For some reason, tonight my body didn't want want to let me fall asleep. While I have been through this plenty of times before, I was wondering what everyone else here does when you get denied sleep?
For me, the only thing I can do is watch Netflix and browse the web on my phone. Once I know I'm not sleeping, I usually just give in. ADHD does not help since a racing mind is a common cause for not being able to fall asleep.
I always have my fan on at night, despite the temperature. Helps to counter the ringing in my ears that seem to be permanent. I try not thinking, but that didn't work last night it seems. I stopped trying at 7 AM and since I'm no stranger to this I should be fine for at least today without any sleep...
Many people are more light sensitive than they realize or become more light sensitive as they age. Blue light is notorious for stimulating the brain to wake up and stay alert. If you haven't already, make sure your phone / tablet / TV screens are as dim as they can reasonably be. There are even programs out there that can dim screens and reduce the blue light on a timer or times with local sunrise/sunset times.
I agree with the big box fan to help mask external noise (cars driving by, neighbor dogs barking, etc)
I often use an e-reader, and sometimes I watch Netflix on it; if I'm struggling to go to sleep, sometimes I'll turn on a podcast or an audio book, so that there is nothing for me to watch and I can at least close my eyes.
I have to get up really early compared to most people (usually somewhere between 1-3 am) which means going to bed early as well. This can cause problems in summer when it's light outside hours after I try going to bed.
The single most important thing I've done to prepare for sleep, and this takes some time to adjust your body, is doing nothing but trying to sleep once I go to bed. There are no books and no television in my bedroom. I never even took my cell phone to bed until recently, when I ditched a landline. Doing other things to keep busy tells your body going to bed doesn't equal going to sleep.
Another thing I've done is install the heavy weight curtains like you find in hotels. Being in a dark room helps tell your body it's time for sleep, so when it's 6pm and I need to hit the hay, close curtains and boom, it's dark as night. Along with that I might take some melatonin if I think I'm going to have trouble. Being in a dark place spurs your body to produce it, I just help it along. I'd rather not use pharmacy grade sleep aids if I can help, regular melatonin along with a super dark room seems to work for me.
The last resort for me, and it may help if you have noise in your ears, is an app called Storm Sim (http://download.cnet.com/Storm-Sim-Free/3000-2129_4-75428087.html). I have an allergy that prevents me from spending money for apps, but I went ahead and bought every add-on available for this one. You can basically customize your own white noise; I grew up near a busy train crossing so a light rain with an occasional train whistle and a rumble of thunder does it for me. (Edit: the storm sim link is for iOS, I'm fairly certain it exists for android as well.)
My sleep schedule is probably the worst on the planet, but it usually works. I don't remember the last time I went a full night without sleep:
11-1:30 PM/AM - Stop gaming
5-10 min after shutting down my games: Use the restroom so I don't have the urge to go during sleep (which still happens)
After restroom: Boot up Xbox One and launch Netflix and watch for 20-45 minutes before shutting it off
After shutting Xbox off: Attempt to sleep
Usually I enter the sleep state within 5-10 minutes. Last night it felt like... well I don't know. It felt like there was shit crawling on me, and my hands and feet would tingle at random points of time. Closing my eyes just didn't feel right compared to the night before. I'm sure it was a one and done thing, but I've had a stretch of no sleep for 78 hours before in high school and I would like to think that I won't experience that again hopefully.
I read Star Wars books when I had major insomnia problems in high school. Went through a good 15 books over a 12 month period. Usually after about 10-15 minutes of reading I start dozing off.
Quote from: 6a on August 06, 2014, 10:24:39 AM
I have to get up really early compared to most people (usually somewhere between 1-3 am) which means going to bed early as well. This can cause problems in summer when it's light outside hours after I try going to bed.
I have a very similar sleep schedule to you. I sleep from 6pm-2am. I work odd hours. I will occasionally have difficulty sleeping, but it's rare. This time of year, falling asleep when it's light out is harder than in winter. However, I'm normally so tired that I fall asleep within minutes of closing my eyes. Even as I type this at 4:15 pm I'm yawning.
Unlike 6a, I usually read in bed though. I will occasionally fall asleep reading. I will usually wake up between 8 and 9 and shut off the light. I've never had to take anything to help me in falling asleep. As previously noted, I tend to exhaust myself throughout the day and sleeping is rarely difficult.
My worst problem is that when I'm off I can't stay up late. Even on nights before my days off I find myself in bed by 8 and I'm up by 5 on my days off. The upside is that if I plan on doing roadgeeking, I can leave early before most folks are out and about. It also allows me to travel on roads that I've seen way too many times in the dark and by daybreak I can travel on a new road for me.
I usually exercise my imagination whenever I have a down moment, be it trying to fall asleep or any other time. I love building worlds in my head.
