What do you do when you just can't sleep?
I'm not looking for insomnia cures, I'm just wondering what others do in the middle of the night when sleep is elusive. I woke up just before 2:30 this morning and haven't been back to sleep since then. I managed to keep myself in the bed and at least resting for nearly two hours, then gave it up and started my morning routine. I've had nights when I've watched tv, surfed the interwebs, read a book, cleaned the kitchen.... At least this time I was able to resist the urge to get up and clean a closet or something. (I suspect this sleep issue is related to one of the last questions I posted - http://deals.woot.com/questions/details/e66aa9cc-a7a9-427f-9c4a-706f3729cbeb/do-you-experience-any-strange-stress-reactions)
It depends. Sometimes I just lie there and listen to music until I start to fall asleep again. If I'm really awake, I'll go work out, or surf the web, or pull out a book to read. Lately though, my problem isn't falling asleep, it's trying to wake up!
I watch Fight Club, after the initial reason I can not sleep, I get in my head abut not having enough sleep. Watching Fight Club makes it ok to have insomnia and go crazy. (or at least makes light of it enough for me to go to sleep) ( not to mention Edward Norton's hypnotic voice over.)
Sometimes I just go to work early.
I go to a site called deals.woot.com and try to answer questions.
LOL! Three excellent answers!
@minxa1: I find that not being able to stay asleep often leads to the not being able to wake up once you DO fall asleep, strangely enough. Argh!
@caffeine_dude: Hmmm. Anyone with "caffeine" in their name probably DOES have insomnia! (Now I need to find a copy of Fight Club, although I'm not sure that would do it for me.)
@panthiest: Obviously, that's what I do, too. The bright spot is that I am able to post some of the midnight-released deals bright and early before other folks have gotten up and seen them.
< tongueincheek> Sadly I cannot give personal advice as I sleep well but my friends all seem to find complaining on Facebook that they can't sleep somewhat useful. I say this because nearly every day I see someone complain they can't sleep! < /tongueincheek>
I lay in bed and try to stay awake as hard as I can. Somehow, it works quite well. It may take a bit, but eventually your eyes will get heavy and you'll fall asleep.
I drink some of this : http://www.worldmarket.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11500120
Seems to help.
I generally make myself stay in bed for the duration. Trying to train my brain to sleep is like trying to train my dog. I can't relent and let it have what it wants (24 hours a day of useful time) or I will never get what I want (a good night's sleep). If my brain thinks it can get extra time to get things done if it wakes up early, it will do it all the time. However, when I wake up within an hour of the alarm and sleep seems elusive, I get up and enjoy a good breakfast and if the weather's nice eat it out on my deck while watching the sun come up. I have to be at work at 7am, so normally cook my breakfast and take it to work to eat at my desk (which is what I am doing right now). Being able to enjoy a relaxed sunrise breakfast is a pleasure, but not so alluring that I am going to want to wake up early every morning for it.
@hossdawg97: Valerian root doesn't work for me, unfortunately, and chamomile makes me feel ill. Warm milk is supposed to help but I have never tried it. Last night I broke all the rules for insomnia: drank caffeine after 6pm, at a heavy, spicy meal after 8pm, had sugar after 11pm. Predictably I did not have a good night. Have to behave myself tonight or my week will be a bust.
I have insomnia as well, and I usually just get a bunch of small stuff done. Get ahead on some schoolwork if I happen to have my books, clean up my email, so on. Or I'll be less productive and mess around online, but that gets pretty boring pretty fast. So I'll watch a movie or a TV show, or write or play guitar, or read...really whatever comes to mind that I can do fairly quietly.
I do my best to be productive though. In my experience, after 2 or 3am are my most solid work hours. Namely because the rest of my world is shut down, and there's nothing new to see and no one to interact with. So there's considerably less distractions at that time than there are during the day
Dirty Deeds
done dirt cheap.
I play a round of Sudoku on my iPod Touch. I rarely finish a round before falling asleep again. If I play something like Temple Run or Bejeweled, I get more awake because I'm trying to out do my last score. BTW, I use my iPod vs my tablet, because if I dose off, the iPod won't hurt me. My tablet has hit me in the face before because I dozed off.
Sometimes I learn stuff watching scripted television shows. A couple of weeks ago, on The Mentalist, Patrick Jane told someone who was having a hard time sleeping to count to two.
One - when you breathe in, two - when you breathe out. Keep counting.
It's working for me. I'm so intent on counting (1,2,1,2,1,2), that my mind isn't worrying about the not sleeping thing.
It doesn't work for my husband.
I watch How It's Made via Netflix instant streaming. Works even when I'm not tired!
@lisaviolet: I've tried similar strategies; they don't work for me. I have a VERY restless mind, so it's hard for me to not think or do minimal thinking. I can do it for a couple minutes, but then I daydream about something, or think about music or what I have to do the next day...keeping up something which should be relatively simple requires a tremendous amount of attention on my part.
Could be a similar reason as to why it doesn't work for your husband
clean or practice my mandolin
Count backwards from 1000 by 3's works everytime but I am getting much faster at it and getting closer to 0
I am the master of my domain.
I read, clean house, do laundry, etc... The last few days, I have painted my kitchen. Almost finished now. Just the cabinets left.
I Vote for better Questions...
I take melatonin, but i haven't needed it in a while
@kamikazeken: :-D You lost, too?
I try to put my computer away and lay down and watch a little tv, something kind of quiet. That usually does the trick, but then if I can't sleep, I'm up to get a snack and surfing the web again. I've tried all sorts of things my sleeping pills usually work the best, but sometimes they don't.
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