h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Interesting.

I can't believe it. I wish I was one of these people. I've always had problems dropping off all my life. Fortunately this has been improved by taking migraine pills that help to knock me out.

How long does it take researchers to drop off?

And what's the best 'cures' found for insomnia?

Regularly takes upwards of an hour, last night I got into bed at just after 3 and I was still awake at 5 this morning and got up at 9 when I worke up 'naturally' I've never slept well, the only way I do is by getting very very drunk and that doesn't give the best sleep in the world as you tend not to sleep as deeply and the alpha and beta wave patturn isn't 'right'

A couple of techniques which I have found successful ....

get warm and comfy and as you lay (lie?) there play alphabet name games - start at A and think of a famous person or fictional character with the initials AA then AB then AC all the way through the alphabet - then (if you are still awake) go BA, BB, BC etc etc - you must not move to the next letter until you do each one ... This is supposed to occupy your mind with such boring stuff that you cannot think about your problems sleeping and .....

or

start at your toes and concentrate on totally relaxing all the muscles in them, then your feet, then your ankles, calves etc etc - once again you must not move to the next area until each one is totally relaxed

If you can, while you are doing these things try to viualise yourself in a huge fluffy white cloud bank ..... but doing this while trying one of the other two is difficult so try each one separately to start ....

Oh my gosh I do the A to Z name thing verbatim!

Progressive relaxation is okay, but I am one of those people who thinks you have to *do something* to relax which makes me tense.

Unfortunately my ewif finds it easier to drop off with the telly on (it has timer) and I find myself half-consciously waiting for the moment it clicks off.

How long does it take me to drop off? Not very long at all once I’ve curled up on my side and …..

You could try the number thingy various other members of my family have used to great effect. You think of a nice large number eg. 5756 and you work back towards 0 taking 3 off at each step. Apparently if you concentrate on what you’re doing, and say the whole number to yourself each step of the way you’ll find you’re asleep before you reach 0.

where did you hear that it only takes 7 mins? That does seem rather...extreme!

Yeh, it does seem a bit extremem, makes my dropping off to sleep look abnormal.... which it probably is actually I do however tend to get off to sleep quicker in 'strange places', no, not like the bottom of the wardrobe, or a park bench on Beccles common in Suffolk, but in say, a hotel room, or such like, though i Often get bad nights sleep in such places when the matress is too soft Wish I could find a way of getting off to slep quicker, being more or less tired doesn't seem to alter the time it takes much

According to this it's 10 to 20 mins:

http://www.pamf.org/teen/health/diseases/sleep.html

That is still pretty-damn quick, I only do it anything like as fast when I'm

lucky s
it might take me less than 30 minutes to get to sleep if I'm drunk or I've just finished a 12 hour nightshift but usually its at least an hour
if I haven't got to sleep after 2 hours or so I'll read or go on the computer, and I'll soon be feeling tired again but sometimes I'll get distracted and forget to go back to bed

well, if it's after band practice (three hours long), i'll usually fall aspleep pretty damn quick. But otherwise it takes me at least half an hour.... i tend to stay up daydreaming really late


42

Firstly, let me say that I'm from Minnesota and so cannot differentiate between 'lay' and 'lie'. I'm going to use the word 'lay' in the phrase 'lay down' a LOT. You've been warned.

The basics:
1. Try to go to bed and get up at roughly the same time every day. (I know this is hard for some folks but it really makes a difference if you can swing it.)

2. No caffeine after 6 p.m. (If you're anything like me, you read this and said, "Pfft. Caffeine has no effect on me." Well, try it, see what happens.)

3. Make your room dark and quiet. (An electric fan is great for creating quiet when the rest of the house will not cooperate.)

4. Do not eat or watch TV in bed. (TV, amazingly enough, can make you tired but keep you awake. Also, you need to keep your bed as the place where you sleep. Laying down and reading is allowed.)

5. Occupy your mind. (Remember that laying down with your eyes closed and waiting for sleep counts as sleep, sort of. Also, it's the only way to fall asleep. You may as well enjoy yourself. I've written long boring stories that will never see paper this way. Another trick is to count your breaths, starting over when you hit twenty. Whatever works for you.)

When those don't work:
6. Cover up your clock or turn it around. (Of course, this only applies if you can see it in the dark. This stops the thinking: "Okay, if I fall asleep *now*, I'll get five hours. Five hours is enough." It's been my experience that knowing you slept five hours makes you more tired.

And when that doesn't work:
7. Stop trying. Get up, out of bed. Tiptoe to the living room, turn on one small light. Candlelight is great for this because it provides a little bit of light but it still feels dark. Read a little, watch a little TV, make cookies, listen to soft slow music (on headphones if you're concerned about waking others). Remember you slept yesterday and one night of insomnia won't kill you. Watch the sunrise. Feel sleepy. Go back to bed, sleep for one hour.

