Are You Getting Enough Sleep? Sleeping properly?

[Mrs. Peel]

Still trying to block out the blinking green glow from the smoke alarm. There are so many open vents on it that I need to put a box or loose towel over the whole thing and am trying to find some sticky stuff that won't peel the paint off the ceiling, as I don't want to poke holes in it with tacks or nails.

Maybe you could try just putting a piece of black electrical tape over it? I'm not sure how your smoke detector is designed but that should help and maybe not block too many of the vents either.

I've already got tape over one part of it, but the light leaks out from around the rest of it. There is an opening that goes the entire circumference of the smoke alarm, plus vents all the way around.

I just need to find some adhesive that won't take the paint off the ceiling and try and rig up a towel or something loosely over the entire thing. I think it would be easier to just sleep in the closet, I've got enough room on the floor, but I need to find something comfortable to sleep on!

 

[Echo Blue]

Hi Echo Blue.
I do not know if it helps, but I remember Laurentien posting about her daughter having dark man dreams, and helping her deal with them. It may not be an approach you can use with your son, but its worth mentioning. Dark man dreams and sleep paralysis.
Laura also mentioned earlier in the thread that an increase in melatonin levels (from it being dark at night) can cause you to 'feel like an evil presence is in the room'. Working out a way for your son to counteract that fear himself (whilst providing reassurance and support) may help.
Another thing that may be worth mentioning (but again, it may not be appropriate in your personal circumstances) is diet. Gluten, dairy and sugar will have a negative effect on sleep.

Thanks for the reminder about the dark man dreams. I'll have to review for any clues. Although my son is older and was born with Down's Syndrome, getting into his real feelings is quite the task - a life long one at that! What actually triggered his fear about the dark happened many years ago. We lost power and the house went totally black. He was only 4 years old at the time and that seemed to trigger this fear of the dark. Ever since he has always gotten up during the night and walked around the house putting all the lights back on. Sometimes I wake up and go around turning them off. It's been an ongoing issue. One that never caused me concern until reading this thread about the role of sleeping in total darkness & health. Neither my son or I have any issues with sleeping. Actually, my son is a good sleeper and sleeps deeply.

As for diet, he's not entirely gluten free yet. Surprisingly he doesn't like sweets. He's 26 years old and has never had a candy bar, or sweets of any kind. His downfall was always soda.....which I know is evil. I've been able to substitute some home made soda (soda water & cherry juice concentrate or pomegranite juice), but he manages to get soda now and then. He also loves bread. But I've made good progress with his dietary changes. He's a healthy young man (so far) and it's always been my goal to keep him that way. We've just switched over from doing the morning protein shakes to doing the meat & blini or egg breakfast. My son is a meat eater, so that's no problem. I also play the 'prayer of the soul' for him to listen to while he sleeps - usually in the morning hours right before he gets up.

So, I'll continue working on the issue. Thanks, I've got some reading to do. And I'll be sure to post any progress.

 

[Mr.Anderson]

(It's been said that the skin senses light)...Black Sheets have helped me.

 

[mkrnhr]

There is something in the last (and excellent) article by RyanX : http://www.sott.net/articles/show/221977-Pole-Shift-Look-to-the-Skies- that may be related to sleeping quality. The Schumann resonance frequency and its relation to the brain waves. The frequency changes from daytime to nightime so it may "activate" different modes in brain activity. This can be disturbed by the electric grids, all the electromagnetic pollution that surrounds us everywhere (even in deserts!) and also use of iron in building houses. I didn't find any references about the influence of the phase of the moon (relative position Sun-Earth-Moon) but it may explain perhaps why some people have difficulty to sleep during full moon nights even in the dark?

 

[ScioAgapeOmnis]

Interesting discussion about sleep here:

_http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/f7d3o/proper_sleeping_habits_bane_of_my_existence/

They mentioned this program that automatically turns your computer display a hue of red (which means reducing blue/green/white) when it is after sunset in your location, which supposedly does not interfere with melatonin production:

_http://www.stereopsis.com/flux/

I'll give it a shot and see if it helps.

