Your opinions - how can I improve my sleep pattern?

tommy21

Just thought some of the more experienced sleep-deprived :P might be able to shed some light on this (a long one sorry!)

The poor quality of sleep I have been getting is really interfering in my life. This is a problem that has been going on for years and I'm sick of it. My concentration and productivity is suffering as a result.

Essentially the problem is that I cannot seem to switch off until very late at night - e.g 1-3am and then as a knock-on effect I am exhausted when I have to wake up early or else wake up untired but quite late (e.g. 10.30-11.30), losing valuable time in the day. I am a postgrad student/working a few days a week in my professional area so my flexible schedule probably doesn't help me much.

Let me make a distinction here, it is usually not that I am lying awake unable to sleep (though I go through periods of this), but more so that I seem to "wake-up" around 9 or 10pm and find it incredibly difficult to switch off and make myself get into bed. That might sound ridiculous but its true. Instead I am finishing off tasks from the day or watching something on my laptop or doing work on the laptop. I am aware that artifical light keeps you awake but yet this is something I constantly do, its like I know I'm not giving myself the best chance for sleep and continuing anyway, almost on auto pilot. I have tried reading in bed and seem to devour chapters before feeling tired (generally when the clock hits 1.30 or 2 am). In the mornings and early afternoon however, it seems to take me ages to get going.

On a related note, when I do get to sleep, I wake every night without fail at least once (and sometimes twice) to use the bathroom. Of late I've reduced my liquid intake well in advance of bed but I always wake up once. From my reading I know this is disturbing my deep sleep and is part of the reason I wake up tired sometimes. Yet I had this investigated before and it is not a kidney infection or anything ominous apparently. I've tried "holding it" (if too much info, sorry ) but I can't sleep unless I go.

I've tried various remedies - deep sleep music/hypnosis on my ipod, proper sleeping tablets to "reset" my pattern over one week which did not suit me and caused me to hallucinate on one occasion, aromatherapy (lavender), and I currently take night time Kalms (a natural sleeping tablet with valerian and hops etc.) which helped at the start but whose effect seems to have worn off.

I was a fan of playing Xbox quite late at night sometimes, but I have now stopped this altogether about 3-4 weeks ago. However, all it has done is cause me to switch to working on something else. I used to drink tea and coffee by the gallon, I quit it completely a month ago but have seen no improvement. About a month ago I started taking a multivitamin and cod liver oil to see if its a deficiency but no real improvement (though my skin has improved )

What would you advise me do? Is it a case of getting up every morning at say 8 no matter what time the night before or occasion? Once a week I have a late night out/in drinking, which I also know can disturb deep sleep (alcohol). Should I be cutting out alcohol and/or getting up at 8 in this case? I did come across something called "delayed sleep phase syndrome" (more here: http://dspsinfo.tripod.com/ if interested) that sounds similar to me but just wondering if anyone can offer some insight or maybe think of something i haven't. I have a thesis to do and trying to live a normal 9-5 schedule seems impossible at the moment!
Many thanks for reading my spiel!

Alkers

Can't help you but have a similar problem (checks what time it is!) In my case, even if I have a heavy session on a Saturday night only going to bed drunk at eight am and then sleeping till five or six pm on a Sunday, I'll stay awake all night Sunday, go to college Monday for ten am and still have the same problem on Monday night despite being very tired for most of the day.

drunkymonkey

Couldn't have wrote this better for myself... minus the waking up in the middle of the night part!

I've only recently started taking control of this problem too. I work 9-5 Monday to Friday and find it impossible to go to sleep before half 2/3 just feels so wrong and i get a boost of energy at 8/9 like you said!

The next day i can barely get out of bed , takes me a good 40 minutes to fully wake up and manage to convince myself to get out! As a result my concentration is messed up for the day and nap at 6 when i get home...(not always but once a week maybe).

What i've tried and it seems to be working very slowly is simply being very tough on yourself, choose a time to switch everything off and make it a mission to try and sleep at that time! I tried midnight last week, took 40 minutes of just laying there but fell asleep and felt better the next day, then i tried half 11, then 11 o clock, etc. Started feeling better and better mentally + physically!

Also what helps and its very obvious is get rid of all distractions around you when you go to bed, i was mostly on the laptop till 2 or 3 everynight with loads of energy in bed and thats what killed me... so i tried moving it into my kitchen at night and it helped!

Good luck with trying to change, I'm interested in hearing other peoples help!

sv650

No mention of exercise? Try going for a swim/cycle/whatever in the evening.
I'm more likely to be in bed before midnight, and less likely to lie awake for hours, if I've been swimming that evening.

thirtythirty

My housemate had this really badly. He eventually went to the doc and got sorted.

Of what i can remember, things to keep in mind are:

- No naps! I'm partial to these myself, but i dont have issues sleeping. He couldnt handle them though and that'd be the end of sleep that night!
- Try do some exercise after work in the evening - running / cycling etc. Even an hour or so. Even if your brain is still active when you go to bed, at least you'll be physically tired(ish)
- Re-assess your diet. You could be inadvertantly having too many carbohydrates and/or calories. My housemate used to have very "yellow" dinners e.g. wedges, a couple fish fingers, and maybe a kiev. But no he eats much better (cutting out a lot of freezer food and moving onto stirfrys etc) and so he doesn't get a boost of energy before bed.
- Think about your bed and whether you're *actually* comfy in it. Beds too soft or too hard will keep you awake. I also find duvets with feathers in them are much more appealing and relaxing than cotton-filled ones.
- A personal one i like, is chamomile tea. Makes me very sleepy!
- weed occasionally


That's all i can remember off the top of my head. Good luck!

drunkymonkey

You're right i completely forgot about exercise, (mainly because i havent done it in ages)

It does help a lot , it helped me but if you have one slip up and stop going you fall back into the bad sleep pattern and its very very hard to get back exercising when you only wake up fully very late at night!

That's great advice spottyelephant might try some of them!

rachel_koeman

like your already doing, dont drink lots of liquids before going to bed. the reason your still waking up is because your body is so used to waking up that it will take a few weeks to get used to not needing to go to the bathroom.

i strongly suggest not doing any of these an hour or two before bed time - playing video games and watching tv. this is because it is getting your mind going...not what you want when you wanna sleep!

i shouldn't really suggest this but if you dont feel drowsy by 11pm try taking a piriton anti-histamine, which had a drowsy effect. dont make this a habit though!

as for that, i suggest you look at what your eating and drinking throughout the day.. if you have a high sugar / caffeine intake it would be advisabe to reduce this significantly.

also, exercise is great to physically tire you out so maybe start going to the gym 3 times a week and see if that works.

one last thing - messiness in your bedroom can also stop you from sleeping so make sure your bedroom isnt too disorganised !