RC: Can't sleep.... Still can't sleep.. Why does sleep elude me?
I know exactly how you feel...

RC: missing pretty much 3 days of uni because I'm so tired because I haven't slept.. arrgh!
RC: Falling asleep 2 weeks in a row in maths... -_- I'm so going to fail that exam. -_-
Sorry Butterfinger, Medea. and Sorsie, but when I just flicked through to RC I kinda laughed. Not in a mocking way but more of a 'Woah, that's freaky' kinda way. I too have been having sleep problems and my sleep patterns are completely messed up... well, when I did have a sleep pattern! At that very moment I saw the RC thread, I was watching 10 things you need to know about sleep (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00j08h7/10_Things_You_Need_to_Know_About_Sleep/) (available until Tuesday 19th May 2009, for UK viewers only - sorry!)

I also know a lot of the students on this forum and world wide struggle to have a good night's sleep thanks to all those pesky deadlines and exams to revise for!

Ten things summarized from the documentary:


Bath before bedtime - research shows that by bathing up to an hour before you sleep causes a rise in body temperature. Once your (internal) body temperature begins to fall this is when you start to feel sleepy.
Beating insomnia - If you suffer from this dreaded devil restrict your sleeping hours. Only spend six hours in your bedroom when you want to sleep. Even if you wake up, don't leave the room. Make sure you wake up at the same time every day. Eventually by restricting your sleep it should catch up with your body thus forcing you to sleep during those six hours you put aside for bedtime. Research shows sleep can make you a happy bunny and not a moody cow.
When to nap or have a siesta, no, not a fiesta! Research shows the best time to nap if you really think you need it is between 2pm-5pm in the afternoon and you should only nap for 30 minutes. A short nap makes us feel full of energy and gives us some time to recharge our batteries. Between 7am-12pm our body will resist sleep, also from 6pm-8pm so we should avoid having a nap during these hours.
How to stop snoring - Whether you're a snorer or not the chances are you can be affected by someone who snores. A snorer can be woken up several times during the night when their partners elbow them :p and of course for those who don't snore, your sleep can be disturbed by your partner (or in my case both my parents who can be heard snoring around the whole house!) Mouthguard is one way to reduce snoring.
Don't mess with your sleep cycle - an experiment was carried out to see the effects of coffee and wine on sleep.
Power of daylight - the sleep hormone, melatonin increases before you sleep but for early risers a 30 minute session in front of some blue light can help to reduce the level of melatonin by up to 60%!
Eat to sleep - an afternoon meal of protein (fish and mixed beans/lentils) won't make you tired but a meal of carbohydrates (gnocci or in my case, jacket potato <3!) will make you very sleepy. If you want a carby meal before bed it's best to have it about 4 hours before you sleep.
How to beat jet lag - very interesting I think - starve yourself (but you can have water) before you get on the flight, during the flight and have your first meal when you land at a normal meal time.
Relax - this looked awesomely cool and fun and in my expereince it has worked. Cortisol, a hormone also affecting sleep can drop when you have a good night's sleep. Tensing and relaxing your muscles for about 15-20 minutes before you sleep helps you sleep better.
Herbal potions - Lavender and valerian can help you sleep better and keep insomnia.

So after all that I plan to be a little lab rat and try things out for myself. I plan to now carry out point 2 and 9. As for point 7, I'll be making sure I have protein filled meals for lunch and I shall be laying off the jacket potatoes - plus it means I won't have a food baby at night xD
I know the bath thing works too but I don't really fancy sleeping after a bath btu it has worked in the past.

Anyone else up for experimenting on themselves for a better lifestyle and good sleep?

I used to have probs sleeping, and my doc told me this..

11. Think Cinderella! Be in bed before midnight. An hours sleep before midnight is worth two afterwards.

Regards a better lifestyle, my main thing at the moment is just drinking lots of water. It's like a magical, free elixir of life!

Looool. No this is completely different. xD ahah. It's like. Scary. I'm perfectly fine, but like... In maths on wednesday afternoons I just get sooo tired. O_O I believe it's the room and the teacher and yeah... Lol. I've been controlling my sleep times well recently as well I get migraines due to lack of sleep and energy and not eating etc, so I am pretty good on that front, just yeah. Maths. xD ahaha.
It's funny though too, I knew most of the stuff they said as we did a topic on it in psychology. :)
And ahaha. I just watched that on on demand, and I just put a few points to meds.. O_O Looool xD ahaha. Great minds eh. ;) Ahaha.

I've never had sleep issues.. like when I have to sleep for 4h due to deadlines (on the rarest occasions), or for a lot more hours when I have nothing to do.
Like I slept from 9-6 last night, 10-8 the night before.

Am I the only one who wakes up, does some stuff and then crawls back into bed again? I do this almost every day and it's not something I've done much in the past. I wake up early but then need to sleep for a few more hours... :s

I don't wake up, do stuff, then crawl back into bed, but I have a problem sleeping at night. I can't sleep at night, but I can sleep during the day, without a problem. I nearly got my sleeping cycle back to 'normal' (by normal standards) but then I had to stay up one night to do an essay, and then I slept during the day, and now it's back to my version of normal again. I'm nocturnal. Although, now that I think about it, I really want to get my sleeping pattern flipped again, because the days I was up during the day I had my workout session, breakfast, lunch, dinner and I felt good, but now I don't exercise anymore because I get up at 8 pm and I really don't feel up to it. Think I should fix this again...