 

[Vulcan59]

Hi SAO,

The discussion here mentions the Flux program. I downloaded and installed and have been using it since. Great program. :)

 

[Keit]

Just wanted to give an update after sleeping for awhile in total darkness. There were couple of days when I slept for more than 10 hours, and felt that could sleep much more. But it wasn't really good for me because it made my mind foggy and my state quite dissociative (wasn't noticing or bumping into things). So for now, even if it is possible to do so on days off, I prefer to sleep for no more than 9 hours. Don't know, maybe as other mentioned, the body has to go through adaptation period, or maybe there is some other process involved.

But even with the fogginess of long sleep, or even when I slept for 5-6 hours, total darkness has a very interesting effect on thinking. Not sure if it is not combination of several other factors, but mood in general is better (well, still have highs and downs, but it's better all around) and thinking is more focused. It had a definite positive impact.

 

[nicklebleu]

Still trying to block out the blinking green glow from the smoke alarm. There are so many open vents on it that I need to put a box or loose towel over the whole thing and am trying to find some sticky stuff that won't peel the paint off the ceiling, as I don't want to poke holes in it with tacks or nails.

Maybe you could try just putting a piece of black electrical tape over it? I'm not sure how your smoke detector is designed but that should help and maybe not block too many of the vents either.

I've already got tape over one part of it, but the light leaks out from around the rest of it. There is an opening that goes the entire circumference of the smoke alarm, plus vents all the way around.

I just need to find some adhesive that won't take the paint off the ceiling and try and rig up a towel or something loosely over the entire thing. I think it would be easier to just sleep in the closet, I've got enough room on the floor, but I need to find something comfortable to sleep on!

Mrs. Peel,

Could you use Blue Tack for that purpose, the blue bubblegum-like tack that is designed to tack posters to walls and is easily removable without blemishes?
It usually also leaves the paint in place, although I would test that first in a hard to spot place, just to be sure ...
Not sure if the cracks are small enough for that, but that's the material I use to fill up cracks - or maybe you could use that tack to tack some dark paper over the slots that you cut to shape ...?

 

[Kaigen]

:D First thank you so much for this topic.
After I found it, it was just like wow, why did I
sleep so bad . This is now investigated and after using
points Laura had written in her first post, :) I did it in Practice.
After two weeks turning off the router Wireless LAN , I found first
that, after 3 days I started to dream again, I was surprised and asked
my wife, about it. She have also dreams night by night. I have even 3 dreams
in one night what I remembered. children stopped to crying at night (we couldn't find the reason)
and they are sleeping well also. We have also banned Mobile phones from our sleeping room and all
Electronic devices. Second In one of my dreams I become information why I lost my memory of last
10 years. Not completely but sporadic, events, things in our life. My wife was wondering that I lost my memory
so fast in my age. I was going to connect the dots, and found out, that I'm using wireless lan and other wireless
devices since 10 years. wow, you really don't have to be a detective.
thanks again for posting this :D

 

[Beau]

Mrs. Peel,

Could you use Blue Tack for that purpose, the blue bubblegum-like tack that is designed to tack posters to walls and is easily removable without blemishes?
It usually also leaves the paint in place, although I would test that first in a hard to spot place, just to be sure ...
Not sure if the cracks are small enough for that, but that's the material I use to fill up cracks - or maybe you could use that tack to tack some dark paper over the slots that you cut to shape ...?

I was actually going to suggest the same thing. I've used it and it never has taken the paint off of anything. You can usually find it at a hardware store.

 

[Ben]

Just wanted to give an update after sleeping for awhile in total darkness. There were couple of days when I slept for more than 10 hours, and felt that could sleep much more. But it wasn't really good for me because it made my mind foggy and my state quite dissociative (wasn't noticing or bumping into things). So for now, even if it is possible to do so on days off, I prefer to sleep for no more than 9 hours. Don't know, maybe as other mentioned, the body has to go through adaptation period, or maybe there is some other process involved.

But even with the fogginess of long sleep, or even when I slept for 5-6 hours, total darkness has a very interesting effect on thinking. Not sure if it is not combination of several other factors, but mood in general is better (well, still have highs and downs, but it's better all around) and thinking is more focused. It had a definite positive impact.

It's interesting, I've heard people say this before - that they have had 'too much sleep' and feel worse than if they had woken up earlier. I have never understood this because the longer I sleep the better I feel, that is to say my clarity of mind and feeling of well being and alertness is directly proportional to the amount of sleep I had. Before I was working full time I used to sleep for 9 or 10 hours every night, now it's usually 7 or 8. It seems there's no time for sleep any more.

