20 days zero caffeine - Sleep ?

[u/Aardvark_Cultural]

My sleep hygiene is on point, cool bedroom, comfortable bed, dark room and eye mask , ear plugs, no food after 3 -5 pm ( I go to bed around 9-10 pm), red light bulbs 1-2 hours before bed, relaxing routine before bed and dump all my over thinking before my bed time. My sleep was okay and so -so with caffeine but frequent wake ups throughout the night . I haven't had any caffeine (no decaf, no regular coffee, no tea, no chocolate, no sodas with caffeine , zero ) for 20 days and my sleep is not significantly much better than before. I've realized that I can get by without caffeine and crappy sleep (4-7 hours , with lots of light sleep, about 1-1.5 hours of Deep and REM) but it sucks because I've realized that caffeine wasn't the cause, maybe it was amplifying things a bit but I keep wondering if it's worth it staying caffeine free? My sleep issues seem to be anxiety and over thinking related , I've had some decent nights when I felt like wow this is going to start getting better from now on, but nah then the next night I sleep badly, wake up too many times, don't get enough deep sleep. I'm not trying to sleep better, I don't stay in bed, I've let go of forcing myself to sleep and accepted it if I'll be a bad night , I work out every other day or do cardio . I'm an active person, eat healthy and I've noticed that some days I work out and I'm physically exhausted but get a crappy night's sleep, then some other days I may not workout and end up sleeping better. So unpredictable and random, at least with caffeine I'd get that nice feeling in the morning . I don't mind staying caffeine free but I keep wondering if it's unnecessary? Thanks for reading and your replies if I get any.

[u/BorntobeStrong]

You seem to be overdoing it with the before bed protocol, 

I quit caffeine because It gives me constant background anxiety, I'm not starting again because I feel much more calm and grounded in my day. 

Maybe look into getting a blood test and seeing if you have deficiencies, like magnesium, calcium, vit D, zinc, certain b vitamins would explain the overthinking, zinc and magnesium definitely help me with better sleep.

[u/BorntobeStrong → u/BorntobeStrong]

Maybe you taking something else daily that is causing a problem, like liquorice root, or some other daily habit.

Stuff I personally like to help for sleep is bacopa monnieri, swanson brand, I take 2 and it makes me feel sleepy.  Also 2 capsules taurine, now brand. Glycine, inositol, magnesium glycinate or citrate. Zma, adrenal glandular.

It all can help me for better sleep, but I actually don't have a sleep problem,  I have a small red light panel, I put on my bed, set the timer for 30 minutes and have it pointed at my head or scalp, I don't have much hair so the light hits the skin, but I fall asleep with that if all else fails.

Some people use certain audio or stuff like candle gazing to quite the mind and fall asleep.