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

Still feeling quite knacked but a little more awake, as I just had some dinner I really* feel like a cup of coffee or tea now, but I know* I shouldn't guess I could make a hot choc, but there are the calories for me to think about, seeing as how I only have black tea and coffee and no sugar

thats where working nightshifts doesn't help
every time I'm off work my body thinks I'm working nights then by the time my body clock has got back to normal I'm back to working nights

thats where working nightshifts doesn't help me
every time I'm off work my body thinks I'm working nights then by the time my body clock has got back to normal I'm back to working nights

One thing, I remember, which really* really* isn't good if you want to sleep is amphetamins, that totally distoyed any thing remotely like a sleep patturn I had during the time I was into taking such things on a regular basis

A solid day's teaching (and the prospect of another one tomorrow), usually helps me get into my 8 hours pretty quick.

B

The best thing for regulating sleep is regular exercise... though I disagree with Hoo as to the timing. While I don't doubt that it works for him, research and my own personal experiences say that it usually happens the other way around. If you get used to exercise late in the day, then your body starts prepping itself for that exercise by filling you with energy.

My schedule does not allow me to exercise early in the day, so I usually do it in the evenings. As a result I am *definitely* not a morning person, but find myself bouncy and energetic a little while after dinner, usually lasting until about 11:00pm.

For those of you who are tired but kept awake by a busy mind, nothing is better than some reading time. It does the same thing for you that the visualizations and counting games do (depending on the subject matter... I find that nonfiction can have the opposite effect), but it's infintely more interesting, so you can do it every night.

The Sleep Council in the UK have a nice website with tips on getting a good night's sleep:

http://www.sleepcouncil.com/consumer_room/sleep_tips_2.cfm

...and also on choosing the right bed for you - which sounds like fun to me

http://www.sleepcouncil.com/consumer_room/choosing_the_right_bed_4.cfm

Stay ,
WD

Well, my research continues.
Took about 45 mins to an hour to get to sleep last night, which is pretty average really, I slept through till the pneumatic drill outside started at just before 9 so I got a typical four and a bit hours alertness in the morning (as measured by the outside to the shop caffine tobacco coeffecient ),
was zero.
Which is very* good (0=1-1_1-1)
(The coeffecient is calculated by subtracting the number of cups of black coffee in the morning required before I dare try to go outside from the number 1, added to the number of cigarettes requried taken away from 1, a negetative number is a bad* sign) So, not an unusual nights sleep, a fairly average for me falling off to sleep time (better than teh night before by a long shot mind), but there is an indication that sleep might have been deeper as I felt more awake than normal this morning.
For my next experiment I will try to double the amount of sex in the afternoon, to see what affect that has I don't know all this hard work I make myself do

Went off to sleep last night quite quickly, about 50 mins, and was then woken up by some stupid idiot drunken prat women screaming their heads off outside at a 4 AM, then, just as I was beginning to get off to slepe again, they walked back down the road from the other direction screaming just as loud then, some time after 5 AM a bunch of druken idiot kids decided to play with the paving slabs the council are laying and start smashing some of them up so I think I was finally asleep by 6 at the latest and woek at 9.30 when some stupid b*****d idiots f****ng car alarm went off because a fly or something must have landing on it

"Disciplining the Simian" certainly works for me

Seriously though...My sleep has never been great, and i rarely have an uninterupted 7 or 8 hours, however i recently tried an unsuccesful experiment wherby i forced myself to go to bed at least an hour earlier that normal. This should have given me around 8 hours sleep if i had slept solid. I did this for about 6 months(as i realise that changes to sleep patterns take time to have an effect), but i ended up consistantly more tired than usual. I would always wake up about 2 or3 in the morning and remain awake for at least an hour..

Recently i've started going to bed *later* which gives me about 5-6 hours sleep, and i'm feeling much better and more awake now! It seems that less is more for me I think that during longer periods, my alarm clock was probably waking me up, just as i was entereing a critical point in my sleep cycle (probably REM). The time i go to bed and wake now seems to match my natural sleep pattern.. or something

I still find it hard to get up, though i'm much more awake throughout the day now.. and come my day off- i'll sleep for about 12 hours, on and off

The best way for me to doze off is to try to think of the sun turning slowly, whilst imagining the earth going round the sun as it spins on its axis, whilst the moon goes round the earth. Make sure you add colour, (red, blue, grey) and dept. It's not as easy as it may sound and I'm usually of in nodland pretty quickly. However on the occasions when I do get the motions going right the symetry is so enthralling and peaceful and I'm so pleased with myself that I usually nod off quited contented! Try it and if it works please tell me.

