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

I've always been curious - sleeping has got to be one of my favourite past-times but i do it a bit differently from most people. i sleep with the radio tuned off station, to listen to the white noise - not had a bad nights sleep in over decade when its own (its a pain having to bring a wee tranny with you everywhere.

I also went out with a bloke who cuddled a pillow in bed - but the great thing was, when he turned round in bed, the pillow went with him (very cute)

does anyone else have strange sleeping habits, or can they tell me why i get great sleep with the radio on?

I wish I knew the mysteries of sleep.
My son can't sleep without the tv on.
He can be fast asleep, I sneak in & turn the tv off, he sits bolt upright & demands I turn it back on!
I can't sleep through any noise.
The dawn chorus wakes me every morning, but I'm lucky, I'm a morning person anyway.
I have to sleep on my side, as I have arthritis in my spine.
If I awaken and I'm on my back, I'm in such pain that I have to ease myself gently out of bed and do a few gentle exercises to get myself moving.
I was a sound sleeper before I had my first baby.
I even slept through my husband's snoring.
I can't sleep with any man now.
If I'm lucky enough to have company for the night, I lay awake listening to him snore. No chance of any sleep for me!

Having been a sound stay awaker for a few years sleep is truly a mystery to me. What really dumbfounds me is people who:

1) Wake up after 9am
2) They then turn over and go back to sleep

How do you do that????

I'm quitew disturbed that you take "a wee trannie" everywhere. Surely he gets quite upset, having to sleep in his high heels and everything?????

don't worry the trannie loves it - he's sleeping with me!

Archangel, I'm just like your son. Somtimes we'll run out of power in the middle of the night i'll be awake the instant the radio goes off. its really annoying. but the great thing is if i'm bored and got nothing to do, i can go to sleep in the middle of the afternoon, just by putting the radio on.

definately not wanting to gloat there. i can't imagine what it must be like. (although i share a similar problem of having arthritis in my spine - my back hurts a lot, but at least i get some sleep) i'm sure you've tried everything. I've been told that there certain herbal products from the pharmacist that can help you sleep. warm drink? that kinda thing? try the radio, its great once you get past the noise. it helps you filter out all sorts of other crap too - traffic, drills that sort of thing.

I can remember intricate details of how i fall asleep (my dream world goes from geometric patterns to deep, deep black, the deeper the sleep i go into, the darker everything is) but i can't remember what its like to wake up.

When I was younger I was always the first one up in the house. It would drive my older brother crazy cause I would go in and wake him every morning at six. *I was a terrible little brat*

Now I am lucky if I can get a few hours of sleep. When I do I start on my side then toss over half way through the night. I can't have anything on in the house, and the only person/thing I can sleep with is my cat.

If I'm somewhere but my bed I can't sleep but put me in a car and I will be asleep in no time.

I can almost alway sleep, I too love sleeping, especially dreaming...
Funnily enough I sleep very well when I´ve just had a good cry... (man am I going to be sleeping well tonight, eh W****E)

If I´m tired enough I can sleep through music, but I prefer silence. When I´m sick and have the flu I need the music of R.E.M. to fall asleep. Michael Stipes voice calms me down like nothing else in this whole entire world...

I am one of the people Niz was talking about. I do both when ever possible, wake up after 9am and then turn over and go back to sleep. I can also fall asleep in just about any position, (I once fell asleep on a stairway - upside-down) with anything going on (music, TV, sunny, birds singing, trafic, lighting, people nudging me). I can also program myself to sleep through my alarm (at any volume), but I can also program myself when to wake up (without an alarm).
It's a gift.

Dax - REM puts you to sleep. That's funny 'cause REM stands for Rapid Eye Movement. It's a lavel of sleep. Ironic?

That´s one thing that I find weird about sleep. People generally have trouble falling asleep with a noise on. But when they finally do, then they wake up if you remove the noise, like turning of the TV.

