Anyone struggle with sleeping..?

[AndyNorthernSaints]

A few things might help;

 

Less time on your computer in the evening.

 

Sex

 

Exercise

 

Bottle of wine.

[hamster]

As tis appears to be a sensible converstaion on the subject I will contribute my own fwiw thoughts.

 

For years after doing night shifts at Heathrow I have had a reallyerratic 'tiredness' pattern. Additionally a few years back we had an 'uninvited guest' who caused some damege to the house and to my amazement I slept right through it, it scared the life out of me and subsequently my sleep 'problem' really did become a problem. I understand that that period was completely down to the trauma.

 

Some may read this thread and wonder what the hell we are all talking about, but it is in my experience the worrying about not sleeping that compounds it, it can be a very viscious circle.

 

Once i fully understood the thought patterns I was not necesarily cured but was (and still am) much more comfortable with the whole insomnia thing.

 

following recent personal problems I started waking every single time that mrs h moved, again it is a very deep sub-conscious thing. Best way i could describe it was as a kind of 'must protect my loved ones' 24 hours a day stream of thinking, which in itself is understandable but nontheless not sustainable. Some might say it's not 'normal' but once I got my head around it I began to accept it. Now, most of the time I don;t let it bother me.

 

Whe I really want to to slepp I have two tried and tested techniques which work without fail. They may not work for others but give them a try, you never know.

 

Here is one of them:

 

1. Take a deep breath, don;t hold it in but gently feel that oxygen pass into your toes, keep bretahing (consciously). Feel the oxygen passing through your lower legs then your thighs. Another nice deep breath and feel it rise up your body into your midriff, when you reach the upper body areatry to concentrate on the sensation of your breath circulating all around your chest muscles. Next breath you concentrate on your hands, then fore-arms, then biceps and shouldres. Finally you move to the most important area for oxygen and bloodflow, your brain. Feel it liberating your mind, at this point your breath is quite literally helping you to concentrate in the one part of your body that WAS keeping you awake.

 

If you are still awake do one last thing; think about your whole body? Notice just how relaxed the whole of your body is? You may feel qute light-headed at this point, this is because without realising it you are totally relaxed and your mind is as empty of thoughts as you will ever experience it to be.

 

If this does not work first time try it again the following night, you will be less cynical and hopefully will have experienced a little of what sleep requires, it's a kind of floating sensation for want of a better term.

 

Good luck.

[RedAndWhite91]

I just done the whole deep breath thing and feel more tired - thanks hamster.

[Big John]

I just done the whole deep breath thing and feel more tired - thanks hamster.

 

I almost dozed off just reading it!!!

[Poshie72]

Some may read this thread and wonder what the hell we are all talking about, but it is in my experience the worrying about not sleeping that compounds it, it can be a very viscious circle.

 

I couldnt agree more with that. I wake in the night, desparate to go back to sleep and then the worring about it kicks in and I find I cant go back off.

 

 

Whe I really want to to slepp I have two tried and tested techniques which work without fail. They may not work for others but give them a try, you never know.

 

Here is one of them:

 

1. Take a deep breath, don;t hold it in but gently feel that oxygen pass into your toes, keep bretahing (consciously). Feel the oxygen passing through your lower legs then your thighs. Another nice deep breath and feel it rise up your body into your midriff, when you reach the upper body areatry to concentrate on the sensation of your breath circulating all around your chest muscles. Next breath you concentrate on your hands, then fore-arms, then biceps and shouldres. Finally you move to the most important area for oxygen and bloodflow, your brain. Feel it liberating your mind, at this point your breath is quite literally helping you to concentrate in the one part of your body that WAS keeping you awake.

 

If you are still awake do one last thing; think about your whole body? Notice just how relaxed the whole of your body is? You may feel qute light-headed at this point, this is because without realising it you are totally relaxed and your mind is as empty of thoughts as you will ever experience it to be.

 

If this does not work first time try it again the following night, you will be less cynical and hopefully will have experienced a little of what sleep requires, it's a kind of floating sensation for want of a better term.

