Many years ago, I got some free relaxation/self-improvement audio tracks made by an english stage hypnotist turned therapist (Paul McKenna).
Typically, I don’t think those things have much value, but at the time I was getting up early, driving for an hour, exercising hard, working hard and driving for an hour home. So I would take a break during my lunch, get in my car in the car park, drop a seat back flat, and play one of the tracks - they were 20-30 minutes long, and shut out enough noise for me to relax until the track ended. After a couple of weeks, I didn’t hear much beyond the first few minutes, but always “woke up” refreshed at the end of the track.
What is did for me was create a sleep habit - from usually having issues going and staying asleep, even years later I now hit the pillow and am out like a light. I generally stay asleep until my bladder makes me get up and use the bathroom. Usually, I can then start replaying a track in my head and go back to sleep.
I do still use the tracks a couple of times a week, as I now have a train journey to/from work and some good noise-cancelling headphones - by placing my backpack on my lap, I can rest my arms/head on the top and relax sitting up. It really helps my sleep health. And another vote for Magnesium supplements for my cramps and restless legs.
I can usually go back to sleep If it’s early enough (say up to 3:30 or so) but if it’s just not happening I’ll have a little snack and take a couple of Tylenol and that might help.
My problem is that I get out of bed for the day usually around 5-5:15 so if my anxiety/beating myself up session starts after 4:00 then I just stay in bed and flop around until I get up. My wife loves that.
I can usually sleep through the night if I did some major physical activity the day before.
I’m reviving this thread from November (2019), in the hopes that some of the advice to those having trouble sleeping due to stress and distraction would be yet more helpful in these covidious times.
(Mods, feel free to move this to the Coronavirus forum, if you feel it belongs there.)
The first thing to know is that it is perfectly natural. Sleeping through the night is a difficult thing to learn. Anyone with a baby will tell you that.
What did we do during our period of wakefulness in pre-industrial societies? Well, we did many of the same things we might do today. Have sexual relations, eat, stoke the fire, deal with the pets, tend the flocks.
Thank you. For the past month or more, I’ve been sleeping for an hour or so, waking up, and not being able to fall back to sleep. Then when I do, the cycle repeats. I might be sleeping four or five hours a night. Fortunately, my employment has not been affected by the pandemic. I’m working from home and enjoying it. On a recent call with my co-workers, I asked if anyone else was experiencing insomnia, and 3 out of 5 hands went up. “Coronavirus Insomnia” has become quite common. However, knowing that doesn’t quell the anxiety of staring into the black night at 2am. You begin to think you’re losing it mentally, which brings on more anxiety. My wife and I are in “at risk” categories for Covid-19.
One thing that seems to occasionally help me is a cup of “Sleepytime” tea. I realize it may just be a placebo, but it can’t hurt. I’ll often turn on the laptop and just read about random subjects until I get sleepy.
I’ll try some of the techniques others have mentioned. Thanks again for re-opening this thread. It’s relevant now more than ever.
Thanks for reviving (waking up?) this thread. My sleep has always been crap. Even worse now.
I listen to sleep stories on Headspace or Calm.com. They are droning, pointless, narratives read by people with soothing voices. Sometimes those help. I also recite the statements of Lovingkindness meditation over and over:
And I do mean over and over and over and over. Sometimes I’ll do that with the 23rd Psalm (The Lord Is My Shepherd). I count backwards… but from 1,000 or even 10,000. The key is to create an internal mental soundtrack that is repetitious and boring.
If it’s at least 4:30 or 5:00 am, I may give up and get up. I’ll come to the Dope where there are NO timeouts at that hour! Yay!
Sorry… when I read this, my brain flipped some of the options around… “eat the pets, have sex with the flocks…” Weird mood today.
Another one re-living this thread. My previous post was almost laughable.
I havn’t slept in going on 3 nights/days. My head is hurting. Cat naps that are not at all pleasant. When I doze I see scary things.
I can’t take any of the sleep aides that are often prescribed. I can’t drink. Me and Benedryl don’t get along.
I havn’t tried Melatonin. (msp?)
I did get a lavender oil diffuser. Not seen any improvement. My bedroom smells nice, though.
A few years back I stumbled across the album Sleep by Max Richter.
It’s described as “a concept album based around the neuroscience of sleep.” It’s slow, methodical and I find it very soothing as I try to slow my mind down enough to crash. It’s about 8hrs long and this has been my secret weapon against insomnia for years now. I don’t know if it actually does anything or if I have simply trained myself to sleep whenever I turn it on. What I do know is that it typically gets me at least 4 full hours and it puts the dogs to sleep in less than 10min.
I’ve had this problem for years. I usually read on my tablet for a while and that distracts me enough to sleep. Downside is that sometimes I get sucked into the book and read for two or three hours. Not such a big deal now, when I don’t have to be up at a certain time, but still not good.*
Benadryl works for me. Melatonin gives me some horrible dreams. What seems to really be helping is the intermittent fasting my wife and I are doing. Not eating anything after 7:00 seems to do the trick. Especially no alchohol. Booze is guaranteed to have me awake in the middle of the night.
*I’m working my way through the Discworld books. I haven’t read them until now. I’m on the thirtieth one. They just keep getting better and better.
This, absolutely. I don’t eat anything after 7:15 pm. I have an alarm on my Fitbit that goes off to remind me. If I have gnawing hunger later and close to bedtime, I might have a cheese stick. Sometimes I’ll talk to one of my girlfriends around 9 pm and she’ll talk about having to make some dinner, and it makes me cringe. The idea of eating a substantial meal at that hour is abhorrent to me. I don’t drink alcohol, but I also limit my water drinking after 8-ish pm. Cuts down on nocturnal trips to the bathroom.
I have the Kindle app in my tablet set to display white text on a black background. Many people feel that looking at a bright screen at night is not conducive to sleep, and I find this much easier on the eyes than the reverse.
I’m so envious of you. I’ve read all 43 at least three or four times (re-reading *Night Watch *right now) and would love to have the experience of reading them for the first time again. (Of course, given the state of my so-called memory, re-reading books or re-watching movies is often like doing it for the first time!)
