I'm just wondering how you all get to sleep at night? For me I'm up until around 3am every morning and it's really draining. I wish I could sleep on time but I can't and I'm shattered all through the day but I still can't sleep when I get in bed. I know it's to do with my depression but I'm curious if anyone has any tips or anything? I've tried exercise, relaxing bath, herbal tea, breathing techniques, hot cocoa and nothing seems to work.
Joey
Valerian tea and tablets available from health food shops,if you're in the UK try Holland and Barretts.There's one in most cities and large towns.
I have this problem a lot. I find just getting up and writing a journal entry full of everything that's going through my head helps a lot.
I generally don't have a problem going to or staying asleep. On the rare times I do, Valerian root and chamomile tea.
I'll have to try this valerian tea stuff, seems like it helps. I'm always too scared to write in a journal in case someone finds it. Thanks for all the ideas.
Joey
Some people get too much sleep thanks do to depression, an act of hiding I suppose. I have experienced it myself.
I apparently also suffer sleep apnea making remaining asleep often tricky.
I have fybromyalgia adding to the complication.
And when I go to sleep I am me, and I wake usually as him.
I'd love to be able to have just ordinary sleep problems. But you might want to consider that your own sleep troubles might have more than a single source causing the trouble.
I consider 4 uninterrupted hours of sleep to be a great success.
Light therapy can help you to recalibrate your brain. I've also read that you should limit computer use in the evening.
See all aspects of life as an observer piloting a physical body, then empty your thoughts simply by saying it everytime one comes in and practice excersising this. In a few weeks you will do this automatically and fall right to sleep even in stress.
At first I thought this was going to be a guilt thread, haha.
I suffer from this too so I'm mostly interested in other's responses. I've had the best luck with exercise, but it's not a sure thing. Some nights my brain is racing and my heart feels like it's trying to pound its way out of my chest...and those nights it really seems there's nothing to be done but wait it out. I always know I'll fall asleep eventually.
The only other tip I can think of is to never look at a clock if you're trying to fall asleep...seeing how late it actually is causes further stress and makes it even harder to fall asleep.
I've had terrible insomnia lately. The only thing that helps is getting off. Puts me out every time. Other than that, try Benadryl.
I've had insomnia for about 10 years. If I don't take my meds to sleep, I will stay awake till I go crazy.
Quote from: Fat Admin on February 01, 2013, 05:52:01 PM
I've had terrible insomnia lately. The only thing that helps is getting off. Puts me out every time. Other than that, try Benadryl.
This reminded me...I used to work a night shift and sleep during the day. To accomplish that, I would take a half or full dose tylenol PM. It isn't strong stuff but did the trick most of the time (if you're already tired). And it's supposedly non-habit forming. I never got hooked anyway :)
Quote from: ford on February 01, 2013, 05:58:14 PM
This reminded me...I used to work a night shift and sleep during the day. To accomplish that, I would take a half or full dose tylenol PM. It isn't strong stuff but did the trick most of the time (if you're already tired). And it's supposedly non-habit forming. I never got hooked anyway :)
Umm... I'm not a doctor, but... Tylenol and similar medicines aren't habit-forming, and indeed make many people drowsy, but it can be bad for your liver if used in a wrong dose, too frequently or if it's past its expiry date.
Considering that many people here are on HRT, I'd be careful with it, and ask a doctor first, over the counter or no.
Quote from: ac110 on February 01, 2013, 06:11:14 PM
Umm... I'm not a doctor, but... Tylenol and similar medicines aren't habit-forming, and indeed make many people drowsy, but it can be bad for your liver if used in a wrong dose, too frequently or if it's past its expiry date.
Considering that many people here are on HRT, I'd be careful with it, and ask a doctor first, over the counter or no.
Very true. I would hope that anyone considering otc meds would always do their homework first and follow the dosing directions, obviously. If you're using it every night to sleep then clearly...that's a problem (and that would then be considered a habit).
Quote from: ford on February 01, 2013, 06:14:44 PM
Very true. I would hope that anyone considering otc meds would always do their homework first and follow the dosing directions, obviously. If you're using it every night to sleep then clearly...that's a problem (and that would then be considered a habit).
Yes. It's just that the stuff is so common many people (even some professionals) have no respect for it and don't know just how nasty (all the way to death from liver failure) it can be.
