Are You Getting Enough Sleep? Sleeping properly?

[Bar Kochba]

"...the purpose of sleep is achieved only when all connections between the centers are broken. Only then can the machine produce what sleep is meant to produce...Deep sleep is a state when we have no dreams or sensations. If people have dreams it means that one or more of their connections is not broken, since memory, observation, sensation is nothing more than one center observing another...what we call *sleep* when we sleep for 7 to 10 hours or God knows how long, is not sleep. the greater part of that time is spent not in sleep but in these transitional states - these unecessary half dream states." - Gurdjieff, VIEWS FROM THE REAL WORLD pg 119

 

[Approaching Infinity]

"...the purpose of sleep is achieved only when all connections between the centers are broken. Only then can the machine produce what sleep is meant to produce...Deep sleep is a state when we have no dreams or sensations. If people have dreams it means that one or more of their connections is not broken, since memory, observation, sensation is nothing more than one center observing another...what we call *sleep* when we sleep for 7 to 10 hours or God knows how long, is not sleep. the greater part of that time is spent not in sleep but in these transitional states - these unecessary half dream states." - Gurdjieff, VIEWS FROM THE REAL WORLD pg 119

BK, was there any particular reason you chose to share this quote?

 

[Mrs. Peel]

Thanks Laura.

Just thought that maybe if I got used to wearing them, then when I don't have access to a pair , it shall be hard to get a good nights sleep. But it appears the benefits of consistently fuller rest, would outweigh the times where I wouldn't have any earplugs.

I shall have to experiment! :)

Hi,

I've been sleeping with earplugs for over 20 years now. Got started when I lived in an apartment next to barking dogs. Now, I cannot sleep without them, my mind gloms onto every little sound I hear. So yeah, you could get "addicted."

 

[Mrs. Peel]

Polonel, just try it for a week: get in bed at 9 or 9:30 to be asleep by 10. TOTAL DARKNESS. Sleep as long as you can and if you don't sleep 9 to 10 hours, just stay in the bed in the dark.

I notice that if I go to bed after 11 PM, I can sleep for about 4-5 hours in a row before waking up versus waking up every two hours if I go to bed before 10 PM (which I normally do). Only problem is I have to get up at 6 AM for work.

 

[Bar Kochba]

When I first read the Gurdjieff quote I shared above, it got me thinking that 4-5 hours was enough sleep. That 7 or more was too much. That sleep quality depended upon severing the connections between centers. But, as we are machines and not in control of ourselves, I guess we DO need 7 or more hours. I personally am ok with 6 hours but after reading this thread, maybe I need more.

 

[Paragon]

Thanks Laura.

Just thought that maybe if I got used to wearing them, then when I don't have access to a pair , it shall be hard to get a good nights sleep. But it appears the benefits of consistently fuller rest, would outweigh the times where I wouldn't have any earplugs.

I shall have to experiment! :)

Hi,

I've been sleeping with earplugs for over 20 years now. Got started when I lived in an apartment next to barking dogs. Now, I cannot sleep without them, my mind gloms onto every little sound I hear. So yeah, you could get "addicted."

Barking dogs can be very frustrating! I don't like loud noises in general, especially sudden ones. They activate my fight or flight reaction. I think I've became conditioned to react negatively towards sounds in the kitchen or sounds that other people make when I'm relaxing, I feel like I've done something wrong. This one for me is a very strong programme and it stems from my teenage hood when my step father would aggressively clatter stuff about just to let me know he was angry and that I had done wrong. Don't know how to fix that one! Sorry bit off topic too.

But yes that was my fear, becoming conditioned to hear and expect silence when trying to sleep due to use of earplugs. And then not being able to sleep because of noises you can hear with the plugs in. I've done a bit of research , just read a few bits here and there on google, but apparently some people have found that wearing earplugs all the time can lead to hyperacusis or worsening of , with people who have tinnitus, which I do. I don't know if that would apply to people without Tinnitus too, but I can see how it can be negative since you are blocking out all sound when apparently your brain needs a bit of background noise (whatever that means!) to go to sleep.

_http://www.rnid.org.uk/community/forums/tinnitus/wearing_ear_plugs_when_asleep_/

I'll have to do a bit more in-depth research to see if it's beneficial for me at least with tinnitus, if I should wear earplugs when sleeping. Hopefully I'll also find out if people without T, are able to wear earplugs :)

 

[Approaching Infinity]

When I first read the Gurdjieff quote I shared above, it got me thinking that 4-5 hours was enough sleep. That 7 or more was too much. That sleep quality depended upon severing the connections between centers. But, as we are machines and not in control of ourselves, I guess we DO need 7 or more hours. I personally am ok with 6 hours but after reading this thread, maybe I need more.

Ah, okay. Thanks for the clarification!

 

[mcb]

I am reading the book now. I remember years ago being very concerned about the effects of extending the day with artificial light, and I am not sure now why that changed. I had never made a connection with the seasons and appetite, though. This is very interesting.

We keep our bedroom fairly dark, but light from a neighbor's house comes through one window and lights the room enough for me to see my way around. We will be covering that window tonight!

 

[GRiM]

Uh oh. I have been putting this of to long. My sleep schedule is such a mess. Here is a screenshot of my posting time.

I know from experience that I function better with correct sleep-patterns but sometimes I have to work night and sometimes earlier. I cant really see a good solution for it but this have to be dealt with soon I think.

 

[Meager1]

Well, we haven`t been sleeping very well here for the past couple of weeks at all.

My son has been waking up with minor nose bleeds and my nose too, is so dry that I have been mouth breathing mostly, and waking up constantly at night too, because of that.

