Former night-shift workers describe being stuck in reversed sleep cycles even after retirement. Some report better rest after switching to floor-style or firm low-profile bedding that improves airflow and back support. Others experiment with trazodone at lower split doses, magnesium, melatonin, or peptides like DSIP and Epitalon, with mixed results on grogginess and effectiveness. Lifestyle tweaks such as consistent bedtimes, morning light, reduced sugar, and avoiding screens are mentioned alongside warnings about tolerance and side effects.
What this discussion establishessome find trazodone reliable while others report it stops working or leaves them too groggy; opinions differ on whether peptides like DSIP or Epitalon provide noticeable benefits
Still openwhether any single approach can fully reset a decades-old reversed sleep cycle without ongoing trade-offs
Nothing here is advice.
Is anyone else dealing with insomnia? My sleep is poor, and I tend to sleep during daytime hours since I'm naturally up at night from years on night shifts. I don't know many other night owls, so I end up looking into all sorts of useless stuff online. 😂 Does this sound familiar to anyone?
Same here, a 4-5 am bedtime for twenty years has become a hard pattern to break even three years after retiring. I'm just going to accept it and keep the same schedule. 😆
Not a night owl myself, but my sleep has been bad for three years. My doctor refuses to prescribe anything because of addiction risk. I recently heard about DSIP peptide and already ordered Mots-C last week. 🙁
I bought a shikifuton recently and have been sleeping better than ever. My old techops job wrecked my schedule. I suggest focusing on comfort and sleep setup, since regular box-spring mattresses hurt the back and memory foam doesn't cool or support the spine well.
Smoking is the only thing that helps me. I avoid sleep meds because of how they make me feel. I just have to watch the munchies.
My mattress is fine. I just can't sleep. Some of it comes from ongoing pain too.
The shikifuton has helped a lot with my back pain and tiredness. I switched from side to back sleeping and no longer wake up sore or stiff.
I can relate. Once I started sleeping on my back the morning back pain went away 🙂
I should check that out myself. Lupus as well as rheumatoid arthritis are the issues I manage. Switching to a fresh bed really eased my symptoms a lot.
I'd suggest looking at the reddit floorsleeping group, even though the name sounds odd.
You might try trazodone. It isn't addictive and works for a lot of people until it doesn't. It's an older psychiatric med. I used it for five years and usually got five to seven hours. You can get a telehealth prescription easily. DSIP and Epithalon did nothing for me, CJC-1295 no dac with Ipamorelin helps a little, and melatonin is okay.
I get it, it's tough to fall asleep when everything hurts.
I worked nights for thirty-five years so I understand. I've tried everything short of knocking myself out with anesthesia.
I tried trazodone but it quit working for me.
Look into Sermorelin too. A lot of people say it helps with sleep.
It succeeds in my case. I order them over the internet.
That's interesting. When I was younger my bed was just a mattress on a loft frame and I slept great. I also always say I sleep best when camping on a thin pad or even the ground.
I'm sleeping really well on the coconut coir mat from Thailand that's about an inch and a half thick. It gives airflow and cooling I never got from a regular mattress.
Be careful with that if you have hypothyroidism, it's not recommended for people with that condition.
I have the same problems. On weekends I can sleep during the day but at night it's still bad. I've tried L-tryptophan, melatonin, ashwagandha, and magnesium glycinate with no luck. Epitalon didn't help either. Zopiclone worked at first but tolerance built up fast. Now with Reta my sleep is even worse.
Good airflow sounds great. My wife runs hot and sweats a lot. I'll look into that too. Thanks.
I go to bed at the same time on weekdays and get up right away. I don't follow any special diet, just try to keep muscle and lose fat.
You don't follow any diet? So do you eat poorly?
No, not really. I eat lots of quark, skyr, red berries, oatmeal, rice, chicken, red meat, mixed vegetables, and eggs.
Sleep takes work like diet and exercise do. I learned that the hard way. You need a solid nightly routine and have to stick to it. What helped me: no phone or computer before bed, over 500 mg magnesium glycinate, 20 mg melatonin, and getting into bed with lights out by 11 pm. It won't help the first night but after a week you should notice improvement.
My problem with prescriptions was the crazy things I did while on them. I slept well, didn't get addicted, and stopped without issues, but the sleepwalking-type behavior was scary.
I only take 5 mg melatonin and both magnesium citrate and glycinate. But I always keep my phone with me.
I feel the same. Thirty-six years of shift work in a 911 dispatch center raised my cortisol and ruined my sleep. After retiring it got worse and almost put me in the hospital once. I finally got control without trazodone, which was also losing effectiveness. What worked was cutting almost all sugar and processed foods, plus NAD+, Epithalon cycles, TA-1, methylene blue in the morning, getting outside for morning sun, and learning not to fight insomnia. I play a dry but interesting podcast at low volume with a calm male voice and that helps me relax and drift off.
I have sleep trouble too, staying up late and unable to fall asleep. I started DSIP and CJC two weeks ago and it helps. It isn't a sedative but seems to support the circadian rhythm. I plan to add IPA as part of the sleep optimization stack. I already take about six sleep supplements that also help. High cortisol is tough.
Hi to everyone else battling insomnia too. I worked varying hours before but now my sleep is reversed and I can't change it.
