Can't get no sleep.

[Sovvolf]

Deep in the bosom of the gentle night
Is when I search for the light
Pick up my pen and start to write
I struggle, fight dark forces
In the clear moon light
Without fear... insomnia
I can't get no sleep

Okay I thought I'd start off my thread with the lyrics from Insomnia by Faithless. Sort of fitting. I can't get no sleep.

I stopped at my cousins house last Saturday (I do every weekend), we played games, laughed, cried, drunk a couple beers and watched some funny movies... typical Saturday for me. Though at some point in the night we decided to stay up until morning so we could go Golfing at the local field before the (Association)Football players do their practise. We did just that. After a hopeless game of golf (very poor golfer I am) we decided to finish up because it began to thunder and lightning (not the best idea to be hold metal poles during a lightning storm).

I got to his house, grabbed my gear... then left for home. I got home at about 13:00, I went to bed at about 14:30. I woke up at 22:30 (ish)... then I couldn't get to sleep. I was too wide awake from the sleep. Now I still can't get to sleep. I feel asleep yesterday afternoon then woke up at about 17:00 ish, I haven't been to sleep since then. Seems like I've messed up my sleeping pattern.

I realise if I keep this up I'll end up turning nocturnal. Repeating the pattern over and over. My question is to the escapist is... has this ever happened to you and if so how did you get back into the norm?. Could you give me pointers in how to return to my normal sleeping pattern?.

 

[Marter]

Never happened to me. I rarely have difficulty falling asleep. The only time it happens is when there is something on my mind. Then I typically go days without sleep for days.

To get back, don't sleep for one day, then go back to sleeping at your normal schedule. Don't break it, and make sure you always wake up when your alarm goes off.

 

[Chicago Ted]

Nyquil. I swear that stuff is cough syrup mixed with horse tranquellizers.

Or read a book. Or watch TV/movie. I actually caught myself nodding off while watching Equilibrium earlier tonight. Funny, TV and movies just seem to put me to sleep now if I lie down while watching them.

 

[Hazy]

Yeah, I've suffered from insomnia before. It isn't fun.

My advice: don't try to. If you can't sleep, don't. Eventually it will come to you naturally, and after you get a good night's (or day's) sleep, then worry about getting your sleep pattern organized.

As it is: surf the web, or do whatever you like to do, and you'll tire eventually.
When that happens, get rested, then worry about getting aligned later.

If it helps: Ska music.

 

[arsenicCatnip]

I'm kind of edging toward that pattern since I met my boyfriend. He works from 6pm - 6am my time, and I stay up super late so I can keep him company and talk to him. This has taken something of a toll on my work schedule and habits (considering the other day I had to be at work at 7 am and I was deader than dead because I'm usually going to BED at that time...)

 

[Flour]

Easiest way for me to fix a sleeping problem like this is to stay awake until the normal time I go to sleep.

Hell, yesterday I woke up around 4pm and today I'm going to stay awake until at least 11pm(about 16 hours from now). The only problem is that I'll sleep for 12 hours and wake up with horrible back pain.

 

[muckinscavitch]

I'm glad you can sleep well; thanks for letting us know.



For those who are confused, the title is a double negative.

 

[TheTaco007]

Drink butt-loads of coffee in the middle of the day so that don't fall asleep then, and then you'll be DOUBLY exhausted when it's night, and you can get back on your normal sleeping pattern.

 

[RipperSU]

I'm glad you can sleep well; thanks for letting us know.



For those who are confused, the title is a double negative.

Did you actually read the post before making sarcastic comments? The title was obviously a reference to a song, not meant to be taken literally.

On topic, I myself suffer from pretty messed up sleep patterns. For example, it's getting on for 6 a.m here and I know that it's going to take another few hours for me to be tired enough to sleep. I tend to use a similar method already mentioned, just trying to stay up as long as possible to correct my patterns.

 

[CloggedDonkey]

I would say do some hard labor to start, then run. Just run until you are ready to drop, then head home and wait until it is time to go to sleep normally. I bet you'll wake up normal the next day.

 

[Diligent]

I'm glad you can sleep well; thanks for letting us know.



For those who are confused, the title is a double negative.

Hehe, made me think of the song lyrics
"I can't get no,
"sa-tis-fact-ion..."
by the rolling stones. Everytime I hear it I think: Well, that's good, I'm glad you're satisfied sir.

