Sleeping Tips

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Do you ever have difficulties with getting sleep? Do you have your own ways to get sleep or suggest a more traditional method, like counting sheep. One of my best methods to get sleep is listening to music and the other is, surprisingly, related to videogames. I play Final Fantasy XIII inside my head.

What about dream control? Have you ever learned to control your dreams? I know I had the ability once, but now I can't even realize I'm dreaming. Or in rare cases, I woke up in the minute I realize it's a dream.

Also it would be great to remember your dreams sometimes. Think of the amount of books, comics, cartoons, compositions, videogame plots you could do if you only could record your own dreams.

OK, I think 3 Misc threads are enough for now.

[Perfect Chaos]

Yeah, I always have trouble falling asleep, just always constantly thinking about stuff like what I have to do tomorrow, my mind's always in overdrive thinking and planning my next steps that I have to do to get through the day. Now I know what a mom/housewife thinks every night before she goes to sleep :o.

One of the things that always helps me go to sleep is if I do some kind of heavy exercise earlier in the evening. This could be an intense session at the gym or just a heavy game of basketball with some of my friends. I need to be sweating like crazy and completely drained by the end of it. Then when I come back home, take a shower, relax for a bit, have some dinner and by around my normal sleeping time, I drop like a rock. Works everytime.

As for dreams, I don't really remember many of them but for the most part, my dreams kinda have a deja vu feeling to them. It's nothing very important or spectacular, I'll just be walking along some are at a particular vantage point and then later on in the day, I just so happen to be doing the same thing again and I'll get the feeling "This looks eerily familiar" even though its the first time of the day I'm going through that particular situation. Like I said, pretty weird stuff.

[MToolen]

I tend to use my phone as a kind of Pensieve, putting my thoughts into lists until I don't have anything else to think about. Also, my time to decompress about thoughts that don't need to go into to-do lists get voiced as I turn the lights out; my wife happens to be a great listener, and even though we spend most of our evenings together physically, it's those conversations that I treasure.

[DivineAll]

One way I found to get a good night's sleep is to sleep like for about 4 hours, wake up in the middle of the night, do random internet searches and reading for an hour, then go back to sleep. It really works too! There's even a Cracked article detailing the process even further, so look it up.

[Blademaster]

Warm milk always worked for me.

[Rossymore]

I tend to stay up late then wake up late. I only have a bit of trouble sleeping when it's uncomfortably warm and if my mind goes into thinking overdrive, especially if I create a good scenario. My mind goes all out on that.

If I can't sleep, I just play on my DS, do some MK7 Online until I feel tired and fall asleep. Or stay awake all night. But usually before the sun comes up. Usually. Though I seem to always sleep in the same position, with my left leg lifted to a right angle and my right arm doing the same. If I get a bit too warm, I swap pillow sides to the nice cool bit.

And my cat may join me, but I jostle around a bit too much for her liking.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Warm milk always worked for me.

What kind of warm milk? Or just any warm milk? I have bought three different kinds of milk, we have skim, light and 'full'. When I was in the hospital, I drank hot chocolate with milk and I had some of the most pleasant dreams ever.

[shazza]

My sleeping patterns have been pretty screwed for probably a year now. What I've found has helped is exercise that day, meditating and generally having had enough productivity. I often put on a 22 minute sitcom and let it play as I somewhat watch/somewhat sleep -- somewhat of a comfort thing.

I haven't had caffeine with the exception of green tea for 3 days now, so if you're sleeping patterns are a bit silly, observe your caffeine intake. L-Theanine supplements are pretty good. I also have melatonin pills but everytime I've tried that it just wakes me up and gives me some intense dreams or hypnogogia.

Speaking of hypnogogia, I now have the ability to focus my attention on that aspect of the brain. If the nonsensical conversations and ineffable visions are prominent, then I know I'll be sleeping soon. If, however, my logical brain is still not exhausted, then I won't be sleeping anytime soon.

[Asilynne]

As someone with a totally ass backwards sleep schedule, I'm all too glad to help a fellow insomniac fall asleep easier!

Folk Remedies for sleep:
~Have a hot foot bath before bed
~Eating lettuce before bed is said to help

Herbalism:
~Take a bath with an infusion of chamomile, catnip, lavender or limeflowers
~Have some ht herb tea, including chamomile, catnip, lemon balm and limeflowers (I have a chamomile and mint tea blend that also works well)
~Make a lavender pillow and place it under your usual pillow. Lavender is really good at relaxing you and calming the mind.

Vitamins and Minerals:
~Increase intake of Vitamins B and C, folic acid, zinc and calcium (Like Blade said milk is a good idea!)

Actions you can take:
~As shazza said meditation will help, whether during the day or at night as you are laying in bed. I find that sometimes while I'm meditating I will fall asleep without realising it, and have a very restful sleep.
~Get enough exercise during the day, but not right before bed. If you wear yourself out physically you will feel more relaxed and have better sleep come nighttime.
~Make your room very dark. I have blackout curtains and if I have even a little light in my room it will make it hard to sleep. Your body makes its best use of sleep when its dark too.
~Make your room quiet. If not total quiet (that's hard to do) then play some music or sound effects like crickets or the ocean, or something as simple as a fan on in the room for some white noise. I have cricket, thunderstorm and campfire sound effects playing to help me sleep, but my sister falls asleep to metal >.> so you just need to find the sounds you respond to best.
~Shut off all electronics at least an hour before bedtime. Your mind will be too active if you are on the internet right before bed and then it will be hard to sleep. Take a book to bed instead, reading in bed actually helps me sleep better.
~Don't do anything in your bed except sleep (or read if you read in order to fall asleep). Keep your bed as a sanctuary of sleep because if you work in bed then your brain will be trained to focus on work instead of sleeping.
~There are other things but I can't recommend those to you lol


As for dream control, I've been able to do it a couple times. More often do I realise its a dream, and then wake up. During good dreams if I realise its a dream, I make myself forget in the dream that it isn't real so I can enjoy it. These are rare though. I also have dreams that feel so real I am thrown off when I wake up.

