Staying up very late after excessive computer use?

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I apologize if this isn't in the right place. I'm really tired and it's hard to focus.

Anyways, during my free time I like to spend my time on social networking sites, and media ones too. But for some reason, it has a tendency to trigger things from the past and make me very anxious. Usually I'll stay up until about 10 or 11 doing stuff on there, but when I go to bed my head has a tendency of speeding off and thinking of very wild and obsessive things. Otherwise, this doesn't happen to me when I don't use it.

Now I don't think it's OCD, although I have the tendency of getting wild and obsessive thoughts during the day after I was sleep deprived, but otherwise I exhibit no other symptoms.

So what I'm wondering is: Can too much sensory overload on the computer cause sleep problems, along with major anxiety, and obsessive thinking?

Also, I'm on the medications celexa and risperdal. Relatively low doses, but still: Could those factor in?

Yeah, I have insomnia due to computer use. I really want to stay away from computer-related jobs, but due to the economic crisis, it looks like I pretty much have to take any job I can get. It sucks. I take sleep medication sometimes for this, but that is only short-term, too. I just try to cut down my computer use as much as possible.

That happens to me, too. It's especially a problem if I've been playing games on the computer for a while, because then it's like I'm still playing through them in my head while I'm trying to sleep. Oddly enough, one of the things that helps me fall asleep (after trying and failing- that first futile step is key), is to find something to read on my phone. Not sure why it works. Maybe it gets my head onto a different topic for a little, to distract it, so to speak. Maybe it just helps tire my eyes/brain out a bit. Maybe it's just placebo effect. Who knows. But I do know what you're talking about. It's really annoying, especially since almost everything can be found on the web these days (making it SO IRRESISTIBLE!)

Yes and I always figured it was OCD because my thoughts keep me up and I can't get off the computer because of what I am reading on it. I end up staying up until 3 or 4 in the morning.

That is why I try and not get involved in internet drama anymore because then I can't stop thinking about it all day at work and at home and when I am going to sleep and it's too stressful. I was in one major one two years ago and it was very hard and took me over a year to get over it. It was the worst one ever.

I also thinking my obsessive thinking gives me sleeping problems. I have had sleeping problems my whole life off and on. I slept better when I was on medicine. I have used sleeping aids when I had a hard time sleeping when I did work nights and during the day but now that I work evenings, I don't care for sleep anymore because I can sleep in and my son sleeps till noon. I would like to go to bed earlier but my mind keeps me up.

If it makes you feel any better, that's exactly the same with me. I keep books on my phone so that I always have something to read for distraction. And reading at night works to put me to sleep. Sometimes it might take 30-45 minutes or more and sometimes it's almost immediate, but it almost always works.

Another thing I found that works for me is I have a small indoor garden. After I turn off the computer, I go sit and stare at my plants in my little garden, judging how much one has grown, or see if another has started budding, trimming dead leaves off the bottom, pruning, examining, studying the structure of the plants...different variants within a species of plant can often have different stem and branch structures. Just running my eyes around the garden, taking in each individual plant, then each leaf, really calms my head and drains all the internet and social stuff away into boxes for later.

Yeah, so I cut down on my PC use at night, and it made a huge difference.

It's difficult to switch away from something, and computers are uniquely difficult because of how many possibilities they present to you and how hard it is to come to a natural conclusion when you're working on one.

I'm trying to find a way to get a computer to lock me out for five minutes at a time, on a schedule. Not a parental-override kind of program because if that were the case I'd just put in the password and go on using the computer--just something to lock me out for long enough to be able to switch away. Haven't been able to find that, though.

I noticed a year or so ago that late hours at the computer would keep me from sleeping. So now I force myself away from the computer about midnight and try to just relax before my 1:30 AM bedtime.

I've also been trying exercise in an attempt to fatigue myself and help promote sleep. Over the past year I've been walking more and more as I used to do back in my teen days (I am 61 now). As an extension of this and in an effort to escape intimidation where I live, I started going over to a nearby college campus at night and walking across campus and back (as much as a two mile quick paced walk) in an effort to exhaust myself. But I found that I had even worse sleep problems at times. I think that all the late night activity was the culprit. I haven't felt like walking for the past two weeks due to a head cold but hope to take my late night walk tonight... I'll bet I won't be able to sleep.

its completly normal the bright lighty of the computer prevents the production of melatonin in the brain which is the chemical that helps people sleep

http://www.guelphmercury.com/living/hea ... in-flowing

Not to mention the brain activity that it promotes.

A year ago I tried melatonin (among other meds such as valerian, benadryl and Ambien) but will never go back to that again. It really whacked my body big time. Fatigue and relaxation is a much better approach.

The red/orange vs blue/green light thing is true too... so much for compact fluorescents which put out green light and LEDs which are heavy on the blue end of the spectrum... it seems that the government is mandating insomnia.

It's currently 5am...nuff said.

I go between a few different web sites and get caught-up with doing various different things - there are so many things to do, so many people to interact with, but then even when everything seems quiet on the sites I visit I'll go between them to find something to do, and I go on social networking sites which has the potential to trigger off anxiety issues for me too. If I'm not getting caught-up hyper-focusing on something online then I'm getting into a weird anxious freak-out that can have my brain racing once I do go to bed. There is just no turn-off switch for me, even if I'm physically tired my body just doesn't tell me when I'm tired as I'm too focused on something else.

All of which can contribute to sleeping problems...on top of all my other sleeping problems.
I've yet to find a solution to this.

I've very curious about this... which color lights promote sleep?

You can buy CFL's in a wide array of colors. The "warm" lights are 2700k (red/orange) and the "daylights" are usually either 5000k or 6500k (blue/green). There are also some full spectrum CFL's available which have both the red and the blue spectrum lightsl.

The reason why I am curious is because I mentioned that I stare at my indoor garden to relax me. The light in there is 2100k or very red, which promotes maturty and flowering in the plants. The bluer lights promote vegetative growth in the plants. I have blue spectrum lights in another area in the back but I can't go stare at those because it would wake up my hubby. I'm just wondering now if part of the therapeutic response is coming from the color of the lights...

I've very curious about this... which color lights promote sleep?

You can buy CFL's in a wide array of colors. The "warm" lights are 2700k (red/orange) and the "daylights" are usually either 5000k or 6500k (blue/green). There are also some full spectrum CFL's available which have both the red and the blue spectrum lightsl.

The reason why I am curious is because I mentioned that I stare at my indoor garden to relax me. The light in there is 2100k or very red, which promotes maturty and flowering in the plants. The bluer lights promote vegetative growth in the plants. I have blue spectrum lights in another area in the back but I can't go stare at those because it would wake up my hubby. I'm just wondering now if part of the therapeutic response is coming from the color of the lights...

Darkness promotes sleep. I keep an aluminized camping blanket over my BR sliding door to keep light out since it is nearly opaque. Look up "melatonin" on Wikipedia to find the info on the effect of light color on melatonin depletion.

I have the same problem! I usually program at night. So the projects could take hours. I usually stay up till five and half of the time i will wake up 3 hours later. The other half of the time I get 5 hours of sleep. This whole week I have gotten no more than 3 hours of sleep every night. A total of 20 hours(I am aware 7 x 3 = 21). This week hasn't been spent programming though. It has been sepnt tweaking my Arch Linux Box. So I can't blame it on one thing or computers in General.

I think it is just because my mind races, and severly I might add! I am also obsessive too. So I think it's me craving intimacy with software/hardware and the computer itself! I can never stop thinking about programming and computers. So I will watch TV at night and before you know it, the laptop is broken out and I'm on my Linux box coding or tweaking away!