I`m sure it`s from burning wood to try and save on oil, that is causing the air in the house to be so dry.

We have tried saline solution nasal sprays and that does help a little, for a short time, and a cool air vaporizer only helps the room it`s in and not the entire house unfortunately.

I haven`t been able to do the EE regularly either, because I can`t breath through my nose for long enough.

 

[Infiniteness]

Thanks for the video and book Laura. I really need to work on my sleep schedule too, I usually go to sleep around 1 at night and wake up around 10 or 11 in the morning . Though I have to change my schedule anyhow because school will be starting for me in another week, so might as well do it right. One thing that popped into my mind was that there should be minimal light exposure when going to the bathroom, maybe a dim night light in the bathroom will do? I'm pretty sure its discussed in the book.

 

[mada85]

Out in the boonies, not only was it totally dark at night, but we naturally found ourselves going to bed at sundown and many times, sleeping past dawn, needing 12 hours of sleep in the winter-time. But I think that was also due to waking up in the middle of the night and lying there awake many times. I am not sure why this happens so often!
It happens a lot even with 5HTP. I will get the book pronto and hope that following the advice alleviates, at last, this middle of the night awake-ness!

That's very interesting, SolarMother. This was people's normal sleep pattern before the advent of cheaply available lighting. Before our modern times, people generally had two periods of sleep at night, with a period of quiet waking between. This was well-known; so well known in fact that it was hardly remarked upon. Here's a quote from At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past, by A. Roger Ekirch. At Day’s Close is a fascinating book, and gives a real glimpse into an aspect of ordinary peoples’ lives at a time when artificial light, at night, was a much more scarce and expensive commodity than it is today.

At that time, people would have slept in total darkness, or sometimes with only moon- or star-light. It may be of course that two periods of sleep every night is not what the body needs, objectively speaking, but it is interesting that SolarMother reports a similar experience while sleeping in similar conditions.

Until the close of the early modern era, Western Europeans on most evenings experienced two major intervals of sleep bridged by up to an hour or more of quiet wakefulness. In the absence of fuller descriptions, fragments in several languages in sources ranging from depositions and diaries to imaginative literature give clues to the essential features of this puzzling pattern of repose. The initial interval of slumber was usually referred to as ‘first sleep’, or, less often, ‘first nap’ or ‘dead sleep’. in French the term was premier sonneil or premier somme, in Italian, primo sonno or primo sono, and in Latin, primo somno or concubia nocte. The succeeding interval of sleep was called ‘second’ or ‘morning’ sleep, whereas the intervening period of wakefulness bore no name, other than the generic term ‘watch’ or ‘watching’. Alternatively, two texts refer to the time of ‘first waking’.

Both phases of sleep lasted roughly the same length of time, with individuals waking sometime after midnight before returning to rest. Not everyone, of course, slept according to the same timetable. The later at night that persons went to bed, the later they stirred after their initial sleep; or, if they retired past midnight, they might not awaken at all until dawn. […]

Men and women referred to both intervals as if the prospect of awakening in the middle of the night was common knowledge that required no elaboration. ‘At mid-night when thou wak’st from sleepe,’ described the Stuart poet George Wither; while in the view of John Locke, ‘That all men sleep by intervals’ was a normal feature of life […]. […]William Harrison in his Description of England (1557) referred to ‘the dull or dead of the night, which is midnight, when men be in their first or dead sleep.’

Customary usage confirms that ‘first sleep’ constituted a distinct period of time followed by an interval of wakefulness. Typically, descriptions recounted that an aroused individual had ‘had’, ‘taken’, or ‘gotten’ his or her ‘first sleep’.

Sleep and the work is a forum thread that readers of this thread might find interesting.

One thing that popped into my mind was that there should be minimal light exposure when going to the bathroom, maybe a dim night light in the bathroom will do? I'm pretty sure its discussed in the book.

I think this is correct (I haven't read the book yet!). That would keep light exposure to a minimum, and is much more gentle on the eyes, considering that they have become adjusted to total darkness.

 

[Z...]

Thanks Laura.

Just thought that maybe if I got used to wearing them, then when I don't have access to a pair , it shall be hard to get a good nights sleep. But it appears the benefits of consistently fuller rest, would outweigh the times where I wouldn't have any earplugs.

I shall have to experiment! :)

Hi,

I've been sleeping with earplugs for over 20 years now. Got started when I lived in an apartment next to barking dogs. Now, I cannot sleep without them, my mind gloms onto every little sound I hear. So yeah, you could get "addicted."

I am the same, btw its hard to find good quality ear plugs (the ones that are soft and gentle to the ears and in the same time are blocking the sound completely)

 

[Laura]

Well, we haven`t been sleeping very well here for the past couple of weeks at all.

My son has been waking up with minor nose bleeds and my nose too, is so dry that I have been mouth breathing mostly, and waking up constantly at night too, because of that.

I`m sure it`s from burning wood to try and save on oil, that is causing the air in the house to be so dry.

We have tried saline solution nasal sprays and that does help a little, for a short time, and a cool air vaporizer only helps the room it`s in and not the entire house unfortunately.

I haven`t been able to do the EE regularly either, because I can`t breath through my nose for long enough.

In FL, where the central A/C was on all year round, drying out the air in the house, I slept with a hot steam vaporizor by my bed ALL the time. Never without it! Made a HUGE difference.

 

[Tomek]

Gosh, last night experiment runs pretty short because of an awful nightmare, followed by a sleep paralysis and this "there's someone evil in your room" feeling. At least I didn't grind my teeth... This is gonna be a looong day