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Sleeping Problems

Excercise or otherwise get outdoors

If you know how tired you feel when camping, skiing, hiking, etc, then turn that into an advantage.
Instead of a nap, go for a good 45+ minute walk/run/ride/something.
It will keep you busy, get your blood and brain moving again so you can deal with a few hours until bedtime

The combination of physical tiredness, plus endorphins leaving the body after a few hours should help as well.

Good Luck!
 
According to sleep experts, insomnia is not necessarily improved by exercise, and can even be made worse with exercise:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/exercise/AN01063

For those who've never experienced true insomnia, this might seem completely counterintuitive -- which it is. Many things about insomnia are equally difficult to explain logically. Insomniacs do not sleep for lack of tiredness. They cannot sleep even when they are completely and utterly exhausted. It's a complex medical condition. No one thing makes it go away and some of those things don't necessarily make any intuitive sense, but they work.
 
IJ Reilly said:
This advice can't be coming from someone who has suffered from real insomnia. Insomniacs should sleep in a room by themselves. Just having to listen to someone sleeping can be very disturbing to an insomniac.



Most of the sleep experts I've read advise that if you can't fall asleep in 20 minutes, get up and do something else. I usually give it somewhat longer, but that's just me. Probably reading a book or some other quiet activity is better than staring into a bright computer display or a TV, which sends your brain confusing messages about the time of day.



Right. (Why did you say the opposite above?) Not only do you need to be by yourself for your own good, but insomniacs tend to drive their bed partners to insomnia with their tossing and turning. You also don't want to associate your normal sleeping place with insomnia. Sleeping by yourself in another room is recommended by sleep experts for a reason: it works! I can also personally attest to it.
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I said the above partly joking. When I first moved to my city, I could not sleep in my bed at all. My mind would race, i would toss and turn for hours. I finally started sleeping on the sofa in the other room- and i could sleep. Then I met the lady who is now my wife. I tried to sleep in her bed with her and I was able to also. I have suffered insomnia, and my wife currently suffers from it- I'm not talking out of my arse.
 
IJ Reilly said:
According to sleep experts, insomnia is not necessarily improved by exercise, and can even be made worse with exercise:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/exercise/AN01063

For those who've never experienced true insomnia, this might seem completely counterintuitive -- which it is. Many things about insomnia are equally difficult to explain logically. Insomniacs do not sleep for lack of tiredness. They cannot sleep even when they are completely and utterly exhausted. It's a complex medical condition. No one thing makes it go away and some of those things don't necessarily make any intuitive sense, but they work.
Click to expand...


an it complete and utterly sucks to have. I for example get depressed and stress I can kiss sleep good bye. A year ago when I was very depressed I was in tears almost every night because all I wanted was sleep and could not get it. I looked and felt exhausted 24/7 but could not sleep. The only sleep I did get was pretty much from complete exhaustion and my body crashing for a short burst of sleep but even then it was just enough to get buy. I was running on 3-4 hours sleep/day and those 3-4 hours where broken hours so I was never really getting in to a deep rem sleep. Hell any REM sleep I did get I was being woken up by nightmares.

It is very screwed up. insomnia just goes against all logic. I do have minor insomnia now but a lot of it is stress induced and so I will still go into a deep sleep. Just I can not get any deep sleep after 7-8am in the morning because I will wake up then and go kind of into a deep napping mode waking up and drifting off to sleep until I get up. From that sleeping in on a day will be pretty much worthless to you because you will wake up at about 7-8am every day because that is when you normally get up so you body is just going to wake up when it is that time. that or you will be in a very light sleep. There is a reason why a lot of us will wake up a min or 2 before our alarm clock goes off. Nice thing about it is we are never rip out of a deep sleep and it more natural. This is also the reason people do not need to be jumping around when they wake up. Our body like to be a on a set schedule for waking up and going to bed (and eating for that matter).
 
Well I have an issue of not sleeping early and sometimes when I do cant fall asleep. So I created this fantasy story line in my head. I think how its starting, imagine scenery and start the story. Right away I will fall asleep, the next night I continue the story.

Right now I am a sorcerer defending an abandon Desert Castle from Ghosts of
Swordsman, Wizard, Priest, Spearman, and the likes attacking me. I am creating a shield trying to figure how I am able to protect this castle and get rid of the ghost.

I hope this helps to anyone, encourages me to sleep early just to think out what can happen next.



Also hearing those Guided Meditations really helps you to clear the mind, my professor gave me her mp3 which is free to distribute good starter. Its really good as to relax and really energizes you.
 