It is a sign of your ," Mind, Body , Spirit , complex being out of balance. If you do not believe this then good luck running in circles of insanity until this is admitted to the self. there is nothing external that can help insomnia. For me insomnia means I need a long deep meditation, Sometimes even walking over to the beach and focusing on the waves and becoming one with nature for a while. After all we live lives so far out from nature perhaps coming back to it time to time and remembering who we are is the healing we need of all things.
If interested this is a writing I did on the Mind, Heart, Body , Spirit complex...... Love Anela
To even begin to understand what and how to balance one first must know what these things are.
Having your mind in balance keeps our body healthy. The mind is where we learn to navigate the third dimension and its illusions of experience. We now live in a fear based society that has taught its people to live in fear and protection. (Creating a "service to self, society"). Control is fear and giving into the smoke and mirrors of these experiences leaves us living in lower frequency of thought and our decisions are rarely correct and in the path of growth when we are in protection. Our ,"perceptual markers" we have placed in our minds are where we learn what to do with our experiences . Believing in the third dimensional illusions as real and harmful is to believe, we where created to suffer and serve. It is our choice to have these experiences and knew we would before we incarnated. Mind balancing takes a strong connection to signals from the heart.
The heart knows what is best even though sometimes reason from the mind can take over. The heart is where our choices of love come from. This society is taught to make choices of reason based on protection or "covering your back". There is no growth but a repetitious cycle of insanity of living in fear and protection cutting off the every blessing that comes your way. Your heart can see the blessings on the other side of these fires we live in fear to walk through. So we stay like in a cage with the door open. If you have lived in this cage for a very long time you may be scared of what is outside in the free world. Your cage is servitude and feels like protection from the imagination and fears of the unknowing and what is in the darkness.
Your manifestations of imagination of what you believe to be out there in that darkness is what is there. Perceptual markers from the heart know all created is created of love and the only real truth you can find in any darkness is your own choice to choose to see darkness. You already know what is there. All is light and there is nothing more in darkness but that light. Your light because you came to the third dimension to learn to make your choices from the heart, to be light, to know all is created of light and light is love. Love is what we give and expect NOTHING in return.
Our decisions and listening to signals from the heart are primarily 99% correct. In the short term of this dimension the illusions of these decisions lead us feeling following signals from the heart has only left us drained, used, without love, rejected, Judged, broke, homeless, and hungry. It is because the heart knows your true inner desires and to give over control to your hearts path in the long run you will see why your heart wanted you to loose friends, live with nothing but misconceptions. To follow choices from the heart you must stick with it or choose to dwell in this loss without growth and begin to loose the blessing that have been set up on this learning path of walking through fire as your heart sends you. Your heart is your best teacher. Yes pain feels real and I do not like it either but the path of love and avoiding fight will prevail in the end. Balancing our heart is to use it like a muscle. No , not like swimming, using it to guide us in the choices we must make. At first it seems crazy but once you have stepped through many fires you begin to fill with excitement rather than fear to walk through these fires. They no longer look like fire, It beings to become more like walking through stages of intellect and wisdom perhaps visualizing is more as a cool, crystal blue waterfall on a hot day in nature with another higher stage of life through every one we walk through till eventually it doesn't burn, or get us wet or nothing to walk through. We instantly have learnt to just move on through these levels automatically without even noticing a choice. All fears are gone and we have no clue how to make decisions of fear. That is when your light is so bright those who choose darkness in their hearts see this light and find it irritating. That is when we get the illusion the world is not fare. To know this as a school of physicality for the soul will only leave you in growth.
A balanced heart is the connection to a healthy body. In the long you feel great after following this amazing learning path and just enjoy lighter , healthier foods now. Your mind knows it needs money at societies choice of service to self and survival at this point. The balance of reason and leaving the plan to the heart will end in work of our talents and hobbies, doing what we like no matter if we live in a service to self or service to others society. Holding this high frequency will lead to amazing opportunities by what seems like lucky chance to work very prosperous in the developed talents. You learnt these talents and skills in past lives. That is why you are so good at some things like you where born to do it. The heart knows what these things are. Perhaps the change of giving over control to the heart left you homeless and hated by those who no longer serve any ones happiness. The bounce back if you hold on and be in joy of what these choices of following the path of love, giving with nothing to give and getting nothing back and feeling we have gained anyway is only going to bring happiness and comforts later.
