Mental work seems to lead to sound sensitivity and poor sleep

[Hoopoe]

I started studying regularly to exercise my brain and since then I have noticed a shift in my symptoms. I've started to notice all the noise coming from outside and how uncomfortable it is. Dogs barking, distant and near traffic, people talking, music in the distance, machinery humming, wind, flowing water. All of it often feels like unpleasant stimulation. My sleep has gotten worse, maybe due to this sensitivity to noises which continue throughout much of the night. With poor sleep, my ability to function plummets.

I also seem to have a harder time relaxing fully, which makes sleep less restorative.

 

[Yann04]

Yup Yup Yup. Same. That’s basically what defines my whole life rn.

 

[hotblack]

Yep, managed to borrow a laptop and did some stuff recently. Not for long but enough. Now noise is all sharp and jarring and sleep worse. Feel overstimulated. Tinnitus worse. Etc

Always the same, just exactly where the line is varies, sometimes a few words with someone will do it, sometimes I can do something on a laptop or even manage a phone call and it’s that which triggers it.

 

[jnmaciuch]

Same for me--my neighbor downstairs has a tendency to play music throughout the day, and normally it's quiet enough that it fades into the background. But after trying to do work for a few hours suddenly it's impossible to ignore and almost painful. Luckily for me it dissipates over the course of the evening so it usually doesn't affect my sleep--I learned the hard way not to do anything too mentally stimulating too late in the day.

 

[Creekside]

If I do mental or physical exertion too late in the day (past 6:30?), insomnia is likely ... unless I eat an egg (usually in pancakes). For some reason, that works for me. One of those "can't explain why it works, but it does" discoveries.

 

[DHagen]

I am sorry. This has become my life as well for the last few weeks since making the attempt to start teaching again (part time, very poorly, and probably not sustainably). It seems to be writing the lectures and grading papers that does me in more than lecturing itself - sleep disappeared over the course of a week or so, the tinnitus came roaring back, and now almost every sound has a horrific metallic edge to it.

I learned the hard way not to do anything too mentally stimulating too late in the day.

I need to be much better about this. I have been a night owl my entire life and I still haven't been able to get over the habit of pushing difficult thinking - or anything creative or cognitively demanding for that matter - until after the sun has set. But then, it used to be the case that I couldn't work or think without music playing, and now I can't listen to music at all, so a lot change has obviously become necessary. I hate it.

If I do mental or physical exertion too late in the day (past 6:30?), insomnia is likely ... unless I eat an egg (usually in pancakes). For some reason, that works for me. One of those "can't explain why it works, but it does" discoveries.

A couple pwME have told me that protein late in the evening before sleep helps them. I experimented for a bit and had mixed results (I think it had a positive effect on the days when it didn't cause indigestion), perhaps I will give it another go.

Edited to add: Thank you for posting this, @Hoopoe, though I am terribly sorry you are experiencing it. Due to some recent dietary changes, I had been overly-focused on how what I was eating might be affecting me. Consequently, and largely without realizing it, I was looking that way for an explanation of my increased sensitivity to sound over the last weeks, when the more obvious (but far more upsetting) answer was right there in front of me.

If I could trade my legs for a brain capable of functioning at least part-time, I'd do it without a second thought.

 

[T&O]

… now noise is all sharp and jarring and sleep worse. Feel overstimulated.
Always the same, just exactly where the line is varies, sometimes a few words with someone will…

Yes, mental stimulation
emotional,
passive or active…
seems to equate to insomnia for me too.
Hefty increases in protein can help (feeding the brain ?),

If I do mental or physical exertion too late in the day (past 6:30?), insomnia is likely ... unless I eat an egg ..

which is your egg right ?
But its no fail safe (for me).

Ive just spent 2 days horizontal due to a large cupboard tidy (trying to find various), which was successful but not worth the fall out
;ate knowingly more protein which helped fob off a gnarly headache (but wasnt able to get me up on my feet or out on a short dog stroll).

…With poor sleep, my ability to function plummets.
I also seem to have a harder time relaxing fully, which makes sleep less restorative.

Yeah.
Sorry you are with us all in this.
Sensory sensitivity.
Cant even enjoy TV or a movie when like this.

If I could trade my legs for a brain capable of functioning at least part-time, I'd do it without a second thought.

Im sorry … with you there !

 

[Hoopoe]

Interesting anecdote about an egg improving sleep. I once had amazingly good sleep, after eating a rich bone broth and meat soup (similar to Ramen soup). My other family members also said that they slept unusually well that night.

Does anyone have an idea what amino acids or substance in the soup might be responsible for the improved sleep quality?

 

[Amw66]

Yes. The association between mental stimulus, sound sensitivity and insomnia Here too .

 

[Amw66]

Interesting anecdote about an egg improving sleep. I once had amazingly good sleep, after eating a rich bone broth and meat soup (similar to Ramen soup). My other family members also said that they slept unusually well that night.

Does anyone have an idea what amino acids or substance in the soup might be responsible for the improved sleep quality?

Probably glycine

 

[Amw66]

I started studying regularly to exercise my brain and since then I have noticed a shift in my symptoms. I've started to notice all the noise coming from outside and how uncomfortable it is. Dogs barking, distant and near traffic, people talking, music in the distance, machinery humming, wind, flowing water. All of it often feels like unpleasant stimulation. My sleep has gotten worse, maybe due to this sensitivity to noises which continue throughout much of the night. With poor sleep, my ability to function plummets.

I also seem to have a harder time relaxing fully, which makes sleep less restorative.