Anyway, like what has already been said, best idea is to not try and force yourself to sleep if you can't. All you'll end up doing is tossing and turning and pissing yourself off.
If you've got a time you want to wake up at (school or a steady job helps with this), set your alarm, so when you do inevitably fall asleep, you'll always wake up then, and hopefully be exhausted the next night.

Failing that, you should embrace the glory of the afternoon nap.

 

[Sovvolf]

I would say do some hard labor to start, then run. Just run until you are ready to drop, then head home and wait until it is time to go to sleep normally. I bet you'll wake up normal the next day.

I don't know how much that would help. The best method mentioned at the moment seems to be to stay up until the normal time you'd go to sleep. Meaning I'm best off toughing out the afternoon so I can drop at the normal time. Doing hard labour and jogging would make me more tired and would probably make staying up through the afternoon more difficult.

 

[MrRuler]

Do what I did stay up for one whole day and sleep like a baby that night, but if you think you can't make it just take a real short nap then you'll still be tired enough for beddy bye time.

 

[Kpt._Rob]

Drink butt-loads of coffee in the middle of the day so that don't fall asleep then, and then you'll be DOUBLY exhausted when it's night, and you can get back on your normal sleeping pattern.

This is what we call a bad idea. And I say that as someone who knows a thing or two about sleeping problems... And bad ideas... I made the monumentally stupid decision once to try and trip diphenhydramine (a chemical you know by a couple of names, benadryl and unisom [yeah, it's the same compound in different packages]). As you might imagine, abnormally high doses of a chemical that is often used as a sleep aid make you incredibly tired, but if you soldier through it you might find, as I did, that when you finally do fall asleep, you wake up four hours later, unable to fall asleep for the next two days even though you want to sleep more than anything else in the entire world.

During that time I did a lot of research on things that can help you sleep when you want, and one of the things to avoid is coffee, at any point in the day. There are a number of things you can do, however, that might be a lot more helpful. A chemical called melatonin (which your body naturally produces) can be purchased as a supplement, and it seems to help a lot of people. The other thing you could do is look into learning self hypnosis, it can be a surprisingly powerful tool in many ways, one of which, is as a sleep aid. Other things to try, eating a large meal before bed, while it may not help your waist line, often helps with sleeping. And unlike what a few others have suggested, watching TV before bed is probably actually a bad idea, most of the experts I read from suggested avoiding TV for at least 30 minutes before you go to bed. I'm sure there are plenty of other things you could try, though I'm afraid none of them come to mind. Anyways, best of luck to you.

 

[Sovvolf]

Snip

Thank you very much... I'll try and avoid coffee for the rest of the day. Though I think I may need to stay awake until my normal sleeping time in order to restore my sleeping pattern. Otherwise I fear I'll just fall a sleep in the afternoon (again) and end up in the same situation is I am now.

 

[Godavari]

It's currently happening, and I must say I enjoy it. There's freedom in being up while everyone else is asleep.

If you want to fix it, continue to back up the schedule, i.e. going to sleep and waking up earlier, and then at a certain point you can set a time where your alarm goes off and you must force yourself to be awake. The time you go to sleep will keep getting earlier until it's back where you want it.

 

[Plurralbles]

have a half hour long smoke outside if you're of age.

That helps me. Just extra mellow for that night every few months.

a week ago or so I had a pretty similar thread. Hmm, must be a recurring theme on this site.

 

[twasdfzxcv]

A bottle soju usually does the trick. No hang over the next morning either.

 

[Old Hat]

Seems a lot of people are having this problem recently.

 

[TheTaco007]

Drink butt-loads of coffee in the middle of the day so that don't fall asleep then, and then you'll be DOUBLY exhausted when it's night, and you can get back on your normal sleeping pattern.

This is what we call a bad idea. And I say that as someone who knows a thing or two about sleeping problems... And bad ideas... I made the monumentally stupid decision once to try and trip diphenhydramine (a chemical you know by a couple of names, benadryl and unisom [yeah, it's the same compound in different packages]). As you might imagine, abnormally high doses of a chemical that is often used as a sleep aid make you incredibly tired, but if you soldier through it you might find, as I did, that when you finally do fall asleep, you wake up four hours later, unable to fall asleep for the next two days even though you want to sleep more than anything else in the entire world.

... I was suggesting he use coffee to keep himself AWAKE, not put himself to sleep.