 

Good luck.

 

I have tried different relaxation techniques, but that one sounds different, so will give it a go. Thanks Hamster

[Joneth]

I've found that i've generally slept a lot better in the last couple of years since I've had a much more settled lifestyle. Now that i've got bills to pay I don't go out much and working regular shifts has helped me a lot.

 

I still slip back into it every so often, maybe once every 3 or 4 months when I just cannot get to sleep no matter what I do. Insomnia is a strange thing, for the first couple of days its pure hell, but after that you begin to accept it and I almost get a nice sense of peace from it. My reactions become really slow and its impossible to concentrate. Gradually after about the 4th day usually i'm so incapable of focusing on anything that I become totally inactive, have the day off work and fall asleep.

 

Breathing and meditation type techniques can be helpful because a lot of the reason I struggle to sleep is my muscles continually twitch and never relax so it can help to control it to a point but often as soon as I drop off my leg will kick and I'll be awake again. Then its Football Manager time.

[Saint137]

Lavender oil can help - drop it on a cotton pad and stick it under your pillow. Boots or Holland and Barratt will sell it. Very heady aroma and a natural sleep-inducer. Setting a routine and sticking to it can help as well. Definitely stay off the alcohol and other stimulants (tea & coffee). Other homeopathic remedies are lemon balm and cherry active. As others have said get the snoring checked out (I'm completely unaware that I do but it wakes me up throughout the night)

[Saint Keith]

Lavender oil can help - drop it on a cotton pad and stick it under your pillow. Boots or Holland and Barratt will sell it. Very heady aroma and a natural sleep-inducer. Setting a routine and sticking to it can help as well. Definitely stay off the alcohol and other stimulants (tea & coffee). Other homeopathic remedies are lemon balm and cherry active. As others have said get the snoring checked out (I'm completely unaware that I do but it wakes me up throughout the night)

 

thats often the key to it, you wake up without realising that you do

[Barney Trubble]

Speak to the doctor and get some tips on dealing with anxiety, they will have a dedicated team who deal with the mental health side of thing's. I used to have bad anxiety as a kid, hypering and all sorts, never slept because I was so ****ing anxious about things. I used to imagine scenarios in my head of things that would go wrong at work the next day, I had no evidence of them and these thoughts rarely became reality and yet I harboured them night after night, week after week, month after month. I had some tips on dealing with anxiety and it helped me so much, a lot of it was down to things that were happening, or had happened in my life and I didn't have the skills to know how to deal with them - the training helped me lots and now I sleep so much better and challange my inner demons so that I now control them, instead of them controlling me.

 

Also, I couldn't emphasise enough of the three free therapies that will help re-align your mind and body and give you a better mental and physical health, which all will help with your sleep.

 

Diet - Eat the right foods, food is huge, it took doctors months to find out what triggered my hyper bouts. I had to write everything I ate, drank and at what times. Eventually they found the source[inserts picture of HP] and I rarely eat this type of food now.

 

Relaxation - Learn how to relax, harder than you may think, sleeping isn't a relaxation in itself. So you need to find a way of totally emptying your mind of anything that has been running through it over the day, problems, worries need to be removed so that you can fully relax for say an hour per day and get your mind and body to become as one, the more you do it, the easier it becomes, although it takes time as the mind can be habitual, learn how to control it and change the way you think.

 

Exericise - My fave, no big effort needed either, just a 5k run every day will do you the world of good, I ran 10k the other day in just under 55 minutes, relatively speaking, it's nothing and yet for me it was an achievement to get just under that 55 minute barrier. It's important to set a realistic goal and aim to achieve it, once you have, set another goal and so on.

 

The mind likes to have something to do, it doesn't like to be be bored, set yourself a goal in life, get a hobby, learn a new skill all these will help you sleep, it may sound a bit OTT but I assure you that within months you'll adjust and sleep will become more habitual and not something you are trying to contrive or force.