Keep the World Almanac next to your bed. Open to a random page and start looking for meaning in the numbers of kwh generated by non-federal hydroelectric plants since....zzzzzzzzzzzz
I did this for years. It's only like twelve bucks so if you ruin it from dropping it, no big wup. Plus you become in demand for bar trivia later in life.
I usually lay in bed with the lights off playing games on an iPad until I feel sleepy. If that doesn't work, or if I know that I have somehow grievously ruined my sleep schedule and must correct it immediately, I will take a melatonin tablet (available from most drug stores) and I'm out like a light.
Usually I can fall asleep pretty easily. But every once in a while, and very rarely, I'll have a night where I JUST CANT fall asleep. Trying not to think does help I'll tell you that bc the nights I can't fall asleep my mind is always bustling with thoughts keeping me awake. Also, I have gone 36 hours without sleep before at a sleepover. I thought it would be epic and fun and exciting. Well it was until day two where the entire day the same thing happened. My eyes kept shutting and opening, shutting and opening, shutting and opening, shutting and opening. I couldn't keep myself awake. That's something I don't want to experience again :banghead: Also, speaking of all this as I type this comment it is 1:12 EST and my first day of school is technically today. I better get to sleep or tonight might be one of those nights where I can't get to sleep :-/
I've been working nights since last November. Insomnia is my best buddy when I try to sleep during the day. :pan:
Booze helps.
Not sleep. Oh wait.... :awesomeface:
Put a movie on (Amazon or Blu-Ray), it's usually to focus my mind of racing thoughts.
Funny, cuz I just stayed up last night.
I spend nights being awake playing video games, because why not spend time you could be using to sleep to do something that's prolly keeping you from sleeping in the first place?
My sleep schedule is a fickle beast. If I start staying up too late, my body just starts making me sleep in the middle of the afternoon when I get off work. It then attempts to shift that sleeping period back to where it belongs. Usually I have to spend one or two sleepless nights for that to work out.
Quote from: Zeffy on August 06, 2014, 11:29:58 AM
My sleep schedule is probably the worst on the planet, but it usually works. I don't remember the last time I went a full night without sleep:
11-1:30 PM/AM - Stop gaming
5-10 min after shutting down my games: Use the restroom so I don't have the urge to go during sleep (which still happens)
After restroom: Boot up Xbox One and launch Netflix and watch for 20-45 minutes before shutting it off
After shutting Xbox off: Attempt to sleep
Usually I enter the sleep state within 5-10 minutes. Last night it felt like... well I don't know. It felt like there was shit crawling on me, and my hands and feet would tingle at random points of time. Closing my eyes just didn't feel right compared to the night before. I'm sure it was a one and done thing, but I've had a stretch of no sleep for 78 hours before in high school and I would like to think that I won't experience that again hopefully.
I'm amazed that you can sleep after all of that distraction! When I was in middle and high school, I used to stay up all night playing video games (too busy having fun outside during the day). I wondered why I slept so poorly...but the excitement of the games plus the blue night equalled sleepless nights (and lots of completed RPGs...)
Nowadays, if I really can't sleep, I will pull down my Kindle Fire (first gen) and read really boring material. The light doesn't bother me because I have it set to inverse (black background, white text). I can't read interesting material because I will stay up all night. Easy contenders include PDFs of long-winded readings from classes I've taken in grad school. Hate to say it, but the first nine chapters of the book of Chronicles put me to sleep relatively quickly as well.
If I wake up in the middle of the night and can't fall back asleep, I often just give in and stay awake. If I can't fall asleep to begin with, my go to options are melatonin, alcohol, or Xanax.
Ways to fall asleep faster:
1. Set AC to a cooler temperature
2. A fan for cooling and white noise
3. Soft Music
4. Watch boring tv shows before bed.
5. Wear yourself out during the day with work and exercise.
Quote from: Brian556 on August 07, 2014, 04:54:52 PM
Ways to fall asleep faster:
1. Set AC to a cooler temperature
2. A fan for cooling and white noise
3. Soft Music
4. Watch boring tv shows before bed.
5. Wear yourself out during the day with work and exercise.
I go on mental roadtrips. :)
If you happen to have a 5 year old (borrow one if you don't), cycle through the same Bob the Builder or Thomas DVD a couple of times with them. That should work.
Happened to me earlier this week. I pulled up MST3K clips on YouTube.
2 or 3 Dramamine tablets knock me out like a sledgehammer to the head.
Quote from: Roadrunner75 on August 07, 2014, 05:22:44 PM
If you happen to have a 5 year old (borrow one if you don't), cycle through the same Bob the Builder or Thomas DVD a couple of times with them. That should work.