With our mind and hearts in balance working together and fully identify the two our body becomes a power house of energy from the thoughts of constant love we now live with. Remember cancer is cells that loose connection to your bodies demands and become their own agenda. They live in service to self and work for dominance and control disconnected to signals from their host. This happens because our poor cells feel you have lost love for self and without love they feel lost and over worked. Love makes energy and if you do not love yourself you will not have energy and your body will suffer being left without love. Think of each one of your cells as your children looking to be loved and working for you to get it. Think of how much they want it even when you don't send them the love. They keep you alive anyway don't they? Some do get angry and over worked and decide to go off on their own. They fall to anger, because you did. Now the toxic food and water supply at this low frequency of thought has a great chance to turn your cells and even DNA to something other than what it is meant to be naturally.
Living with your mind and heart working together to follow the path of love will bring you more and more good feelings about yourself bringing your thought frequency to higher levels of consciousness and vibration. (Like vibrational sound waves crossing through the center line more rapidly, bringing our thoughts to this center line more rapidly making it easier to stay balanced in our ,"mind , heart and body").
This will leave you with the desire to eat less heavy foods and live with lighter more whole earth foods rather than heavy meals. The higher frequency raises the vibration of the body and lighter foods are needed to make energy. With a high frequency we can fast for a very long time and with digestion using up over 85% of our energy, shutting down the digestive system leaves us with that energy. Having low frequency thoughts of fears uses massive amounts of energy as well, so does a poor nutritional diet, processing cigarette smoke, toxins , preservatives. Now I see society has been trained into a daily addiction to caffeine related energy rather than nutrition for energy. Having a diet of vegetables proper protein's, and fats. We feed ourselves what we need and energy should come in abundance. The proper diet also brings us to such an amazing abundance of nutritional needs we can also make more energy with a fast and cleans ourselves doing it. Giving our bodies a break and just cleaning with exercise and clean water for a while. You can feel what is right for you and have cravings for your nutritional needs.
The reason you can do so well in the morning but when night comes you feel you must have ice cream and cookies is because of your carb addiction. Through the day you feed yourself carbs. This raises insulin. When you have an insulin crash you feel like you are coming down and need to bring it back up. Caffeine and sugar is a chemical cocktail of disaster to energy and thought frequency. Alcohol is even worse. Baked pastries and coffee with sugar should be the ultimate surge of morning rush energy with struggle to stay energized by lunch. More coffee, and more carbs, sugar, and now we are over what we need however we are stuck in the addiction of holding the insulin levels up.
This will lead to weight gain and can also lead to "self-worth" issues, (low frequency thoughts) and loss of energy. If you eat your carb cravings in the morning and not live in resistance and stop all carbs at 2:00 pm. By bedtime all the carb's and insulin will be out of your body through the night and you can live the same life you have been, and you can eat everything you love just take control of when you ingest. It becomes easier with time to let the self know, "we will have the cake tomorrow for lunch". knowing you will eat what you want within the next 24 hours starts to become second nature and easier everyday. Your weight will dissipate little by little through the night while you sleep instead of gaining weight for high insulin levels during times of rest.
Your energy is everything to you isn't it? Have you thought of it? We have all used ,"not having enough energy" for an excuse to not do things. We are exhausted of living in service to self all day long . In jobs not natural to us because it is all that is available. Worried about living check to check.
After time of living with our mind and heart together on the path of love and reason and with our hearts full of love for self and others. Making choices that follow the path of love, walking through fires really brings a much deserved sense of self pride and love without ego robbing us of what we have done for ourselves. You begin to shine light and attract others of that light or those looking for it become your students. You realize over time you have connect to your spiritual evolutionary path and are living in growth of this path. The connection to spirit and soul is to know who we truly are, why we are here, what our talents are how to apply them to heal and help others live in growth as well.
With the "Mind, Heart, Body, Spirit complex" in balance we live in a center line of growth avoiding and identifying avenues of fear and protection trying to tempt us off this path. We have learnt to avoid those decisions and stay on path and are now ready to move on and follow the labyrinth to the higher dimensions of what we are ready for within our own personal conscious evolution. If you cannot stay in balance it means the higher dimensions will be cruel to your fears and give them to you. So you will not know the pathway and will continue to have third dimensional experiences until the lessons you have set for yourself have been learnt. No choice is punishment. All is choice and all need to learn when everything goes black it must be known all was created of love and you will be fine. Your guides have always been with you , all the time and always will be. Just look back at how much they do for you when you ask for it. They set it up but you have to make the choice to want it, Jump for it, leap of faith, or stay behind a while and learn more.
