The Furry Forums
Furry Chat => Rants and Advice => Topic started by: ★Amethyst★ on August 16, 2015, 07:25:21 AM
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Since it's summer I've been slowly transitioning to being nocturnal, i. e. going to bed late and waking up late. Now though with school looming near I need to prepare to get up earlier and such. But...I just can't.
I've been trying to go to sleep around 10-11 pm but I usually end up laying in bed for a couple hours and still am not even close to falling asleep. I often end up getting back up and doing stuff/using the computer until the early hours of the morning or even stay up all night. I've tried listening to music, reading, or just counting as high as I can in my head but it's not quite working :S
You guys have any other tips on how to fall asleep easier or fixing one's sleep schedule? I'm contemplating if exercise might help with getting tired...
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I'm sure you'll hear to "Stay awake all night so you can reset your body clock"
however it doesn't really work like that... (though it can, you probably shouldn't)
You need to eat a proper meal before sleeping
you know the whole eating turkey makes you sleepy? That's because of Tryptophan, a compound in food that makes you sleepy. It's found in many foods and particularly in Dairy.
Warm up some milk in the microwave and drink that before going to sleep and you should conk out.
Something that also helps you sleep is Melatonin.
Melatonin is a hormone that is released at sunset as the sky goes red before it darkens and is responsible for making you tired.
It's effect is strengthened by red light and canceled by blue light which releases a hormone associated with waking up.
Computers and phones typically emit a blue light, so it's advised to either set red themes on your devices, or stay away from them altogether before sleep.
In summary: After dinner, try and stay away from computers and phones after it's dark. Drink some warm milk before going to sleep and aim to sleep around 8-9pm. I can also recommend dotting some lavender oil on your pillow as it also helps with drowsiness.
good luck :D
I had to do a project on this recently so I know my stuff
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im a stay up all night to reset body clock person
also everything that's digital emits light on the blue spectrum so i use gunnar optiks
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There are two methods I use to fix sleeping patterns and it all depends on time.
There's a simple formula, lets say you normally wake up at time A, and you need to wake up at time B, and you have D days until you need to wake up. If D >= B - A, then you use method 2, otherwise method 1.
Method 1: Stay up all night
It's not a nice method. For one thing, it usually won't fix your sleeping pattern "freely'. What usually happens is you stay up all night and you wake up for the correct time for THREE DAYS then, you go back to your old habit. School can be a good external force to force you to sleep in earlier but for the first week or so you'll be really tired
Method 2: Gradually
Gradually doing it is much better than going straight to 11pm. Lets say you went to bed at 4am, and want to go to bed at 11, go to bed at 4am one night, wake up at... say 12. Then go to bed at 3am the next night and wake up at 11, then 2 am and 10, etc etc etc. Being gradual makes you feel a lot better, it takes longer though and if you don't have enough time to complete your round method A is your only real solution.
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My sleep has been borked lately for various reasons so take this how you will.
If you want to avoid taking anything before sleep then try lying down in bed after dimming or darkening the lights in your room, except for perhaps a light on a nightstand or something close by. Curl up with a good book and read for half an hour. The darkness and the lying down may signal to your body that it is time to sleep and you may drift off quite easily. Needless to say, a phone or tablet will not work for this due to the light.
Failing that, you can try melatonin, which I believe has already been recommended. Failing THAT, you can try Benadryl, which always konks me right out. Both of those may leave you groggy in the morning, so be forewarned.
If you are sleeping in late, that might not be helping.
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I'm sure you'll hear to "Stay awake all night so you can reset your body clock"
however it doesn't really work like that... (though it can, you probably shouldn't)
Oh, I know that doesn't work for me. It often ends up with my body trying to make up for lost time by oversleeping, which isn't good either.
I tend to use my phone to read before I go to bed so I figure that's not helping me much. I also think that the temperature may be a factor too, since it's a little warm here. But I can just go without any blankets. All the tips seem really helpful, and it won't hurt to try the milk idea and going to sleep earlier/less phone surfing. I don't have any lavender oil but I do have some lavender scented moisturizer laying around :p
I'll keep trying and maybe give an update if I can XP
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good luck :)
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Do you eat breakfast?
If you do, there's a cool technique you can try. Fast for 14-16 hours until the time you want to have breakfast. I've used this to readjust myself when I work graveyard one week, then afternoons the next. (Works well for jatlag too.)
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I know it's been mentioned a bunch, but I too recommend melatonin, I've had sleeping problems before and it's helped a lot.