Sleep

[OnlyNatural]

I just can't seem to sleep anymore. I lie in bed all night and my mind keeps chattering away and keeping me conscious. It's getting to the point where I can't function nearly as well, and I'm a university student so I need to study!

Does anyone else have trouble sleeping/insomnia, and what do you do about it? Does anything help?

You really start appreciating how valuable sleep is when you're not getting any, let me tell ya...

[Skipper]

Weed. Simple as. Gives me a great nights sleep.

[OnlyNatural]

Weed. Simple as. Gives me a great nights sleep.

You're lucky. I used to think weed helped me sleep too... But now that I smoke it every day, I have a feeling that it's backfiring, that maybe it's causing my mind to race all night (you know how weed makes you think of all kinds of interesting things lol)

[Skipper]

Ok then.

Less weed?

haha. I'm out of ideas.

[Minimalist]

Red wine. Has the advantage of being legal, too.

[Rhizomorph13]

I've been an insomniac my whole life and I've found a few things that will help me sleep.

Sleep aids:

Melatonin is great for a little help getting to sleep at night. It comes in pills OTC and can be found in apples. So you could try eating an apple about 30 minutes before bed or you could get the pills.

Valerian root is good for staying asleep and often comes mixed with melatonin.

Cammomile tea is great as a ritual and it has a calming effect. I've also smoked the plant for a similar effect.

Pot and booze are great because they will make you sleepy but are contraindicated because they diminish the quality of the sleep you do get and both can result in liquid overconsumtion which will have you popping out of bed to go pee.

Masterbate or have sex before going to sleep. Ok, so even if this one doesn't help you sleep you will at least have had a nice "O" before bed.

Sleep hygiene:

Keep your room as dark as possible, yes, even that little LED from your router can disturb your sleep.

Keep your room quiet; either no noise or some white noise like a fan or a white noise generator.

Keep your room a little below a comfortable temperature, it will help you stay asleep. I wouldn't reccomend keeping your room cold enough to see your breath, but cold enough that you want to stay under the covers.

I hope some of these tips help you.

[OnlyNatural]

Thanks everyone

Rhiz, what a great list. I've been doing a few of them already, but now I have more to try.

I heard somewhere that meditation apparently works too... But also that it can be really hard to do, at least for some people.

[Skipper]

I used to put the same dvd of Futurama on every night when I was younger...once I knew the episodes like they back of my hand they became boring and I always fell asleep before the end of the first episode.

[thesummerqueen]

Speaking as an annoying insomniac who either can't stay asleep (waking up every 1 to two hours) or sleeps only 4 hours...

Exercise. Adding a 1 mile walk and 1 mile run to my day every other day drastically improved my sleep. Seriously. During the summer when I would walk 1, run 2, and walk 1 again, then work in the garden, I was OUT like a fucking light every night.

Position. I am a side sleeper, but if I'm not propped up properly certain areas start to hurt and keep me from sleeping. Similarly, sleeping on my back doesn't hurt, but it fucks with my breathing. Figure out if you're just uncomfortable. This might include minor changes to the bed, leading to my next...

Luxury. Make that bed somewhere you WANT to be. I spent a little extra money and while I have a regular mattress set, I have a temperapedic type pad on top, 600 thread-count sheets (they get softer with every wash) and 7 pillows of varying firmness and size.

Very important: don't force yourself to stay there if you can't sleep. I know you need sleep, but take it from someone who's been there - the best thing to do, at the very least, is resign yourself and read. Better idea is this though, especially if your brain is buzzing. Do you have something you've been putting off doing? Something inane and time-consuming - like sorting recipes or transferring addresses into a new book - okay, those examples suck (I'm in school, but only part time and have actually house-type things around me) but you get the idea. Whenever you can't sleep, do that. You'd be surprised how much quieter you feel just with the small feeling of accomplishment. Plus, you might as well be useful if you can't sleep.

Hot drinks before bed, definitely. There's a chamomile mango tea they sell here in America that doesn't even need honey in it. Catnip is a sedative for humans, which is more lemony. Passionflower tea is also sleep-inducing. I like ginger tea if my stomach is what's keeping me up.

Try to read the Bible. No, seriously, I've been trying to get through the OT on my way to tackling Paradise Lost...can't stay awake.

I actually like white noise. As a light sleeper, it helps mask all the little sounds that would wake me up otherwise - like the creaks of an old house, etc. Now with a good steady fan, the only thing that wakes me up if I'm truly asleep is the smell of coffee or those goddamn squirrels dive-bombing the roof.

Speech background. I turn on a podcast I've already heard a couple times. There's one called "Binge Thinking History" voiced by a Brit who has just the right pitch to send me into la-la-land.

Hope this helps.

[OnlyNatural]

Fantastic suggestions

I've been wanting to actually read the Bible again (for the first time since I liberated myself from Christianity).
Maybe reading all that OT stuff about how so-and-so begat so-and-so ad infinitum will do the trick