Trouble sleeping.

Loneliness, Depression & Relationship Forum

Help Support Loneliness, Depression & Relationship Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
B

Bella

Guest
I'm sure there are people here who have difficulty sleeping. It tends to come hand in hand with the various types of emotional hardships many people are afflicted with.
Do you have any rituals before bedtime?
Do you know anything that definitely improves quality and duration of sleep?
Or do you just want to talk about what you've tried or how inconvenient your insomnia is?

Discuss.
 
I don't have nearly as much trouble as I used to. *Looks for something made of wood to touch D:
I find progressive muscle relaxation to be really helpful. I believe sometimes, I fall asleep without even finishing all of the muscle groups. Basically what it is, is the act of purposely tensing and releasing muscles. Starting from your face and gradually doing these actions with every muscle group in your body. It's been proven that if muscles are purposely tensed, when you release them they're more relaxed than they were before you tensed them at all.

Another thing that has always been semi-comforting to me is noise. I've slept with the some kind of audio stimulation ever since I started having extreme difficulty sleeping 9-ish years ago. I don't really enjoy leaving the TV on (phone sex infomercials are really lame) so I have innocent sitcoms on DVD loop all night on my laptop. It has to be something totally innocent and pleasant or else my thoughts will wander. I try to hang on every word the people say in dialogue until I fall asleep, so I don't...think too much.

Yeah D:
 
I've had bouts of sleeplessness for a long time now that come and go, some periods of time I really just don't sleep, I just lay there and consciously think for 8 hours, luckily I'm not in one of those right now. It is terribly inconvenient when you have to wake up and take a test or final the next morning, I'll worry about the test, so I won't sleep, then I'll worry about not sleeping and it goes on and on, it's a vicious cycle:p

I've found that reading right before bed helps a lot. People say that going to bed at the same time every night helps, but in college with a roommate that likes to stay up all night, that never really happens not that I haven't tried it, so it may work idk
 
I also like to have the tv on. For me it doesn't really matter what is on while I'm sleeping as long as it's something that isn't totally annoying while I'm trying to fall asleep.

I also try to stay up until I just can't keep my eyes open anymore. I work until almost midnight and so will stay up afterwards until I get to that point. (besides just needing to "wind down" after work.)
 
Some nights sleep comes easier than others, but I usually have moderate difficulty these days. I may need a new mattress. That could be part of it because mine is getting uncomfortable.

It's an issue of finding a comfortable position initially, then after that I'll know if I'm going to have further trouble or not. The first thing I do is figure out if I need one pillow on a given night, or two. I start with two and remove one after about five minutes and sometimes that'll be more comfortable.

After that it's a matter of getting my mind to shut down. I have this bad habit of constantly mulling over whatever problems I have while I'm trying to sleep. I feel like if I stop thinking about them I won't get past them.

I've read some articles that say you should do nothing in your bed room except sleep, because if you use it for anything else you train your mind out of the line of thought that you're supposed to sleep there. I think that might be part of my problem. I've had this issue of not being able to stop thinking for so long it sort of has this double effect. Plus I used to (and sometimes still do) read a lot in bed.

I should start reading before bed again...that makes sleep a bit easier.
 
punisher said:
im just leaving the link on my sig here, thats all :D

Punisher...

This could be viewed as flaming. It's likely a good idea, NOT to post, just to "leave your signature" when you know it will start a fight. Please.
 
punisher said:
EveWasFramed said:
punisher said:
im just leaving the link on my sig here, thats all :D

Punisher...

This could be viewed as flaming. It's likely a good idea, NOT to post, just to "leave your signature" when you know it will start a fight. Please.

sorry evewasframed, i'll delete it now.


Bless you!!!! ((hug))
 
lol just take a mild sedative before i go to sleep then it's not so hard

reading also helps,

also taking a hot shower before you go to sleep is a great way o calm your body down, if you go from a hot enviroment to a cooler one like when you step out of the shower your body will ussally become drowsy
 
I think this is a great topic. Several years ago I bought several books on the subject and have yet to read them.
 
Thanks Skorian.
And Eve, I didn't see what he wrote, but I appreciate you asking him to remove it. We obviously have had differences, so you didn't have to do that, but you did. Thanks.

Part of the reason I keep some kind of television show on is so that I focus on every word they're saying instead of having my own independent thoughts.

