The healthier I get, the less I sleep!

[CrazyHelloDeli]

About 6 months ago I made a huge lifestyle change. I stopped eating fast food entirely, and now eat nothing but healthy foods. I stopped drinking caffeine and sugary drinks, I exercise every week day for and hour to an hour and a half cardio or weights(Lost 37 pounds so far).

The problem is, I cannot sleep! I am up until about 3:00-4:00am every night and wake up at 7:00 to get to work at 8:30. Oddly I am not tired or sleepy during the day, in fact I feel energized throughout. I do take Zoloft and Tofranil but I have been on them for years and they have never caused any side effects. Could it be that because I am healthier and my brain chemistry has changed to such an extent, I am now getting side effects? Is this even a problem if I feel fine? I sure get more reading done, but I don't want this to lead to problems down the road if I ignore it.

Thanks

 

[Mikey]

It sounds like you might be over training your body. The same goes for me. I have the habit of getting some sort of high intensity exercise daily for at least 2 hours, but that causes me to have sleepless nights like you do. My advice is to work out early in the day rather than later and don't eat past 8pm. Because your metabolism is now very high, do things to prevent them from staying high during the night. Just my 2 cents.

 

[brikis98]

I know nothing about zoloft, tofranil or any other drugs and that's something you'll probably want to check with a doctor about. however, I agree with Mikey's post: this post otherwise sounds a lot like overtraining. If your lifestyle went from very little activity quickly to a lot of daily exercise, your body may be having trouble keeping up with recovery. This slowly builds up and after a while, you may experience the numerous symptoms of overtraining, one of which is difficulty falling asleep. There are many other symptoms that you can read about here as well as several methods for helping you "measure" whether you are or aren't overtraining.

However, here's a really simple way to find out: stop exercising, completely, for 4-5 days. You may feel guilty skipping workouts, but it's healthier this way. Keep your physical activity to a minimum during this time, rest, eat well and relax. If it's overtraining, after a few days, you should recover. After that, restart your exercising, but build in a little more rest, such as an extra day or two off per week.

 

[Mikey]

I've taken Zoloft before. It's an anti-depressant, and boy did it give me a LOT of side effects. Sleeplessness was one of them, as well as the jitters, being unable to have a hard on, loss of appetite, and loss of interest in everything. I got rid of all my anti-depressants after I became an avid exerciser. It's the more natural approach for a "feel good" effect.

 

[ibex333]

I second Mikey's post. I have taken Zoloft and many other antidepressants in the past. I got nothing but harm out of this. The side effects were horrible. I am now trying to live a healthy lifestyle, and so far I was able to live without drugs. I also have trouble sleeping at night, but I am improving in that department. Give it some time and you'll be fine. Don't go overboard with your exercising, as with everything else it's only good in moderation. Also, do yourself a favor, and get off all meds, and don't take any stimulants like coffee.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I was at 4 hours a night when I was 18/19.

As Mikey said, make sure you don't work out too close to bed time and don't eat anything after 6pm rather than 8pm. Aside from that, maybe look into getting a noisemaker in your bedroom...something that makes whitenoise. I added an air filter to my room recently and it's helped me sleep a lot better.