Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with sleeping

Sleeping on meth?

drleary — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:51:09 -0800

Thinking about old times just now... I used to do a *LOT* of meth (I've been clean for about 5-6 years now, and I knew this guy who could snort a line and an hour later, go take a nap.) How is this possible?

Never had a nightmare

Anonymous — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 18:25:29 -0800

I've never had a nightmare. Why? Is this normal? I can't fully account for when I was a small child, but in recent memory I cannot remember ever having had a nightmare, or even a truly disturbing dream. I've had exceptionally vivid dreams as well as the usual anxiety dreams of being naked or falling on rare occassions, but never anything close to nightmarish. Amongst my friends and family I can't find anyone else who has never had a nightmare. It feels weird.

Googling "never had a nightmare" shows I am not alone, I just wonder if there might be a cause, or an article or some sort of insight into this. I've had a normal-to-difficult life including problems with depression and anxiety and a fair share of waking problems, I can't think why I might be immune to having nightmares. Is there a cause, or am I just lucky? Any tips for inducing a nightmare? I guess I am coming from a view of nightmares being an accepted part of everyone's life, perhaps they aren't?

FWIW I'm not on any medications or diet, I drink moderately, no drugs, exercise daily, eat healthily. Slept in all sorts of environments home and abroad and no other sleep issues. Mid 30's.

Nighttime noises

larsks — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:42:53 -0800

Help us quiet our suddenly screechy-at-bedtime 19mo daughter! Difficulty: shares room with brother. Our 19-month old daughter has suddenly decided that (a) she's not particularly sleepy at bedtime, and (b) it's fun to giggle and screech and make noises for at least an hour after being put to bed.

It would be cute except for that the fact the she's sharing a room with her (3.5 year old) brother, and she is keeping him up. And honestly, it's not that great for her, either; she really could use the sleep.

We're not entirely sure how do deal with this, since visiting the room and shushing her just confirms to her that being screechy and giggly is a good way to get a visit from The Parents. We've tried relocating her brother for a few days to another room, but that's not really a good long term solution right now. We were hoping that she'd forget about all the fun and excitement, but he's in his own bed tonight and the noise continues.

You'd figure that at some point she'd get tired! Maybe she just needs to go to bed a little later, but (a) she's never been a very good napper, and (b) she tends to be an early riser, which doesn't bode well for her getting enough sleep.

Sing Me To Sleep

xingcat — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:48:49 -0800

What kinds of earphones/earbuds can I wear to bed? I like to listen to music and podcasts as I'm falling asleep. I don't like to have speakers on, as that would disturb people in adjoining rooms, so I wear my iPod earbuds. They're okay as long as I'm lying on my back, but I tend to fall asleep better if I'm lying on my side.

The problem is that earbuds dig into my ears when I lie on my side, and headphones press too hard against my head and the pillow. I sometimes take one earbud out, but that means it's harder to hear, plus I turn over quite often.

Is there a product that would work better to help me listen and snooze?

Where do sleeping geese lie?

devnull — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:34:25 -0800

Where do sleeping geese end up? I often see geese sleeping on the river. What happens to them? Do they end up downstream and wake up confused?

Help me stay awake!

Anonymous — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 17:54:58 -0800

I'm starting college tomorrow, and I have a problem. If I have to sit through a long talk (class, lecture, church, doesn't matter what) I'll start falling asleep. It usually happens around ten minutes into it, regardless of how much sleep I've had the night before. I've tried going to bed earlier, sleeping longer, pinching myself and drinking water through classes. I don't drink caffeine in the morning, so I know it's not a crash. This tiredness only lasts as long as the class does; as soon as it's over, I regain full alertness and it's as if I was never tired at all. I had this problem my last two years in Highschool and did very poorly because of it. My notes would end up a scribbled mess because I would be desperately trying to stay awake the entire class (note: this isn't just limited to things I find boring.) It damaged my relationship with the teachers because they thought I was just staying up all night, when in reality I would sleep anywhere from 8-12 (I know sleeping too long is just as bad, but at the time I assumed it would help) hours and was trying everything in the book to fix things.

I took a year off, and I thought that it had fixed itself, but I went to a few orientation sessions and low and behold, the problem is still here.

I'd really, really like to know how to get over this so I don't end up failing and having a poor relationship with my professors because I can't stay awake.

