Please share your best strategies for staying asleep after you hit the hay. ???
I would love thoughts on this...I can go to sleep but I typically wake up early. When I'm stressed, 2-4 hours a night becomes my norm. Honestly I need 7-9 to wake up and feel well.
Great question. I wake up almost every night at 2-330 am. Once in a great while I treat myself to Ambien. Exercise, watching what I eat and no coffee after noon do not help...
I think light exposure matters when it comes to sleep. I use a blue light in the morning, if it's not sunny. Then put on orange glasses after sunset to minimize my blue light exposure after dark. I think light in the am and dark in the pm helps to keep my internal clock on the right circadian rythm. No blue light in the bedroom at night. I found a clock with a red display, and any nightlights I have are also in the red spectrum. If I'm sleeping in a room with light seeping in I use a sleep mask. Also, I use ear plugs sometimes to keep noise out.
I've heard the same thing about light exposure. The article I read talked especially about computer screens and so on. I'd never regarded one of those as a light source before, but coming to think of it - they are quite bright, aren't they? There are programmes that make the colour of our computer's display change, depending on what time of day it is. So in the evening, the colours get warmer and possibly dimmer.
There's one called F.lux:http://www.pcworld.com/article/2056895/review-f-lux-makes-your-computer-usable-at-night.html (http://www.pcworld.com/article/2056895/review-f-lux-makes-your-computer-usable-at-night.html)
There are other programmes that do the same thing:
http://alternativeto.net/software/f46lux/ (http://alternativeto.net/software/f46lux/)
There are also apps that do the same things for phones. Here's one: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.urbandroid.lux (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.urbandroid.lux)
I can't say if they work, but I downloaded f.lux just now and am trying it out. I've got difficulty falling asleep at night, so I'll see if that helps fix things.
For me, I stopped worrying about if I slept or not. If I can't sleep, eventually somewhere in the week, my body has me sleep.
I used to wake up after the 4 hour sleep cycle and had trouble going back to sleep. At that time in my life, I watched a soap opera daily in the early evenings with videotape.
So in the middle of the night when I woke up, I would focus on the boring and never ending soap opera history and storyline, "who was related to who" kind of thing. I guess it was like counting sheep. But, I always fell back asleep doing that, and it was totally pointless, yet it gave something for my monkey mind to do.
It solved my issue of my waking up and then thinking on what was worrying me during the day. Once I starting worrying and trying to solve "my life," then it was hopeless on my sleeping!!!
So, I instead focused on a soap opera storyline. I also promised myself not to take anything I thought about in the middle of the night seriously!!
If I truly, truly could not sleep after 20 minutes, then I got up. Did some meaningless stuff...got tired ...went back to bed and slept.
Wow Rain, I could have written your post lol. I usually give myself some time to fall back asleep and then if I can't I put on a mindless TV show with the sound low. And if that doesn't work I get up for a bit and then try again. One of those usually works. :zzz:
How funny, Kizzie!! So, it was YOUR TV I saw in the house nearby flickering at 3am? ha!
Hey, you win the award for actually using the SLEEP emoticon in the SLEEP question. ding, ding, ding!! :thumbup: (why didn't I think of that?) :doh:
There was an article I think on OOTF referencing that in times past it was common to sleep for four hours get up for an hour or two and then go back to sleep for another four hour cycle. The advent of electricity and artificial light altered this supposed natural sleep cycle. I find myself at times sleeping for a few hours, waking for a little bit and then going back for another few hours. Makes me wonder if there might be some truth to that two cycle theory.
Good you made good use of the time though :/
Ive read that as well. Great for the Agricultural age but not so much post Industrial Revolution (alarm clock!). Sometimes my best sleep results from total exhaustion. Friday I got up at 330am! Ick! Even the cats were saying "*? " but Friday night I slept for 10 glorious hours and it was better than a visit with the ice cream man. Agree that our bodies tell us what we need but work can sure jack with that.
globetrotter, I'm still laughing with your "Even the cats were saying "*?" I know those fur-face expressions!
My kits jump up all eager to get going. If I'm not up by 3am they wonder what's up. :P
Our dawg does not get up for love nor money (dog treat) unless he's had a solid 10 hours.
During the day if anyone comes to the door he's all over it, but after 8 or 9 PM we're lucky to get a "Woof" from his bedroom (the MBRM walk-in closet which he lets us use for our clothes.) Off duty I guess ;D
so butterfly's cats are better than ya dawg on protecting your homestead, Kizzie?
:rundog:
Finally! The running dawg - :thumbup: Rain
:D
Has anyone else tried melatonin and/or valerian? I have used those off and on to make sure I'm getting sleepy at an early enough hour of the day.
Yes valerian is in the mix of herbs I've tried. Works good but on meds for a few weeks to get back on track.
I was trying to find this article I read about sleeping! Do you find yourself waking up multiple times or just once? The article was about how only recently humans have switched to 8 hour sleep schedules. Apparently people use to sleep, get up in the middle of the night and go hang out with neighbors (have a meal, whatever), and then go back to sleep for a while. Once I read that I started getting up, letting the dog out, have a snack, and then getting back in bed. That helps sometimes.
When I have trouble getting back to sleep. I usually do deep breathing while counting back from 10 over and over. I have problems with ruminating before bed so when I am forced to think about breathing and numbers at the same time there isn't room for much else.
My friend just told me about this app called calm.com. they have ocean sounds that I'm going to try if I have trouble sleeping again. Hope you're able to get a good night's sleep :)
Cold room and warm duvet helps.
Since I stopped worrying about sleep I'm getting more and better sleep. I also downloaded an app to monitor my sleep based on movement and it turns out I was getting more sleep than I thought. It helped calm me down when I saw I've got a good amount solid hours deep and rem sleep so I didn't need to worry.
More tips
http://www.polyphasicsociety.com/polyphasic-sleep/beginners/sleep-hygiene/
I learned about some adenosine too and how it builds up in the body and will eventually sleep what's needed. We can't help it, it's how the body is and that helped me not worry too.
Video #3 in this playlist
http://youtu.be/379q0g55yug?list=PLN0nnPyXPp3xDlKwHJpUs8kREJZfiwdVf
[I used to have problems sleeping, when I was a child. Then I discovered daydreaming (aka dissociating) so now when it's time to sleep I just go to my happy place and I'm out in minutes. It also needs to be dark enough, and quiet enough (I ALWAYS sleep with earplugs), and I can't have too much caffeine during the day. I sleep when the whole world disappears. It's like in Hitchhiker's Guide when Arthur discovered that the secret to flying is not thinking about it at all.
I've never heard anyone else talk about falling asleep like this. I don't know what that means, but I suspect that I am just very very crazy, to be able to turn off reality like flipping a switch.
I think it's good because my brain tends to 'spin' in thought, not always bad thoughts, sometimes just ideas I have to organize something or for a craft project, sometimes it spins on stress topics. It's good to be able to shut it off, I've had to practice to develop that skill. My T recommended deep, slow breathing to slow the heart rate and grounding to remind me I'm in bed, safe, and don't need to stress.
If you can do that without having to practice how to do it then good!