The fifth dimension is more a restful , playful holding tank for light-body physical beings to ready for the 8th dimension. No souls will move on from the 5th till all have come together as one in the 5th. The more of us that stay balanced and teach the faster we evolve. Together our conscious telepathic oneness in the higher frequencies of love is in fact the "Supreme Being". All is created equal parts of one bodyment. ( Ment for mental, or telepathy, body for together working parts). It takes experiences to learn this truth of our consciousness.
Try to see light in all things even though they seem dark sometimes. Because it is really the light working for you. To teach you what you wanted to learn, to ready yourself for your conscious shift into the higher fifth dimension of light body and instant manifestation. Only a perfectly balanced consciousness can move onto and find this place. It is not a wrong choice to not feel ready. All choice is free will and that is how this universe was created
I have not had a single sleepless night since I learned to meditate from a group of Ishaya Monks in 2002. One week after my training began I quite antidepressants cold-turkey and have not had a depressive day since. The Ishayas call their meditation technique "Ishaya's Ascension", and they claim that it's a 2000 year old technique. All I know is that it works. When my spouse and I first met in 2007, she was so impressed by my calm, balanced energy that she decided to train with the monks. We sent my favorite monk a plane ticket; she came to us and spent a week training Cookie to "Ascend". My Beloved spouse is now every bit as calm and at peace as I am, and she no longer has sleepless nights either, no matter how stressful the outside world might sometimes get.
I'm not suggesting that the Ishaya's form of meditation is the only or the best. I'm only suggesting that a good, easy, powerful meditation technique might be exactly what you are hungry for. You might consider something like TM. The Ishayas are also all over the world if you're so inclined as to look them up.
Best of luck.
Miharu
Quote from: angiejuly on February 02, 2013, 01:26:55 PM
It is a sign of your ," Mind, Body , Spirit , complex being out of balance. If you do not believe this then good luck running in circles of insanity until this is admitted to the self. there is nothing external that can help insomnia.
I'm sorry, but you are not entirely right with this. My insomnia is caused because my brain is over active. It fires at a constant rate almost as high as that of someone having a seizure. That's why I have insomnia. It's not due to my mind, body and spirit being out of alignment. It's due to biological factors.
Quote from: angiejuly on February 02, 2013, 01:26:55 PM
If interested this is a writing I did.....
Apologies... I got about 10 words in and my eyes glazed over. But thank you for the thought.
Hugs,
Miharu
Haha. Sleep.
I'll second that writing, getting off, and meditation can help quite a bit. Diphenhydramine is awful imo and I'd rather be cracked out than deal with the way that drug makes me feel. Valerian can help but is expensive and smelly.
I'm twitchy and sometimes the best way I can override that is to create a simple imaginary scenario or mantra in my head and repeat it over and over and over. It makes everything bare and rhythmic. You could probably use song lyrics. When I notice my muscles are tense, I let them be tense, as long as I'm not grinding my teeth or biting my tongue. I try to feel like I'm floating, walled-in, safe. Whatever helps.
I've never had success with medication for insomnia. Sometimes I get better sleep if I follow all the basic (but still difficult) common sense stuff: don't hang out in bed when you aren't sleeping, don't eat or exercise right before bed, don't have caffeine after noon or so, don't have too much alcohol, don't try to solve problems right before bed, turn your ringer off at night, turn your lights off, etc etc.
Lol I'm a huge failure at sleeping though. Don't listen to me.
Recently I was in a severe bout of extreme nervous breakdown (well that is the only way I can think of to describe it).
I managed to finally break lose of the effect simply by chanting to myself in my head, "I can always go get some hot chocolate'.
Everyone has their drug I suppose. But I found focusing on something that is all pluses and no negatives was the only thing that worked.
I have a lot of trouble 'letting go' of the day. I carry around a lot of expectations of the day which are rarely achieved.
Often I try to imagine a blank sheet of paper and I just home in on the blankness.
I sure wish the mind had an off button.
Quote from: Brooke777 on February 02, 2013, 01:51:54 PM
I'm sorry, but you are not entirely right with this. My insomnia is caused because my brain is over active. It fires at a constant rate almost as high as that of someone having a seizure. That's why I have insomnia. It's not due to my mind, body and spirit being out of alignment. It's due to biological factors.
