Thanks Steph for posting about GABA. I'm intrigued because I've had issues with insomnia and racing thoughts all my life, depression too when I was younger. And I notice that it makes a huge difference for me when I'm really relaxed before bed. My hope is that the tablets might work to relax the body and muscles, and that might help me relax my head.
But this article on GABA also mentioned that right now it's popular among bodybuilders, who take it before working out because it is thought to increase HGH. Which kinda freaks me out and makes me pause. It sounds like bodybuilders are taking very high doses however.
Now I'm intrigued by the GABA too, since insomnia is an increasingly frequent issue for me.
Well, my plan was to just take GABA on the nights when I'm having a hard time winding down. Melatonin is still my mainstay for insomnia, but it doesn't always work.
I think I can start thinking of Spring as something nearby. The sun is still mostly up when I get off work, and it's quite bright when I get up to go to work. Ah, light.
I need to read the GABA article, although racing thoughts is explicitly not an issue for me. I get a visceral muscle-lockup sort of anxiety, but I'm pretty good at smoothing out what's going/ on in my noggin.
Speaking of insomnia, there was an article the other day about how some historians have discovered evidence that in earlier times people would sleep two distinct sleep-cycles per night, with a one-to-two-hour break in the middle. During which they would... I dunno. Hang out, eat, have sex?
I don't recall where I saw it, but it might help me deal with the occasional night where I wake up at 2 am and end up listening to podcasts until 3:30 or so...
On-guard shifts? It would make sense from certain historical perspectives.
I've heard about that from a number of sources: the idea of first sleep and second sleep. Apparently, the time between was very productive (meant non-euphemistically) for a lot of people. ISTR Jefferson being cited on that.
Isn't there some traditional middle-of-the-night (or, early morning, depending on how you think of it) prayer time for some Christian monks? Not sure why I think that.
During which they would... I dunno. Hang out, eat, have sex?
According to the book I read about it, yeah, pretty much. It was called...something with Sleep in the title. Helpfulness, I haz it.
[eta: That said, I'm not sure the idea of first sleep / second sleep is so much relevant to modern day insomnia, though, because people used to go to bed a lot earlier. It's not like they were staying up to watch The Daily Show back on the savannah.]