I should add that it isn't just instant falling asleep; it's a constant struggle with halfway falling asleep while trying to take notes, feeling my eyes closing, looking sharply in one direction to try to jolt myself awake, trying to stay awake but thinking random thoughts/attempting to say/experiencing things that indicate I'm falling asleep and having a dream. (I don't say anything out loud.) It never feels like full-on sleep to me, but when the class is over and I look down at my notes and the teacher comments I can tell it's at least akin to it.

Hopefully I've been descriptive enough here.

Anonymous because I don't want anyone to know I've been falling asleep during the mock-classes, and it's a sensitive issue regardless.

Is it possible to get a great nap in a car?

swrittenb — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 18:51:49 -0800

How on earth can one sleep comfortably in the front passenger seat of a car? Added bonus: baby car seat is behind the seat in question, so the seat is pushed fairly far forward. What tips do you have for making things more comfortable? My wife has been napping on the frequent car trips we've been taking lately, and since she takes the majority of the night wake-up calls for breastfeeding, it's a great time for her to snag an hour or two of shut-eye while I drive us to and fro. The main problem is that she wakes up with a really sore neck due to the unaccommodating conditions.

Any advice? How do you sleep in a tight spot? Neck-brace, or pillow suggestions? Can this be more cozy somehow? Thanks!

Bear-proof Mattress-like Object.

VioletU — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 11:03:13 -0800

Mattressfilter: How am I supposed to fall asleep while my husband is intent on practicing his bear wrestling during the nighttime? Our problem is that my husband vigorously tosses and turns in his sleep - I call it "wrestling bears" - waking me repeatedly through the night if I'm not already in a deep slumber. I am unpleasant to be around when I'm deprived of sleep.

My husband's method of turning to one side while sleeping is to literally sit (sometimes) bolt upright, shift his hips, and drop his body. Yes, this is while he's asleep. No, he's not graceful while doing this.

Once I'm awakened and begin to drift again, he "flails" and I'm wide awake. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. He does not have any indications of a sleep disorder - he just moves quickly and with force in his sleep and I'm apparently a light sleeper.

My husband (6'1" ~200 lbs) and myself (5'5") currently sleep on a queen-sized mattress, sans boxspring, on the floor. The mattress is a little over 3 years old and is in good shape and is also of good quality. It is not ideal for bear-wrestling.

We want to continue sleeping next to each other. My husband is adverse to pushing two single mattresses together (and I suspect that it would transmit the "shock" from his to mine if we had them touching). My husband briefly slept (alone) on two mattresses tied together while in college and also had the problem of falling in between the mattresses. While that would be less of a problem with two people sleeping, that could pose annoyances during recreational activities in bed.

With the ridiculous markup cost of a new one, we'd like to avoid buying another multi-thousand dollar mattress - especially as this one is *supposed* to have good isolation between sleepers.

Other details:
We prefer a medium firmness.
I have neck/shoulder issues.
We need queen-sized at minimum
We sleep in the basement and had difficulty getting our mostly
non-folding queen size mattress into our room.

Our first thought was to buy a thick, good quality futon mattress. I slept on one as a university student and loved it and I understand some now come in foam instead of cotton-filled (thus less-likely to compress and become rock hard). As they fold easily, we could even get a king into our room.

Are there any other options?

We're in Ontario, Canada.

help me sleep... PLEASE.

isoman2kx — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 09:35:06 -0800

Please help me sleep. Please :( This is going to be VERY VERY VERY long because my sleeping problems have a 2-3 year history. Any replies I get beyond zero I will be very appreciative of.

I've posted questions/threads this in the past but the past has spanned a while hasn't it? As the months have progressed, each time I post this I'm increasingly frustrated and saddened that I will never have a normal sleeping life to get through college and get my degree. I started having sleeping problems when I started college. To this day, I cannot recall anything particularly horrific happening to me to traumatize my sleeping patterns. 4 years ago I switched from high school to college. That's what a good percentage of Americans do right and? Right.

I have a history of depression and a history of anxiety. Both I would say are not severe. The depression is moderate to slightly above moderate most of the time. I take 120 mg of Cymbalta for it and have done so for almost a year. I have anxiety, I used to take Xanax 3 times a day at .5 mg a clip and now I take it all at night to see if it helps me sleep any since I can cope with the anxiety in the day better now.

