Sleep: Ostensibly record-keeping, mostly just whining

[usernamenumber]

Sunday Night: Went to bed at 9:30p (LONG weekend). Woke up around 2a feeling strangely hyper. Made self stay in bed for a while. Not sure how long, but non-trivial. Got back to sleep without getting up. Awoke with alarm at 8a for work.

Monday Night: Went to bed at 11:30p. Woke up around 3a feeling strangely hyper. Stayed in bed for about 30 mins. Gave up when leg started twitching uncontrollably. Got up. Wrote this post. Will probably try to do an hour or so of work, and then deduct that from my "on-task" time tomorrow (errands prevent going into office). I... think that's a reasonable thing to do?

It seems like this sort of thing is happening more frequently, but it also feels... familiar. I know I regularly have a problem with my brain waking up after way less sleep than my body needs, though rarely in the middle of the night. Could be that I'm just paying more attention to these things in terms of general patterns, though. A few days ago I recalled something I had forgotten. In high school, whenever someone asked me how I was doing, my default answer was "tired". High school. Go Team Fundamental Issues. =:(


edit: 7:30 am. Still up. Huge emotional breakdown after a streak of improvement. Spilled emo in places I'm now afraid I shouldn't have. Still trying to sleep. If I do, alarm will go off in a few hours for my therapist appointment. What the fuck, Life. What the fuck.

Comments

[lisefrac.livejournal.com]

Given how much I sleep, I've actually started keeping a log in Google Docs of how much I sleep each night, how much caffeine I drink, how much exercise I get, etc. It's been really helpful for identifying patterns - you might want to consider the same thing.

[chemicalpipit.livejournal.com]

I had trouble sleeping for the first..... 3? lol. years of college.

My mom and I made this library of things that I can do when I need to fall asleep.

Some of the more-regularly practiced ones are:
* take a hot shower at night, right before bed
* then go lay in bed and breathe deeply; MY therapist at the time said her favorite breathing is 747. Breathe in while you count to 7, hold it while you count to 4, then breathe out while you count to 7.
* get lavender products: essential oil, BPAL things, lotion....and rub it on your feet, ankles, wrists, and forehead. I put some on the tip of my nose and at the corners of my eyes so that I'm all decorated with lavender. Then breathe 747 again, and you'll smell the lavender and it'll be delicious and relaxing.
* Nowadays, I read while I do this, but I remember back in 2005/6ish, I couldn't, because then I'd have delusions/nightmares about whatever I read about. No matter what. When this happened with Beatrix Potter, I decided to just lay there and meditate.
* if you can't just lay and meditate, write or draw. This usually got enough crap out of my head so that I could then lay and meditate.
* shortly thereafter, it would be the morning, even though I didn't remember sleeping

....maybe Brad's Trouble has already tried stuff like this and it didn't work or you didn't like how it turned out;;;; but I realized I hadn't commented on the sleep thing, so here be my two cents.

In other news, I am having weird sleeping, where I shall sleep but not feel like I am getting rested. I'll wake up 2h before I need to, and then fall back asleep for 2h of really good sleep, only to have to wake up and start the day. Irk!

[usernamenumber.livejournal.com]

I have done some but not all of these things. Thank you for the list. I will try them.