Are you a light sleeper?

[K.C.]

I know that working shift work at the hospital contributes to my sleep issues. Having to get up at differnt times every week makes it hard to have any normal schedule or sleep pattern. That on top of having issues is just----well it's CRAP!

 

3am shift is the worst. I get an hour nap after work (usually on my mom's couch) and then maybe an hour or two at home before going back to work. I know that If I cant get on a normal human schedule, one day it's gonna bite me big time!

[jamiiewhiite]

I'm generally a very sound sleeper. Not really light but not really deep either.

For the most part I'm lucky enough to be bless with sleeping soundly most nights. I really have no trouble at all. My head hits the pillow and I'm out until my alarm wakes me up. Generally I'm most comfortable in my own bed. But it's a whole new story if I'm in a different surroundings.

For as long as I can remember, I have always slept with a hugging pillow. I'm not really sure what's its called technically but its very comforting. Since I was little I've have always slept with one and its gives me a sense of security to be able to hug something to myself. Its supposed to be really good for you back to as well. With it, I think I've have trained myself to sleep very naturally.

Another thing you can think about is a new mattress. My parents sleep on one of those Tempurpedic mattress. My father is a firefighter so he has trouble sleeping all the time. But since we got the mattress its has really helped him out.

 

Hope this helps!

[rustle]

I know that working shift work at the hospital contributes to my sleep issues. Having to get up at differnt times every week makes it hard to have any normal schedule or sleep pattern. That on top of having issues is just----well it's CRAP!

 

3am shift is the worst. I get an hour nap after work (usually on my mom's couch) and then maybe an hour or two at home before going back to work. I know that If I cant get on a normal human schedule, one day it's gonna bite me big time!

 

 

Not getting regular exercise doesn't help, either. Now that you're out of the cast, and headed for PT, some of that'll change. Do you schedule your sleep, and then make your self go to bed without distractions? If not, try it.

 

You're too much fun to be bit, unless I get to do it!

[Cerest]

My roommate used to snore... and our room faces the streetlights. I became dependent on face masks, black opaque curtains and a study supply of ear plugs...

 

But yes, regular exercise will help you go to bed... along with certain 'frisky' activities that Michele Bachmann would frown at.

[Naptowngirl]

I'm with you. I sleep so light that REM wakes me up. lol (Rapid Eye Movement) It's like I have so much on my mind, that my mind wont shut off at nights. so like you I've gone to the doctor. He wouldn't give me sleeping pills but did give me a mild sedative that they used years ago and that didn't work. Melatonin worked for a bit...so does benadryl believe it or not. I woke up groggy when I took it so that didn't work. But funny enough a patient gave me some great advice. She asked if I drink wine, which I do...lol

 

She asked how much and how late in the evenings. I was a shame...lol but I told her, after dinner I have about 2...okay sometimes 3, one before bed. She told me to stop! there's a lot of sugar in wine and it might relax you initially but as it hits the blood stream it turns into sugar, which will and can cause you to wake up and stay awake. so here lately I've stopped my wine consumption 2 hours before I go to bed and I've found this sleep aid from Natures Own called Sleepy I take that an hour before bed and it seems to be working....They also wanted to do a Sleep Apnea study on me, but as I've mention this seem to be working so *sighs* we'll see. Good Luck to ya.

 

Kim

PS: I just saw you work shif work at the hospital, , I work at one too 5am-1:30pm which is cool but I have kids and in the summer it's the worst..going to bed when it's still light out and the kids are running around. I hear everything...them talking, flushing the toliet and the microwave door opening and closing UGHHHHH....lol I feel your pain.

[BSBooks]

I'm a deep sleeper. I hardly remember my dreams and I could sleep through a bomb going off. I'm an early to bed early to rise type of person. I find it difficult staying up late. Even as a teenager I could hardly keep my eyes open in order to watch a late film on telly. Waking up is easy despite being a deep sleeper. I often don't need an alarm. I find that you can set your own internal alarm. All you have to do is while settling down to sleep think about the time you need to be up in the morning and repeat it several times in your head (or aloud if you want). seven 'o' clock, seven 'o' clock, seven 'o' clock etc. I did that when I was younger and it always worked. I'd set the alarm just in case but I'd generally wake a few minutes before it. Nowadays I find I wake up as soon as the sun is up. My days of lazing around in bed till dinnertime have gone. I'm literally up at the crack of dawn. It's hard getting up in the winter time though. So dark and cold. Urgh!

 

Things like diet, age, drinking habits, illnesses, stress etc can affect your sleeping habits but I think most people are just hard wired to be light or deep sleepers.

[K.C.]

Update to my sleeping issues: I’ve been working really hard to get into a normal sleep pattern. It has worked a little, but not as well as I liked. Increasing my evening sleep from 1 – 1 ½ hours up to 2 or even 3 on a good night has helped my mind and body on so many levels, but the down side is the nightmare that I only had 1-2 times a year have increased! I’m having it 1-2 a week.