 

Oh, someone else mentioned less time on the net, I totally agree, just actively pop on here/the net for a few hours an evening at max, set a timescale in your mind and keep to it, even if a thread is particularly one you are involved in, don't allow yourself to be swayed, keep to your time and catch up the next day. The internet has a lot to answer for with regards to sleep and peoples mental health. Instead of being on here, go for a short run or read a book, its a lot more constructive and therapeutic. I found the less time I spent on the net/looking at a monitor the more rewarding my sleep was, if I spend too much time on the net then I found my sleep suffered as a consequence - I have no idea why, just seems to be the case for me.

[dubai_phil]

Arrgh

It's 1:15 am

 

There's an Arabic Wedding going on in one of the "Big" Arabic villas.

 

All dancing and banging of their walking sticks...

 

Like we can complain to the cops about the loud music....

 

Even earplugs aren't working

 

Making me stressed out - makes it worse grr

[Nineteen Canteen]

Lithium sunsets. Roll on May.

[SO16_Saint]

Try reading the Pompey Takeover thread - that'll make you nod off.

 

Also, it seems that there is one common denominator here - SWF.

 

It's clearly the reason, no doubt!

[saintbletch]

Don't do anything to mentally arduous late at night. Try a bit of reading. I sometimes have the same problem but I never get up. Usually it's because I'm cold but the big boss insists on having a cold bedroom so I use her as a hot-water bottle.

 

All good advice in my opinion. I'd add

 

Light/Dark - Try to bring the light levels down in the evening before sleeping. We're very sensitive to light and dark. Light stimulates us and at a very base level in the brain it means wake up, be alert. Dark means sleep. Modern life has upset this natural relationship.

 

TV/Computer - Don't use the computer 2 hours before going to bed. Try to avoid too much TV. They are both stimuli and also light sources.

 

Reading - I read every night under a dim light and usually no matter what state my mind is in when I go to bed, I usually find sleep easy to find. Although a good book might keep me reading for hours - but that's another problem.

 

Worry - Worrying about sleep in my experience becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. It's trite to simply say don't worry but focussing on it will make the problem worse.

 

Diet - Don't go to bed with a full stomach. Don't eat late at night.

 

Sugar - I am very sensitive to the amount of sugar I consume late into the evening. If I have too much sugar I really struggle to relax. My wife on the other hand is able to eat just about what she wants.

 

Temperature - Our body naturally goes through a temperature drop/rise rhythm. To bring on sleep the body temperature falls and before we wake our body temperature rises. Don't have your bedroom too warm.

 

Relaxation - Some great advice earlier in the thread and another very simple exercise that I've used is to double your relaxation. When we think we're relaxed we often aren't. To test this. Lay in the dark and try to relax and take note of how you feel. Then try to become "twice as relaxed". And what you find is that you relax far more than you were. You can repeat this and in my experience when you think your relaxed, you really aren't.

 

Stress - When I had sleeping issues it was related to a particularly stressful job and my inability to deal with it. It was explained to me that you should spend time going through the major issues on your mind and, even though you might not be able to solve them, set a time in your mind when you will deal with it. This removes the unsolvable problems from creating the stress/worry cycle.

[Master Bates]

Everytime I have a disturbed sleep I notice i'm cold.

 

The last 2 nights i've worn a t-shirt to bed, the last 2 nights i've slept straight through.

 

What do you wear to bed DD?

[Thedelldays]

I got an App for my iPhone called "deep sleep"..and so far..it has worked..

 

strange

[Nineteen Canteen]

I was told the use of worry dolls was popular by some people. The premise is you give each doll a worry and and you put them to bed each night with your worry. Typically, you get 6 worry dolls but they only worked for me the first night as I exhausted myself to the point of collapse just blowing them up.

[Red&White]

I know this is going to sound weird......... before you snuggle in point one of your slippers towards the door and the other one towards the bed. Trust me it works !

A sleep pschycologist ( well I believed him ) told me about this........it`s distraction therapy.

[Johnny Bognor]

This should do the trick

http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/podcasts/SaintsWebPodcast1.mp3