I've always been more awake at night even though I haven't worked nights in years. I wake up around 3 am almost every night. That's when my best ideas or unwanted thoughts come. Magnesium helps me sleep better, and so does metformin. I take them on and off.
Trazodone is what my doctor gave me at 50 mg. I think I stopped because I woke up groggy. He won't prescribe anything addictive. Thanks, I'll try it again starting tonight.
Funny you mention that today, I just requested Belsomra. I've been off work seven weeks after surgery and still can't sleep well. Six hours one night, four the next, waking three times. Belsomra costs $450 but it's covered this year. If it doesn't work, some people have luck with DSIP and Epithalon in nasal spray form as a backup. Injections didn't work for me but I'll try almost anything. Not trying to play doctor, but trazodone is scored so I would split it. Take half one to two hours before bed and the other half at bedtime or when waking to use the bathroom. That extended my sleep and reduced grogginess. It helped for a couple years until my doctor didn't want the highest dose.
Thank you. Don't worry about playing doctor. I loved it as a kid. Good idea. I looked online and saw posts saying the 50 mg pills can be split and that lower doses reduce morning fog while still giving consistent sleep. So thanks for the tip. 🙂 🙂 🙂
I took the 25 mg at 10 pm. I felt tired but still took an hour and a half to fall asleep. I didn't wake until 5 am, then fell back asleep until the alarm at 6:30. I felt really sleepy and should have stayed in bed. I got up, did yoga, and went to the gym at 8. I walked in half asleep and had my worst workout ever. I'll keep trying the 25 mg dose for the next seven days. I'm sure it will get better.
I hope you get used to the trazodone and it works. I take 150 mg every night and only deal with dry mouth in the morning. My main issue is staying asleep rather than falling asleep, but it still works better for me than Ambien or Lunesta.
Nothing to lose but sleep. I hope it works. It always kicked in fairly quickly for me. Trazodone has a wide dosing range so give it time. I used to give my 45 lb dog 50 mg for vet visits and even 100 mg for an ultrasound. I got my Belsomra, the packaging looks expensive. We'll see what happens.
Ambien 10 mg only gave me four hours max and I could barely get back to sleep even with 20 mg melatonin an hour later. The 12.5 mg extended release added another thirty minutes. I miss trazodone, it was very consistent. Glad it works for you.
Thanks. I took it again last night, 25 mg at 10 pm. I woke at midnight, couldn't fall back asleep so I took the other 25 mg. I slept until 7 am on a rest day. Still waking up tired. Will this eventually go away?
In the past the groggy feeling upon waking after drinking would hit me, but that changed over time. I can't tell whether this fades for others in general, though it has in my case.
Your body needs time to adjust, probably a couple weeks. Since the pills are scored you could split one 25 mg into 12.5 mg for the second dose and hopefully feel less groggy. Give each dose two weeks to see how you react. Feeling groggy sucks but the trade-off for consistent six to eight hours of sleep is worth it.
My mistake, we're already splitting the 50 mg into 25 mg. I read online that trazodone often causes next-day grogginess in over 40 percent of users and that lower doses can reduce it. I think I'll split the 25 mg further to 12.5 mg and see how it goes. Thanks for all the advice. 🙂
Every evening I force myself to swallow some melatonin right at nine so that I can hit the sack sooner. My mind just won't quit replaying everything from my job and personal stuff. I cover up all the illumination in my bedroom too, down to the tiniest glow on the screen that shows it's powered down, and I wonder why those indicators even exist. Then I turn on recordings of precipitation falling, which I believe pushes me into a more profound rest while signaling my thoughts to shut down.
I have OSA and am a light sleeper. I'm doing therapy for it but still need earplugs and an eye mask. Sleep is less disturbed but still not a solid eight hours. I get between 6.5 and 7.5 hours. Oura rings make it worse because they show you slept less than you thought. My routine isn't great. I'll try some of the things mentioned here.
I had to look up OSA. I don't snore at all and always thought it was overweight or older guys who snore. My ex-wife, 5'3" and 118 lbs, snored like a bear but it got milder over the years. I rarely hear it now.
Trazodone isn't for everyone. It works for me. Sometimes I combine it with Lunesta. I've had sleep problems for thirty years and most things only help a little. My stack is beta, saffron, l-t, magnesium glycinate, ashwagandha, valerian root, and a glass of tart juice with club soda an hour before bed. Some nights I still need trazodone or Lunesta. At least it stopped me from lying in bed seven or eight hours while only sleeping three or four.
I'm amazed by all the things I've learned in this forum already. Research and videos don't compare. On a lighter note, I remember in my twenties I would fall asleep right after sex with my wife. 🤣 🤣 🤣
Lifelong insomniac here, about fifty years. That's partly why I got into this scene. Carb loading with high-dose B3 worked but I stopped because of family diabetes history. Glycine and l-theanine helped moderately. Trazodone gave me terrible nightmares. Magnesium glycinate alone did nothing but paired with melatonin and valerian it works. IPA was very effective for deep sleep but made me hungry all the time even on a moderate GLP-1 dose, so I gained weight. I switched to HGH, lost the weight, but it doesn't help sleep the way IPA did. I'm on my first Epitalon cycle at 5 mg a day, maybe this will finally reset my broken cycle.
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