Brian, I've totally heard that too. That you need to train yourself to view your room, specifically your bed, as JUST for sleeping. A few months ago I used to sit on my bed just to surf the internet and do designing on my laptop. That was bad. I lost the whole "okay, I'm on my bed, that means SLEEP time" logic. I'm regaining it now, slowly.
 
Have you ever just tried a fan instead? Something called white noise.
 
Good thoughts. All things I have tried and considered.

For me, sleeping with the tv on helps me fall asleep within minutes, when naturally it can take me up to an hour (because it distracts me from my own endless uncontrolled thoughts, as was already mentioned). Yet though it helps me fall asleep more easily, it puts me there in a more coma-like trance, and it makes me more prone to nightmares and sudden disruption in the middle of my sleep.

I do have the best quality sleep when I shut off all electronic things around me for at least a half hour before sleep time. Now I read a book (though I used to say I didn't have time, I now recognize how this is an important part of my life - and I think we all would all benefit from taking a little time, just a few pages a day sometimes, to go off into fictional worlds). I have also benefitted greatly from do muscle relaxation meditation to get me to sleep. I am starting to have some of the best sleeps yet, but ...

I am someone who is plagued with severely traumatic sleep phenomena. I regularly have sleep paralyses in some form, like every other night it seems, and it may be every night but I don't always remember. Typically the compellingly real-seeming nightmare is of someone or some supernatural entity, that comes upon or into my body, when I'm just sitting or lying, trying to relax or get some sleep. The violating entity drifts over me and takes over my soul, even while I lie there protesting. I cannot move, I cannot breathe, and I am overcome with sheer horror. After a few minutes that feel like hours, the hallucination ends, and I can gradually calm my heart down and fall asleep for the next cycle or two until restless morning. The intensity and realness is overwhelming. Throughout my life, I have been visited by demons, alien creatures, and the devil himself, sometimes with the disturbing feeling of being raped by them. I have 'heard' (more like experienced in the pit of my being) their voices, and felt their deathly cold grips.

I have been having these sleep disturbances for longer than I can remember, so I have come to discover I am not alone, but it is still a total mystery as to what is happening. Thus I have come to 'get used' to it. But I still crave without hope to be able to sleep peacefully so I can be as energetic and productive as possible in my waking life. I am resigned to believing that the intensity with which I experience my waking life makes it necessary to have these equally intense dreams, and that all this must be for some reason, it must be my brain helping me somehow to face and to ultimately manage all these thoughts and feelings. I think these hallucinations come because I am becoming mindful of the deepest, darkest, weakest part of myself, and learning to overcome the king of all my fears, that there is someone or something that can simply find me and take away my entire existence, my entire soul from me, and I can't do anything about it. I feel like I am ever so slowly becoming stronger, even in the face of the paraylsis and feeling of terror. I feel like everything is starting to change, and maybe I am finally growing past these sleep disturbances. Maybe it's joining this forum, but it could also be a lot of coinciding factors in my life. I will keep on trying so that one day, I will be able to get away.

One thing I discovered early on is that falling asleep on sofa or with tv on would make the sleep paralyses come more frequently and with greater intensity. The most effective thing I found is a technique I have all but mastered over the last few years: I am now able to induce an out of body experience just as it starts to happen, in which my mind/body/soul kinda rolls out of me and flies off out of the way of danger, just in time. I feel free and safe afterward, but I am still angry that I have to go through this escapism. I want to be able to tackle, face on, whatever is trying to take my peace away from me, and stop it before the paralysis even begins, and stay with my 'true' body as long as I am alive.

Last night, I had some milder paralyses at the end of my first series of sleep cycles, which I got away from by flying away. Woo hoo! But then, toward my mid-to-late cycles, I had a really intense one, more intense than I've had in a long time, and I could not get away from this one no matter how hard I tried. For the first time I dreamt it was a big black rectangle (kinda like the Acme 'holes' in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", but as big as an empty doorway), that drifted over from the wall and possessed me, taking over my mind. When I first saw the rectangle in my bedroom, I knew it signified the presence of evil. It was a waking dream, because I was conscious in my bed, but I was paralyzed and helpless. I felt like maybe if I could be strong enough somehow I could save myself, like I always try to do, but this time it was as if I could not think positively enough to escape my body in time, before my worst fear came true. The evil rectangle drifted over and possessed me. It may sound almost funny, but it was really terrifying. As the black rectangle was possessing me, I was overcome with endless disturbing images of torture, assault and violation, my synapses all seemed to be firing at a maximum, my neural networks becoming chaotic; it felt like I was dying by electrocution, with tingling throughout my body. I was screaming. I usually start screaming toward the end cuz I can't help it, until it all suddenly stops. It was worse because I was alone in my home. This one was so bad, I was actually still screaming until right after the dream ended, and actually heard myself screaming for real once I was finally lying safely alone in my real room. I thought for sure i disturbed the neighbors. In fact, I thought I heard a thump right then, like maybe they were telling me to shut up.

