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Can't sleep
Davoid
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I've always had sleeping problems
But now here I am, first week of college, and I've already missed 2 classes because I can't get to sleep prior to about 6 am. I was out waiting for the bus just now until I broke out in sweat, became extremely dizzy and almost vomited before I came back here to my dorm. I already went through 3 or so days of lectures and classes on about half an hour to an hour of sleep.
I just end up laying in bed all night staring at the ceiling, regardless of whenever I actually do try and get to sleep. In the past, I took advantage of this by taking a night job to do my studies and assignments all evening.
Are there any effective methods to getting to sleep?
But now here I am, first week of college, and I've already missed 2 classes because I can't get to sleep prior to about 6 am. I was out waiting for the bus just now until I broke out in sweat, became extremely dizzy and almost vomited before I came back here to my dorm. I already went through 3 or so days of lectures and classes on about half an hour to an hour of sleep.
I just end up laying in bed all night staring at the ceiling, regardless of whenever I actually do try and get to sleep. In the past, I took advantage of this by taking a night job to do my studies and assignments all evening.
Are there any effective methods to getting to sleep?
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Alcohol might be a controversial suggestion (and illegal I guess if you're underage) but if it's taken infrequently and in relatively small quantities it shouldn't have any adverse side-effects, and it doesn't have the same half-life as Benadryl, so you're less likely to wake up still feeling it. You should definitely try the first two before the third or fourth (but not both 3 and 4 together).
Also, if you don't exercise, try that, but not right before bed. I think you want at least two hours between a workout and sleep, but someone from the fitness thread would know better.
Most times what happens is if I try to sleep, the brain starts going at a million miles an hour of white noise, and I eventually get up to try and clear my head or find a textbook to read for a bit or some such.
Though if this situation persists or escalates, I probably will be.
Take a notebook, when you can't fall asleep, write down whatever you're thinking about. This is a situation I've come to notice with a few of my friends that I've recommended this too that works quite well. Their brain is going so fast trying to think of stuff and it doesn't want to forget. Writing down helps you conceptualize what you're thinking and what's bothering you, get it down on paper so you won't forget, and hopefully put your mind at ease.
Hopefully you're having the same issue with the can't sleep problem they did. I also hope it works for you.
as in I might as well have been of the walking dead.
Also, no changes in sleep, and sometimes mild bouts of psychosis.
Thus I went off them.
Edit: Thanks bowen, I will attempt this.
I don't know, lots of exercise before bed usually keeps me up longer. I'm a very easy sleeper too. Seems like it has an adrenaline effect on you, although you may crash shortly after?
Not before you sleep.
More like, during the day, a good 4 hours before you sleep.
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as does a half glass of wine, for some reason especially red wine (you can buy wine in boxes so you only have a half glass at a time instead of wasting a whole bottle) - but this is one that should be used sparingly, not every night
I also listen to music every night while falling asleep, david usher and sarah mclachlan type stuff, turned down quite low but just enough that I can hear it and it kind of distracts me from my own thoughts and makes it easier to fall asleep.
When I -really- need sleep and I'm not dozing off, I do occasionally take some herbal sleeping pills I have with valerian in them. They don't require 8 hours of sleep to work off, they basically just make you dozy for an hour or two. Again, this is not something you should be taking every night, and you may want to check with your doc about interactions between that and your anti-depressants (my brand of anti-d's is apparently fine with valerian, but st johns wort is an uber no-go)
what time are you laying down to sleep? Try going to bed earlier too, so that if it takes you 5 hours to fall asleep at least you get a little sleepytime in.
It's the chemical that tells your brain "I'm tired, I need to go to sleep." If you take one, you should be out in no time. Just don't make a habit of it (it's not as habit-forming as a lot of sleep aids, but it can still be habit-forming).
Exercising a few hours before bed and masturbating shortly before you go to bed are also good suggestions. If you find you can't get to sleep after about 15-20 minutes, don't continue to lie in bed; get up and do something. Use your bed only for sleeping; don't study, read, watch TV, or do anything else while in bed. This will condition your brain to associate the bed with sleep.
Lounge, classical, and ambient are always good choices.
Something that's helped me over the years is to have a fan running at night, for white noise. I've learned it's a lot harder for me to sleep at night without one.
It also helps to drown out any "repetitious noises" or general small noises happening around you.
There are so many other factors that could come into play here... it really is hard to say what’s up without seeing the doc. Stress, diet, exercise (or the lack there of), chemical balance, personal habits... etc.
Something that did help me was finding a group of people to discuss this with. I suppose you could call it a support group but we weren't official and didn't have meetings with cookies and punch. Although looking back I would not have complained about cookies or punch. Anyway it was just a group of guys that all had severe insomnia. We were introduced by the psych at our student health office on campus. He was treating us all and wanted us to try this. It actually helped a lot because we all understood exactly what we were going through. The one thing I've noticed about insomnia is that people who have no trouble sleeping do not even think of it as an actual condition. Most of my friends and family were apathetic or did not believe that insomnia warranted medical attention. Few people know what it is like to sleep every 48 hours.
edit: the point of that last paragraph btw was that if you would like someone to talk to shoot me a PM. I'll help anyone that asks as I have tried every solution and trick that exists.
Shogun Streams Vidya
Only if you have a nightmare. If you have a regular dream, it's incredibly vivid... Which in itself is probably just as terrifying.
That's interesting. I haven't had a nightmare since I was a kid but when I was taking melatonin I began having them every two or three nights. I don't remember any good vivid dreams but I remember some very scary shit involving rather large spiders.
Shogun Streams Vidya
Watch the caffiene and stimulant intake - I didn't start getting sensitive to caffiene until I turned twenty, and then I spent a lot of restless nights wondering what the fuck, as my diet hadn't changed; I cut out caffiene after 4pm, and suddenly i was back to 'normal' (which is still pretty lame sleepwise, but survivable.)
I had excellent results with cardio. A good long 'run' (elliptical) even in the morning makes me feel good all day and generally sleep well at night. I still have the composer's curse, which is to say if I've been thinking about something all day, inspiration will hit near drifting time and I have to get it down before it fades- but that takes us back to step one of writing stuff down.
I guess what I'm saying is don't try just one thing, try a few things, and the success rates will be more even when some of them don't work out that night.
Yeah I've noticed a lot of these are the composer's curse, however it also ends up in keeping you up just as late. Maybe this is why some people keep journals and stuff, I never really understood the appeal of them.
*shudders* I like reading zombie books beforehand. Obviously that makes for a crazy dream.
But yeah, you can find some good :winky: dreams from it. Lots of porn before you go to bed then? I dunno. Hehe.
Maybe I can get earplugs.
Or I'll just drink until I pass out.
can't you get an RA to do something about that if they're gonna be so assholish about it?
My floor was just like this last year. Stupid brohams and their dirty whore guests slamming doors and running back and forth. Then again, my RA didn't do shit, so YMMV.
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Just accept it as part of living in a dorm, be cool about it, and move on.
Did you accept their apology with a few drinks?
Did those drinks help you sleep?
maybe seeing this phenomenon will make you sleep better.
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