Antihistamines sleep aids harm performance ?

npr50

Hi,

I will appreciate your view on the following!

Do you think that using Antihistamines sleep aids ( Doxylamine Succinate 25mg ) the evening before a ride may harm performance ?

many times that's my only way to assure sufficient sleep before an early morning ride..

Thanks in advance!

ugo.santalucia

I have moved it to the specific section...
Memories from a degree in Chemistry... that should interfere with your cortisol level and in turns affect your glucose methabolism... am I talking rubbish?

crikey

that should interfere with your cortisol level and in turns affect your glucose methabolism

Mmmmm...

That's a possibility, but I would suggest it's unlikely to be the main issue. I work a lot of nights and see people use all manner of things to help them sleep, plus I give a lot of medicines to perform the same job.

The main issue is likely to be the 'hangover' effect from the sleeping aid; you may well feel a bit groggy and tired until later in the day, and most TTs are morning affairs.

Much better to try to get a decent sleep the night before the night before, then get up early on the day and have a wee ride to blow the cobwebs away and make sure you warm up properly.


Of rather more concern is your use of it on a frequent basis; best not to, and far better not to rely on it to 'get a good nights sleep'...

npr50

Thank you.
I usually wake up ~1.5 hours before the ride and there's no problems of hangover that I am aware of;
getting a a decent sleep the night before IS the point.. without these in many cases there will be no decent sleep at all.. NOt ideal but that's how it is..

sungod

imho if you can't sleep, so be it, getting chemically zonked is not sleep - i used to really struggle with sleep, still do sometimes, but the hangover from drugs isn't worth it, i'd rather stay up all night and crash the next

when i've used pills the hangover lasted much longer, at least a day, it might not seem like it, but an impaired brain is less able to realise it's impaired

unless you've got some hardcore sleep disorder, you should be able to cope without drugs, i know someone in the usa who does have one, but she just gets up and does stuff, prefers it that way

personally: do regular exercise, keep hydrated, eat early, go to bed early, if i don't sleep ok the first 1-2 nights, i will the next

Mad_Malx

ugo.santalucia wrote:

I talking rubbish?

Deleted. I was about to.

itboffin

I used to work some seriously messed up hours now i just work very very long days, a normal day for me is 15 hours, doing that 5 times a week and hoping to god there's no train delays or late meetings means I have to plan my limited sleep really well.

I suggest the following

Look at your diet, what you eat & drink and when makes a huge difference to sleep or rest. Plan you next day early the night before, so have everything ready so you can sleep as long as possible get up and go with minimal fuss.

Drink water before and during the night, odd i know but being dehydrated messes with your sleep. If like me your partner snores wear ear plugs, if its light before you wake up wear those eye mask things you get on airplanes.

All sounds like a lot of work but trust me well planned good even very short sleep is better than 8 hours of light restless sleep, fyi I sleep like the dead for no more than 5-6 hours a night 7 days a week and feel perfect, even annoyingly bubbly 99% of the time. I also ride 8-10k miles a year 8)

Take any kind of sleep aids long term is going to make things worse

neeb

Make sure you start relaxing a good hour or two before you go to bed. Stay off the internet and keep light levels low. Consider investing in low temperature light bulbs (slightly more reddish) for evening use, strong light and especially blueish light degrades melatonin. If you do need something to help you sleep, try melatonin a couple of hours before bed, but get the decent medical grade stuff on prescription. In this case you are only slightly boosting your natural sleep hormones, much less potential for long-term problems than sleeping pills..