 

I’m still a light sleeper and wake up easily, but I’ve taken steps to try to go back to sleep quickly. I try not to get up, read, watch tv, play online…I’ve learned these breathing techniques to help me calm back down and go back to sleep.

 

I’ve also started taking a nap right after work. It’s only for 45-1hour but it helps calm me down. The less sleep I get, the crazier I get. I don’t feel like I’m pulled tight like a spring all the time

 

Thanks for all your advice!

[MJ85]

I'm a pretty sound sleeper. I usually toss and turn a bit after I lay down initially, but once I get settled, it's off to la-la land.

 

It usually takes one of three things to wake me up:

 

1) An alarm clock.

2) My natural rhythm telling me "wake up!"

3) I'm dreaming and the dream ends. It really sucks when I have a dream ended by my alarm clock though, I get that groggy feeling that makes me want to go right back to bed.

 

Things like thunderstorms don't usually wake me up unless I haven't been asleep for that long. (Which I'm grateful for - I hate lying awake in bed hearing a thunderstorm outside! )

[DragonMando]

I'm a fairly deep sleeper actually, though I've trained myself to snap awake when I hear certain sounds in my sleep: a door opening, someone saying my name, knocking, or my computer booting up to name a few. Also my alarm on my phone.

[K.C.]

Update to my sleeping issues: I’ve been working really hard to get into a normal sleep pattern. It has worked a little, but not as well as I liked. Increasing my evening sleep from 1 – 1 ½ hours up to 2 or even 3 on a good night has helped my mind and body on so many levels, but the down side is the nightmare that I only had 1-2 times a year have increased! I’m having it 1-2 a week.

 

I’m still a light sleeper and wake up easily, but I’ve taken steps to try to go back to sleep quickly. I try not to get up, read, watch tv, play online…I’ve learned these breathing techniques to help me calm back down and go back to sleep.

 

I’ve also started taking a nap right after work. It’s only for 45-1hour but it helps calm me down. The less sleep I get, the crazier I get. I don’t feel like I’m pulled tight like a spring all the time

 

Thanks for all your advice!

 

Forget the above update!

 

Work changed my schedule again so, everything that I had been working on has been shot to hell

 

Back to sleepless days and nights! Got to start a new plan

[DearRadee]

Hmmmm. Sometimes I'm a light sleeper. Being in College really made me one. My average sleeping time is about 5-6 hours and waking up always makes me cranky. hahaha

[Dannsar]

Are you a light sleeper too?

I’m always complaining about not being able to sleep. I know a lot of you have the same issues... so what do you do?

 

All I can suggest is that you get out from under my bed and get into your own. Oh, and take your hubby with you. He snores!

[Dannsar]

For the hubby issue, I can sympathise ... or at least my hubby can. He sleeps in one position all night. I rotate on a constant basis. I eventually built myself a bed wide enough to take a single and a double mattress. He's on the single, I'm on the double. Makes a great playground too

 

As for the depth of your sleep, I wouldn't worry too much. If you're not constantly tired, then there isn't a problem.

 

If you are tired, well:

 

As you know, I am autistic, with sensory hypersensitivities. Basically, I am nearly always hot. And when I'm not, I don't actually feel the cold. I used to sleep naked and it turns out that part of my sleep problem was that I was being woken up by the cold. I just didn't realise cos it doesn't register. So ... are you too hot, too cold, too ...

 

My father can't sleep with his shoulders under the covers ... but the man would sleep his life away if he had nothing else to do!

 

Noise can be a distraction, but there are ways of interfering with that. Is your bedroom very bare? Is it carpeted? Is it double glazed? A more cluttered room will absorb more sounds and they will impact less on you. If the room has hollow walls, try filling them with loft insulation, as that is a good muffler. I used to use music, but have used the radio for years now. I had a pillow speaker that I built for myself out of old pc speakers. They give you some noise, and talk radio is usually level enough not to jar at its interchanges.

 

Some other autists use white noise to block other stuff out. That may help, but be aware that it may also keep your brain working while you sleep and cut down the restfulness. However, give it a try with a radio detuned. I use my ipad under the pillow now with radio through the internet. That has helped recently.

 

I used to have one hell of a job getting to sleep. I modified a technique my mother gave me on muscle relaxation, as my problem is that I can't turm my head off. Basically, the sleep centre and the life force are located in front of the wee knob at the back of your head, though a bit deeper in. Your brain is in sort of segments, like lobes etc. I treat it as one series of modules from the top of my head in three segments going backwards on each side = 6 + the sleep/life centre. Starting at the front left segment I consciously relax it. Now, the brain is not a relaxable muscle in that way, but I think what happens is I get the sensation of relaxation from the scalp muscles. Whatever, it does also relax and distract my brain. I then work on the opposite segment and so on back to the core bit. After a couple of weeks when I started this, I found it easier to get to sleep and stay asleep. That might help you too.