The most important thing, I find, is attitude. If you're all "AAA I CAN'T SLEEP!!" then you might as well be standing up listening to rock music at full volume. If you take a relaxed attitude, thinking, "I'll sleep eventually if I just lay here with my eyes closed," then you will most likely fall right asleep.

Also, everyone requires a different amount of sleep. Eight hours is the average. I require nine, but can function on as little as five. Not happily, mind you, but I do have basic motor functions with enough caffeine.

I had read in a giant tome called 'The Sleep book' (by some guy who is an expert on the subject, that it's 20 minutes. But I agree, insomnia is very hell! You have my sympathy, Spinks.

Well I'm not a typical type at. When a day job, rarely did I go to sleep without having tossed and turned 1 1/2 to 2 hours. I'd get 4 1/2 to 5 hrs. sleep. Top that with the fact that I'm a light sleeper. As of late I work a night shift job, I've done so for almost a year. Recently I;ve not been able to achieve moe than 4 to 4 1/2 hours of sleep a day. a pattern that has existed for some 10 days now. I go thru phases in which I get 6 to 7 hours of sleep a day then without pretext or warning I go into to a pattern of 4 to 5 hours of sleep a day whist this particular pattern gives me a rung out feeling,the level of my energy isofa highten state which I attibute to adrenaline. As opposed to the pattern that I get more sleep. Which gives me a constant overall feelof tiredness and the energy level drops off greatly. A thrid pattern is one in which I get way to much sleep all the time. Which really gets me into a depressed state. Or the state of depression causes me to sleep to much.
My conclusion is thay I should only get 5 to 6 hours of sleep a night.
Fullmoon>

Well I'm not a typical type at. When a day job, rarely did I go to sleep without having tossed and turned 1 1/2 to 2 hours. I'd get 4 1/2 to 5 hrs. sleep. Top that with the fact that I'm a light sleeper. As of late I work a night shift job, I've done so for almost a year. Recently I;ve not been able to achieve moe than 4 to 4 1/2 hours of sleep a day. a pattern that has existed for some 10 days now. I go thru phases in which I get 6 to 7 hours of sleep a day then without pretext or warning I go into to a pattern of 4 to 5 hours of sleep a day whist this particular pattern gives me a rung out feeling,the level of my energy isofa highten state which I attibute to adrenaline. As opposed to the pattern that I get more sleep. Which gives me a constant overall feelof tiredness and the energy level drops off greatly. A thrid pattern is one in which I get way to much sleep all the time. Which really gets me into a depressed state. Or the state of depression causes me to sleep to much.
My conclusion is thay I should only get 5 to 6 hours of sleep a night.

Last night was the longest straight through sleep I've had in ages the secrete seems to have been, drinking half a bottle cuban spiced rum and eight cans of guiness between middnight and 7.30 then going to bed (having at that point been awake 22 and a bit hours), and I fell almost straight to sleep and didn't wake till gone 3 PM this afternoon and I now feel quite wide awake

Yep that will do it

Hello sleep goodbye liver.

The lady from Minessota said alot of good stuff; no caffeine, use bed only for sleep; or sex apperently? etc.
Exercise seems controversial; I wake up with exercise? Now, what is the SAS? Sign me up! I had 4 year old twins all day and was up at midnight! I've been more jazzed up and harder to sleep since having children than I don't know what; sex does put me to sleep though; my husband get's a little put off by that though.....?
I find a fan a life saver and getting anyone who snores AWAY from me! Honestly, there is NOTHING worse.....
Also, night shifts can ruin you; I worked graveyards and resorted to taking Gravol in the am when I got home to get to sleep to get up to do it all over again, and now that I am on a "normal" work schedule I still have nights where I'm up til forever and need those Gravol every so often for a good nights rest.
I wonder how much of this is just "in us" though because even as a child I would lie awake for hours; I remember hearing my parents, tv shows, and even them going to bed and I was still awake. I marvel at my youngest, 7, who falls asleep in seconds. It is wonderful to see; the twins, one does and one is like me and is up even til I go to bed(which is late enough for me never mind a 10 year old!) Some people maybe just don't fall asleep well...and interestingly, some sources say not to cuddle babies too much but let them cry to learn to settle themselves well Simon, the youngest, was always cuddled to bed; honestly, there are reasons I wont get into but he was always cuddled to bed and he goes to sleep like a charm. I read, tuck him in, walk out, then pop in a minute later and he is asleep! He does get up at 6am like clock work mind.........<>

I've used valetarian root for to get sleep buy. It works but guess it has an aculmitve effect that is it stops working at recomended dose.
Also heard that milkthisle is good to keep good liver function.