High Sierra Topix

Flux, I had the same problem sleeping at altitude and someone suggested Excedrine PM. Worked like a charm and I've been carrying them ever since for almost nightly use. I always carry a few vicodin or tylonal 3's but save them for medical use.

More comfortable sleeping gear did the trick for me. The one and only time I ever slept 10 hours without waking, I was between 8,000 - 9,000 feet elevation, in my hammock. Don't even sleep that well at home.

I dislike using medication for a variety of reasons - rebound headache and stomach irritation among them. Some nights I find that I am awake because someone else is snoring or there is some other ambient noise that is interfering (ongoing rain is soothing, rain that stops and starts a lot is not). Earplugs or an ipod helps with that.

The second trip I took with my two sons I decided to try sleeping pills because the higher I sleep the worse I sleep. After the first night of the pills we began hiking the second day and I was really tired from the beginning. The third and fourth day off hiking was almost all downhill and every time we hiked level I was hiking with very low energy. I got lots of sleep each night. On our last day I realized that I almost for sure had no energy because of the pills. It was true and I never did that again. As was mentioned, it's different for each person. Because of my many orthopedic surgeries I've had to take lots of pain pills and I have to say I hate them, but again, each to his own.

I've never tried sleeping pills.

I rarely take any medication, even for a cold. That might be why the pain meds have such a profound effect. I found that the Vicodin kind of laid me back and relaxes me as well and I faded to sleep within 20 minutes of getting in my bag.

Looks like lots of folks have this altitude sleep problem.

I'll have to try the Excedrine PM when I run out of Vicodin.....unless I get another toothache.

I guess we're all different. I don't have problems sleeping at altitude. I sleep well. I try to acclimate at ~8000 ft for a couple of days before I go higher. Maybe that helps, don't know for sure.

According to an article (Play High, Sleep Low) I read in Skier Mag. this is a really common thing for the human species. After reading the article I sold my condo in Mammoth and began sleeping nights in Bishop. It really made a difference.