I would love to hear if anyone has similar experiences.
 
mr. insomniac is here!

no rituals except i can't sleep facing upwards :(

i probably have 1 of the worst abilities of getting to sleep, i have to be up at least 7 hours but i can have an hour...it suuuucks.


i get rly bad when i'm alone though...cause then i get depressed
 
I have trouble sleeping if I'm stress. It's not chornic.
If i can't sleep for a couple of days...I simply don't fight it...I'll just
stay up for a couple of days. Then I'll eventaully get tired.

I sleep like a baby most of the time, now.
I had to get right with myself and get right with others..
bascailly make amends to people I've hurt so I don't have feelings of guilt and shame
running through me mind...especailly if I'm trying to sleep

I used to fall asleep with heavy metal blasting.
It sort of drown out the noise in my head...lol
When I used to get drunk...I really had to crank up the volume.lol
Or drink and get totally wasted until I pass out.
The **** buzz sound going in my head.


I've learnd how to meditate over the years.
The first thing in my meditations excersize is to just be an observer of my thoughts.
I don't latch on to them or don't put any meanings or vaules to them. I just let go of them.
Bacailly I do the samething before as I slumber...just let my thoughts go.
well...I went through a bit of truama in my life. Meditation helps me in these area.

I try not to hang out in my bed room...only use it for sleeping.
I also meditate to clear my mind before bed time.
Bascailly just getting still and emptying out my mind before bed time.
I'm not trying to be all holy or float on air..lmao

I take a hot bath or shower before bed time.
I also journal before bed time, this also take thoughts out of my head.
I also excersize regularly.
I don't drink soda regularly.
I also stopped drinking alcohol and using drugs a long time ago...that really helps.
I live in a quite nieghborhood ,that helps too.
 
I've always had trouble sleeping. From all the sleeping disorders I had as a kid, to the bizarre minute amounts I live off of as an adult.

Never been a fan of shut eye, I guess.
 
Bella said:
Fans give me the sniffles.

If it's just the noise that helps you sleep you don't need the fan to point anywhere near you. Put it on the floor in the corner facing the wall. Or even in the closet with the door ajar just enough that you can hear it if there's room for it to not get into clothes or something. Or maybe soft music would work.


I've heard about using your bed for just sleep too. And it makes sense. But the time I heard it they said for just sleep and one other activity that also normally happens in bed.
 
Just some further thoughts.

I think part of my problem is that sometimes I have to take sleep where I can get it. A lot of times I'll have difficulty falling asleep one night, so I'll only end up with 4 or 5 hours. I can operate on that fine, 5-6 is my norm...but often when I get to work and hop in Boss's work rig, I'll nap on the way to the job (much to his chagrin, because he too wishes he could nap). I actually hate jobs that are close to his house because I can't get my nap in or have time to wake up. I think that might effect my circadian rhythms.

Also, on otherwise nice days when Boss is tired and we're having a miserable time of it (or if it's raining enough to make us hide in the truck like little girly men :p), we are known to nap at work. Sometimes I'll also take a brief nap when I just get home. And, come time for heavy winter snow, it's about a month of work-work-work as much as humanly possible...so I grab shut-eye where possible.

So it's sort of a vicious cycle I guess. A culmination of lots of different factors.
 
wow to everything you said.
and to your signature; i think you certainly came and saw, and your words helped me kick the whole ass of the doubt of it being possible for me or any one to achieve and to maintain a STATE OF PEACE (OR OF EMERGENCY - like in Bjork song). i understand where my peace comes from; yet i still struggle with myself to feel completely honest with myself about how i would like to respond to certain situations. that inner battle is what pushes the initial suffocation that comes from sleeping on my back get pushed along a spiral into the paralyzed hallucinogogic state. but in the same moment of total death, i am also overwhelmed with all knowing of being on my path back to that place. i am sure those intense experiences in dreams really are rational re-expressions of my reactions to things happening in my life. time to get up and face it for real. i have proof all around to believe in my power, my strength, to build my inner peace all around me.
happy sleeps sweet friends
 

Latest posts

Back
Top