Hey guys. So, I’m finally fed up with the level of stressful dreams I’ve been having pretty much all my life but even more so lately, waking up several times throughout the night, having physically painful dreams, visually violent and graphic dreams, etc. I am going to talk to my doctor about it when I get off the boat but that won’t be for a few weeks. I am starting a sleep log where I document my sleep each night. So far, here’s what I’ve thought of to document:
Time Laying Awake In Bed (minutes), Time Slept (hours), Sleeping Aide Used?, # of times waking up during the night, Level of physical pain, Level of frightening visuals, Level of fear experienced, Level of overall stress, and Level of sexuality.
That data is stored in a spreadsheet that can easily be sorted, averaged, or whatevered. The “Levels of…” are just on a scale of 1-10, subjective.
I am also keeping a log of actual descriptions of my dreams as best I can remember them after waking up. So far, the dream diary itself is already 3 1/4 pages long and that’s only after 3 nights of sleep! I usually have multiple dreams per night that I can remember, so I’m just writing it all down, and keeping the data separate under each night of sleep.
So, is this actually going to be useful for a sleep specialist, counselor or doctor who might be able to help me? If it is useful, do you have any recommendations on what I should be documenting and quantifying? Obviously a lot of this is just my best guess based on memories, so when I am writing down the number of times I woke up in the night, number of hours I slept or minutes I laid in bed before falling asleep, those are just estimates.
Any tips anyone has at all for getting rid of stressful dreams, sleeping more soundly, not waking up throughout the night, falling asleep reasonably quickly, etc. I am familiar with most of the advice and try to adhere to it: exercise early in the day & not right before sleeping(I do), eat well (I try not to eat much junk food), read in bed if you can’t fall asleep (I do), etc.
