum.
Diet isn't ruled out just by comparing a large dinner with an empty stomach before bed.
You've said that you often put off eating and struggle to eat as much as you intend to. If you're regularly under-eating or going long stretches without food, that may be keeping adrenaline and cortisol elevated into the evening, making it harder to wind down, fall asleep and stay asleep.
That could also explain why you're physically tired but still mentally alert and able to keep working at night.
Good reasoning. But I don't go long stretches without eating (no more than 4 or 5 hours), and my weight is stable (or growing, depending on goals), so I can't be undereating in general.
From 10:27 onwards, this video goes over a variety of diet related elements that affect sleep. Might be useful.
On days where I have not looked at a screen at all, my trouble falling asleep is the same.
This doesn't rule out blue light from other sources disturbing your ability to wind down and fall asleep.
True, I have a lamp that is warm in color, but probably still has some blue in it. I'll consider looking into redder lamps. I still suspect mental stuff is the main issue.
I suspect the issue is mental, because I sometimes feel tired getting into bed, then immediately feel progressively less tired, the longer I am in bed. The tiredness sometimes comes and goes, over the course of maybe one or two hours, before sleep comes. This suggests to me that my thinking is causing my wakefulness. I have observed this effect for as long as I can remember.
Becoming progressively less tired is compatible with physiological causes, such as those I mention in #5241.
When this happens, the advice is to get out of bed and do something else (without bright or blue light) for a while.
Have done. Does not seem to have a strong effect on the "timer." Still may take an hour to fall sleep after getting back into bed. As if a certain amount of time in bed (certain amount of suffering, or punishment?) needs to pass before sleep will come.
