Preface and context:

I've always had problems sleeping. I used to only get 1-5 hours of sleep every night for years. I can usually fall asleep alright, but I always wake up in the middle of the night and can never get back to sleep. My brain just keeps running and thinking about various things, mostly philosophical stuff that's bothered me since I was a teen. It's helped me learn and figure out a lot (which I'm writing down into two books), but not so great for health.

Fortunately, I've found some things which have helped. The first one was supplementing vitamin D. It was a life changer. In addition to all the other health benefits, it's helped me fall asleep faster, stay asleep, and get better sleep. The next thing was having a relatively large dinner close to bed time. I know this isn't the best thing to do, but the caloric intake makes you sleepy, which I've noticed helps me fall and stay asleep. Next thing was supplementing magnesium, which helps relax muscles and the mind, and foster sleep. I then added higher dose melatonin (10mg) with dinner (which also causes me to have really vivid dreams). I also have dinner while watching a little bit of TV right before bed, which helps to shut my brain off. I fall asleep like a rock and almost never wake up in the middle of the night like I used to. Regular exercise throughout the week also helps a lot with sleep.

The melatonin was the last thing I've added to my regimen, and I've been taking it for about 2 months, and been getting the best sleep of my life. I'm not a morning person, but now I actually wake up before the full 8 hours and feel energetic and refreshed without any caffeine. It's been great.

Connecting to this post:

However, last night out of nowhere, I woke up at 4am (central) and couldn't go back to sleep for several hours. That hasn't happened to me in a long time.