Get better sleep

[SS100]

Anyone know how to get better sleep? The lack of a proper good night's sleep is slowly hurting me. And I don't know what to do.

 

[fluxoid]

I'd hesitate to call this an answer, but some things that have been shown experimentally to help people get to sleep and spend more time asleep are:

• Get physical exercise during the day, especially early in the evening. How much exercise you need depends on your body, but you should feel physically tired when you're done.
• Have a comfortable bed & pillow. If you have pain issues, experiment with leg pillows, bolsters, etc. to find a setup that works for you.
• Sleep in a cool room, your body needs to cool off by several degrees at night; being too hot will result in shallower and more-often interrupted sleep. A good rule of thumb is that your bedroom should be too cold for you to sit comfortably in the nude, but not so cold that you'd want a hat or gloves. If you have a programmable thermostat, try setting it to lower the temperature by 2 or 3 degrees C (4-6 degrees F) starting an hour or so before bedtime.
• Have a consistent bedtime, seven days a week. Nearly anything you make part of a bedtime routine (putting on a particular set of bedclothes, listening to a particular piece of music, etc.) can work as a stimulus your brain will associate with sleep.
• Avoid energetic or exciting activities for an hour or more before bedtime.
• Avoid all food and any drinks containing caffeine or sugar for at least three hours before bedtime.
• Lie down in bed only when you intend to sleep. If you want to eat, read, have sex, check Facebook, etc. do it somewhere else and then go to bed.
• If you can't get to sleep, get up and do something calming (not eating!) until you feel sleepy.
• Especially if you're male, try having an orgasm shortly before bedtime.
• When you're trying to sleep, make your bedroom as dark as you can manage. Especially get rid of any high-frequency (while/blue/violet) light sources. Screens should be off, and don't hesitate to cover any glowing LEDs (black electrical tape works well) if you can see them from your bed. If you live in an area with high levels of light-pollution (or in the high arctic), get some blackout blinds for your bedroom window(s).
• If you must have a nightlight, get one that's colored red and is as dim as you can live with.
• Get up at a consistent time every morning, regardless of when you went to sleep.
• If you have trouble waking up, make your alarm clock more difficult to turn off (i.e. put it somewhere you cannot reach while in bed) and consider using a smart light fixture (or just a timer) to switch your bedroom lights on shortly before your alarm goes off.
• Soon after you get up, expose yourself to some bright light for a while. In most cases the best approach is to make going outside in daylight part of your morning routine. If that's not an option then instead you can use bright indoor lighting. You can buy purpose-built "therapy" lights to stare into, but they're of dubious value and tend to cause long-term eye damage in frequent users.

Having said all that, I've been having trouble with insomnia since I was a child and I still have it now: Good luck.

 

[SS100]

I'd hesitate to call this an answer, but some things that have been shown experimentally to help people get to sleep and spend more time asleep are:

• Get physical exercise during the day, especially early in the evening. How much exercise you need depends on your body, but you should feel physically tired when you're done.
• Have a comfortable bed & pillow. If you have pain issues, experiment with leg pillows, bolsters, etc. to find a setup that works for you.
• Sleep in a cool room, your body needs to cool off by several degrees at night; being too hot will result in shallower and more-often interrupted sleep. A good rule of thumb is that your bedroom should be too cold for you to sit comfortably in the nude, but not so cold that you'd want a hat or gloves. If you have a programmable thermostat, try setting it to lower the temperature by 2 or 3 degrees C (4-6 degrees F) starting an hour or so before bedtime.
• Have a consistent bedtime, seven days a week. Nearly anything you make part of a bedtime routine (putting on a particular set of bedclothes, listening to a particular piece of music, etc.) can work as a stimulus your brain will associate with sleep.
• Avoid energetic or exciting activities for an hour or more before bedtime.
• Avoid all food and any drinks containing caffeine or sugar for at least three hours before bedtime.
• Lie down in bed only when you intend to sleep. If you want to eat, read, have sex, check Facebook, etc. do it somewhere else and then go to bed.
• If you can't get to sleep, get up and do something calming (not eating!) until you feel sleepy.
• Especially if you're male, try having an orgasm shortly before bedtime.
• When you're trying to sleep, make your bedroom as dark as you can manage. Especially get rid of any high-frequency (while/blue/violet) light sources. Screens should be off, and don't hesitate to cover any glowing LEDs (black electrical tape works well) if you can see them from your bed. If you live in an area with high levels of light-pollution (or in the high arctic), get some blackout blinds for your bedroom window(s).
• If you must have a nightlight, get one that's colored red and is as dim as you can live with.
• Get up at a consistent time every morning, regardless of when you went to sleep.
• If you have trouble waking up, make your alarm clock more difficult to turn off (i.e. put it somewhere you cannot reach while in bed) and consider using a smart light fixture (or just a timer) to switch your bedroom lights on shortly before your alarm goes off.
• Soon after you get up, expose yourself to some bright light for a while. In most cases the best approach is to make going outside in daylight part of your morning routine. If that's not an option then instead you can use bright indoor lighting. You can buy purpose-built "therapy" lights to stare into, but they're of dubious value and tend to cause long-term eye damage in frequent users.