My depression/anxiety stems from lack of self-esteem and energy from a lack of sleep. So far it's all making sense right? Ok, let's keep going then.

I've always had a hard time winding down for sleep since I can remember and definitely before I started college. I'm sensitive to light before going to bed and I spend way too much time on the computer before bed (even though I've incorporated at least an hour to 2 hour cool down period before bed now after turning off the computer). I currently see an ENT doctor and a psychiatrist (and a psychologist for talk therapy sessions just to kinda vent really, I never have any big updates to give lol) . My ENT doctor is outstanding while I feel my psychiatrist is useless and I'm strictly on a seeing her every 2 month just because that's what you do I guess when you have all this shit going on. My psychologist/campus counselor is outstanding as well.

Roughly a year ago, I went in for a sleep study because as you'll see later on in this master thesis, I've tried every medication known to man for falling asleep and staying asleep. After an awful night in those horrendous laboratories they call sleep clinics, they said they had enough data despite my whopping 240 minutes of sleep. I was later diagnosed with sleep apnea and frequent arousals with my brain wave patterns. My options were CPAP, throat and uvula surgery (noooooooooo way. nooooooo way in hell), mandibular retainer, treating restless leg syndrome and jumping off a building. We tried a CPAP machine and I just got increasingly frustrating with the thing. At first the mask wasn't right, I got a new mask. Then I just detested all the maintenance you had to do to keep the piece of crap that didn't help me sleep all clean and functional. Later on, the sleep clinic and I tried to treat me for restless leg syndrome. Needless to say that didn't do a damn thing. I was on mirapex, although I don't remember the dosage. I just remember increasing it and then quitting the stuff. After I went back to them after all of that, I wrote them off as idiots and politely never scheduled another appointment with them again. I'm done with them. Best sleep clinic in Houston??? We fix the problems other clinics miss? Oh really???

So that led me to my ENT that I currently see. After a few months of trying nasal sprays (prescription), afrin, and useless saline rinses I decided to have sinus surgery on June 22, 2009. For the medical students out there... I had a balloon sinusplasty done combined with correcting a deviated septum (which doesn't cause problems in most peoples sleep) along with a right turbinate reduction. The surgery sucked balls but now I can breathe better, just no improvement in sleep. Hooray! :) The sinus surgery was my part one out of a two part plan for fixing my sleep. My ENT informed me that he could definitely get me breathing better but the surgery would not be primarily to fix my sleep. If it did so then that would be great, but if not then that was what we had understood going into the surgery so no big whoop. I secretly hoped it would though and had the surgery more so for that reason than fixing my day-time breathing. My second part would be using a mandibular retainer after my sinuses fully heal up. I think at this point, my ENT and I are "entertaining" the idea of when it's all healed I'll have great sleep. At this point, if I got a mandibular retainer it would be through a doctor that my ENT knows and not the useless sleep clinic that I previously went to. I don't even know what good that would do?

Now let us back track to what goes on once I manage to get relatively sleepy. I always eat before I go to bed because I've gotten so frustrated with every other method and medicine I've tried, so that's my first step. I then go to sleep and proceed to wake up anywhere from 3-4 times like god damn clockwork (for the past 4-5 years at least). I've consulted with other friends and they wake up too, but they fall asleep quickly. I usually eat before I go back to bed because in my mind I'm tiring my body out by using energy to digest food and thus it will help me get back to sleep. I know, but it's my theory, valid or not, lol. At this point when I post, I'm always asked well what do you think about when you wake up? Are you short of breath? What is your mood? How do you feel?

Well, I'm almost always irritated because I immediately think "great, it starts again. let's see how many times I wake up this night". Despite my severe sleep apnea diagnosis, I never wake up in a panic or short of breath. My mood of course is frustrated and irritated and I feel the same. Surprisingly, this is the point where I say there is nothing traumatic going on in my life that's causing me to wake up in the night like this. I've got the usual responsibilites such as being the man of the house since my dad passed away last year (again, sleep problems existed long before he passed away and I've discussed this with others at length), going to school trying to finish my degree through being tired as hell, helping my mom with daily house chores, running whatever errands I do, getting a good amount of exercise per week, getting together with friends, etc. It's not like I'm waking up every night 3-4 times because there's some lingering issue. If it's buried deep in my subconscious then that's where it must be and someone needs to Harry Potter my brain and extract whatever haunting fear or memory that is buried there with a magic wand because it sure as hell isn't anything out of the ordinary I can think of.