I always have to sleep facing the wall, I suppose maybe because I always prefer complete darkness for sleeping. Even when I was a wee kid. I usually also fall easier asleep when laying down on my bed in a weird position. Like bent over a rolled up duvé with my head on a pile of books. But luckily I only sleep for an hour or so. Cos my body hurts after having slept like that. Probably couldn´t move if I did it for a night.

I love sleeping - i really wish i were there right now. it fascinates me, mostly because i remember very vividly how i fall asleep, but never, ever remember waking up. terrified that i can't do something every body else does - can you remember waking up this morning? can you remember the very moment you opened your eyes?

when i see people wake up in the movies or on telly, i have no idea if that's what you look like when you wake up. i can't even remember what anyone else looks like when they wake up. am i crazzzeee to be even caring about it?

No, actually you´ve got a point there, I´ve just never thought about it...

For research purposes I think I´ll just take a nap now...

I prefer to sleep with the curtains open. Having the radio doesn't bother me. Bit of people noise isn't great, but if I'm going to get to sleep, I will. It's only what's going on in my head that stops me. That said living somewhere quiet is definitely more restful, than the noise of cars.

BBS

Oh yes forgot to tell you about my sleep experiment ...

A few years ago when I started getting really bored at work, I kept a daily record of how much sleep I got. Did it for about 3 months. Some nights I would get 6 hours and on others 9 or 10. The interesting (?) part was that the average amount of sleep per night (for each month) was 7hr45, 7hr40, 7hr50.

So I reckon I need about 8 hours sleep per night. When I don't get that my body makes up for it when it gets the chance. Maybe the reason why sometimes I can sleep past 9am, wake up, then go back to sleep

Sleeping with noise is easily explained, just watch the baby falling asleep next to the washing machine. The womb is a very noisy place, why should we need silence to sleep? I find a radio or the TV helpful if I have trouble falling asleep, but that's not often these days.
I'm one of those people that can wake at 9, then go straight back to sleep. Trouble is, having too much sleep makes me sluggish, and even harder to get out of bed than when I first woke up.
I don't usually remember going to sleep, but I always remember waking up. Especially if I am woken up.

A lot of people talk about "getting too much sleep" and it making them feel more tired. I reckon that it's because they don't get enough sleep at other times. So when they eventually decide to get a good night's sleep, their body jumps at the chance and tries to get as much as possible. And of course this leads to them feeling tired for the rest of the next day.

I reckon it's a bit like the thing that happens to runners and athletes, who get colds when they stop, or decrease their training. The body can cope with stress and pressure (or lack of sleep), but when you give it the chance to recover it goes for it bigtime.

Just a thought

BBS

As Mina says, falling asleep to white noise is connected the noises of the womb. I find that if I off tune the radio so the that voices/music are only just audible, the dreamy uninteligable sound sends me into the land of nod within minutes. I envy people who can sleep without noise. If left with my own brain to keep me company, I'm kept awake by the nagging jumble of yesterday and tomorrow, for hours.

Once I made a tape of a spin dryer. Looped it so that it lasted three quarters of an hour. Always asleep before the tape clicked off.

Sad but true.

djs

I've got a CD of the sounds of a thunderstorm over a lake. That's great for getting to sleep with

Thunderstorms are the best.

If I'm camping on a mountain trip http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A563177 (well you've got to advertise. Peer Review's like a jungle, these days) mmmmm camping, by a river...well...just listen to the water. Listen to the water.

Sleep well

djs

thank god, i was beginning to think i was a freak!

So how did you find these things out? with us, it all started when we used to listen to the shipping forcast ('sailing by' is always a cue to feel sleepy) after that there's a test signal and then it goes on to white noise.

i read/saw on a telly programme/imagined somewhere that the white noise has a soothing effect on brain waves, and that's why you can sleep (the more bass in the sounds, the deeper the sleep for me) and that they were using a slightly more sophisticated version for people in hospital. sound right to anyone?

I like to sleep with the moon on my pillow

Is this weird?

(Obviously it wotk works on certain nights)