 

Added to that, you need to understand that sleep is a skill not a talent. It needs to be learned. Sleep doctors talk of sleep hygiene, sleep routines, and bedrooms being for sleeping only (yeah, they're eunuchs, right!) But they do have a point. Which is why the technique above is so useful. It teaches your brain to go to sleep. So if you do wake up, eventually you will be able to get back to sleep much more easily.

 

Also think about the temperature in your bedroom. Is it too low or high. Is there sufficient oxygen, as low oxygen levels will affect your ability to stay asleep. How is your breathing? Is it good, or less good when you lie down. Is your lung function good. You can get this tested at the doctorquite easily.

 

The last thing to say is food. Everyone knows the caffeine thing, although they may not always know where it is. But changing from an evening main meal to a lunchtime one, really helped me. My body is not churning food and burning energy when I am trying to sleep. Vitamin levels are also important apparently.

 

Lecture over. Must go and edit the antho submission for winter. Boyfriend says its not as good as my last two stories. Too fluffy.

 

Me! Fluffy? Hurrumph!

[hh5]

Also think about the temperature in your bedroom. Is it too low or high. Is there sufficient oxygen, as low oxygen levels will affect your ability to stay asleep. How is your breathing? Is it good, or less good when you lie down. Is your lung function good. You can get this tested at the doctorquite easily.

 

The last thing to say is food. Everyone knows the caffeine thing, although they may not always know where it is. But changing from an evening main meal to a lunchtime one, really helped me. My body is not churning food and burning energy when I am trying to sleep. Vitamin levels are also important apparently.

 

Yaa I keep a fan running so I has air to breath ... decongenstion helps too when zertec or claritin not helping

[Robbiee]

I'm a light sleeper and can never sleep through a Thunder Storm due to the noise.

 

Also, when it comes to waking up, I almost never want to stay up the first time and end up pressing the snooze button a lot.

[johnlaw]

grr... accidentally presed the back button so I am retyping this.

 

I am a light sleeper too but here are what I did before or still doing to help me sleep well.

1. Associate the bedroom with sleep. No extracurricular activities - stop messing with all tech gadgets inside (phone, tv, tablets, radio, etc.) Sex is an exception but do it during non-sleeping hours.

2. Keep the room dark. Seal the windows. Remove blinking lights (that darn gadgets activity lights, standby lights, etc.) - though I have been able to overcome this to a certain extent.

3. Maintain at a comfortable temperature. Not to warm and not to cool.

4. Get comfortable mattress, pillows, and linens. It helps to be really relaxed. I do hug a big pillow (longer than me) - mmmm.

5. Sleep in a regular pattern even during weekends. Try to sleep and wake up at the same time if possible. Though my work prohibits me from doing it but with training, I got myself to be k.o. when I am sleepy.

6. Keep the air fresh. I have a ventilator in my room so it doesn't go stale.

 

I hope these help. I treat sleep as a very precious resource. Get grumpy and very irritated when needing to work extended hours and be sleepy.

 

Though lately I have been waking up very early and not getting my usual 8 hours of sleep, I think it has to do with a personal issue I am having at the moment. So I guess it has to be solved for me to sleep better again.

[Jason Rimbaud]

My mother thought for years that I had a sleeping disorder. Mainly because I never needed more than four or five hours of sleep each night. And it's not that I have trouble falling asleep, because I lay down around 2 in the morning and once my head hits the pillow, I am out like a light. I sleep pretty soundly until 6:30 or so. I wake up without an alarm clock and I feel rested.

 

My problem is I can't sleep with someone I don't know/trust. When I meet someone new, I always dread the first time we "spend" the night with each other. I will lay there wide awake, no matter how well I tire myself out I can not fall asleep next to a stranger. It takes me a good six months or so to really be comfortable enough with someone to sleep next to them. And even when I'm comfortable with them, I rarely sleep soundly, every movement, every noise, makes me open one eye.

 

This behavior is why I rarely even bother pretending to stay over with a one night stand. They usually think I'm just a cold hearted man but it's better for me to sleep than to try and spare their feelings.

 

Jason

[Contest4jen]

Between 1-6 im dead to the world, after or before then im like super alert and wake up at the bittiest noise

[Mark92]

I have to be up at 5am regardless of what time I go to bed. The more sleep I get, the more of a struggle I have to get going and get things done. So a couple of hours a night works the best. But once chores are done by about 11am my time is my own and I rest and write or chat. So maybe that has something to do with it. I was given a remedy once. To get extra comfy and concentrate on my breathing. So much so that you try and slow it down . it works everytime but it takes focus.

[K.C.]

I don't have as much trouble falling asleep when I actually lay down to sleep. I can't stay asleep, ever! I'm up every 10-15 minutes, that's the time span that I can stay in one place. I have to roll over and re-position after about an hour or two at the very most, I can't stand it anymore and I have to get up.

 

Some nights I can't calm my mind enought to relax but I've been trying to meditate, which is helping but I still hear everything (headphones don't work) We do have a fan on that drowns most of the other sounds out but I still wake up at the slightest sound. Thank goodness there's no traffic noise, that really makes me bonkers.