So now we're done with describing this. Have you fallen asleep yet? :). Within the last 3 months, we've replaced my bed and I have a brand new tempurpedic mattress and tempurpedic pillows - both of which I happen to like. However, the new bed and new pillows are not helping my waking up 3-4 times a night any. It's more comfortable to sleep on, but it's not helping the issue I bought it for.

Ok, aside from that paragraph I've stopped taking sleeping pills. They just don't work. Here is a list of what I have taken and I have been on each of these medications for at least 2 week periods (which in my mind is more than enough to see a difference, I've never believed that crap about give it more time...give it more time. 2 weeks is enough god damn time).

list (most are official sleeping pills, some are not):

Ambien
Ambien CR
Lunesta
Restoril
Rozerem
Trazodone
Seroquel

regular things I've tried:

all the sleep time teas in the world
valerian root capsules
different herbal cocktails (like those bottles that have valerian root, chamomile, etc in their capsules)
different indian teas.
hot baths for at least 30 mins, about an hour before I go to bed.
hot baths with epsom salt (yeah, it doesn't help sleep specifically, whatever right?)
hot baths with different "sleep" salts and other sleep mixtures.

what I haven't tried:

overdosing on drugs and getting permanent sleep. I'm kidding about this as I've entertained the idea, but you get the point of my situation.

After all of that and I really am sorry I had to put you through reading it, but there's just no way to sufficiently describe my situation. I wake up 4-5 days out of the week wanting to kill someone upon waking up or wanting to punch holes in my wall (which I haven't done yet).

What do you guys recommend? I am seriously convinced that certain pathways in my brain are screwed up and that I should almost see a neurologist to see what else could be going on with me. At this point, what would you do? I have tried so many things... so so many things and for what? What has it done for me besides nothing? Who should I take my problems to? Who should I see for this? What battery of tests can help me?

- Travis

bed etiquette?

speef — Mon, 18 May 2009 09:11:46 -0800

Do you sleep with tucked-in sheets? Specifically, do you tuck the top sheet into the bottom end of the mattress? And why?

My friends and I are having a very heated discussion about the proper sheet-etiquette. Two of us think that sleeping with tucked-in sheets is a nightmarish abomination, while the other two think that sleeping with untucked sheets is barbaric and unnatural. We want statistically significant results to prove who is correct in their practice.

Also, as a follow up, if you do sleep with an untucked top sheet, when/if you make the bed do you tuck it and then untuck when you sleep?

From dusk 'till dawn

puckish — Sat, 16 May 2009 17:41:51 -0800

I'm self-employed, work at home, and have a pile of work that needs to get done over the next three weeks. I want to switch to a night schedule. How do I do it? Right now I'm working on a 9-5 schedule (more like 10-ish to 7-ish) and it's just not working for me. I'm not a morning person, and even with coffee, I usually don't actually "wake up" until 11. I have a big test in three weeks, and I want to maximize my study time.

Things that have worked for me:

1) Paying attention to my sleep schedule instead of trying to manage it. If I'm tired at 6, taking a nap. If I feel awake at 10, getting up and re-starting work. I wake up at 3 and can't sleep, turn on a light and do some reading. Right now this is kind of ad hoc -- but invariably, the work I do late at night is better and more focused.

2) Grafting myself onto my partner's work schedule -- getting up when he gets up (6-7 a.m.) and coming home to collapse at 10 or eleven. Basically, a "work until you pass out" schedule. (Unfortunately, he's no longer working 10-12 hour days, so this is no longer an option)

Things that haven't worked: Getting up at 8 and "getting to the office" (usually a cafe or a library) -- I get out of the house just fine, but it takes me a long time to get started, and I'm never done by 7. Lunch breaks takes up a lot of time, as does getting to and from "the office" -- I feel like transit / break time takes up a large part of my day, and yet I still don't have time to really relax! Then at the end of the day I feel like crap, because I've finished only half of what I set out to do.

