samboct
Posts: 1817
Joined: 1/17/2007 Status: offline
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Some tips on sleep hygiene from another insomniac... If not caused by something obstructing the airways, odds are the cause of insomnia is something in your noggin. Nightmares can cause insomnia- you become scared to fall asleep. Alternatively, you've got too much on your mind, and you just don't get sleepy- your mind is racing. But what it sounds like is that you're tired, but not falling asleep. Pahunkboy has given you some good tips. I'm going to expand a bit. 1) Don't use the bed for anything other than sleep or sex. This means no TV in bed. If reading before bedtime normally puts you to sleep (try a text on economics), fine- but if you're not asleep within 20 minutes or so (best estimate) get out of bed. 2) If you're not asleep-get out of bed. Don't stay in bed trying to get to sleep. You're conditioning your body to sleep when in bed. 3) Sex can work great for men, doesn't seem to have the same soporific affect on women. 4) White noise or music can help- not a radio- something like an album side or a short CD. 5) If you can't sleep and you're out of bed, reading something, or better yet, doing something physical beats watching TV or sitting in front of a computer. Some people keep a journal and write down what happened in their day. 6) Exercise during the day- preferably within a few hours of bedtime. Something that elevates the heart rate and blows some more oxygen through the brain- an evening walk is probably not enough. Calisthenics, biking, jogging (if you must) swimming, etc. all help. 7) Room temperature helps. Some people find a warm room helps nod off, I'm the other way around. 8) Recent research- if you're in bed and not sleeping- focus on staying awake. Try being a night watchman. See if you're successful. 9) Alcohol may help you fall asleep, but generally doesn't work well to keep you asleep. It can also upset your tummy. Warm milk still remains a better bet. 10 OTC stuff- try a little Benadryl with either aspirin or acetominophen. aka Tylenol PM. Caution- Benadryl can leave you with something of a sleep hangover. My grumble with any pharmaceutical sleep aid is the dependence issue- you become dependent on the stuff, then you start needing larger doses, so I tend to avoid this stuff unless I'm willing to fight off the withdrawal issues. HTH Sam
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