Edit: No. 8 - the beating jet lag by starving yourself...

That probably works because your body doesn't have enough calories/energy so you feel tired and you sleep. That's probably not good for your sugar levels though, because if you're starving yourself your sugar levels will drop then when you eat again, they'll increase suddenly.

Mmmm I think I know why I can't sleep atm.. :S :( mmm
Good tips though.. I have heard some of them before
Like no. 2 I've been told in the past not to go into my bedroom except for when I want to sleep (and this should be at the same time every night).. which I did try for awhile.. but I struggle with that one (laptop in my room, family everywhere else :S - I always end up on the comp on my bed)
But mm yea I find that my mind is just wayyy too active - so perhaps the relaxation techniques are worth a try.. :\

As for getting up, doing stuff and then going back to bed.. I've never really done that. I find that I either oversleep completely till like lunch time (or midafternoon even :S) or if I force myself to get up in the morning, then I fall asleep later that day in the afternoon.. usually for several hours ><

The best thing to help me get to sleep, is start thinking of a story and put myself in it... just any random story, like a fight between living pineapples and porcupines in the forest with me leading the pineapples to a victory and then having to face Pizza Hut employees who just want to use the pineapples as pizza toppings... or something like that... once involved in the story you cease to think about other things and you fall asleep... it also makes for really cool dreams.

During the school/uni holidays, I used to have trouble getting to sleep sometimes; I put it down to inactivity during the day and having too much unspent energy left to go to sleep. Also, for me, a cool room helps me get to sleep faster than a warm room (the Great British weather has some advantages :p).

I think being on the computer late into the night does no good to your nocturnal sleeping patterns, especially if you have to wake up early the next morning. When I find myself on late, I remember that sleepy feeling I get in the morning… and I go to sleep.

For me, the whole concept of sleep changed once I became a mother.
Sleep was like this....- the thought of sleeping for more than 2 hours at any one time was unbelievable.
I really don't think I have caught up on all my sleep yet.
My dream is to go away for 3 months by myself, and sleep solidly, without interruption.
Sleep <3

Lol I was about to say the same thing Saff! You need help getting to sleep? Be a mom!!! I used to have trouble getting to sleep when I was younger, now when my head hits the pillow i'm out!!! Although it is a very light sleep and I wake up about 5 times a night from different noises or kids coming in bed with me etc. I <3 sleep!

Lol, I'm not a mother yet but these past few months I haven't had ANY trouble sleeping because I've been soo busy. I love the feeling of falling into bed exhausted after a long day, when you just like hit the pillow and you've never felt so comfortable in your life, haha. Tonight will definitely be one of those nights..

But yeah, I LOVE sleeping during the day and I can't really explain it. I do force myself to get up early, as my job demands, but I looove afternoon naps. I get this huge wave of tiredness usually around 3PM, lol. Napsss <3

Also, banking on what Capt said, going on the computer late at night when I have work the next morning is my demise. It's so addictive and I can't just let myself go on for an hour..it ends up being 3 or 4. Then before I know it, it's 2AM and I have to be up in 6 hours. I've been trying to stay away a bit, but of course, I miss it...

Edit: No. 8 - the beating jet lag by starving yourself...

That probably works because your body doesn't have enough calories/energy so you feel tired and you sleep. That's probably not good for your sugar levels though, because if you're starving yourself your sugar levels will drop then when you eat again, they'll increase suddenly.
Nonono, none of that is true I assure you. When you fast, say for example 12 hours before a blood glucose test that's because it shows the most accurate reading of your glucose level. Basically your body is kinda in its "natural" state and not being manipulated by the digestion of food. As for what you eat after you fast, it won't make your sugar levels increase any more than the usual meal. Your glucose levels tend to be at their highest 2 hours after a meal and returns to your body's normal level after about 4 hours. If you have diabetes, then yes, its more than likely that your glucose levels could be affected and I'm not sure how safe it is for a dibetic to fast whilst travelling. Although I'm pretty sure my mum has :/

Jmac: lol, you're so strange :p

Dr Mehmet Oz, that bloke off Oprah said when you try and sleep but you have a load of things going on in your head for the next day, the trick with that is to write down everything in your head that you have to do the next day and leave it by your bed. That way when you wake up the list of things is still there, you haven't forgot any of it and you can sleep peacefully. Good tip and it works :)

I'd have thought most mothers struggled to sleep when they had little kids because of the disturbnces (mentioned by Nyna) and the fact that you're more alert... no?

Looking through that list of yours AJ, I'm quite intrigued by numbers 8 and 9.
I haven't been to any far countries that have had a major time difference to the UK, but I guess starving yourself is a way to try to counteract the "normal" sleeping patterns.
Number 9 might be worth a go while I'm sitting on iSketch at 3am :biggrin: