Insomnia

[Doofy]

Leading a stress-free (or close to it) life helps immensely with a good night's sleep.

 

[Jstpssng]

If I can't sleep I start listening to my dog, on his bed on the floor. He never has a problem sleeping so I just try to emulate him and next thing I know it's time to get up.

 

[Herness]

My sleep is really bad for the last couple of days and there is nothing i can do to make it better. So annoying.

 

[check]

Us a CPAP every night without fail. 3 AM is pee time, And if I have trouble falling to sleep after, I go on TractorByNet! Puts me right to sleep every time.

Surprised that no one has mentioned this yet, as the GM thread is great for taking your mind off of your projects and what not. And it does not stimulate my thoughts at all. I start reading it and then pretty soon…

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

Leading a stress-free (or close to it) life helps immensely with a good night's sleep.

Yes! And no drama. Older we get no one needs drama. Do the best you can, try doing the right things, eliminate stress and drama.
We're asleep when head hits the pillow.

 

[Doofy]

My sympathies to all the insomniacs out there. I'm asleep in less than 30 seconds after my head hits the pillow. Low stress, proper amounts of exercise and a good diet make all the difference for me.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

Reading some of these posts, makes me grateful. I sleep extremely well. Most of my adult life I had a job where I worked 6-7 days a week. I would go to bed around 11 or midnight, get up at 6. I was asleep the whole 6 hours. I seldom turned over in the night. Now since I retired. I rarely get to bed before midnight, sometimes later. I sometimes drink coffee at midnight, I drink a lot of coffee. I go to bed when I get sleepy & usually, I am asleep in 5-10 minutes. I sleep 8 or more hours now and rarely turnover. Even sleeping that much, now if I sit down after lunch and watch TV, I will fall asleep & drop my coffee cup.

I have always been blessed with good sleep too. Nowadays I have to get up for a bathroom trip a few times each night.

 

[Cougsfan]

I have seen several studies saying melatonin has no effect, and is a pure placebo. If that is true, it is a very effective placebo for me. I don't use it often, but it seems to help.
I also listened to a podcast by a sleep 'expert' who said one of the major reasons many people have trouble sleeping is that they worry too much about not being able to sleep. (??) I dunno, maybe there is something to that. She also said another major reason for insomnia is that people take the events in their lives much too seriously and lay in bed and over-contemplate that. They need to lighten up and just let the world flow without continual judgement and the misconception they can control that flow more than they really can. I can definitely buy into that one.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

At 70 I used to get up to pee a few times but now don't drink anything a few hours before bed. About an hour before bed I start winding down, lights low, bedroom very dark. One TV in the house (can't imagine a bedroom TV), never ever go to bed angry. Never drink alcohol. I dream every night, people I know who smoke pot say that stops you from dreaming!

 

[Yander]

Diggin, You didn't ask, but I'll tell you what I've learned.
1. No alcohol. Not just sometimes, None - no more.
2. Drink 64 oz. water a day. Finish your drinking by 6 PM. Soda and coffee don't count.
3. No sweet food, no hard to digest (nuts, cheese, etc) after 6 PM
4. Spend time 9 -10 winding down. No exercise, no arguments, nothing exciting.
5. Go to bed at 10 PM. Don't read, no TV, just bed
6. Room to be cold. Open the windows and turn off the heat in the bedroom. 20 Degrees outside ? - open the windows. Wear warm PJ's, long sleeves, long legs. No more skivvies.
7. Heavy blankets. Use a skull cap if your head is cold
8. Think of the word "nothing" in all it's permutations.

Try it for 2 weeks and report back.

Pretty much everything he mentions here I do because I've had insomnia badly and I've done a lot of reading and watching things.

Go to bed at the same time every night and get up at the same time every night it's important.

Without going into all the details of why the above works I 100% agree with him.

I have also found for me eating a couple of cups of popcorn and a ounce of turkey pepperoni before I go to bed helps me get into deep sleep.

But don't eat any kind of red meat anything hard to digest before bed.

Don't eat a lot of high carb foods before bed because they all convert to sugar which can cause your sugar to spike and wake you up. Your last meal of the day is the most important one for sleep. No potato chips pretzels sweets. Something with a low glycemic load like whole wheat, nuts, fish, turkey, chicken are good last meal food.

Also, you have to experiment with what works for you because everyone is different get yourself a Fitbit inspire some cheap Fitbit that does sleep monitoring. This is how you can tell what works and that was a game changer for me.

If you're heavy or if you suspect sleep apnea go see a sleep doctor and get a sleep study done

I stopped drinking completely if you can't give up drinking don't drink after 6:00 pm.

I also gave up caffeine I drink very little caffeinated anything on rare occasions.

If you're in a high stress job that's my biggest cause for sleepless nights.

A cold bedroom wearing long sleeves and socks is important. You want to keep your torso cool but your arms legs and feet warm. Lots of studies have been done about this.

I also have 100 mg of trazodone that I take every night. Eventually I want to get off of it because I don't think it's good for you but sleep is pretty important.