Some of my stories were actually based on dreams I've had, including more than a few poems (such as this one (http://asilynne.deviantart.com/art/Til-Death-do-us-Part-10968239) ) Sometimes I don't remember enough of it to get it down on paper though :(

[Jeff]

I work the morning shift at my job, so I've been waking up early even on my days off, which has resulted in me going to sleep between 9 and 10, sometimes earlier. So I guess, between waking up at the butt crack of dawn and working in the morning, my secret to sleeping is exhaustion.:P

I've tried dabbling in dream control before because it sounded pretty cool. The problem is that I would always wake up as soon as I realized I was dreaming. I managed to do it a few times, though. I remember jumping on top of rooftops and flying through my bedroom window into the front yard (without breaking the glass, of course :P) and various other crazy things I could come up with at the time. I do wonder though, if I was simply dreaming that I was controlling the dream and not actually controlling it myself, considering the fact that most of the time (or all of the time) I just wake up as soon as I consciously realize that it's a dream.

[Lady Vulpix]

I usually have trouble sleeping. I've tried many things, but nothing's really worked. I do, however, know not to do to avoid making things worse:

1. Do not stay up late (i.e. after Midnight) while using the computer.
2. Do not read in bed, nor shortly before going to bed.
3. Do not take anything with caffeine after 10 PM (exception: if I have a splitting headache, I'll take some medicine even if it has caffeine, because if I'm not going to sleep either way, I'd rather stay awake because of the medicine and not because of the pain).
4. Avoid thinking of what I have to do the next day.
5. If I get too involved in a story I'm imagining, stop. That is, unless I'd rather figure out how it will continue than try and get some sleep.
6. Do not look continuously at the clock. Do not think of how much/little time I have left before I have to get up.
7. Do not close the door completely. In fact, put something on the floor to stop it from closing completely. Otherwise the dog will wake me up and demand that I open it.

As for dream control, I can't decide in advance when I want to dream, although sometimes my dreams have some connection to what I was thinking about before I went to sleep. I do control my actions within a dream, and the environment to some extent, although the latter usually takes some effort.

[Magmar]

In order to sleep, I make my bed first. It always works! I never have trouble nodding off in a made bed.

[ChobiChibi]

I find that staying up actually helps me sleep. The more tired I am, the quicker I just drop off to sleep.

If I'm on my computer, though, I'll avoid talking to anyone I know that'll wind me up. That never bodes well for my sleep.

I used to lucid dream a lot, and still can if I haven't just passed out. I don't tend to dream a lot anymore. When I was younger I used to have massive Pokemon adventures in my dreams, now I plot for RPGs.

If I am really struggling to go to sleep, I'll put on a really soft, quiet album that I know all the words to. I think the familiarity really helps, cos I'm able to totally focus on the song, but as soon as it's sleep time it just becomes a pretty background.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

So far, this weekend has lasted technically for 45 hours (it's Sunday afternoon here in Finland right now) and I think I have slept about the record-breaking 26 hours of it. So this thread seems to have served its purpose. But I was tired, yes.

[RedStarWarrior]

I take pills to help me sleep occasionally. Anyone tried Zzzquil yet?

[Magmar]

I haven't tried ZzzQuil, but I'm deathly allergic to NyQuil and other OTC cold medications so I don't think I'll ever try it. I've gone into anaphylactic shock (throat closing) TWICE from stupid cold/cough potions... once from an ingredient from a cough syrup, and another time because, well, "Yay, you're seriously allergic to this ingredient! ..........oh, and also this one."

Nevertheless, I was raised in a family that didn't believe in cold potions as treatment. Emergen-C, Tylenol and the Neti-Pot are all it takes for me to get over a cold in a day or two. Sometimes plain, undoctored Sudafed if it's in my sinuses and I can't breathe.

[RedStarWarrior]

Zzzquil isn't for colds, so it likely doesn't have the ingredients that cause a reaction in you.

[Becky]

I have a lot of trouble sleeping. This really kicked in my last year of graduate school (writing a dissertation: need I say more?). Like PerfectChaos, exercise in the evening tends to wear me down enough that I usually sleep better then.

On occasions, I do take a sleeping aid. I take the generic liqui-gels from Target. I used to take a prescription sleep aid, but I dropped it after I completed graduate school. Now that I have been adjusting to a new schedule, I haven't had as many problems, but I still have restless nights.

Also, I really like working either late at night or early in the morning. So if I ever pull a late night, it's hard for me to basically figure out the next day. Especially since I really like mornings, so I don't like waking up late in the day. Oh, and what Gabi said about taking caffeine later in the day- I'm trying not to drink caffeinated beverages after 5 or 6pm in the day.

[Nall]

I'm an insomniac. I can't even remember the last time I went to sleep before 5 or 6AM. I work swing shift though, so it works out alright for me~

EDIT: 700 posts! And it only took 11 years.