some of this post may seem to be too much information but i can’t think of any other way of describing my sleep circumstances. 18 years ago i had a sleep study done and found the reason i was always so tired was indeed sleep apnea. a cpap machine changed my life in wonderful ways. i generally have no trouble falling asleep and, if it weren’t for my incredibly productive kidneys, staying asleep. i generally get 7.5-8.5 hours of sleep each night with 3 to 4 interruptions for bladder emptying. my wife and i have no video, phone, or tablet screens in the bedroom and have kept it that way since we have been together. we generally sleep in a fully darkened room although i have no difficulty sleeping in a well lit room. we like to be cool and we run a fan to circulate the air in the room. i usually awaken before the alarm because i am rested and ready to arise.
during the day i drink 4-6 cups of strong coffee in the morning and 2-4 cups in the afternoon when i come home from work during the school year or after i awaken from my nap during the summer. when i can do so, i generally take a 90 minute nap about an hour after i have had lunch. i have lots of r.e.m. sleep and generally remember my dreams which are usually in color and often have auditory, tactile, gustatory, and olfactory components. i have experienced lucid dreaming on 12-15 occasions over the past 30 years.
one other part of my nightly routine is that i generally read a book for 5-20 minutes while laying in bed before i turn the lights out. i always choose a book from among a circle of friends i tend to re-read every 2-5 years. very occasionally i will pick up a book i have not read before but only if it is nonfiction and of a kind that i do not mind giving it a slow read. most of the time i will put it down before i am truly falling asleep but sometimes i notice that i’m reading (and turning pages) with my eyes closed which tells me it’s time to say goodnight.
I have a spouse with a totally chaotic job so my sleep is often disrupted and I am learning how important sleep is to my mental health, so I’d love to find some good solutions.
Also have sleep apnea and a machine, which I like. Just ordered new supplies as mine were out of date. Hoping that helps.
this sounds like a lot by my standards. i drink exactly 3 coffee cups of coffee a day (sometimes 4), 2 in the morning before lunch, and 1 (or 2) in the afternoon before 5pm. that’s it. i suspect that a lot of people drink way more caffeine than that.
which while it doesn’t do the wake-up light as well (actually, it can try that with the camera LED, but I’m unconvinced), but has a pebble app for my watch to judge sleep state from amount of movement, and try to wake you when you’re in light sleep.
And… Well the whole UI just seems overly complicated and fiddly (witness my attempts to permanently turn off the ‘lullaby’ go-to-sleep noises, which took a while to do more than ‘snooze’ and came back loud and unexpectedly. Repeatedly, until I finally managed to kill them.
Some of the increasing-volume wake-up noises were nice (once I found that switch), but were far too short for something that’s going to be faded-in over 30 mins. (The seagulls were nice, but distinctively looped every five seconds. Annoying me awake was not the idea!)
If I can find a decent, long, wake-up nature or beach sound file or two to use (I do like seagulls:)) I may give this another roll.
Or just look for other apps. Or try a knock-off clock.
I have this. I bought it immediately after Xeni blogged it several years back. It was about $100US. Quite pricey, but it works well. People pointed out that the light–while very bright–is orange-toned as it shines through the plastic, but blue light (like the sky, I guess) is what tells your brain to wake up. So I wish it was blue-tinted. As you will see, I need all the help I can get. I still like it, though.
scoop tomorrow’s coffee into the coffeemaker and fill with water
when it’s near bedtime, cut on https://simplynoise.com/ , select brown noise, slow oscillation, and set the timer to turn off at 7am (I make this the default page on Safari, and this is literally the only thing I use Safari for)
close curtain and put dark-colored comforter over bedroom window, careful to cover the light leaking in at the top which reflects off the ceiling
take dog and self out to urinate before bed and then lock doors /close windows
into bed, nude. sleep on my side not on my back (keeps uvula out of air passage, supposedly better for back). have edge of pillow tucked between shoulder and jaw for neck support. also have pillows lengthwise along back and hugged to my chest (compression)
day:
6am, Phillips alarm starts lighting the lamp
6:30am, Phillips alarm gets fully bright and audio alarm sounds
rise and pull blanket off the window, kill the alarm (but the light stays on) then fall back into bed, pulling open the curtain on my way back.