Option 2 (work till you drop) isn't really an option, since I'm not disciplined enough to do this on my own (and can't pull this off for three weeks anyway) -- and now that we're BOTH on a flexible schedule, it's that much harder to marshal daytime hours. Beyond that, I've found that the work I do at night is invariably better, more focused, and more productive. I have more energy, and I can focus more clearly on what I need to get done. When I'm working late, I don't need caffeine to stay awake -- I get really energized, and generally FEEL BETTER and more focused on what I'm doing. Plus, everyone else is asleep, so no distractions.

So: a night schedule. How do I do it? I'd like to systematize this, if possible, to avoid wasting so much time during the day.

“Every head has its own headache”

Sassyfras — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 09:24:19 -0800

I am woken up each and every night with a pounding sinus headache. What remedies can you suggest? I would love to hear any ideas/remedies to get this taken care of.

A little background info on me - I am a 33 yr old female. In relatively good health. I exercise at least an hour every day. I am at a normal weight. I eat a healthy diet. I went to an allergist a few years back. I do have some mild environmental allergies, but not enough that I would have qualified for allergy shots. I don't know if this is what is causing my sinus headaches anyway. I have had these headaches since in my teens.

About once a year (some time between October and February) they get so bad that they cannot be ignored and I take a trip to the doctor. He prescribes antibiotics, thinking I have a sinus infection. The antibiotics lessen the severity of my headaches to where they are tolerable, but it doesn't get rid of them all together.

In conjunction with your remedies for me, if you could let me know (if you know) of the time your remedy would take to have an effect, I'd be most grateful.

It's a hard question...

Bardolph — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 16:08:18 -0800

So many great pads available to soften hard mattresses, but nothing seems to go the other direction. What are some creative ways to make our cushy pillowtop mattress firm enough for safe cosleeping with a new baby? The mattress is queen-sized, and while it's not ultra-squishy, it is soft enough that I suspect it wouldn't meet current standards for safe baby bedding. We're planning on using a cosleeper or Amby for most of the night, but I'd like to be able to nurse in bed without stressing over what might happen if I drowse off and let the baby fall asleep next to me. Sadly, a new mattress is not an option. Any ideas for pads or DIY fixes I could use to give this one a firmer surface?

"I had a great time tonight... now go home"?

Anonymous — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 08:00:43 -0800

After casual sex, what is the etiquette about staying the night? After a hookup a few months ago, I asked the guy if he minded if I slept over because a) it was 2:00 AM, b) as a twenty-something female, I get nervous walking to the subway and back to my apartment alone at that hour, and c) I generally enjoy the post-sex cuddling and sleeping arrangement.

However, the guy seemed taken aback and awkwardly stammered out, "um...well, I guess that would be okay". I felt like an idiot and was too embarrassed to ask again.

Unless I hook up with a neighbor, it's likely that any guy that I sleep with will be at least an hour's subway ride away, especially very early in the morning when the trains are infrequent.

I am very new to this scene, and feel naive. Is it generally expected that the guest goes home right after sex? How can one bring up spending the night without being a burden on the host? Is this generally worked out beforehand?

I want to sleep on a board

sully75 — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 13:37:19 -0800

I'm wondering about getting rid of my mattress (old, not flat, hand me down) and getting some sort of sleeping pad, and making a sleeping platform out of plywood. Any suggestions? I camped a lot this summer, more than I ever have before. 30 days straight or something like that. I slept great every night and really loved sleeping on my thermarest pad and in my sleeping bag.

I've been living the permanent bachelor lifestyle for a while, currently on a twin mattress friends found in their basement. It's not terrible but kind of lumpy and has a good ol' body dip right in the middle.

I'm moving back to Boston (now the bedbug capital of the world, I hear) for school and wondering about what kind of furniture I might have. I was thinking I'd much rather sleep on some hard flat surface with something soft over it. Basically the indoor equivalent of a thermarest pad.

The only mix up is that I'd like to have something about the size of a queen size mattress. Because I might not want to sleep alone. I don't see any thermarests large enough for two people. I'd like to have something that was comfortable for someone who was not a total ascetic.

