I have had this problem for a long time (years) and think I'm on my way out of it.
What I did was to have some days off for fixing this problem. Maybe you'll want to try this in a weekend.
I have spent one night without sleeping, and the next day, I've tried to stay awake as late as possible in the afternoon (I was nauseously sleepy).
I fell asleep at about 9 P.M., and woke up at about 4 A.M. the next day. Again, I tried to stay awake for as long as possible during the afternoon, even if I was very, very sleepy.
The next day I was able to stay awake the whole day and feel rested even if I woke up at about 4-5 A.M. I didn't wake up this early because of the alarm, I just woke up and couldn't fall asleep anymore.
There are two weeks since I'm very sleepy in the evenings and energetic in the mornings. I think I will have to try to fix my awaking hour to make things more regular (I think I've heard/read that the regularity of your sleep counts as much as the number of hours you sleep).
This was not the first time I've tried this method, but this is the time it worked. The "stay awake" part after a night of not sleeping was the most difficult, and even the second day I've had trouble to stay awake during the day, because my body was used to be sleepy during those hours. I found that exercising, going out, showering helped. Also, eating an apple (the less sweet, the better) helps, and some other sour foods might help too (pickles, fruit that isn't very sweet, so on) - but caffeine messes even more with your sleep cycle, so I don't recommend it. I only succeeded this method being caffeine free for many days before.
This has been a long battle, but there's hope. Good luck!
P.S. Someone else's solution might not be suited for you, so if this worked for me it can be useless to you. But if you think of your problem as a huge jet lag, you'll realize people recover from jet lags, and you can find useful tips about this.
P.P.S. I don't know how could I forget about this, I remembered a friend had these CD's and I felt great when trying them so I planned buying them, but then forgot about them in the same frustrating manner I forget about other useful things.
If you check out Steve Pavlina's blog you'll see that even he found these products useful.
I'd use 10 minutes supercharger in the morning and, if possible, whenever needed during the day, and the deep relaxation in the evening when trying to fall asleep. Thanks for helping me remember about these things, by the way.
I have found some interesting information here in the mean time, I hope it will be useful:
"Serotonin and the Carbohydrate to Protein Ratio [...]This concept was brought up months ago by JT and others. That idea was simply to eat more protein early in the day and less at night. This makes even more sense when you scrutinize our circadian rhythms (next post will be on resetting those rhythms), and how those with metabolic issues and obesity almost ALWAYS have the circadian rhythms backwards – waking up feeling tired and not hungry (low cortisol, high serotonin), and going to bed hungry (craving calorie-dense sugary foods, white flour products, and alcohol specifically) and not tired (high cortisol, low serotonin). This can mostly be attributed to, I believe, the delicate balance between serotonin and cortisol – which is impacted most heavily by the carbohydrate to protein ratio of the last meal you ate, as well as calorie intake.
Of course, the whole concept behind Kathleen DesMaisons’s program for overcoming addiction as discussed in Potatoes Not Prozac is eating starch, WITHOUT accompanying protein (a few bites of a baked potato) before bedtime to assist in getting tryptophan across the blood-brain barrier where it is converted to serotonin, then melatonin – helping you fall asleep, have incredible dreams (you wouldn’t believe what Tom Skerritt was wearing last night!), and overcome addiction. I think this practice goes way beyond just addressing addiction though.
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