switch to sleep on opposite side, re-align pillows
6:50am, regular annoying alarm clock goes off. hit snooze, switch to opposite side
alarm and snooze at 9 minute intervals, switching sleep sides. actually get up at 7:30am
reset both alarm clocks, cut on the bedroom overhead light, tiny bowl hit (a depression management strategy, seems the best time of day to implement it)
cut on all the lights in the apartment, the radio (music not talk), and the coffee maker
consume coffee while playing fetch with dog and getting her to go
cycle commute/walk to work (fire the metabolism)
these strategies have been working for me pretty well for a few years now. my body was too stimulated to sleep at a good hour seemingly my entire life when it was flooded with light in the night. I still read myself to sleep but it’s not light from a reading lamp reflecting off white paper at 3am or watching TV shooting bright blue light into my eyeballs after sundown anymore.
ETA - no more late night meals . I’d say a big meal at 9 would be ideal but I usually don’t eat until I get hungry, which means I don’t notice until it’s too late. if your gut is working when your brain is sleeping, your body isn’t really sleeping. I think sugary snacks late is good because they don’t sit in your gut and the sugar burns all your energy to conk you out. I sometimes wonder if this was the origin of dessert.
For those interested in using this App (which is a beautiful disaster of UI, but very powerful) with a watch, a Xiaomi Mi Band 2 can be had for around $30. It will take over a month to arrive, and the instructions will be in Chinese, but the companion app is in English and there is a remarkable amount of third-party support. Having a reasonably silent alarm can also be useful when you have a partner with a different sleep schedule than you.
Hypnosis mp3s work for me that way. I listen to the self-improvement ones last thing at night, so I fall asleep. The down side is that I am awakened by the hypnotist counting me back to alertness four-five hours later, and the battery is too low for me to run the sequence again.
The enormously successful hypnotist does make a louder count-back. I didn’t use his mp3s for awhile for that reason, when anxiety was keeping me awake. I’d use a gentler hypnosis tape with an intentional induction to sleep and no loud countback. The enormously successful hypnotist’s mp3s have as introduction a fortissimo downscale of synth notes, so apparently not for sleepytime use. I use them when my brain is in slowdown mode so it’s more receptive to messaging.
But if they’re MP3s, why not make a copy with a quieter countback, or just chop that part out entirely? It would be an easy edit in something like Audacity.
I haven’t yet used the mp3 that makes me energetic enough to do that. It’s simpler for me to choose to use the enormously successful hypnotist’s mp3s when I’m slightly more alert. Or put the serene hypnotist’s mp3s in a GoList and play the GoList instead of the ‘Recently Added’ sort I default to.
Slight tangent: I’ve seen some hypnosis induction videos and I’m stunned how easily and quickly people fall under. They look fake until fourth or fifth watch. One sleepytime mp3 hypnotist even says in his induction patter that with repeated use, one falls under faster, as the brain is trained to expect a shutdown sequence of sorts.
The soporific anti-anxiety hypnotist’s mp3s I use were very effective for getting me to sleep and alleviating my anxiety at night. If anyone wants to try them, the hypnotist is Michael Sealey, his mp3s are on iTunes and I’ve converted his YouTube videos to mp3s.
The enormously successful hypnotist owns a multi-million dollar house in southern California, he doesn’t need my promotion and testimony, and the messages haven’t quite kicked in for me yet.
My issue is dealing with both mild sleeplessness at night and trying to fight off depression naps during the day. As a home-based artist, I don’t really have anywhere to go, with a schedule to keep me in line.
So despite caffeine, walks, eating well, etc. I still just want to go back to bed in the daytime/most of the 24-hour cycle.
I’d really like to try “microdosing”. A little in the morning might keep me going, but I’d need to test that against an occasional monthly serious dose for a brain reset, to see which works best.
My main problem is I have zero connections in southern California/northern Mexico. If anyone knows of someone who could point me in the right direction, I’d appreciate it.
