How’s your sleep lately?

[ivanb]

I have trouble staying asleep, wake up for as much as 2 hours with so much going on to consider. What I do when I realize I HAVE to fall asleep is an old exercise from yoga, or other relaxation training. Starting in your toes, you take yourself down to the toes and turn of the lights, as if the body were a building and you, a night watch man or woman in this case, amble through from toes, to instep to heel to ankle and so on up through pelvis and torso to the heart level and then down the arms, up into the head, leaving a light burning in the heart area. It does work.

Otherwise, I have learned to notice tense muscle areas and change them as I go through the whole body, imagining or conveying to that centre of nervous activity that it needs to let go, feel heavy and let the bed/pillow hold the WHOLE weight of that part of you. This reminds me of another new thread, posted by Placematt, 'What is safety', this past Monday morning. It seems like a cross references with your question, nicolelalonde, as this thing of relaxing muscles relates to whatever is making you/us feel unsafe and tense.

A dance teacher used to say without identifying the feeling of relaxed muscles, she would have spent the night with her head never touching the pillow.

What your doing is vary good, and may work at many levels with enough practice under the belt. Thanks for sharing.

 

[ivanb]

My life is quite routine, so if I do find sleep difficult where normally I sleep like a log, I can normally recognize what may be causing difficulties. What I have determined out side of the good advice of this posts is the following. I try to avoid bright white lighting in the evening, but use warm colored lighting to a minimum, avoid if possible staring at the blue lighting emitted by electronic screens, amber glasses can help reduce the blue lighting. Turn off any Wi-Fi at night if possible, and I turn off my cell phone, and place it in a tin biscuit jar, don't kid your self the phones are constantly being pinged even when turned off, and yes the technology is more complicated then most people will ever realize. It seems from my experience that this strong signals through my deep sleep off.
Also warm milk will work for me besides a little melatonin only if required. But not everyone can tolerate milk.
I also have found that burning a candle before sleeping will help calm my spirit.

 

[ivanb]

I forgot to add, using eye covers to block out residual light may prove beneficial if the bedroom can not be completely shaded from outdoor light, keeping the bedroom well organized to calm the mind, and hitting the sack before eleven pm or the twenty third hour to keep within the circadian rhythm could also help. And I did mention to use warm amber lighting and avoid white or blue light in the evening.

 

[Z...]

Some useful tips for those who wake up during the night

And some tips how to restore sleep cycle

 

[neonix]

I had sleep problems since 2006, but I learned how to not make things worse.
When I removed grains from my diet my quality of life improved significantly.
I replace some sweets with apples that are not super sweet. I also eat yogurt, when I eat sweet chocolate.

I tried not to use smartphone in home. If other people use smartphone in your home,
try to find different place, where there's no smartphones.

I find spot in my flat where I sleep best. Sometimes I sleep there like a log.
Sometime I go to sleep in hat and jacket. Sometimes I loose temperature in sleep,
that's why I often, go to sleep with a lot of clothes. Some mattress are very uncomfortable, even if they are designed to sleep. I sleep in different room If can't get sleep in my favourite spot.

I try not to use any electric or electronic devices in room where I sleep (real sanctuary). I turn off circuit breaker that is responsible for room where I sleep (no dirty electricity). I don't even read books in this room! :)

I don't watch TV before sleep, or don't watch TV if there's no esential informations in the show. I don't listen to the radio if I'm not sure the quality of program is high.
I try to go outdoor every day and exposure my eyes to natural light. White tea has B vitamins that help fall asleep.

When I publish some controversial post on the internet, my quality of sleep and
daily life can decrease through few days. Sometimes I must go outside my town area, or highly populated area to relax by min 30 minutes. I prefer cotton bedding.

Try to avoid some spices in food. I don't take pharmaceuticals or diet suplemets. Only pure vit C. D3 vitamin helps stabilize mood.

I never drink coffee, but I like coffee as spice. I stop drinking tea when I noticed it disturb my sleep quality. Sometimes when I'm very stressed, I take small amount of coffee, or tea, or nicotin from cigarette, before sleep, to change my stressed mood. I can go to sleep then, becouse very small amount of coffeine doesn't stimulate my activity, but has inpact on stress somehow.