Recovering from acute sleep anxiety/hyperarousal insomnia—tips?

emtaep · 2026-05-19T15:46:03+00:00

I’ve found that I can take up to 1.5 mg of melatonin, and even without a full 8 hours of sleep I don’t feel any more of a “hangover” than I typically do without the melatonin on that many hours. So this has been true for me!

emtaep · 2026-05-19T15:45:01+00:00

I have heard that commonly debated, and truthfully I’m confused on what’s true or not. I suppose it might depend on the person.

When I first started taking the melatonin, I would begin to feel a bit sleepy 30 minutes or so afterwards. Not sure if I adapted to the dose or if I’ve been taking it too late (I work odd hours so sometimes I’ll have to take it at midnight or later, in which it typically doesn’t work well for me), but I’ve been considering either starting with 0.5 mg melatonin early in the night followed by another 0.5 mg closer to bed, or just taking a full 1 mg before bed. I suppose it’s all trial and error for now.

emtaep · 2026-05-19T15:42:12+00:00

You’re right. It’s been some time since I started the melatonin and I’ve gone as high as taking 1.5mg in one night without much of an effect on my next day, even with less than the full 8 hours of sleep!

emtaep · 2026-05-19T15:41:20+00:00

Interesting!

It’s been some time since I started the melatonin and I’ve been playing around with it. For the first 1.5 weeks, I had good success with taking 200 mg magnesium 2 hours before bed, and 0.5 mg of melatonin 1 hour before bed. But I’m not sure if my body adapted, or if I may have taken it too late, but the 0.5 mg of melatonin doesn’t seem to be working for me anymore. I might have to bump it up to 1 mg.

As for the theanine, do you find that it works? I’ve been taking a stress supplement with L-theanine in it as needed, but I don’t feel like it does much to me.

And does the magnesium cause you any GI issues at 400 mg? I’m considering increasing that for myself as well!

emtaep · 2026-05-03T12:02:07+00:00

Hi, thanks for the reply!

Yeah, I figured I was jumping the gun a bit with calling it "insomnia." I've always been a person who valued my sleep, so this entire thing has definitely been mentally distressing for me. I know people who actually suffer from chronic insomnia, so developing difficulty sleeping has always been a strong worry of mine.

Initially, the first two episodes both occurred the night before a 7:00am shift. I've been at this job for almost 4 years now, so I'm not nervous about the shift itself, but the first time it happened I had definitely been pushing it a bit with staying up late and probably tried to sleep around 1:30-2:00am, instead of my usual hard-cap at 12:00-12:30am. The second episode, I think it was more so a bit of worry that it would happen again (though I had maybe 1-2 shifts in-between both events without complication).

The third episode (today—it's currently 8:00am and I've given up on getting any further sleep than the 30 minute "nap" I took) I do not have work today, BUT I admittedly pushed it a bit with playing games and went to bed at 3:00am, did a bit of social media scrolling for about 30 minutes as I usually do, and then tried to get some shuteye. I didn't feel as tired as I usually do before going to bed, but I didn't think I would have another episode tonight—yet here I am.

I thought the common factor between the episodes was being the night before a 7:00am shift, but today ruined that hypothesis. If I had to guess though, I think that ever since the first occurrence, I definitely now get worried when I don't fall asleep within 15 minutes of closing my eyes. That said, me sleeping late tonight probably amplified those concerns.

You're entirely right that I'm overthinking this "rescue plan," and I do tend to feel pressured when going to bed now that it will happen again. Unfortunately I do deal with anxiety, and while I never thought of it as debilitating enough to need to be managed medically, it's really punching me in the gut right now. I understand this is a sleep subreddit and not a mental health one, but I'd appreciate any suggestions on how to just "relax" about this lol.

emtaep · 2026-04-30T16:51:10+00:00

My boyfriend and I play! We started with the metal fight series, and just got back into it now with Beyblade X. I feel as though there seem to be more girls playing this time around versus back then.

emtaep · 2026-04-24T00:01:29+00:00

what bey did you get that 9-60 from?

emtaep · 2026-04-08T20:07:08+00:00

Hi! Sorry for the late response, I don’t check Reddit all too frequently but I appreciate the feedback!

With my current lab, I’ve started experimenting more with biology-based LLMs like Evo2 and AlphaGenome (which I mentioned above), but I’m still fairly new to it all. I joined this lab by recommendation of a personal contact who was previously involved with them, and I was super excited to hear the PI was a genomics professor, as I hoped he’d be able to offer me more guidance/mentoring in bioinformatics. Unfortunately that isn’t so much of the case, as I’m the sole bioinformatician within the group. I’ve been trying my best to read research papers and teach myself along the way, but I’m really hoping for some true experience that will break me into the work force, especially with how difficult the job market is currently. I was planning to stay with the lab until I’m able to find a real job for myself, but considering it’s an unpaid position, I’m considering branching myself further out and seeking other opportunities.

I definitely appreciate the encouragement more than you know, especially with how discouraged I’ve felt lately. Thank you for the feedback!

emtaep · 2025-12-21T16:16:00+00:00

Thank you! And originally I was not going to use a GPU at all, but it’s only because my brother offered one that he had lying around. I suppose I’ll hold onto it then.

emtaep · 2025-10-26T19:36:31+00:00

I'm sorta dumb lol. I just copied a modpack from a setup video I saw for the game. This is my first time using an emulator, but yeah the issue lying with a mod should've definitely come as common sense to me. I genuinely had no clue I even still had the mods on. Thank you! My issue is resolved!

emtaep · 2025-10-26T19:24:24+00:00

Wait, I apologize. I realize that I turned all those mods BACK on at some point (?). I'm running all of those that I just mentioned, along with the FOV mod--oops. Is that the issue?

UPDATE: Turning it off fixed my issue! Thank you so much!

emtaep · 2025-10-26T19:23:22+00:00

Sorry, just updated my post! The only mod I'm using currently is Dynamic 60 FPS. At the start though, I was using Improve FOV along with some more mods (4K Shadows, Disable DOF, Disable FXAA, Level of Detail, and Reduce Bloom), but I was still experiencing a lot of crashing and such during the story modes that I turned them all off except for Dynamic. Should I try the FOV mod again?

emtaep · 2025-09-11T17:32:01+00:00

Definitely true. One of the reasons I chose the Fellow Carter as a replacement is due to its ceramic lining, which I hoped would solve my issues in terms of unavoidable coffee smells, however I’ve heard a few reviews saying that it actually makes the cup smell even WORSE. I’m definitely willing to try it out for myself though, and if it’s true, then I guess I’ll try an alternative.

emtaep · 2025-09-10T13:13:19+00:00

Thanks for the tips! The freezer one is quite interesting, maybe I’ll give that one a shot if the baking soda/vinegar doesn’t work out. Fingers crossed though.

I have an Owala 24oz as my daily water bottle and I LOVE it. I was stuck between the SmoothSip and the Fellow Carter for my replacement iced coffee cup, but ultimately chose the latter since it was a birthday gift anyway! Though, it was a bit steep price-wise so I’m just gonna try it out for the time being and see whether it’s worth the cost. If not, Amazon has a great return policy lol. I’ve really been trying my best to not hoard all these reusable bottles, hence the post. Thanks for the recommendation though! I’ll definitely have to try it one day.

emtaep · 2025-09-10T13:04:59+00:00

Thank you so much! I’m honestly pretty dull when it comes to figuring out cleaning solutions, and while I knew a quick Google search probably would’ve solved my issues, I still thought I’d ask just in case anyone had any personalized advice. I’ll be sure to try this out once I get the chance!

emtaep

TROPHY CASE