What in the world is going on with my sleep these days?
August 13, 2008 10:08 AM Subscribe
What in the world is going on with my sleep these days?
I'm a little biased since I post this after a 5 hour night of sleep. Not terrible, but it's part of a larger picture the last 3 nights or so.
Last night it took me damn nearly 3 hours to fall asleep. I'll promptly list for you what I tried last night before I fell asleep.
I start winding down around 1:15/1:20. I take a hot bath for about 30 mins, which is pretty relaxing (so I thought) and then drink some Yogi relaxing tea for about 10-15 mins. It's about 2:10, and I'm still not sleepy so I'm just like ahh what the hell, let me try to go to sleep because if I wait for the perfect "I'm so sleepy moment" it might be 9 am, lol.
So I go to bed about 2:10/2:15. I get up about 15-20 mins later and proceed to do 20 mins of various stretching and breathing exercises. I then turn my neon clock off and my room is pitch black. I hope this helps me fall asleep, (3 hours later, it doesn't).
at 3:30, I proceed to eat 2 small bags of oyster crackers, a tenth of a bowl of jello left and a small jello-free cup. I also take 150 mg of trazodone to help me get back to sleep. At this point I'm thinking, screw it. I'm going to eat until I fall asleep, let's do it.
at 4, I'm up again and my positive thinking threshold is up. I'm frustrated but more importantly, I'm just thinking what in the fuck is causing me to stay wide awake this long? I didn't have any caffeine past 8 (I usually don't have caffeine past 4 or 5, but I really really doubt at 4 am, caffeine is affecting me lol). Following my previous get up time of 3:30, I proceed to eat half of the house with 2 pieces of 500 calorie (a piece) cheesecake.
I go back to sleep and I guess around 5:30/6, I actually fell asleep but strictly out of default. My body literally gave up fighting probably. The funny thing about this whole deal is I was VERY positive and VERY calm the first hour or so, and then I just couldn't keep it up. I'd been up a damn hour and 1/2 and I was just like WHY WHY WHY? I didn't do anything different today! I didn't have "racing thoughts" the entire time, which I guess is good. Go me eh?
It's been like this the last few nights but this is the one night I didn't get back to sleep very easily. I tried a hot bath, I tried yogi tea, I tried eating myself to death, I tried taking my sleeping pill. Jesus H Christ. NOTHING WORKED. My body was fairly tired it seemed but my mind didn't seem to get the hint to shut the hell down.
The reason this concerns me is I have a long history of being resistant to everything on the planet for sleeping. You name it, I've tried it. Breathing techniques, exercise a few hours before bed, evening yoga, eating myself to death, sleeping pills of all kinds (prescribed, "natural", herbal), teas of all kinds, positive thinking, counting sheep. It gets frustrating after a while because I know damn well my body needs sleep after a 15 hour day, so why won't my body let me sleep?
-Travis
I'm a little biased since I post this after a 5 hour night of sleep. Not terrible, but it's part of a larger picture the last 3 nights or so.
Last night it took me damn nearly 3 hours to fall asleep. I'll promptly list for you what I tried last night before I fell asleep.
I start winding down around 1:15/1:20. I take a hot bath for about 30 mins, which is pretty relaxing (so I thought) and then drink some Yogi relaxing tea for about 10-15 mins. It's about 2:10, and I'm still not sleepy so I'm just like ahh what the hell, let me try to go to sleep because if I wait for the perfect "I'm so sleepy moment" it might be 9 am, lol.
So I go to bed about 2:10/2:15. I get up about 15-20 mins later and proceed to do 20 mins of various stretching and breathing exercises. I then turn my neon clock off and my room is pitch black. I hope this helps me fall asleep, (3 hours later, it doesn't).
at 3:30, I proceed to eat 2 small bags of oyster crackers, a tenth of a bowl of jello left and a small jello-free cup. I also take 150 mg of trazodone to help me get back to sleep. At this point I'm thinking, screw it. I'm going to eat until I fall asleep, let's do it.
at 4, I'm up again and my positive thinking threshold is up. I'm frustrated but more importantly, I'm just thinking what in the fuck is causing me to stay wide awake this long? I didn't have any caffeine past 8 (I usually don't have caffeine past 4 or 5, but I really really doubt at 4 am, caffeine is affecting me lol). Following my previous get up time of 3:30, I proceed to eat half of the house with 2 pieces of 500 calorie (a piece) cheesecake.
I go back to sleep and I guess around 5:30/6, I actually fell asleep but strictly out of default. My body literally gave up fighting probably. The funny thing about this whole deal is I was VERY positive and VERY calm the first hour or so, and then I just couldn't keep it up. I'd been up a damn hour and 1/2 and I was just like WHY WHY WHY? I didn't do anything different today! I didn't have "racing thoughts" the entire time, which I guess is good. Go me eh?
It's been like this the last few nights but this is the one night I didn't get back to sleep very easily. I tried a hot bath, I tried yogi tea, I tried eating myself to death, I tried taking my sleeping pill. Jesus H Christ. NOTHING WORKED. My body was fairly tired it seemed but my mind didn't seem to get the hint to shut the hell down.
The reason this concerns me is I have a long history of being resistant to everything on the planet for sleeping. You name it, I've tried it. Breathing techniques, exercise a few hours before bed, evening yoga, eating myself to death, sleeping pills of all kinds (prescribed, "natural", herbal), teas of all kinds, positive thinking, counting sheep. It gets frustrating after a while because I know damn well my body needs sleep after a 15 hour day, so why won't my body let me sleep?
-Travis
This post was deleted for the following reason: this question appears to be posted within seven days of a question by a sock puppet, please contact us if this is NOT the case. -- jessamyn
Your adrenaline has kicked in by then.
It is my experience you need to go to bed in the evening the first time you get sleepy. If you stay up past that you go into a zone where it is harder and harder to go to sleep.
posted by konolia at 10:12 AM on August 13, 2008
It is my experience you need to go to bed in the evening the first time you get sleepy. If you stay up past that you go into a zone where it is harder and harder to go to sleep.
posted by konolia at 10:12 AM on August 13, 2008
Sleep is complicated, and all kinds of things might influence it.
Anectodal data point: now I'm 45 years old, I find to my surprise that I can function fine on 4 to 5 hours sleep per night, and during the working week I rarely sleep more than 6 hours each night. Ten years ago, getting only 6 hours of sleep meant that I was barely functional the next day.
The moral of this story: a couple of short nights might not cause any lasting harm, and if the lack of sleep doesn't make you feel miserable maybe you only needed a couple of hours of sleep. (Please note that I'm not a doctor.)
posted by rjs at 10:22 AM on August 13, 2008
Anectodal data point: now I'm 45 years old, I find to my surprise that I can function fine on 4 to 5 hours sleep per night, and during the working week I rarely sleep more than 6 hours each night. Ten years ago, getting only 6 hours of sleep meant that I was barely functional the next day.
The moral of this story: a couple of short nights might not cause any lasting harm, and if the lack of sleep doesn't make you feel miserable maybe you only needed a couple of hours of sleep. (Please note that I'm not a doctor.)
posted by rjs at 10:22 AM on August 13, 2008
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by damn dirty ape at 10:11 AM on August 13, 2008