So any suggestions about what to do for a sleeping pad? I was thinking about building a box with a plywood top and 2x4s as a frame. Ideally I'd put it up off the ground a bit but haven't figured out a design for it. Any ideas?

what kind of mat would be good to sleep on every night (instead of a bed)?

nevers — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 19:46:45 -0800

are there any roll-up/fold-up mats i could be comfy sleeping on every single night for, let's say, a year? i'm about to move to a teeny tiny room (about 11'x5'4"). i have plenty of common space available to me in the larger apartment but would love for my room to contain more than just a bed. it would be great if i could quickly roll up my bed every morning and gain floor space. i fear that the foam pads/mats made for hikers aren't meant to be used daily (in terms of comfort and/or durability), although i have no idea. another thing that came to mind was a thai massage mat (i remember getting a thai massage and thinking the mat was so comfortable i could sleep on it). again, i don't know how long one would last if it were used for 8 hours every night.

i know that plenty of people all over the world sleep on mats/the floor and their bodies survive just fine. any recommendations?

i'm a professional acrobat, so it IS important to me to have a sleeping situation that is good for my back and my body in general.

and i don't want a loft bed.

How to discuss sleeping arrangements with boyfriend's mom

Xianny — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 21:33:49 -0800

How do I discuss sleeping arrangements with my boyfriend's mom? I'm going on a 4-day, 3-night ski trip with my boyfriend's family. This includes his mom, stepdad, stepbrother (C), brother (J) and brother's girlfriend (K). C is 25-30, J is my age (18), and K is 1 yr younger. The bf is 23. BF is pretty close to J, and neither of them are very close to C. I've met C once. J and K live with the BF and me, but we don't spend a lot of time together at all. I'd say we are friendly acquaintances. The same is true for my relationship with his mom and stepdad.

His mom has decided/assumed that the sleeping arrangements will be as follows: mom+stepdad in master bedroom, C in 2nd bedroom (with twin beds), and me, the BF, J, and K in the living room, which has one king-sized sofa bed. No one else has wanted to discuss this so far, so it's a pretty tentative arrangement.

I'm not really comfortable with rooming with J. To me, it would make more sense to put me and K in the 2nd bedroom, and the guys in the living room. It might be a cultural thing (I'm from Singapore, they're Canadian) but that's not really the point.

How do I maximise the probability of my ideal sleeping arrangements while not offending anyone? His mom and stepdad are paying for accomodations and a couple of meals on the trip, so we will be guests, and I want to respect her decisions as hostess, but I feel really weird about sleeping (and living!) in the same space as J, who's really just some guy I barely know. There won't be any closets/dressers, so there will probably be next to no privacy in the living room.

The boyfriend could bring this up with his mom, but what should he say? He's gone on group trips with friends where he slept in the same room as other girls, so he's having problems thinking of something to tell his mom.

Heart racing/pounding upon waking up.

desjardins — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 13:07:15 -0800

Heart racing/pounding upon waking up. This happens in the morning and also when I take naps. Relevant info: female, 34, no tobacco, moderate drinker, slightly underweight, no chronic physical issues. Blood pressure is usually on the low end of normal range. I almost always get 7-8 uninterrupted hours sleep/night and have no trouble falling asleep or waking up.

I am taking Lamictal, Zoloft, and Klonopin for anxiety/depression. Klonopin slows down the racing heart, but I dislike taking it in the morning because it makes me drowsy. I can't pinpoint when this started, but it seems like a few months ago. I do have panic attacks, but the racing heart has never been a symptom before. Besides, most of my panic is related to social phobia, so it doesn't make sense that I would feel that immediately upon waking. Note that this happens while I'm still lying down - I'm not getting up too fast.

I called my psychiatrist; he doesn't think it's related to the medication, and doesn't have any solid ideas. I got a pretty thorough workup in the hospital in July (was there for neurological stuff, not heart related, though they did do an EKG) and got a clean bill of health. Where should I go from here?

2 kids, one bedroom

RockyChrysler — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 14:33:15 -0800

how can i fit a 3-year old and an infant in one bedroom without them waking each other up during the night?

Please don't ferberize me! Help my six-month fall asleep on his own....(baby filter)

BigBrownBear — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 08:48:50 -0800

Please don't ferberize me! Help my six-month fall asleep on his own....(baby filter) We have a six month old having a tough time getting to sleep on his own. He likes to sleep cuddled (can't blame him), but we're thinking it's time for him to learn to fall asleep in the crib on his own.

Unfortunately, every time we put him in there he bops about and cries until we hold him under our arms to help him to fall asleep (which can take a while and cause quite a headache leaning over the crib).

Any suggestions on how to help him get to sleep? We don't want to leave him there to cry it out on his own (don't believe in that).