What do I do when the 5 year old's services are no longer required and I'm unconscious? :bigass:
Quote from: kj3400 on August 08, 2014, 11:18:21 AM
Quote from: Roadrunner75 on August 07, 2014, 05:22:44 PM
If you happen to have a 5 year old (borrow one if you don't), cycle through the same Bob the Builder or Thomas DVD a couple of times with them. That should work.
What do I do when the 5 year old's services are no longer required and I'm unconscious? :bigass:
Not a problem. He'll continue to watch the same DVD over and over until you wake up, or he'll fall asleep himself. ...or he'll trash the house.
I turn on talk radio at a volume that I can barely hear it, usually NPR does it. :sleep:Or listen to the New Wave music channel on Sirius/XM.
If I have it a shot of booze or hit the bong once or twice. ;-) :cool: :sleep:
If I haven't fallen asleep in 1 hour I get out of bed and do something like sit on my recliner in the back yard. Sometimes I fall asleep out there and sleep until dawn which is nice unless theres a heavy dew :-D
Quote from: DesertDog on August 09, 2014, 07:23:34 AM
Thought of a good one that I've always done on the road. Put something monotone like American Pickers on TV and put the TV in sleep mode. I do that to listen to something relaxing when neighbors or people in hotels are causing a ruckus....plus cranking the TV up gives them a taste of their own medicine going back the other way.
I have had to sleep during the daytime in hotels and such, where you can be at the mercy of the local basic cable. If TV is the only available source for noise to "drown out" road noise and rowdy people noise and such, I submit Animal Planet and Cartoon Network as common channels that have the least volume variation between their programming and the commercials. (Not at all what I would recommend when you have better options, but sometimes you have very little with which to "make do.")
Watch TV, usually fall asleep. If I watch a DVD I own, it doesn't even matter because I remember the plot.
Lie in as comfortable position as possible and concentrate on relaxing one part of the body at a time.
Quick shower, just rinse and out. This is the best way when the trouble is it's too hot.
I just had a battle with insomnia on Sunday night. I got up to use the bathroom then I couldn't fall back asleep. After trying for nearly an hour I said "screw it." I just got up, made coffee and caught up on some of the TV shows I had recorded on DVR and hadn't gotten around to watching.
I cannot fall asleep with a television flickering in the room and human voices coming out of it. I'm somewhat jealous of those who are able to do that.
I have insomnia way more than I used to. And the reason is because this past year, my eighth grade year (I call it the "Slack" year bc my grades were the worst ever and I always goofed off instead of studying or getting my rest). Nowadays as a new freshman in high school, school has become a major focus point, far more than it was this past year)..well anyways, so this past year, my eighth grade year, especially at the end of the year, I had gotten in a terrible habit of staying up on my phone for hours after being tucked into bed, sometimes almost the whole night. I'd be on Google Maps, Minecraft PE, YouTube, you name it. I would always be insanely tired at school and sometimes even fall asleep. Nowadays it's hard to go to sleep at 10 or 11 many nights bc of the bad scheduele I got on. So many nights I find myself with some pretty bad insomnia. Ironically, last night I had pounds of homework to do and I drifted off at about 12 and woke up at 6, with not even half of it done. I spent time today before school, during lunch, and after school fixing up that mess to avoid getting some nasty 0s. :ded:
After one bad night, I make sure of getting exercise the next day and then go to bed at my regular time (not extra early).
I'm a chronic insomniac.
The thing I typically go to to help me are MidNites tablets. (In fact, I just downed 2.) They can be taken anytime, including if you wake up in the middle of the night, and I find they're effective.
Similar question: How do you cope with the AWFUL feeling after staying up the entire night? It's such a bad feeling, and the worst part is at night I question being able to go to sleep thanks to what happened the night before. Luckily though, the past nights haven't been terrible to me.
Quote from: Zeffy on August 13, 2014, 01:05:48 AM
Similar question: How do you cope with the AWFUL feeling after staying up the entire night? It's such a bad feeling, and the worst part is at night I question being able to go to sleep thanks to what happened the night before. Luckily though, the past nights haven't been terrible to me.
In another thread you mentioned drinking a lot of soda for the caffeine. Many people I know don't even drink coffee after mid-afternoon because the lingering effect of the caffeine keeps them awake at night. Have you considered cutting out the caffeine altogether to see it helps?
There's no good answer to your question. Stay hydrated, take naps, and otherwise keep moving as much as you can. Don't sit in front of the TV or computer. Your body's not supposed to go without recuperation time so it feels bad. You have to allow it what it needs.
Soda doesn't seem to affect it. I've had days where I've drank no caffeine at all and I can't fall asleep. I don't know what the hell my body's problem is when it comes to sleeping. I honestly think it's my hyperactive bouncing-thoughts-as-I-close-my-eyes mind that does me in. Usually I can tame it by imagining a dream world (I.E. a story that I evolve every night), but all it takes is ONE errant thought that wants to persist and it's game over for me. Sometimes I can overcome it, other times...