Sleeping

cliffy

cliffy

cliffy

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I am a major insomniac to the point were it was becoming bad for my health and i was prescribed sleeping pills. Once I am a sleep i will sleep 10 hours easy but getting to sleep is a long painful process which leads to about a maximum of 3 hours sleep on work nights (with out pills).

I can easily fall a sleep in the afternoon after work while watching TV no problem if i let myself but at night no chance.

I am curious, what are others sleep patterns and anyone got any genuine tips on battling insomnia with out medication
 
Nothing you might not have heard...

- Exercise : This has been the game changer for me
- Eating : Eat well , really.. avoid junk food/sugar , caffiene in the evening
- Avoid Phone in bed at all costs.i think the guide line is 2 hrs before , no screen time.
- Avoid larger naps in the afternoon as well... basically , if i sleep then , then i am absolutely not going to sleep at night and sleep comes later 2-3 am and the cycle is bust. This is also what i am struggling with this week.
- Meditation also helps.

Hope you manage to sleep well OP.
 
I sometimes split my week into 6 instead of 7, of approx. 28 hours hours per 'day'. It still works out the same number of hours which is 168.

Sun - awake from 1800 to 1600 (Monday)
Mon - skipped
Tue - awake from 0000 to 1900
Wed - awake from 0300 to 2200
Thu - awake from 0600 to midnight
Fri - awake from 0900 to 0300
Sat - awake from 1200 to 0600

Splitting the week into 6 means that I am actually tired when I go to bed and I can usually sleep and not wake up more than once. These times also fit around my work hours fine and I still get to socialise Wed/Thu/Fri/Sat. Nothing happens on Sun/Mon/Tue really!
 
nine_tails said:
Nothing you might not have heard...

- Exercise : This has been the game changer for me
- Eating : Eat well , really.. avoid junk food/sugar , caffiene in the evening
- Avoid Phone in bed at all costs.i think the guide line is 2 hrs before , no screen time.
- Avoid larger naps in the afternoon as well... basically , if i sleep then , then i am absolutely not going to sleep at night and sleep comes later 2-3 am and the cycle is bust. This is also what i am struggling with this week.
- Meditation also helps.

Hope you manage to sleep well OP.
Click to expand...

iving up caffeine (completely) and alcohol (for a long time, but not permanently) plus getting more exercise fixed my sleep problems.
Click to expand...

Yeah Caffeine is already a no go for me in general, diet could be improved though especially post lockdown. Whn you say avoid screen time 2 hours before bed, is that all screen time or just tablet and phone?
 
Pawnless Endgame said:
I sometimes split my week into 6 instead of 7, of approx. 28 hours hours per 'day'. It still works out the same number of hours which is 168.

Sun - awake from 1800 to 1600 (Monday)
Mon - skipped
Tue - awake from 0000 to 1900
Wed - awake from 0300 to 2200
Thu - awake from 0600 to midnight
Fri - awake from 0900 to 0300
Sat - awake from 1200 to 0600

Splitting the week into 6 means that I am actually tired when I go to bed and I can usually sleep and not wake up more than once. These times also fit around my work hours fine and I still get to socialise Wed/Thu/Fri/Sat. Nothing happens on Sun/Mon/Tue really!
Click to expand...
This is interesting, may look at something similar to fit around my job
 
You need serious exercise, you will then be exhausted and sleep easily.

In modern life people do not do enough exercise.

I go to sleep around 11:00, and wake up at 18:00. i start work @22:00

I finish work @ 08:00,, so its roughly equal times i am awake before and after work.
 
Exercise and a good diet both good suggestions and should be the first options. Having said that, have you looked in to biphasic and polyphasic sleep? It may be you're trying to force a monophasic sleep pattern which may not suit you or perhaps you are accidently mixing other phasics without knowing it.

I work varying shifts throughout the month so alter type of sleep pattern, usually without trying. For example when working nights I fall in to a biphasic sleep pattern (sleep twice, 4+3 or 5+2) but when on other shifts return to the monophasic pattern (one 7 hour sleep). I tried fighting the biphasic sleep when on nights but failed so just embrace it now! Polyphasic sleep sounds mental with people sleeping just 4 hours with little naps throughout the entire day.
 