In my experience, it is worrying and thinking that keeps me awake. Whilst stress and anxiety are not easy to cure, I find that listening to talk radio helps to take my mind off things. I also find that human voices can have the ability to make me nod off - it lolls me to sleep! Music can help, but I find music more engaging than the spoken word.
 
OscarTheGrouch said:
I said the above partly joking. When I first moved to my city, I could not sleep in my bed at all. My mind would race, i would toss and turn for hours. I finally started sleeping on the sofa in the other room- and i could sleep. Then I met the lady who is now my wife. I tried to sleep in her bed with her and I was able to also. I have suffered insomnia, and my wife currently suffers from it- I'm not talking out of my arse.
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If the first instance, you were able to sleep by changing bed locations, which we know works. As for why sleeping with your spouse-to-be helped, well, let's just not go there. ;)

If one of you is suffering from insomnia now, then that person would probably benefit by getting out of your common bed for awhile. I'm not sure if it's the change or the being alone which really does the trick but I suspect from my own experience that it's the change as much as anything else. Insomnia can be a bizarre condition. When I tried to go back to my regular bed after having recovered my sleep habits after a week or so of sleeping in the guest bedroom, I experienced insomnia and had to start over again.
 
Thanks for all the advice. I am just going to have to suck it up and not nap and do my best to go to try and sleep at the correct time.

I tried listening to music, doesnt work. TV doesnt work.

I am a mess right now.

My reading break is coming up and we spring forward this weekend. I am going to try and regulate myself during this week and also catch up on everything that I am behind on school work wise. The springing forward will help.
 
Sorry I'm late...

OK, I agree with everyone who said to cut out the nap. You can try a 15 minute nap (not in bed) during the time that you usually nap but do not go over 30 minutes.

As far as getting your body to sleep at normal times: you cannot change all at once. If you typically fall asleep at 1AM then try getting to bed 15 minutes earlier. Every 2-3 nights move your bedtime 15 minutes earlier until you are at your desired bedtime. Ben Franklin had it right "early to bed and early to rise." The human body can do strange shifts, but it prefers to get around 8-9 hours of sleep from around 10PM to 7AM.

Other posts have mentioned it but exercise does not actually impair your ability to sleep. Strenuous exercise might, but yoga or a light run may help clear your mind and get you to fall asleep faster.

Make sure you have good "sleep hygiene" no TV, no radio, no bright lights, no alcohol, no caffeine (including chocolate), no random gunshots in the middle of the night.

Enjoy.:)
 
I have only read the original post, so this may have already been said.

Take up a workout routine if you can. Do a fair amount of cardio (30 - 45 minutes) and possibly some weights. Do more cardio if you don't want to do weights, but make sure that you do the cardio. I personally hate cardio, so I put some South Park episodes on my iPod and use the elliptical machine for an entire episode (usually about 23 minutes), then watch an Ali G clip or two to cool down.

This helps me actually be tired when bedtime arrives. If you can, right after work, head to the gym, since getting your blood pumping will definitely relieve the tiredness. Works every time for me. It will be a bit difficult to start out, but once you're a week or so in, you'll feel like a million bucks.

Or, if that doesn't work, consider taking half a 50mg sleeping pill. I use diphenhydramine when I can reasonably predict that I won't be able to sleep. Try not to take the whole thing though, because you might feel a bit drowsy in the morning.

Hope this helps.
 
balamw said:
Light therapy and melatonin should help you there.

EDIT: Basically make sure it is as bright as possible when you need to wake up and take melatonin around midday (avoiding stimulants after that) to help you fall asleep when you want to and get up when you need to.

B
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Maybe that's why Melatonin doesn't work for me. I take it at night... why does taking it mid-day make a difference?
 
Phat Elvis said:
Other posts have mentioned it but exercise does not actually impair your ability to sleep. Strenuous exercise might, but yoga or a light run may help clear your mind and get you to fall asleep faster.
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Might, being the operative word. Or might not. The connections are far from proven. As someone who's being doing yoga for over 20 years, I'd like to think that since it relieves stress that it also induces sleep, but I haven't noticed that it helps at all when insomnia strikes. That's what is so insidious about insomnia -- the things you think logically should work, and usually do work, stop working.

The problem with trying to regulate sleep hours from bedtime onwards is that we don't all experience insomnia the same way. I can often fall asleep almost immediately, then wake up an hour or so later and not be able to return to sleep, so it wouldn't do me any good to move my bedtime up 15 minutes a day. I believe this is a common pattern for insomniacs, which is why sleep experts advise going to bed at the same hour every night. I do find that as my sleep become better regulated that I can sleep a bit later every morning, until after several days, I'm rising at my regular hour again.
 