Thinking about this
is it non physical stimulus that causes this or is the effect of emotional work/ stress different ?
Is this a function of severity ?
Thinking of mechanisms

 

[Hoopoe]

I believe it's just a manifestation of exertion intolerance, that manifests slightly differently depending on the type of exertion. Mental exertion appears to affect the brain more prominently or differently compared to upright position, muscular and cardiovascular exertion, and this manifests with reduced tolerance of sensory stimuli, difficulty relaxing and worse sleep. At least, this interpretation fits what I've observed over the years.

Maybe a part of the differences in symptoms between patients can be attributed to differences in what they do and are exposed to during the day.

 

[Evergreen]

Does anyone have an idea what amino acids or substance in the soup might be responsible for the improved sleep quality?

Tryptophan maybe?

You can get that from a ton of foods, including lots of non-meat sources. There's a big list here.

I would not be able to fall asleep if I ate a high-protein food close to sleep time.

 

[Evergreen]

I started studying regularly to exercise my brain and since then I have noticed a shift in my symptoms. I've started to notice all the noise coming from outside and how uncomfortable it is. Dogs barking, distant and near traffic, people talking, music in the distance, machinery humming, wind, flowing water. All of it often feels like unpleasant stimulation. My sleep has gotten worse, maybe due to this sensitivity to noises which continue throughout much of the night. With poor sleep, my ability to function plummets.

I also seem to have a harder time relaxing fully, which makes sleep less restorative.

Ugh, sorry this has happened.

I hear you. What I've found for me is that ideally I only do cognitive things in the morning. If I let it leak into the afternoon, or even worse, evening, I really pay for it. I'm being bold at the moment, and I am paying for it.

I find that doing anything cognitive sets your mind working on it for the rest of the day. So your brain is continuing to exert more than usual even if you stopped hours ago. This is really apparent during "rests", if I can still call them that, during a time when I'm doing more cognitive work than usual. The whole rest is my brain working away on whatever I was doing that morning. Really not restful. And the common phenomenon of waking up having worked something out.

I also need rest days.

If I'm strict with mornings only, things are much better, but I still need rest days. If I'm doing more cognitive work for a while, I will eventually get worse and worse brain fog and need a long break. So if I were at your stage and aiming for doing something like study consistently, I would need to make it every second morning for max X hours, with weekends off, or something like that.

Editing to add: Also worth considering posture while studying - if you're studying sitting upright in a chair, and usually you wouldn't sit upright in a chair for that amount of time, that could be contributing. If I poke my orthostatic intolerance, I get symptoms like those you've described too.

Hope you can find a way of doing a bit of study without messing up sleep and rest.

 

[Hoopoe]

Editing to add: Also worth considering posture while studying - if you're studying sitting upright in a chair, and usually you wouldn't sit upright in a chair for that amount of time, that could be contributing. If I poke my orthostatic intolerance, I get symptoms like those you've described too.

Hope you can find a way of doing a bit of study without messing up sleep and rest.

I'm not sure how to best set up my desk so that I can study while reducing orthostatic intolerance. I need the PC and a place for books. I need something ergonomical for the hands and eyes. I don't want to lie horizonally while studying.

 

[Evergreen]

I'm not sure how to best set up my desk so that I can study while reducing orthostatic intolerance. I need the PC and a place for books. I need something ergonomical for the hands and eyes. I don't want to lie horizonally while studying.

Is sitting cross-legged an option? Or legs folded under you? You wouldn't need to do it for the whole study period.

I know some desks don't leave enough room for legs. In school, long before I knew what OI was, but I now realise I had a bit of it, I used to twist my legs around each other tightly. I imagine this is not very good for your legs, but it sure prevented pooling!

I do all cognitive work lying down, and still get the effects you describe, so changing other things might be more likely to help.

 

[Creekside]

A couple pwME have told me that protein late in the evening before sleep helps them.

Other protein sources don't have the same effect as eggs. I'm wondering whether it's a hormone involved in keeping the embryo "asleep".

Conjugated linoleic acids (found in ruminant meat and some seeds) improves my sleep in a different way (reduces wakings during the night).

 

[DHagen]

Other protein sources don't have the same effect as eggs. I'm wondering whether it's a hormone involved in keeping the embryo "asleep".

Conjugated linoleic acids (found in ruminant meat and some seeds) improves my sleep in a different way (reduces wakings during the night).

Interesting! While the limited benefits I experience (if real) aren't as pronounced, I have not noticed a significant difference in the source. If anything, isolated protein (specifically split green pea protein) seems to work as well as any other, and avoids the full stomach that can be actively disruptive.

Mind you, my diet is vegan, so I can't speak to how eggs or ruminant meat might affect things.

Edited to add: Have you tried supplementing CLA directly? Perhaps I will look into eating more mushrooms, as waking less often sounds pretty nice...

 

[DigitalDrifter]

Do you suffer from Autism because it's associated with deteriorative sound sensitivity? I have it, it ruined my life and destroyed my health.

 

[Creekside]

I have not noticed a significant difference in the source

For the effects of CLAs (conjugate linoleic acids) on my wakings, there are minor differences between sunflower (or safflower) and canola oils, and between those and ruminant fat. Oddly, the veggie oils didn't work reliably two days in a row, but alternating sunflower and canola did work. It's not simple, however it works. I'm guessing that it has to do with lipid membrane construction/maintenance, but that's just a guess.

Have you tried supplementing CLA directly?

No, no cheap convenient source of specific CLAs (they vary on where the bonds form), and no obvious benefit from discovering which specific molecule has which effect. Even if I found that one specific form had a specific effect, this is ME, so that mechanism might change a week later, rendering the effort useless.