Why can't I sleep?

RollerBall

RollerBall

RollerBall

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Joined
7 Oct 2008
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806
Location
Birmingham
My sleeping pattern isn't even messed up. I've always suffered with sleeping patterns and I always assumed it was because I was a little git who liked to stay on the computer later than I should.

However, these past few days I've been trying to sort my sleeping pattern out before I head back to university.

Last night I went to bed at 1ish, got up at half 10. So ~8-8.30 hours sleep. Went to work for 8 hours, went out with some friends (no alcohol).

Tried to go to sleep again tonight at 1ish for work again tomorrow and nothing. I got back out of bed at 2. I'm wide awake, what the hell? This isn't the first time it's happened either. I literally cannot get to sleep if I try when I've had 8 hours the night before as a "normal sleeping habit". I'll then be up till ~3/4/5am as I just cannot sleep and my sleeping pattern gradually gets messed up from there.

I need eight hours sleep to function well (well enough to learn complex things in lectures) but if I have eight hours sleep I can't sleep again for like 20 hours >.>
 
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I always found that trying to get back into the routine of school never works. I would just stay up as late as I could keep my eyes open the night before my first day. Go to sleep and get up early. Quite often I would wake up and feel wide awake despite sometimes having less than two hours sleep. It's a weird state of feeling wide awake but just a bit slow. I could get through the day fine, my brain isn't working at 100% but its the first day WGAF. By about 21:00 that day you are shattered and have a great sleep heading into the next day and just keep it going.
 
DJmartin said:
I always found that trying to get back into the routine of school never works. I would just stay up as late as I could keep my eyes open the night before my first day. Go to sleep and get up early. Quite often I would wake up and feel wide awake despite sometimes having less than two hours sleep. It's a weird state of feeling wide awake but just a bit slow. I could get through the day fine, my brain isn't working at 100% but its the first day WGAF. By about 21:00 that day you are shattered and have a great sleep heading into the next day and just keep it going.
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I've done that a couple of times to reset my sleeping pattern. I don't usually sleep though, just pull an all nighter.

One or two nights after that great nights sleep though I'm ****ed again. Led trying to sleep at a reasonable time and end up awake till stupid o clock.
 
DirtyJester said:
I feel your pain mate, I work shifts and even though I've come of nightshift a day ago (if that makes sense) I'm wide awake and 9 cans of lager down ....
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I hate that. I've got the rest of tonight and tomorrow night to do, then have whats left of saturday and sunday off before I go back onto days on monday. Its a killer.
 
I've never been able to establish a sleeping pattern, at any stage of life, as early as I can remember half decently 10-12yr old maybe, I can remember sleepless nights and getting so frustrated and bored I'd end up sneaking downstairs to watch TV till I finally felt tired.

Lying in bed, desparate to sleep, knowing you're shattered, but being completely unable to sleep and getting angry is awful, often when I'm like that its because I can't seem to "turn my brain off", I can't stop thinking about utterly random stuff, its like a word association game. I have one thought, and randomly hop around thinking about completely pointless stuff.

Actually, the only time I've slept slightly well was during a'levels when i'd be up at 7am, out the house before 8, back at 5, at work by 6pm and finish at 11pm, I was just exhausted but slept well for a couple months, it was fairly physical work though so was like exercising for hours. Unfortunately due to completely screwed up joints I really can't do much/any exercise anymore, thats probably a pretty big factor in it.

Maybe try adding in even 20 mins of some crazy high intensity exercise every day to help tire you out more.
 
I can never maintain staying up during the day. Soon as their is cause to slip out of a 'normal' sleep pattern I can happily stay up an entire night not feeling the slightest bit tired. However getting out of that to return to normality is crazy hard, I can then never fall asleep of a night and I'm completely exhausted before midday and it's horribly trying to attempt to stay up.

Praise Jesus for stimulants.
 
So I finally got to sleep at about 4am. Woke up at 8am (wtf?) then had patchy sleep until half 10 when my alarm went off for work.
 
Don't obses about it, the more you think about it the less likely you are to sleep properly.

8hrs is an average not a rule it's different for everyone.

Going to bed at 1 and getting up at 10 is never going to be ideal the human sleep pattern is heavily effected by light try going to bed at 11 and getting up at 7 in a room with thin curtains your body naturally shuts down with the sun and starts again when it rises.

Stop drinking caffine altogether it is a nightmare for sleep patterns, also don't eat after 6-7pm again it's a nightmare for sleep patterns.
 
a1ex2001 said:
Don't obses about it, the more you think about it the less likely you are to sleep properly.

8hrs is an average not a rule it's different for everyone.

Going to bed at 1 and getting up at 10 is never going to be ideal the human sleep pattern is heavily effected by light try going to bed at 11 and getting up at 7 in a room with thin curtains your body naturally shuts down with the sun and starts again when it rises.

Stop drinking caffine altogether it is a nightmare for sleep patterns, also don't eat after 6-7pm again it's a nightmare for sleep patterns.
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I don't consume any caffine at all. I do have a habit of eating after 6-7pm though. I find it can help though, some of the best sleeps I've had have been carb induced.
 
a1ex2001 said:
Don't obses about it, the more you think about it the less likely you are to sleep properly.

8hrs is an average not a rule it's different for everyone.

Going to bed at 1 and getting up at 10 is never going to be ideal the human sleep pattern is heavily effected by light try going to bed at 11 and getting up at 7 in a room with thin curtains your body naturally shuts down with the sun and starts again when it rises.

Stop drinking caffine altogether it is a nightmare for sleep patterns, also don't eat after 6-7pm again it's a nightmare for sleep patterns.
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Yea, this is good advice. If you try to get into a 23:00-07:00 routine during this time of year then your body will cope much better, even if you don't need to be up at 07:00.

Also, make sure you are off the computer/phone an hour before bed. Otherwise your head will still be spinning with thoughts.
 
I got into a bad habbit at uni of falling asleep with the pc on in the background, ive spent a few weeks trying to cut it out. Also I tend to eat dinner really late, which is a pain. Glad to know im not alone in the bad sleep stakes
 
In order to reset my sleeping pattern to a certain time, I just go without sleep for one night and then go to sleep the following night at the desired time.

It's not ideal, but it's better than wasting several hours in bed trying to go to sleep.
 
Same here. My body always tries to adjust to a ~26 hour day.

If I get the 8hrs sleep that I really need, I really struggle to get to sleep at the same time I did the day before. It's usually ~2hrs later before I can fall asleep, unless I take / drink something.

The best way I've found to control it is to sleep for 6hrs instead... This leaves me feeling exhausted the next day, but I am still always wide awake by the evening (probably around 9-10pm I'm at my most alert). I can usually get to sleep by 1am if I do this, but after a full week of 6hr nights I'm a walking corpse. I usually sleep 10hrs+ at the weekend to catch up, but this puts my sleep pattern even further out of whack. Sunday nights are always the worst - if I don't take something to make me sleepy I will still be up at 6am.

I think a lot of people have problems with sleeping... On the plus side, once I'm out I'm OUT. I don't have interrupted sleep once I'm under, but getting to sleep is a constant chore.
 
Go for a run or a walk before bed, have a shower and a mug of warm milk! :)

Also, being shattered, fresh sheets and a shower is the best thing ever.
 
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