Sleepless

Here, is a method that although not totally endorsed, that works well for many Mac users... Open any Windoze manual approximately 10 minutes before you want to fall asleep... and try to pay attention to what you are reading. works for me !! <grin>
 
mgargan1 said:
Maybe that's why Melatonin doesn't work for me. I take it at night... why does taking it mid-day make a difference?
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The effectiveness of melatonin supplements has not been very well studied. Some think taking one six hours before bedtime is effective. I've never seen any advice for taking them midday, and I can't see any sense in taking it that early in the day, since meatonin is supposed to be produced by the brain when the body is deprived of sunlight (our good old lizard brains at work!) Taking one when the sun goes down would simulate or enhance this effect. Either way, it doesn't seem to work very well -- at least not for me -- and I'm betting it doesn't work for very many people who are experiencing serious insomnia. Even antihistamine sleep aids often don't work, and they make you very, very sleepy.
 
I have the same problem, and I'm absolutely sure it's down to worry. Over the last year or so I've developed a habit of thinking about work (esp. programming) when my brain is idle. I guess I have this unconscious sense that every little bit helps. This is obsessive behavior, however, and leads to a brain that will just not let go, like a cramped muscle.

Something that helps me is playing a computer/video game during normal waking hours. I'm not interested in it enough to become obsessed, but it's also involving enough to release me from my worldly responsibilities for a while, and force me to think about relatively soothing, repetitive behaviors. I find games with a decent storyline to be the best, since they better exercise the imagination.
 
I will try my best, but its much more then that, I am stressed out like I never have been before in my life. However, I just put something in perspective and I still have a good opportunity to fix my current short comings because I am lucky enough to have teachers that will allow me to rebound.

I've fallen behind and fallen into a slump and I am just a mess right now. Spring break I will be reborn, hopefully.
 
You can do this, BigPrince. Can I suggest that to help cut out your nap, you stay out of your house/apartment/dorm during the time you would normally crash? Get some friends together and do work in the library; they won't let you conk out on their watch.

You are really stressed out, but it sounds like sleep isn't the only culprit. Maybe reorganizing or shifting priorities and habits might help?

I remember waking up every day of my undergraduate career thinking "I am so coming back here and taking a nap after class" and it was the only thing that got me out of bed. I never did go back and take that nap, but maybe you have time in your day for a midday nap instead of in the evening?
 
Thinking long term here, BigPrince...I'm going to recommend finding a decent meditation class to start a meditation practice.

I've only had experience with zen meditation, which focuses on how thoughts arise and how they pass, and then gets a little more complex (or simple, depending on how you look at it)...anyways, you might look around for a zen center near you. After a while, you'll be able to calm your mind a lot better.

(While I only have experience with zen, if you feel it might conflict with your belief system/religion, see if your place of worship has classes in meditation-based prayer or anything similar).
 
IJ Reilly said:
The effectiveness of melatonin supplements has not been very well studied. Some think taking one six hours before bedtime is effective. I've never seen any advice for taking them midday, and I can't see any sense in taking it that early in the day, since meatonin is supposed to be produced by the brain when the body is deprived of sunlight (our good old lizard brains at work!) Taking one when the sun goes down would simulate or enhance this effect. Either way, it doesn't seem to work very well -- at least not for me -- and I'm betting it doesn't work for very many people who are experiencing serious insomnia. Even antihistamine sleep aids often don't work, and they make you very, very sleepy.
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Melatonin is not a panacea, particularly since you don't know how much is actually in any given supplement, but it has occasionally seem to help me at least reset my circadian rhythm when switching time zones frequently. I find that 8 hours before bedtime is about the right time window, which is why I suggested ~midday. (As I'd probably want to try to go to bed around 9 so I could actually get 9 hours of sleep and still get up at 6). I'm usually up much later, but not when my sleep quality has been poor.

FWIW melatonin certainly doesn't "put you to sleep" in any way, for me at least it seems to just help to take the edge off and lets me get to sleep even when my body would otherwise not be ready to do so, as in the case of being thrust in a new time zone every other day.

I also find that total darkness (i.e. not even any LED alarm clocks) and some optional white noise help me too, but I don't suffer from extreme insomnia.

B
 
Hmm, I've somehow been functioning on less than 6 hours of sleep a night since the start of the semester...
But with all this talk of sleeping trouble (both here and the "What's wrong with me?" thread), I'm not sure if I'll be able to get to sleep tonight.




Yeah, right. :rolleyes: Once my eyes close, I'm like a very loud, warm, squishy log.
 
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