I always get a reaction when I take away someones ability to blame outside the self. When you decide it is you in your thoughts, you will have control of you, and be the very you , you want to be. If you believe your insomnia is out of control biologically the way this universe works will create this problem for you. and 777 means the Angels Applaud you and is my birthday. :)
I used to have awful time sleeping in my late teens and early twenties. I would often not sleep for a couple of nights and once couldn't sleep at all for four days - leaving me a dreadful, wretched zombie. Nowadays I sleep fine and usually fall asleep within ten minutes and don't wake up until I need to.
The main difference between then and now is that all the things I was worried about actually happened, leaving me free from having to worry about them. Nowadays I worry very little.
The other change was one in my reading habits, I discovered new authors that I find relaxes me when I am tense and also, if I read them before bed, give me something to think about rather than a free-form jelly of thought. The best of these authors are; Samuel Johnson, Michel de Montaigne and Robert Burton but Bacon, Shakespeare and Goldsmith also do quite well.
What these authors have in common is that they are wise, humane and thought provoking with challenging writing styles/ They often use obscure latinate language and long flowing senses. The act of concentrating on what they are writing focusses my mind and dampens down all that brain 'noise'. Then I fall asleep thinking about what they have said, and that gives my brain something to do as I drift quickly off to sleep.
Quote from: angiejuly on February 02, 2013, 10:53:16 PM
and 777 means the Angels Applaud you and is my birthday. :)
My Birthday is 7/7 also. One of those few dates Americans can't get backwards.
However I think your claim to 'take away someones ability to blame outside the self' with only a few words to be pretty presumptuous.
That said, I completely agree with you that people are too quick to attribute their problems to some biological cause that can only be controlled by medication and have even written a novel looking at exactly that idea. (In that novel there is a disease that makes people kill themselves, but the disease doesn't actually exist, it is merely the knowledge of the disease that allows people to kill themselves without any feelings of guilt or responsibility. It's a comedy.)
Still, although I agree with that point, I don't agree with almost any of the big long 'light', 'love' and heart post. My tradition is one where reason and rationality are the guides to the more fulfilled life, that they are the tools that allow a person to see beyond their own self whereas the emotions are almost entirely self-centred.
It's ten til 4am where I live and my neighbors are still screaming their fool heads off next door. Too much drugs and fighting and thumpy music and omg I hope they get evicted soon. Can't sleep at night if there's no peace. :icon_chainsaw:
I've only once got to sleep before 5am in the last fortnight - and then I only slept for an hour, and was then awake until 6 am. My body clock is firmly in EST instead of GMT, dammit. I'm lucky I have lots of online friends in the US, or I'd get bored out of my mind, lying awake in the dark (I an only do so much reading).
Getting away from computers or anything with a backlit screen an hour or two before bed helps since the backlights affect melatonin production (here's a link (http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/08/27/233227/exposure-to-backlit-displays-reduces-melatonin-production) to slashdot).
I like to read a few chapters from a book right before going to bed. I also sometimes play around with self-hypnosis techniques to help myself relax once I'm in bed.
Quote from: Felix on February 03, 2013, 05:53:33 AM
It's ten til 4am where I live and my neighbors are still screaming their fool heads off next door. Too much drugs and fighting and thumpy music and omg I hope they get evicted soon. Can't sleep at night if there's no peace. :icon_chainsaw:
Neighbours, doncha just love them :)
I have a couple next to me, they are either having obvious loud sex (the headboard and the moaning give it away) or the boyfriend is trying his best to achieve a world record in overt belligerent yelling. When mentioning it to the landlord my question of course was, how is it even possible for the former to occur considering the latter. Well I mean, if I talked to my wife like that, well I wouldn't be getting any that's for sure. Then again, if I talked like that, I'd also be single too.
The neighbours below me, two women with quite a capacity to argue as well. And quite the fondness for loud music.
But I have made it clear to them, no amount of noise bothers me. The thing is, when I drop cutlery on the kitchen floor, I also tend to not worry about it. 'Oh that had to have sounded loud'. I have lived in the unit below me actually, I am aware of all the sounds this apartment can make hehe.
The thing is I have incredible snoring. I have been told I can keep people awake, just by sleeping myself :) Lucky for them I don't sleep a lot.
