I've been very wakeful as of late, which has been frustrating as it has put on pause my LD attempts. Less sleep and irregular sleep affects recall, and of course, less sleep time means less dream time! I'm still working on basics like a regular schedule, I'm also establishing a regular daily exercise routine (in the morning I've read is the best time), but I've also been interested in diet and how it affects sleep.

Last night I had a very challenging night. No sleep right at bed time (00:00), after 4 hours tried reading, listening to mp3s, relaxation/breathing, Valerian extract, nothing helped. I then read that one should not stay sleepless in bed for more than 30 minutes -- if you can't sleep, get up and do quiet activities in another room. The point is to avoid building the association in your mind that "in bed" means "not sleeping." I clearly need to break this association.

I was a little hungry, and kinda pissed at yet more sleeplessness, so I decided to do some comfort eating: cheese, milk, rye crackers (Finn crisps to be exact, I really like those, 90% of the carbs are complex). some smoked mussels. I watched the end of a movie. One hour later, I returned to bed, and I very quickly fell asleep! I then had 3 solid 80-90 minute sleep cycles, each one with some dream recall, waking up in between each one as per my uusal intention. I had no problem getting back to sleep in between them, hooray!

I've done some more research on food for sleep today, and it turns out I ate an ideal "bedtime snack" for inducing sleep: complex carbs combined with moderate protein, tryptophan and calcium. Milk of course is famous for helping with insomnia. Apparently the carbs (crackers) and the calcium (milk, cheese) aid the tryptophan absoption in the brain which in turn produces seratonin and melatonin, which promote sleep.

So in case anyone else is having trouble sleeping, don't forget the cheese, milk, & crackers snack! (Choose a less processed variant, like Finn crisps, which also are very low in sodium).

What are your favorite "back to sleep" snacks?