The 11pm Problem: What Finally Stopped Me Lying Awake Doing Mental Admin

What Finally Stopped Me Lying Awake Doing Mental Admin

Guest Article.

There is a very specific kind of tired that has nothing to do with being sleepy. You are exhausted. You have wanted to be in bed since roughly four in the afternoon. You finally get there, turn the light off, and your brain sits up and says: right, shall we go through everything?

For me it starts with admin. The consent form I have not signed. The birthday present I have not bought. Whether I actually replied to that message or just read it and thought about replying, which as far as my brain is concerned is the same thing. Then, once the practical list is exhausted, it moves on to the greatest hits — mildly awkward things I said to other people, some of them over a decade ago, all of them apparently still under review.

I have never had trouble being tired. I have trouble switching off. Those are not the same problem, and it took me an embarrassingly long time to work that out.

The things that did not fix it

A pillow spray, which made the bedroom smell nice and changed nothing else. A meditation app, which I used diligently for eleven days and then never opened again. Going to bed earlier, which simply gave the mental admin more time. Herbal tea, which mostly meant getting up again at two.

What I had not tried was anything that acknowledged the actual problem, which is that the gap between lying down and being asleep was where my whole day was catching up with me.

What I tried instead

A friend mentioned the Hypnozan 8H Program, and I will be honest, my first reaction was that a supplement calling itself a programme sounded like a lot of effort for someone who struggles to remember to take a multivitamin.

It is actually straightforward. It comes as two bottles. One is a botanical capsule built around valerian root, along with lemon balm, motherwort and hops — the plants that have been in European bedtime remedies for about as long as there have been European bedtime remedies. You take it half an hour before bed. The other is magnesium with vitamin B6, taken a bit earlier in the evening with food, which for me meant leaving it next to the kettle so I would see it while making the children’s packed lunches.

Valerian root is traditionally used to help maintain natural sleep. The health claim for that plant is awaiting authorisation and is used under transitional provisions. Magnesium and vitamin B6 contribute to normal psychological function, to the normal functioning of the nervous system, and to the reduction of tiredness and fatigue.

How it actually went

The first thing I noticed was on the first night, and it was not dramatic. It was more that the usual half hour of mental filing just did not really happen. I remember thinking about the consent form, and then not thinking about anything else, and then it was morning. Which, if you have spent years in the eleven-o’clock committee meeting inside your own head, is a strange and quite wonderful thing.

That first bit is the botanical capsule doing its job, and for me it worked essentially straight away. If your problem is the racing mind specifically, that is the half you will notice.

The second thing took longer and I only spotted it looking back. I am a light and frequent night-waker — a noise, a child, or nothing at all, and I would be awake at two with the whole cycle starting again. Somewhere in the third week I realised I had stopped doing that. Not entirely, and not on the nights someone appeared at my side of the bed at half past one, because no capsule is going to help with that. But the default had changed.

That slower half is what the magnesium bottle is for, and it is the reason it is sold as a programme rather than as a single pill. One part deals with the evening you are in. The other works on the state you keep arriving at the evening in, and that takes a couple of weeks rather than a couple of nights. Taking only one of them would have got me the first result without the thing underneath it.

The honest bits

It is not magic. If you are up three times a night with a teething baby, this is not the problem it solves, and nothing in a bottle is. It needs to be taken every night, not grabbed on the bad ones. It is an ongoing cost, so it has to actually earn its place. And it is not suitable for everyone — not during pregnancy or breastfeeding, not with alcohol, and worth checking with your GP if you take medication, particularly anything for blood pressure, blood thinning or heart rhythm.

Would I recommend it?

For the specific problem of lying there with a brain that will not close the tabs — yes. It is the first thing I have tried that addressed that rather than just making the room smell of lavender while I did it anyway.

It is now simply part of the evening, somewhere between the packed lunches and the point at which I stop pretending I am going to fold the washing. As with all of these things, this is my experience rather than medical advice, and yours may be different.

Guest Article.