I can only sleep for 2 hours. What helps Intermittent Sleep?

I drink late in the afternoon whole milk and sour cherry juice. I go for tryptophan and melatonin in foods and drinks thru the day, but esp in the afternoon. At bedtime, I put a full cup of valerian tea by the bed. I fall asleep instantly, but awaken in the middle of the night; the tea is to drink then, to fall asleep again. Valerian seems to activate GABA, but I don't know.

I do focus on adenosine. Antagonists of adenosine incl coffee, so I stop drinking it mid-day. The idea is to have higher levels at bedtime, exhaust them thru the nite, and awaken with them pretty depleted (so as to be alert). Best adenosine agonist (promoter) is exercise, esp later in the day!

Just in the last week, I started eating a little food just before bedtime. And I'm sleeping longer segments, but this may just be chance; I have no idea.

In the middle of the night, I sometimes read my phone for news/emails. I know that violates a melatonin rule. I think adenosine cycle is more important than the melatonin cycle; I know my dogs agree, as they can sleep thru lights at nite or broad daylight during day. So I've long opened only one eye to read--I don't know, but maybe that helps!

Oh, yes, I take magnesium, B1, B12, and D3 at bedtime. The magnesium may help with sleep; the others prob not.

And I never get up during my waking interval. As long as my pulse is near night time levels of 47-53, I stay in bed, unworried and not anxious about falling asleep again. Last nite, my pulse was low, but I got up and mixed some no-knead sourdough bread dough; I returned to bed, fell asleep in a few minutes, and slept soundly until 5 am--a PR over the past 3 yrs when my sleep probs really emerged!

Peace.

Have you tried sleeping on your side? with all the pillows for side sleep ? sometimes this is better for me.

yeah ok

I find no support whatsoever online for what I'm about to write, but here goes. I've attended to sleep hygiene--no coffee after 1 pm, turn the phone and computer screens to nonblue light after 5 or 6 pm, a glass of milk or sour cherry juice before going to bed, and a cup of valerian tea by the bed to drink when I awaken, as I invariably do, in the middle of the night. (I fall asleep routinely after strenuous exercise during the day, but haven't tried that just before bedtime to see if that would work.)

All these things have helped--maybe the valerian tea most dramatically.

But here's the weird thing. I normally eat breakfast at 6 am (2-3 hrs after I've awoken for the day), lunch at 10-noon (sometimes a second lunch around 1 or 2 if the first is early and light), and dinner from 3-5 pm. I go to bed around 7 to 8 pm. About a week ago, circumstances forced me to eat a moderate dinner around 7 pm and immediately go to bed. I slept great!! The first segment was 5 good hrs, and the second was 2.5 hrs. I've eaten something, not much, just before bed each day since, and I've been sleeping better.

At this point, I don't have enough data points to find even a correlation, let alone a causal relationship. But I'm going to continue this practice and see how it goes and thought I'd offer it for whatever, if anything, that it's worth!!

Peace.

thanks ! it is helpful to learn others experience. i have always been a night person. i can sleep well in daylight. i thought i might sleep well i China, but wow the nightmares were intense there.
i often wonder about what can interfere with sleep that is not commonly discussed. like dreams, bad dreams, intense dreams. or Spirits , maybe something less known. maybe just some people become easy to wake up.
so i will try valerian tea with a snack.

When I first suffered a sudden array of neurological problems in early 2021, I had narcolepsy-like naps. No cataplexy, but vivid dreams at the instant of falling asleep--sometimes an instant before, like, I suppose, hallucinations. Not haunting. Funny. Sometimes, when I fell asleep reading a book, I dreamed/hallucinated that I was still reading the book, making up the content, but in the author's style! Weird, I know.

About a yr ago, I stimulated myself out of these narco naps. Changing chairs to a hard uncomfortable chair at the time of the morning nap and taking a dip in the pool, even in cold water, at the time of the afternoon nap.

I still nap, but not often. They are brief, like the old narco naps, but not as refreshing. They occur always immediately after strenuous exercise--I'm assuming it's a bolus of adenosine in response to the exercise.

After a bout of very short sleep--some nites only 2 or 3 hrs, most nites less than 6--I transitioned into better sleep. I've always slept in segments, but I'm now getting around 4-5 hrs 1st segment and 1-2 hrs second segment. I'm in my mid 70s, so 5 or 6 hrs sleep is ok, esp since I take it easy when not exercising hard.

I've noticed two diffs with my sleep now. Before, whenver I woke up, I was alert, not fatigued, and ready to proceed thru the day w/o any fatigue. Now, I welcome a feeling of drowsiness when I awaken for the day. Maybe I"m getting back in a more normal sleep cycle? Tho I still go to bed at 7 or 8 and awaken for the day anywhere from 3 am on!

I've noticed also that my dreams perform their old role of incorporating something I've said or I've seen or something someone else has said to me. Not the crazy irrational stuff like in the first yr after the onset of my strange illness. More like they are integrating my experience into my memory, which maybe is also coming around.

For me, sleep is linked to my mild cognitive impairment--mainly, difficulty performing sequential thinking, inattentiveness, poor memory. I'm not sure how, but maybe adenosine or adenosine triphosphate, an important element involving mitochondria but also a neurotransmitter of the sympathetic nervous system.

I've covered a lot. I THINK it applies to me, but it may not apply to anyone else. I hope it helps.