Sleep

I have had many different sleep phases.

When I was a young mum, I can remember falling asleep doing the washing ... maybe it was only 20 mins .. and waking up with the 2 under 2 crawling on the floor and my piles a little mucked up.

I went through inmoniac times and then later it was like I had narcolepsy. All undiagnosed and untreated as my sleep needs were last on the agenda for discussion at my counselling and NEVER brought up.

When I mention to some about sleep debts etc ... they are very skeptical but nevertherless .. the science seems to say its true.

@querentxyz that experience you describe of where there is state of nonsensical thoughts and unrelated thoughts sounds like the moment just before you slip into sleep. One thing someone told me was focusing on going to sleep is like watching water while waiting for it to boil. Instead, I've been told to shift focus on breathing.

I've had experience with insomnia a few years back when I was going through a stressful period. What I found helpful was establishing a sleep routine. Here's some advice that I followed:

• If possible, go to bed at the same time every night. This will help your body's cycle get into a routine.
• Estabish a down-time routine before going to bed. Something that relaxing, such as reading a book.
• Avoid doing anything that might be stimulating. Sceens (e.g., TVs, lap-tops, and mobile phones) should be avoided. The content and the light can be stiumlating.
• Go to sleep (lights out) when you start to feel tired. If you go to be when you still feel wide awake, it'll be hard to fall asleep and your mind will start to associate your bed as a place of non-rest. If you have not fallen asleep within 20 minutes, get back up and do more down-time activities.
• Only do bed stuff in bed, avoid doing anything else in there such as work, watching television, writing emails etc. Similar to the above point, your mind might associate your bed as a non-resting place.

Years later, I rarely have any issues with sleeping now. I also did a mediation course a fews years back, which I now find really useful if I'm finding it diffcult to sleep. I actually had the reverse issue when I was doing the medication course - found it hard to stay awake! So it's my go-to remedy when I'm having difficulties falling asleep. Hope this helps!

Rest up!

Hi @querentxyz @Appleblossom @CherryBomb

The piece of advice my mother gave me was "pretend you're asleep until you are ..."

It sounds really simple, but it is effective. I tell my kids to do that even now ...

To pretend you're asleep - and it helps to imagine that you are trying to convince someone else that you are actually asleep - you need to lie very still, breathe deeply, rhythmically and slowly, keep your eyes closed and unmoving, relax all your muscles, etc.

Especially if you are very tired, I find that is all the invitation your body needs ❣

If you are not very tired and have a restless mind, I find it helps to discipline the restlessness and calm it down much faster, particularly if you redirect your thoughts to imagining being in a favourite place relaxing, like on a warm sandy beach, or in a log cabin in front of a warm fire ....

❤️

Hey @querentxyz, how is the sleep going? Have you found an effective way of getting into that pre-sleep state that you described in your first post; or did you get a chance to try out any of the suggestions above?

To add to others' suggestions, when I have trouble sleeping, I find it helps to remind myself that just lying in bed for eight hours is restorative, even if I'm not actually asleep the whole time. That can help me to feel less stressed about the fact that I'm not sleeping. That's just something that works for me. There are some more tried and tested tips about sleeping in this SANE blog which you might find helpful.

I liked all the suggestions. I have actually been having a very easy time sleeping lately. I am currently housesitting in an apartment alone, things are going very well for my mother, she needs help but she is keeping up with her GP, counselling, and medication, and she doesn't need my help as much. Mostly I seem to get into bed and go straight to sleep without any troubles.

I did read a really interesting technique on the internet that I was trying for a while. It said that there is a key to breathing that will make you go to sleep faster, that is to do with changing the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the brain. The article said that you should lie on your side and focus on taking slow, shallow diaphragm breaths that maintain a low level air hunger that is not uncomfortable. It said that your extremities will get warmer, and your nasal mucosa will irrigate slightly, and then you will fall asleep pretty quickly. I tried this a couple of times when I was having a really hard time sleeping, after I was desperate enough to google "sleep fast!" or something like that. I have found that this works effectively, but I am interested to try it more. I do think that it is possible that flooding the brain with oxygen by the way we normally breathe keeps it active.

I thought a lot about whether this could actually harm the brain, but I don't think so, because it's not breath holding, and when you sleep the brain will maintain the breathing as it normally would. Well anyway, this is just something I have been thinking about, I have no idea of whether it is actually good or not, but I think it's interesting to think about. I may try reading more about it later.

Hello @Jane9, @querentxyz, @Karren, @Former-Member, @CherryBomb

Does anyone have any tips or tricks about good sleep?

That is a good question ??

Hello!

So I am a little late to the party here but i have a helpful tip and a funny story so hopefully my tardiness can be forgiven...

Right - tip: "Sleep with me" podcast... stream it on your phone and boom... Michaels voice will send you off to dreamland in no time. A few deep breathing exercises are helpful too just to get relaxed and some body shop sleep spray on the pillow... good night!...

now... a quick laugh... i have a very odd and quite rare sleep disorder... and its hilarious! so right at the point of falling alseep, occassionally you feel like you are falling or swinging on a swing... an extension of that is Hypnic jerks, whereby due to the feeling of falling you body jerks you awake with a physical movement... now even though that is odd its still quite common... then we move onto my disorder (i am the only one my sleep physican had ever seen but there are other reported cases in the world so im not competely alone)... at that same point where a hypnic jerk would occur, i make a nondescript vocal sound... and sometimes its really loud... as best i can describe... its a honk... almost like a goose! it sometimes is so loud it wakes me up again and i find my partner in hysterics laughing at me. this happens EVERY night! it has become a joke now whereby my partner asks me if i put the geese away before bed! As payback though i do occssionally sleep with my eyes open which really creeps him out haha!

xx

Tigz