How To Fall Asleep

[keepithowitis]

I'm worried I've developed something pretty unhealthy; I can't fall asleep before 3 AM, no matter how hard I try. The worst thing is that I'm waking during the week at 6:30, and on Saturdays (for the next six weeks) at 4, meaning I get virtually all my sleep on Saturday nights, throwing me off for the next night, when I go from waking up at 3 in the afternoon to 6:30 in the morning again. Basically, insomnia. I've fallen asleep in class 6 times this week, and with finals coming up late January that's probably a very bad thing to be doing. So, besides taking pills, how the fuck can I fall asleep?

 

[MattAY]

Insomnia means you cant sleep. So if you're sleeping in class...you dont have insomnia

But are you on your PC until around 3? If so, that's probably the issue! The bright screen will keep you up. I do that sometimes, lay in bed on my laptop and before I know it, it's 1:30 in the morning!

 

[KoalaRainbowPoop]

well, if ya had a healing factor, ya could just stab yourself in the head and pass out without worries, but, umm, guess not, huh?

 

[Chris_Crime]

See the bad thing about Tylenol PM is that you don't really feel like you've slept as much as you feel like you've been unconscious for the past few hours or so.

I've had insomnia for forever. And I've found that it's not so much that you can't sleep, it's that you don't need as much sleep. Like 8 hours the norm, you can go on 6. or I can. it depends.

But
that ends up screwing your schedule. If you go to bed at 11 each night, eventually that 11 turns into 1am.. then 3 am.. then you're wondering how you got there.

My only suggestion IS Tylenol PM if you want to fix it in a hurry. It sucks though.
And/then wake up 2 hours earlier than usual everyday if you really want to fix this problem.
Maybe just an hour earlier. That way you'll be tired for bed at 11 or so again.

But it's all easier said than done. Good luck dude.

 

[madster111]

Stay up all night on sunday.

Drink coffee/caffeine throughout the day Monday.
Fall asleep at 11/12.
Stay up all night Tuesday night, caffeine all day.
Fall asleep at 11/12

Done. You should have been able to force your body back into 'normal' mode now.


I had this until a last week, and i used the method i just posted.

 

[MattAY]

My dad was a consultant for getting the right amount of sleep for truckers in his early days. And he says, that if you ever have one night of bad sleep, it's needs two - not one - but two nights of good sleep to rectify!
ie. if you aim to sleep for 8 hours a night - On your bad sleep you get 5 hours, you cant just rectify that by sleeping an extra 3 hours the next night, you need two nights of good sleep afterwards.

It's just a matter of getting your body clock back to its normal mode like Maddy said.

On the other hand! You could just keep doing what you do, and just train yourself for college!

 

[GiftedMonkey]

Something to consider--do you use your bed for sleeping, or do you use it for sleeping in addition to reading, eating, hanging out in, time on your laptop, watching TV, masturbation/sex, etc. Because if you do extracurricular activities in it, your body may stop associating your bed with sleep and start associating it those with other things. So try to use your bed just for sleeping, not all that additional stuff, see if that helps.

 

[De-Ting]

I had to start going to school part time because of my insomnia. I simply couldn't fall asleep and stay asleep before the hours past midnight.

Sooooo if medicine doesn't help you, you're gonna end up like me. You'll only have 2-3 hours of school every day, won't walk with your graduating class, have to get a GED, and play a lot of freakin' video games into the late hours of the night.

Congratulations.

 

[GRZorak]

Advil PM is always a nice last resort for me.

But I generally try to put on some ambient music and meditate off to sleep the best I can. Usually Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works or Movements by Solar Fields, although sometimes I'll loop an hour long thunderstorm track. Ocean sounds work for some people, but I prefer the rain.

btw, I'm not big into meditation or anything, but I'd like to be. Just constantly reminding yourself to think about absolutely nothing instead of the shitty day you had and/or are going to have helps wonders.

Tension stretching works good, too. Good precursor to some easy meditation. You pretty much tense up every part of your body for ten seconds at a time, then relax it. Face, arms, hands, feet, legs, ass - all of it, one at a time.

 

[Daddio]

I'd recommend seeing a physician or some sort of health consultant and ask about NATURAL sleeping aids, if there is such a thing. Rather than taking Advil and Tylenol because who knows what that will do to you in the long run health wise. Now I'm no 'organic' this and 'natural' that kinda guy, but I recently started taking natural vitimans (Omega 3's, 5 HTP etc) to help with my depression instead of going back onto anti-depressents. At first I was very skeptic, but I tell you, it definently works just the same but 150% better due to no side effects.

