Sleep - The inability of. Discuss.

[Lardyboy]

Why can't I get to sleep? It's not like I've drunk double espressos all day, it's not that I've been taking it easy at work, it's not as if I haven't been out on the bike this evening. So why can't I get to sleep!

 

[Brains]

or if you do get to sleep, geting up at 4am because you are wide awake, knowing that I'll fall asleep at about 7am just before the alarm goes off

 

[Moose]

You probably think too much.

If you have a lot on your mind, it'll keep you awake - it doesn't even have to be important stuff. If your mind is active, you will find it difficult to get to sleep.

 

[Globalti]

I have just spent an entire night awake. I'm stuck "in transit" in a hotel in Addis because I missed my connection to Khartoum last night. The pillow was hard and too thick and everything was wrong. I tried listening to music but that didn't work. Didn't start drifting off until around 6 when I made a conscious effort to relax my jaw and then got awoken at 8 by the chambermaid.

 

[cchapman]

It's four in the morning. You can feel every little wrinkle in the sheets. You know the alarm's going off at 8 and you know you're going to sleep right through it, or arrive at the meeting looking like someone who hasn't slept all night.
Solution: Get up and do housework. After ten minutes you'll start thinkinking how tired you are, switch off the vacuum cleaner, and fall back into the bed.

Works for me every time..

 

[Keith Oates]

I usually get up and go onto the computer, after an hour the eyes lids start to droop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[papercorn2000]

If I were at home, I would post a link to Faithless' Insomnia video.

Why don't you have a fiddle? Even if you don't drop off afterwards, you'll have done something constructive and you'll feel happy.

 

[beanzontoast]

Not being funny, but could try getting up earlier in the morning for a few days. I am up before 5 every day for work nowadays and have no problem getting to sleep at night. Strangely, it's the same at weekends, even though I enjoy a bit of a lie-in then.

This wasn't the case when I was in a 9-5 job. Used to have real problems getting to sleep including whole nights where I just gave up, got up and pottered around the house.

 

[tyred]

It is probably a question of having something on your mind. I tend to struggle to switch off my brain when I go to bed and it does make it difficult to get to sleep at times.

 

[cchapman]

Why don't you have a fiddle?

Make sure you don't wake the wife though. If you're doing it in the bathroom in front of the mirror and she wakes as you're moang and calling out your name have a cup handy and an explanation ready.

 

[Night Train]

My days seem to be perpetually slipping around the clock, falling asleep later and waking later. I need a 26 hour day to bring it all back again.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Take a look on the BBC's homepage, there's some stuff about sleep there....
This I got from one of the links and may help.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sleep/articles/advicetips.shtml

 

[beanzontoast]

I have read bits of the same half page of a book for three nights now - haven't managed to reach the bottom before I've started nodding off and had to give up. And it's not a bad book - just can't concentrate on it when I'm really tired.

 

[BigonaBianchi]

do you spend a long time at the PC? I think there is a relationship between PC use and sleep...the longer you are glued to the screen the less you sleep...well thats my theory anyway.

 

[beanzontoast]

do you spend a long time at the PC? I think there is a relationship between PC use and sleep...the longer you are glued to the screen the less you sleep...well thats my theory anyway.

I think there's something in that. Same with games consoles - if you've been concentrating on them for a length of time before trying to go to sleep, I think it's harder for your brain to switch off.