Help me Find Temp to Perm sleeping surface?

sandmanwv — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 08:08:30 -0800

I need a temporary/permanent sleeping situation to replace the maddening/depressing mattress carousel that I've had for the past 4 years. What have you done when you've had sleeping issues and know that you'll be moving around alot? And is it possible for your body to start become much more aware of mattress irregularities, and would some exercises change that? Since I graduated college, I have owned five different mattress/box spring combinations. The first two were the best, (one is at a friend's house in Northern Virginia--worst case, I find a way to move that), but now I live 800 miles away in Chicago. I've always preferred a firm-ish bed, but that might be changing. I prefer side sleeping, but I sometimes switch around.

But disaster has hit my mattress/sleeping situation the past 10 months. Each (new) bed I've owned has developed sagging within weeks of heavy use. (I'm 5'6" 155 lbs, by the way). One bed lasted 2 months (returned), and its replacement I wanted to return (sagged within a week), but I'm languishing in it right now. I fear going to sleep now. I've slept in other beds and in couches and seem to have a better sleep than I've had in my own bed.

I would be buying a quality bed, with a quality bed frame, but I'll be moving within two months, and attending grad school in an unknown place for two years, then probably moving to find work. I don't want to sell my bed for cents on the dollar, once again. (I've spent $1700 on mattresses, while only getting $300 back in sales) .I've tried feather bed, memory foam, a "mattress remedy". I've went to PT on back issues, and probably need to get back on those exercises...

I've thought of the following options:

Buy cheap used twin mattress on craigslist (maybe a lightly used bed I could tell if there will be a depression+ with a twin the chance of depression is smaller). Sell it for slight loss before I move.

Get a foam/latex bed from Ikea that I can fold in my car and transport it to where I move. Is this possible/recommended?

Get one of those raised, high aero beds, put a foam topper on it. Dress it like a nice 'ol bed.

Or could this be all in my head/body? While I've never had fantastic, consistent 8 hr+ sleep, I've never felt sore coming out of my bed in the morning like I've had in the past 10 months.

Let sleeping cats lie?

theCroft — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:23:06 -0800

Banishing cats from the bedroom. My S.O. moves in with me this weekend along with her two big white cats. They are used to sleeping on (an in) her bed every night however I'm not willing to share mine so they're going to have to get used to sleeping elsewhere.

(Reasons: they shed a lot of hair, they sleep on your head, they wake up at 5am and make a ruckus till they get fed, they look disdainfully at my sexual technique etc)

We'll buy them a couple of nice cat beds for them to use in another room but how much resistance will I face from The Miaows and what can I do to encourage them to adopt this new nightime regime without too much fuss?

Do partners still sleep in the same bed and why?

zaebiz — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 15:14:08 -0800

Sleeping together.... no I mean SLEEPING together ... is it still common among partners living together? I always found I got much better sleep alone in my own bed but when partners sleep in separate beds, others seem to think something is wrong with the relationship. What's the common practice/s around the world?

Go away, nightmares!

lunit — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 07:59:34 -0800

Help me get rid of nightmares! I've been having nightmares probably 4-5 nights a week for the last year or so and I'd really like them to go away. The subjects change depending on what's going on in my life, but they're generally marked by someone close to me dying or something violent happening to me or someone I care about. I have them regardless of the setting in which I sleep (I just moved, and I also went on a long trip recently and the nightmares continued). Short of being less anxious, is there anything I can change in my lifestyle to help? Thanks!

Sleep is for the weak . . . and for me.

liketitanic — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 08:45:55 -0800

Why are my naps always so much better than my sleep? I never sleep well at night. Haven't for years. Vivid restless dreams, waking 2 and 3 times, the whole deal. Here's the thing, though. If I take a nap--no matter the time of day, no matter if I am more or less tired than usual, no matter if I have had caffeine--I sleep deeply and soundly. (I nap only rarely, though I could probably nap every day if I had the time.)

I don't understand! It can't be that I'm "just really exhausted" and finally tired enough to sleep soundly when I nap---If that were the case, wouldn't I occasionally sleep well at night just from pure exhaustion?

So why are my naps so much better? Can I trick myself into thinking it's a nap at night? (I am not necessarily asking how I can sleep better at night or whether I should nap more. I am wondering why there's consistently a difference.)