I've also heard that you cannot correct a horrible nights sleep with sleeping more. You pretty much gotta keep yourself up and awake by doing things until nightfall hits (or whatever time it is you need to go to bed on your schedule). Get a routine down and try to follow it.

The problem I've always had is that there is just too many things to tinker around with once I'm done work and the kids go to bed .. messing around on the PC doing NOTHING at all but surfing the net ... playing the 360, etc etc .. so many things to keep a person entertained now that its so hard to justify sleeping.

Thats my biggest problem, I cannot justify sleeping 8-10 hours ... lol.

 

[schimmel]

There's a nice little green plant that will help you, if you don't mind breaking the law a little bit

 

[Rakon]

He's too young Schimmel, IMO anyway.

I'm with Gifted on this one. It's the same reason why you shouldn't take short nap on your bed. Try to get use to just sleeping on your bed and nothing else. Also, I suggest going to bed early anyway, and ot say to yourself "Oh, I can't sleep anyway so I'm not going to try". Usually, no matter how early I go to bed, I won't fall asleep until 2 AM (Don't know why 2 AM, but whatever). However, if I stayed up until 2 because I knew I wouldn't be able to fall asleep anyway, I would end up being awake until 2, and I probably wouldn't fall asleep until 3 AM.

I say go to bed early anyway, and just meditate or something. Sleeping pills should be a last resort.

 

[GRZorak]

Rather than taking Advil and Tylenol because who knows what that will do to you in the long run health wise.

I think they both use Diphenhydramine as the "sleep aid" - a common antihistamine that's been used for quite a long time. Personally I'd be more worried about the aspirin/ibuprofen with long-term use, but I'm not a doctor.

Did some "looking up" on WebMD and wikipedia - they indeed both use diphen as the offset to the pain reliever (I looked on my old bottle of Advil PM, just needed to confirm the Tylenol). This stuff is available over-the-counter in benadryl and the like, so I can't see it as too bad. If you have allergies, they might get worse after you stop taking this, but I'd imagine just for a short period of time.

Personally I'd just be worried about the aspirin.

 

[Daddio]

Personally I'd be more worried about the aspirin/ibuprofen with long-term use, but I'm not a doctor.

you know what, i think thats what i was actually thinknig of, aspirin lol .. i stand corrected! before my pops passed away via cancer he was taking between 20-35 pills a day (depending on the cycle or something). so in general i find any excuse not to pop one heh.

 

[UghRochester]

There's a nice little green plant that will help you, if you don't mind breaking the law a little bit

Haha, my mom calls anyone who sleeps after a bowl "Easy Bake."

 

[GRZorak]

Personally I'd be more worried about the aspirin/ibuprofen with long-term use, but I'm not a doctor.

you know what, i think thats what i was actually thinknig of, aspirin lol .. i stand corrected! before my pops passed away via cancer he was taking between 20-35 pills a day (depending on the cycle or something). so in general i find any excuse not to pop one heh.

You weren't corrected, you just didn't specify, so I assumed you were talking about the sleep aid. So, sorry for assuming

And I know what you mean, I've had/do have quite a few relatives who knock back close to that many a day. It's depressing.

 

[lokness]

The best way to fix it is to wake up earlier. Set up your alarm clock to 9am and get out of bed. Dont sleep inbetween otherwise you'll mess up your sleep cycle. This way you'll get so tired by the time you hit the sack you'll be fast asleep. Works for me everytime.

 

[keepithowitis]

I'm already waking up pretty damn early though. 6 AM, and 4 AM are both very early times to wake up.

Smoking weed does help, as it should, but it's a little pricey and it's not like I'll get any financial support for that from my parents :wink:

I find that I can't really sleep at night, but I have absolutely no trouble sleeping during the day. I fell asleep on an especially long lift ride today while I was skiing, my friend happened to wake me up seconds before I was supposed to get off fortunately. It's still distressing to me that I can fall asleep, just at all the wrong times.

 

[schimmel]

That sucks man. Try just getting in bed around midnight every night and trying to go to sleep. Turn your computer off, no watching tv, just lights off and try to go to sleep. It might work

 

[De-Ting]

I find that I can't really sleep at night, but I have absolutely no trouble sleeping during the day.

Yeah, you're turning into me. 'Cept I don't smoke. And I only fall asleep easily when the sun comes up, you know, when society tells you it's time to be awake. -_-