1. I have dust mite allergy, without taking the appropriate steps for that I was never really able to settle in bed. It would make even more sense if your sofa is leather because dust mites don't live in leather furniture.
2. If I eat anything substantial in the evening I have way too much energy, so I tend to eat around lunch time instead and that's it.
3. If I have complicated stuff going on at work then I end up thinking about it when I try to sleep. The only way I've found to manage that is to take jobs with less responsibility, let other people do the hard stuff.
 
I'm not sure it counts as proper insomnia but I was sleeping really badly for a couple of months. I fixed it by waking up at 6 every morning and exercising before work. I wake up at the same time whether I'm going to the office or working from home, and at weekends as well. Lights out at 10pm. I was already doing plenty of exercise and eating well but my sleep schedule was messed up and I'd developed a terrible attitude towards getting up in the morning where I'd basically leave it as late as possible. Now I get up for something that I want to do rather than have to do which is a much better way to start the day, although I get up at the same time even when I'm not exercising. Also learn how to clear your mind when lying in bed trying to fall asleep (meditation might help here). I gave up caffeine a few years ago and barely drink alcohol these days, but they're definitely good things to avoid to improve sleep.
 
Up to a year ago I woke up as though I hadn't been to sleep.
I mentioned this to a Nurse at work, a red alert went off and she referred me to the Sleep Clinic where it was discovered I stop breathing 46 times an hour.
On top of this I would wake at least 6 times a night and have a wee because of diabetes.
I now wear a CPAP mask helping me to breathe and I now only wake up twice a night for a wee.
 
platinum87 said:
You need serious exercise, you will then be exhausted and sleep easily.

In modern life people do not do enough exercise.

I go to sleep around 11:00, and wake up at 18:00. i start work @22:00

I finish work @ 08:00,, so its roughly equal times i am awake before and after work.
Click to expand...

I mean, I was training more than most and had enough issues I had to be prescribed pills - so 'exercise' isn't always the answer. Also when your running on 2 hours sleep over 3-4 days - it's almost impossible. I assume you've had some insomnia?

Things I done to resolve;

I already exercised heavily, like an hour a day would be a short day and when enough sleep most days off would be 2-5 hours of cycling. But during the whole sleep issues I had, I barely exercised at all due, I could barely function most days - I also already eat healthy (as in I cook fresh for nearly every meal) I changed all my sheets, quilt, pillows to some good quality stuff (not sure if this was placebo, but even now I still keep it to a high quality), I stopped TV/Gaming (before bed) and tried to read as much as I could before bed, replaced my phone with an alarm clock. It went away eventually, but it was probably because I changed from working days/nights to just days.

I also used some mediation app - Calm. It actually did help a lot, sometimes. Try everything though, but stick with it - some yoga an hour or so before bed. Waking up on the weekends at the same time as weekday is important for me too. For me it was routine that finally fixed my issues, or at least I think it was.

Those sleeping pills could get easily addictive if you let them, so good luck.
 
I go through stages of this and to get rid of insomnia it pretty much comes to relaxation and shutting your brain down. Don't play video games/ read social media/ do anything that may annoy you close to bed time and I find this works well.
 
SexyGreyFox said:
For some people maybe, when I'd just done a marathon/half marathon there was no way I was sleeping and the same for smaller runs, I was that pumped up I used to go bed around 1am.
Click to expand...

Same for me regarding running but different types of exercise can help. Swimming in the evening is a guaranteed way to make me sleep like a baby.
 
I fall asleep fine, but my Samsung smart watch indicates I get very little deep sleep which is what your body needs to recover.

Still trying to get to the bottom of that, we have recently changed our entire bed/mattress (we were moving house) and I also got a Simba Hybrid pillow that you can adjust yourself by taking out or putting in more foam cubes.

My sleep score is still often only around the 40-60 range though.
 
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