Having said all that, I've been having trouble with insomnia since I was a child and I still have it now: Good luck.

Click to shrink...

Thank you. I've been able to increase my daily average to 6.75 hours. But I want to get it over 8. I think there's something stopping me from sleeping a lot as well but I don't know what.

 

[HypoSoc]

Thank you. I've been able to increase my daily average to 6.75 hours. But I want to get it over 8. I think there's something stopping me from sleeping a lot as well but I don't know what.

Click to shrink...

Another bit of advice is to stop considering only time when you are 'asleep' and start including the time you are lying down, resting in bed.

Yes, it isn't 100% sleep, but it isn't 0% sleep either. You can think of it like 50% sleep... as in, lying in bed doing nothing but relaxing for 2 hours counts as 1 hour of full sleep. Staying in bed after waking or getting to bed early counts for partial credit.

This isn't a fully scientific thing as much as a mental trick. Because worrying about insomnia makes your insomnia worse... counting hours asleep makes it harder to sleep longer or as well. Focus instead on things you CAN control fully (time in bed), and the thing you want (time fully asleep) will happen eventually.

 

[snthsnth]

Consider Melatonin. I spent my life from 5 to 26 with what could be called insomnia. I was too busy thinking about things like imagined adventures to actually fall asleep for an hour or three. This wasn't a problem because I'd get into bed early enough to get enough sleep, at 9 to 10pm with a wakeup time of 7:30.

That changed when my brother got an Xbox and would stay up late with his friends playing games outside my room. Parents couldn't get them to be quiet, no working solutions, ect. That pushed getting into bed to 12pm, when they'd usually stop, and actual sleep went to 1-3am. If I thought they were playing I'd hallucinate and hear the sounds of their laughter and the game audio and I'd have to physically check to see if they'd left. I once got up to yell at them at 1am only to find a dark room. Not long after it ended with me smashing the Xbox on the ground, breaking it totally.

But the damage was done. I'd now have 4-6 hours of non-sleep in bed if I got into bed at 10pm, and I wouldn't even be tired when I got in.

So I heard about Melatonin, an over the counter sleep aid. It's a hormone your body makes while you sleep, and can be used to deepen sleep. It doesn't force sleep, you can take it and stay awake if you want to. I took it for a year and the whole time I'd be able to sleep within minutes.

Then I ran out. And I wasn't going to get any for a day or two. I thought I'd go back to the previous sleep problems, but I could easily fall asleep without it. Taking it trained my body and brain to fall asleep quickly.

I wouldn't recommend taking more than 5-8mg. It's safe to 25 or 50, but you start to have really weird dreams after 20-30. Use it as training wheels for better sleep, try it for a couple weeks or a month.

 

[SS100]

Good news everyone. I've increased my sleep levels to about 7.125 hours a week. It would have been 7.75 hours but I keep relapsing.

What's happening is that I was able to sleep eight hours on a work day and weekdays in a row and 8.5 to 8 hours on a Weekend. But I keep staying up way to long on some nights and only end up with 4, 5 or 6 hours of sleep and it's a problem.

 

[SS100]

Good news. My average sleep time is now 7.5 hours a week.

Bad news. I'm on vacation now so I'm not sure if it's going to translate to anything in the future.

 

[f0Ri5]

Use a sleeping mask. It massively helped me.

 

[SS100]

Use a sleeping mask. It massively helped me.

Click to shrink...

Thanks. I'm now trying to got to bed at the right time and wake up at 7 am every day. Vacation is nearly done and I want to have at least 8 hours of sleep every night from now on.

 

[f0Ri5]

Thanks. I'm now trying to got to bed at the right time and wake up at 7 am every day. Vacation is nearly done and I want to have at least 8 hours of sleep every night from now on.

Click to shrink...

Yeah being consistent with your bedtime/ wake-up time is important too. I find it easier to start waking up at the same time (like 6-7 ish), then let the bedtime gradually fall into place. It sucks at the beginning because you're more tired during the day, since you're getting up earlier, but it works.

And avoid caffeine, ofc.

 

[JessieJim1]

I totally agree with Fluxoid's comment and I want to add smth. You need to engage in relaxation techniques such as meditation, deep breathing, or progressive muscle relaxation to help calm your mind and body before bed. Additionally, avoid watching or reading anything that is upsetting or stressful before bedtime. If we talk about physical exercise during the day, I suppose exercising should be intensive, e.g. read about the benefits of table tennis https://pingpongacademy.org/benefits-of-table-tennis/ It would seem that you can do this at home, but the training is quite intense. Trust me, you'll sleep soundly after this. But if nothing helps, then consult a doctor, the problem of sleep is quite common now.