Quote from: angiejuly on February 02, 2013, 10:53:16 PM
I always get a reaction when I take away someones ability to blame outside the self. When you decide it is you in your thoughts, you will have control of you, and be the very you , you want to be. If you believe your insomnia is out of control biologically the way this universe works will create this problem for you. and 777 means the Angels Applaud you and is my birthday. :)
As one who has a vested interest in psychology, I do strongly believe that the majority of issues are caused by the mind. However, do not discount the fact that it is not always that case. I do have an actual physical reason to my insomnia. You can choose to not believe me all you want. It does not change the fact that I do have a physical, biological problem that causes me not to sleep. You did not take anything away from me. However, you seem to refuse to believe that you are not 100% correct. If , you have not studied my brain, you do not know what is actually causing my insomnia. If you are a well studied and respected neurologist, feel free to find a facility near me and perform some non invasive tests. Otherwise, do not believe you are correct with my situation.
I have a sleep phase disorder and have trouble keeping a "normal" daytime schedule. Whenever I need to start getting up earlier, I use a lightbox to reset my internal clock. It sort of works...but the sleeping pills help, too. :laugh:
I've also found that going to bed at roughly the same time every night helps, but I tend to wake up at roughly the same time in the morning even if I stay up really late. I wonder if there is a good way to turn off my body clock's alarm on the weekends...?
Quote from: EmSchuma on February 04, 2013, 08:47:26 AM
I've also found that going to bed at roughly the same time every night helps, but I tend to wake up at roughly the same time in the morning even if I stay up really late. I wonder if there is a good way to turn off my body clock's alarm on the weekends...?
Alcohol works wonders! >:-)
Most of my tricks aren't working right now as my depression keeps me up for days at a time.
In the past I would listen to Mike Oldfield - the songs of distant earth, it's the most relaxing music ever & I never used to hear the end of the cd as i'd be snoring away by then.
Give it a try, it may just work
Quote from: Jayne on February 04, 2013, 10:28:38 AM
Most of my tricks aren't working right now as my depression keeps me up for days at a time.
In the past I would listen to Mike Oldfield - the songs of distant earth, it's the most relaxing music ever & I never used to hear the end of the cd as i'd be snoring away by then.
Give it a try, it may just work
I really hope you are able to find something that works for you soon. Sleep deprivation can make depression so much worse (which I'm sure you are aware of). I have seen quite a few good tips in this thread, so hopefully some of them will work for you.
About two years ago I was using a sleep medication prescribed by my psychiatrist because I wasn't getting to sleep and then, when I finally fell asleep, I wasn't sleeping all night [a lingering effect of Zoloft which caused me to have a mental breakdown]. But I no longer have that and while I do experience insomnia, I use Valerian Root now [pill form]. I got a big bottle at Walgreens for ~$7 [including tax]. It works wonders for me though it smells horrendous.
Otherwise, I try to exercise a bit during the day and occasionally I burn some soothing incense.
Quote from: Arch on February 04, 2013, 08:41:17 AM
I have a sleep phase disorder and have trouble keeping a "normal" daytime schedule. Whenever I need to start getting up earlier, I use a lightbox to reset my internal clock. It sort of works...but the sleeping pills help, too. :laugh:
I've heard & read that not everyone is predisposed to "normal" sleep patterns, it's a throwback to when we were tribal/pack animals. In any group of pack animals some of the pack will be more awake at night than in the day, this is apparently so that there is always someone alert for danger from nighttime predators.
People who find it easier to be awake at night are merely the watchdogs or protectors for the pack.
I saw an article about it in a scientific magazine that we used to ship out to newsagents but can't be sure which one
Quote from: Aaron Gabriel on February 04, 2013, 10:38:58 AM
Otherwise, I try to exercise a bit during the day and occasionally I burn some soothing incense.
Oh, that's another thing. I slept worse two years ago when I ate a lot of junk food and before I started exercising. Cutting out junk food and getting in two 2-mile walks every day seems to have helped (and dropping a few extra pounds is unsurprisingly good for your self esteem, too).
Quote from: Jayne on February 04, 2013, 10:41:53 AM
I've heard & read that not everyone is predisposed to "normal" sleep patterns, it's a throwback to when we were tribal/pack animals. In any group of pack animals some of the pack will be more awake at night than in the day, this is apparently so that there is always someone alert for danger from nighttime predators.
People who find it easier to be awake at night are merely the watchdogs or protectors for the pack.
