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

i have been finding it difficult to get to sleep for the past few nights,i have become a little nocturnal, falling asleep around 4am. if i do manage to fall asleep before midnight i tend to only get four hours of sleep. can anyone suggest anything (preferrably free/cheap and legal) that might help?

How to get to sleep varies from person to person so it depends on what it is that is stopping you from getting to sleep.

If you're comfortable in your surroundings and there's nothing major that you can think of that is on your mind then you could try:

Jasmine oil (in a hot bath near to bedtime, in an oil-burner in the bedroom or a few drops on your pillow.)

Warm milk with grated nutmeg. (Horlicks isn't too bad either, though the sugar may give you a rush, and avoid hot chocolate because it contains caffeine) Having said that, it depends how sensitive you are to sugar and caffeine. The important thing about getting to sleep is that one is comfortable and calm.

I don't want to overload you with advice so think "comfortable and calm" and try to make it work for you

Van

I have a lot of trouble getting to sleep, but for me it's more of a mental issue, I think.

One thing that's helped me... I used to read in bed a lot, but I read somewhere that if I'm having trouble sleeping, I should only use my bed for the purpose of sleeping. Now I read elsewhere at night. I think it's helped.

Your mileage may vary, of course.

calm might be the problem, (see my journal at U8131912)
comfortable may also be an issue, my body temperature is naturally set to "brr im cold" and i am too bony for my own good.
Thanks for the advice!
oh look its nearly four in the morning, should be falling asleep soon.

Tell me about it In my experience, the worst barrier to sleep is having stuff flying round your head. It's difficult to stop it but there are things that can help. I can say more when I'm less tired. Time to for me too.

Night night, Van

I had to come back to say that one thing I find helps is writing down the things that are on my mind, what I can do about them and *when* I'll be able to do something about them. It helps to remember that it's not worth thinking/worrying about things that you can't control *now*. Nervous anticipation is a wonderful part of life but there are things that are worse thinking about than actually doing. It's a cliche but "I'll cross that bridge when I come to it" is a valuable cliche when it comes to sleeping.

Oh and don't be

Van

As silly as it sounds, counting sheep can help if done properly. This is especially true if the reason you can't sleep is because you have so much going on in your life (like acceptance to university, congratulations ) that you have a lot going around in your head all the time.

The concept is simple, you focus on something that is fairly easy but requires your full concentration. It drives the other thoughts out of your head, so you can relax. You need to visualize something in your imagination (to keep the right-half, visual side of the brain busy) and do something mathematical/logical at the same time (to keep the left-half, logical side of the brain busy). So counting sheep, if you actually imagine them jumping over that fence, will work. It can help to imagine them jumping over the fence in twos or threes so it makes the math just a little bit harder.

I've had a lot of success getting to sleep by counting backwards from 100 in a pattern - subtract 10, add five, repeat - as long as I accompany that with some visualization. The number I'm currently at spelled out in a big billboard sign works for me. But counting sheep doesn't, because it's too complex to imagine 10 sheep jumping over a fence one way, followed by 5 in the other direction, etc while still remembering what number I'm at.

I've had to do the visualising and counting thing myself a few years back when my slepe was even worse than 'normal'. again I didn't get on with the idea of ocunting sheep, so I jsut visualised the numbers, white on a black background, and counted down and up from 100
Apparnetly its also a good idea to have time to 'wind down' before going to sleep; I.E., not being busy and doing 'stuff' necessarily right up to the moemnt before you go to bed (though I do tend to do this myself, as the last thing I normally do before bed is turn off the computer which I've just been on for... all day ) So its handy to have a period to relax before trying slepe, listening to something pretty err not overly exciting, say a bit of radio or just some well known music for a bit, and then hopefully slowely winding down you help 'turn off' the brain a bit better before you try and turn it off completely as it were by being asleep...
Not really sure about the caffine thing myself, I tend to drink a lot of coffee during the day, so drinking coffee late at night doesn't seem to make that* much differnce to my falling asleep, but I guess I must have a constant background caffine level in my blood near to saturation anyhow But that isnt' the same for everyone

thanks for the advice folks, i have tried counting before with little sucess, i would often get to thousands before drifting off! i have tried just not sleeping some nights, but it only works for that particular night as i end up out of kilter within a day or two. i have tried excercise which didnt work either. i think i am just destined to not sleep properly! hopefully having a regular routine when i am at uni will help me to sort out my sleep pattern and sporadic eating habits.

some one else with same problem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEPq0FvFm3g

I was going home in a taxi once after working very late, and the cabbie gave me some very good advice.

He said you should stop working, and thinking about work, an hour before going to bed, even if that means you have to go to bed later than you hoped. For "work" you can also read "worry". Stop anything stressful and do something else: read a book, watch TV etc. In doing this, it's best to avoid drama in case there are parallels with your own life. To give a hypothetical example, if you are being bullied at school or at work, then you shouldn't read "Tom Brown's Schooldays", or watch a TV programme about any kind of unfairness.

Factual stuff could be a good choice. A wildlife programme, or a science book that covers an area you're not studying at school or university.

well coming to uni hasnt helped my sleep pattern (or lack thereof) much as the earlies i need to be in on any given day of the week is 11am, also my sporadic eating habbits havent improved any either.

the thing that i dont understand is that i spent most of today feeling sleepy, but as soon as i try and get to sleep i cant seem to drift off. i am comfortable and warm, i have backround noise to drown out the stupid extractor fan in the bathroom, i havent done anything stressful today and im not worrying about anything that i can think of

but i still cant sleep and i need to get up early tomorrow to get some work done.

HELP

mini

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please do not buy medicine without proper doctor advice!

Dont worry, i wasnt going to. I am trying to avoid using chemical remedies as i dont want to get addicted to anything or have to deal with side effects.

mini

you are a smart girl!

I suggest /not/ having background noise. I'm assuming it's music; music, or any background noise really, prevents you from reaching REM sleep, making sleep less effective and ultimately you become more and more tired. Annoying though the fan might be, I don't think it'll cause a problem in the long run, since it's a sustained sound that your brain will learn to ignore.

I wear eardefenders in bed due to the noisey kid downstairs. It used to be waking up every hour screaming, now it runs around thuding on floor and its noisey father comes in with his overloud voice. I wear them during day sometimes when sick of him complaining loudly in broken English this country doesn't give him enough in free handout benefits!
I am not sleeping well at moment due to stopping a medication to see if it is causing other sideffects. To be honest it is temporary, hopefully, and so bad I am just letting it go. I woke up at 10.30am this morning which is so rare for me!
.
To be honest it might be the best way to get to sleep for those suffering is to reduce stress as much as possible and try not to sleep during day or will alter sleep patterns. Check any medication you are taking for side effects too.

judging by the time in between posts on here, I suggest a good way of getting to sleep is to wait for the next post here...

but mrX i need the background noise, i have slept with some form of background noise almos
t every night of my life! whether it be one of my sisters snoring or the waves on the shore, i physically CANT sleep in science, and if the noise isnt loud enough then any sudden other noises will wake me up.

mini