How do you control sleep?
- Thread starter lixluke
- Start date
spidergoat
Valued Senior Member
Do you use any substances?
Enmos
Valued Senior Member
superstring01
Moderator
I have horrible insomnia. I have for years. I've gone to every kook, quack and real doctor on earth. I've been MRI'd, EEG'ed, poked, prodded and forced to sleep overnight in a clinic. I've tried special lights. Food. Melatononin. Valerian root. Therapeutic massage. Acu-puncture and all sorts of other things. My only reasonably successful treatment is: zero-carbohydrates after 3pm. A light meal about two hours before bed and 3 miligrams of Lunesta.
So... sleeping 10-12 hours is a total fantasy for me.
~String
So... sleeping 10-12 hours is a total fantasy for me.
~String
Enmos
Valued Senior Member
Believe me, not being able to get up is no joke either.
I have that problem too. Even though I set the alarm I'll turn it off without ever really waking up, so I don't remember it going off. If I don't sleep about 10 hours at night I start to nod off during the day. The psychology department that is studying sleep at my school I asked them why I sleep so much and the guy there said my age may be a factor that many young adults actually need about 10-12 hours of sleep each day, but most don't get it. but idk :shrug: that's what he said.
I set three alarms on my cellphone.
first 30 minutes before I actually intent to wake up.
second ten minutes before...
and the intended time...
You should try to get more than six hours a night, If you sleep more the easier it gets to get up but if you give your body less sleep that the next night your body will want to sleep double. "my theory."
Why do you want to only get six hours of sleep?
Ugh, I'm the opposite. I hardly sleep - maybe 3 or 4 hours a night. Hence why I am wide awake at 3:30am diddling around on SciForums trying to find something to amuse me for the next couple hours. I bet the only other people online right now are a bunch of Aussies!
Challenger78
Valued Senior Member
Depends. Do you want to get up in the morning ?
Wow.. 10 to 12 hours ? Do you have a job ?
Damn. So I lose my sleep when I get a job. I was just getting used to that.
Yeah, pretty much, another alternative is usually visualizing or "setting the clock in your head", to wake up.
Long sleep is actually pretty good; its only harmful if you are working in shifts where you've gotta work nights. If I am assuming right, the best way to do it right is sleep early, so that you keep your sleep schedule.
Only other option is wiring yourself up with caffeine. That cannot be healthy IMHO.
Rick
Only other option is wiring yourself up with caffeine. That cannot be healthy IMHO.
Rick
Enmos
Valued Senior Member
Doesn't work one bit.
I used to wake up by planning to jump out of bed, and go for a walk. That way, I'll have my clothes and shoes ready beside my bed before I go to sleep. Then when my alarm goes off, I don't even think about it. I just put everything on, and go. I think another problem is falling asleep. I woke up at around midnight, and was up for close to 4 hours sitting in bed trying ro figure out how to go to sleep so I can get up on time.
How old are you Lix? Age plays a large factor in how much sleep your body requires. When I was a teenager, I needed to get a minimum of 10 hour a night, but 12-14 was preferable. Now I need more like about 8-12, depending on how active I was throughout the day, and other factors.
You may be fighting a battle that can't be won. I used to try with all my might to do the same thing as you, but it always ended very ugly. If your body needs 12 hours of sleep, then it needs 12 hours of sleep. You may do better to just accept this fact and learn to live with it. One thing to keep in mind is that if you force yourself up early one day, then it will just be that much harder to get up the next day, because your bidy will try to make up for the amount of sleep that was lost.
One thing to try would be to slowly shave off small increments of sleep over a period of time. Maybe start with setting your alarm to go off 11.5 hours after you go to sleep, then after a week or two of that set it to 11 hours and so on. Shaving off about a half hour each couple of weeks. Also allow yourself one day per week to sleep in as late as your body desires. I use my sunday as this day, and it is not unikely for me to sleep for 12-15 hours! But this makes it easier to loose a couple hours of sleep throughout the rest of the week.
Anyway, thats all I got for now.
You may be fighting a battle that can't be won. I used to try with all my might to do the same thing as you, but it always ended very ugly. If your body needs 12 hours of sleep, then it needs 12 hours of sleep. You may do better to just accept this fact and learn to live with it. One thing to keep in mind is that if you force yourself up early one day, then it will just be that much harder to get up the next day, because your bidy will try to make up for the amount of sleep that was lost.
One thing to try would be to slowly shave off small increments of sleep over a period of time. Maybe start with setting your alarm to go off 11.5 hours after you go to sleep, then after a week or two of that set it to 11 hours and so on. Shaving off about a half hour each couple of weeks. Also allow yourself one day per week to sleep in as late as your body desires. I use my sunday as this day, and it is not unikely for me to sleep for 12-15 hours! But this makes it easier to loose a couple hours of sleep throughout the rest of the week.
Anyway, thats all I got for now.
I set 3 alarms. One used to do, then two.. but now I need three.
I have them all set to snooze at 5 minutes and they all go off about 1 or 2 minutes apart... it's so annoying and frequent I have to wake up just to do something about it.
Plus, I deal with them by waking up around the same time everyday... it's much easier to wake up at 7:30 am if I do it everyday.
Unless your body it up to it, I would advise sleeping 7-9 hours. Sleeping 6 hours a night every night for an extended period of time is going to harm you. I"ve done it and after a few weeks, I'm paying the price by being tired everyday and nearing falling asleep mid-day with a chronic eye twitch.
Granted, I was getting through those weeks with stimulants... many days I would sleep only 4 hours.
multiple alarms work well for me. working a split shift means that 7 hours is about the most sleep i get during my days on, so i have my alarm clock next to the bed which wakes me 30 minutes before work, my cell phone on the other side of the room goes off 15 minutes later in case i turned the alarm off in my sleep, then failing that my computer gives me a full volume blast of death metal 15 minutes later which usually causes me to jump out of bed and head straight out the door.
my son is the same way. He finally put his alarm clock on the other side of his bedroom so that he has to get up out of bed and walk across the room to hit the snooze button. A few times doing that and he is wide awake.
Is your alarm clock by your bed? And I think you need one you can't tell to shut up. :bugeye:
In Soviet Russia, sleep control you.