This is interesting. I thought perhaps I have a lot of ancestors who lived in northern climates where days and nights get all whacked out. My genetic theory might fit some of my other symptoms, such as winter depression and gluten intolerance. I don't know whether northern folks have a higher genetic predisposition to winter depression, but I have read that they have more gluten intolerance, probably because there was less cultivation and less of an opportunity to evolve the enzymes needed to tolerate wheat products.
I have trouble with carbohydrates generally, so I tend to avoid eating much of that type of food. Someday, I'll move to an all-reindeer diet. :D
I remember reading about a link between depression and sleep phase disorders, but I can't remember whether the researchers established a cause-effect relationship or just a link.
Quote from: angiejuly on February 05, 2013, 12:15:56 AM
t. Our physicality is not real or we could point to the part of the anatomy that holds consciousness.
I believe I can eat anything I want and not gain weight. I believe I sleep fine. That is how you work this universe.
I have removed a part of this post. I will not allow such triggers to be posted. CJ. (Wonder what I wrote?)
Well that's utter bollocks.
The universe is not a thing to be worked, it's a thing to be endured and enjoyed. As for the thing about no physicality, it's back to my pal Johnson.
After we came out of the church, we stood talking for some time together of Bishop Berkeley's ingenious sophistry to prove the nonexistence of matter, and that every thing in the universe is merely ideal. I observed, that though we are satisfied his doctrine is not true, it is impossible to refute it. I never shall forget the alacrity with which Johnson answered, striking his foot with mighty force against a large stone, till he rebounded from it -- "I refute it thus."
Boswell: Life
I'd just like to echo those who've suggested various forms of meditation. For me, a sort of modified version of the "dead man's pose" -- a routine of conscious muscle tension and relaxation, that concluded in visualizing my brain being sort of sliced and kneaded was my routine for many years. I've become undisciplined about keeping a regular schedule lately, but trust that I should be able to rely on that technique again when I decide to address this more actively for myself.
The technique was one that worked during my Army enlistment, a period of my life when I had the least control over virtually all aspects of my environment and the distractions that could have led to sleep problems.
Quote from: Pica Pica on February 03, 2013, 05:03:11 AM
My Birthday is 7/7 also. One of those few dates Americans can't get backwards.
Oh! You mean 07 July!
Yep - and not July 7.
I've had a little more thought about what angiejuly said while I was in the shower and have concluded that she only said that to get a rise out of me, nobody can believe that.
To believe that would be to ignore all spark of reason, to ignore the consequences of cause and effect and to blank all the advances and theories that come out of a shared world together.
It would also be to ignore all the evidence of our senses, to believe that all things are chosen by the experiencer is to be literally out of your senses - or in other words, mad. It is clear that the sense experience of smelling a rose is caused by a rose, that a taste one by the thing eaten. We may not experience the exact same smells and tastes but our experiences are close enough to allow us to talk about it.
Finally, the biggest reason a person couldn't believe that is the moral interpretation. It would mean that there were a bunch of children in Sandy Hook who really wanted to get shot, the the citizens of Pompei were very keen on being calcified, that babies would have an innate desire to be born deformed or with limbs missing - that all old people have a deathwish.
It is exactly the kind of egotism that ignoring reason brings, it is a locked in state of 'I' and 'Me'ness - that even the outside world cannot affect 'Me', that everything that happens is what 'I' choose.
So I would conclude that the view said above is irrational, insane and immoral and I don't think anybody could actually believe it.
I find that an excellent way to improve my chance to sleep, is to not have an a deeply upsetting conversation with someone I care about a few hours before bedtime.
Unfortunately I did not follow that advice tonight. :(
For sleeping's sake, I don't like any conversation from a dear friend that begins with "I don't want us to be enemies, but".
Things that didn't help me sleep last night: Drinking pop (or "soda" for you non-midwesterners) shortly before bed :(.
My days are usually so busy that I am lucky and often just fall right to sleep after hitting the pillow. I also get up a 4:50 AM which helps. :D
Things to help on days when it's hard to sleep: meditation, cuddling up with an adorable puppy, or just getting up and reading until I get tired.
Hope you can sleep better Joey!
Quote from: Lesley_Roberta on February 03, 2013, 08:58:38 AM
The thing is I have incredible snoring. I have been told I can keep people awake, just by sleeping myself :) Lucky for them I don't sleep a lot.
I snore so loudly that i've actually woken myself up mumbling "what the hell was that noise?"
Taser? ???
I'm finding that overwork and exhaustion are great sleep inducers, but I don't recommend them.