 

[ScioAgapeOmnis]

Just wanted to give an update after sleeping for awhile in total darkness. There were couple of days when I slept for more than 10 hours, and felt that could sleep much more. But it wasn't really good for me because it made my mind foggy and my state quite dissociative (wasn't noticing or bumping into things). So for now, even if it is possible to do so on days off, I prefer to sleep for no more than 9 hours. Don't know, maybe as other mentioned, the body has to go through adaptation period, or maybe there is some other process involved.

My body also keeps trying to sleep longer than I'd expect. Perhaps the body is trying to make up for lost sleep in the past, and I wonder if it's a good idea to just let it sleep as long as it needs to (when possible) and perhaps it'll catch up. I also feel foggy when I sleep more than 10 hours or so, but I don't mind it as much on the weekends. I also noticed a lot more dreams and lots of clarity in those dreams, and I tend to remember them better.

 

[Zadius Sky]

My body also keeps trying to sleep longer than I'd expect. Perhaps the body is trying to make up for lost sleep in the past, and I wonder if it's a good idea to just let it sleep as long as it needs to (when possible) and perhaps it'll catch up. I also feel foggy when I sleep more than 10 hours or so, but I don't mind it as much on the weekends. I also noticed a lot more dreams and lots of clarity in those dreams, and I tend to remember them better.

Hmm, I wonder that if the body is making up for lost sleep or something. I went to bed yesterday before 6pm and woke up around 5am (I set my alarm to 4am and slept through it somehow - it's a shake-awake device - and now I'm late for work). Interesting that there were alot of clarity in my dreams (as well) and I remember them more (I usually remember dreams just before I woke up but this recent ones are in successive order). And, I don't feel foggy after this morning.

I've had a new light-blocking shade built on my 6ft by 3ft windows, but I still get light from the two sides of the windows, a green light from my smoke alarm, and from the bottom of my door (hallway light) - at least it's still dark enough. I can't do anything else to my room since it's my parent's house and I'm considered to be a guest.

I'm still waiting on the book, which is en route.

 

[Seamus]

My body also keeps trying to sleep longer than I'd expect. Perhaps the body is trying to make up for lost sleep in the past, and I wonder if it's a good idea to just let it sleep as long as it needs to (when possible) and perhaps it'll catch up. I also feel foggy when I sleep more than 10 hours or so, but I don't mind it as much on the weekends. I also noticed a lot more dreams and lots of clarity in those dreams, and I tend to remember them better.

Hmm, I wonder that if the body is making up for lost sleep or something. I went to bed yesterday before 6pm and woke up around 5am (I set my alarm to 4am and slept through it somehow - it's a shake-awake device - and now I'm late for work). Interesting that there were alot of clarity in my dreams (as well) and I remember them more (I usually remember dreams just before I woke up but this recent ones are in successive order). And, I don't feel foggy after this morning.

I've had a new light-blocking shade built on my 6ft by 3ft windows, but I still get light from the two sides of the windows, a green light from my smoke alarm, and from the bottom of my door (hallway light) - at least it's still dark enough. I can't do anything else to my room since it's my parent's house and I'm considered to be a guest.

I'm still waiting on the book, which is en route.

Hi Myrddin Awyr,

You could put a bit of duct tape or electrical tape over the green light from the smoke alarm, and you could buy or make a draft stopper for the bottom of your door, something like this: _http://www.amazon.com/Door-Window-Draft-Stopper-Tan/dp/B002Z999LA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1296050197&sr=8-1. Neither one of those things would alter the room, but they might help you sleep even better.

 

[Mrs. Peel]

I also feel foggy when I sleep more than 10 hours or so, but I don't mind it as much on the weekends.

I usually wake up early on weekends because of getting up at 6 AM for work everyday. if I go back to sleep for several more hours, then I do get all groggy, and don't want to get up AT ALL.

Also, am about a third of the way through "Lights Out" and the author says that taking over-the-counter melatonin screws things up worse (I forget the exact words). I've been using sublingual melatonin before bed for years now. Not sure whether to discontinue it or not.