Lavender essential oil. It really works. A drop on your pillow and you're out for the count.

My boyfriend was very sceptical about it until he tried it one night...next morning he woke up and said it was the best sleep he's had in years.

Add to that a hot milky drink and reading a good book and I reckon 7 minutes is about right (for me that is)

I know I am very lucky as I rarely have any problems getting off to sleep.

But honestly - try the lavender oil thing.

Run.

Drive a circular path from and to your home to measure out a route of about three to four miles. Get a nice little solid-state mp3 player and fill it with *fast* music, the kind that, ideally, raises your pulse rate even if you listen to it sitting down (I find Iron Maiden's second album "Killers" is ideal). Now, RUN. As fast as you can. If you're reasonably fit you should be doing three miles in 20 minutes or so. The music should get your mind going as well as your body.

When you get home, get in the shower for no more than about three minutes, then hit the sack, lights out, don't read, don't watch tv. Ideally, you should still have a slightly elevated heart rate at this point. Replay the run in your mind. Work out where you were slacking and could have perhaps gone faster.

I've found this usually works.

Another method some of my friends swear by is: have a four year old child in the house all day. Put them to bed about seven or eight pm. If you're still awake at nine, call the SAS, because you have the kind of mental and physical stamina they could use.

H.

I dont think I could physically run 3 miles!!!

I fell asleep at 5 and woke at 7...needless to say Im not in the best of moods but Im used to sporadic sleep so its okay....hmm having said that whenever someone else says it I always grind my teeth as it makes them sound as if they think theyre some sort of martyr and all I can think about is the lack of sleep I get...so I apologise.

I have a thing of listening to h2g2 on tape with headphones over and over. To start with it didnt work and I would just lie listening to it until I got amazingly bored, but now it just fades into the background and I eventually fall asleep to wake in the morning half strangled with wiring

2legs, it might be your lack of eyesight that is a problem for you - brain not picking up sufficient light/dark signals to tell you it's 'sleep' time.

My problem is usually hubby snoring. Otherwise caffeine or stress are poor bedfellows.
If sleep is elusive, I try counting, just to try & relax my mind. I suppose it works to some extent, I always end up asleep!

Yeh, I've often wondered about the light thing, but I know other people with no sight, and they don't seem to say its a problem I useually drink coffee or tea till fairly late, which probably doesn't help much, but I've done that for years, and used to sleep better my lack of exercise doesn't help, went off in about an hour or less last night, then woke up 3 hours later, and then dozed off for another couple of hours I tend to go in 'spells' with sleepying, at th emoment I'm in a fairly bad 'stage' where its taking me ages to go off to sleep, and I don't feel tired even when I stay up from 9 AM till 4 or 5 AM, but feel I have* to try to go and get some sleep, I've reduced my cafine intake somewhat recently though, not drinking quite so much after five or so, but that hasn't semed to have made too much difference thus far One of the problems I found when on this course in Bristol, and someone else on the course said the same thing; it was too* quiet where we were having our accomidation, which is strange as it used to be very quiet at my Dads, out in the country side somewhat, but I guess I'm used to being on a busy road in a city now, where there are cars periodically all the time, and drunken idiots wondering by and smashing things up and shouting till very late/early hours of morning

I always thought that the light that triggers our wake up/go to sleep mechanism is detected by the skin and not the eyes?

Nope - it is the eyes. Ans 2legs is correct, people who are totally blind have a normal circadian rhythm - that's the sleep-wake cycle.

It's because it isn't the rods and cones at the back of the eye that pick up the light which resets the human body clock (the suprachiasmatic nucleus - or SCN for short) - but non-rod, non-cone cells in the retina which are activated by light in the 'blue' area of the spectrum - about 450 nm.

As a result, one can be totally visually blind, and have perfect circadian vision. Indeed, the converse is rare, but can also happen - those who are circadically blind, but have perfect visual vision.

As for the skin, that would be based on the infamous article published and subsequently withdrawn about the team who noticed that light patches behind the knee appeared to shift the body clock as efficiently as light in the eyes did. Which seemed great until it was found out that they had cunningly not mentioned that all the subjects were watching TV at the time.

Though not before several companies had jumped on the bandwagon and sold such behind the knee devices as 'cures' for jetlag...

Stay ,
WD

"I dont think I could physically run 3 miles!!!"

And if you never try, you'll never be able to.

But if you *want* to sleep properly, being tired helps, and nothing gets you tired like... exercise.

Obvious, really.

H.