Sleep

[ladyofastolat]

I am still feeling like a sleep-deprived zombie after the holiday. I do wish my brain wasn't so stupid when it comes to sleep. Admittedly, most of my lack of sleep was caused by being far too hot during the night, which was partly caused by the weather and lack of openable windows, but mostly was my own fault, since I know full well that I can't sleep if I eat late, but still eagerly stuffed myself with seconds and thirds hours after my normal dinner time. However, it wasn't helped by my inability to lie-in in the morning. I always wake up between 6.30 and 7, but if I can stumble to the toilet and back again without properly opening my eyes, I'm usually able to fall asleep again and doze until at least 8. Unfortunately, this only works when I'm in a dark room with no background noise, which means that it hardly ever works when I'm on holiday or away for the weekend - which is precisely when I most need to be able to lie in, since I tend to go to bed later than normal.

The really annoying thing is that I'm completely capable of falling asleep in front of the TV - and did so several times last week - and have even managed to fall asleep on a beanbag during roleplaying sessions in broad daylight. Why, then, am I incapable of falling back to sleep in the morning if there's any light or noise, when neither light nor noise keep me from falling asleep when I don't actually want to? Grr!

Comments

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

When you find out, can you let me know, please?

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Not wishing to irritate as smug person who is good at sleeping, but I wondered if this lot might have anything to do with it:

"I know full well that I can't sleep if I eat late"
"my inability to lie-in in the morning"
"this only works when I'm in a dark room with no background noise"

It sort of sounds as though you have convinced yourself very firmly that when in bed, sleep is absolutely only possible given quite specific rules, which has perhaps become a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy?

Have you tried relaxation techniques - eg, you find yourself awake, and, for example, you go through tensing one muscle at a time and then deliberately relaxing it until all your muscles have been squidged and relaxed?

Or, one I like if I have been woken by annoying pointy itchy thoughts in the night is to use visualisation and wrap them in something soft and squishy with my mind's eye. Or I visualise counting sheep in lots and lots of detail, or waves coming into the shore. Key thing is that you lie down with eyes closed for at least 10 mins and try to allow yourself to be sort of fuzzily bored rather than focussing on external stimuli, in the way that you might be dozing off in a beanbag.

It may be that none of these will work for you, but if it's helpful, that's the kind of thing that works for me.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

The eating late thing isn't psychological, since it's due to getting boily hot after a big dinner, but you must be right that the rest of it is all in the mind. The fact that I can fall asleep in front of the TV when trying very hard not to shows that I can sleep through noise, so there's no sensible reason at all why I should be unable to fall asleep if someone is talking quietly in the next room. I'll try some of those techniques and see if they work.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I suppose it's not impossible that there are physiological differences in the body between 7am and 3pm, but given that you've so successfully retrained yourself into enjoying 20 mile walks recently, it seems at least possible that retraining yourself into going back to sleep on command might be possible.

Fingers crossed!