Are You a Good Sleeper?

Posted by: GraemeH on 18 May 2015

Prompted by Dayjay's comment on another thread where he notes a poor night's sleep I'd add that my own nocturnal restlessness is almost guaranteed these days. Have not had a good solid seven or eight hours for as long as I can remember.

 

Any hints and tips folks?

 

G

Posted on: 23 May 2015 by Kiwi cat
Just a note re CPAP and OSA. You do not need to have a neck the circumference of Jabba the Hutt to get OSA.   You can have OSA if slim due to the shape of your jaw or tongue or nasal airway. So if you are tired in the day still consider OSA.

Also if you are having issues sleeping, just use the bed for shagging or sleeping. Best not to read or watch TV in bed as then it becomes associated with being awake.

If you watch screens such as tv computers and tablets just before bed, they can keep you awake due to the blue light affecting your circadian rhythms. I think there is an app that can be used to decrease blue light from computers. Failing that, wearing cheap Amber coloured blue blocking glasses can filter out the blue light.

If you are lying awake at night, for more than 30 minutes it is best to get out of bed and read a book until tired, then go back to bed. This way bed is not associated with sleeplessness.

Also it really is best to avoid caffeinated drinks after 4pm as caffeine can affect sleep.

Otherwise there is lots of excellent advice on the posts above.

I'm off to bed. Hopefully New Zealand will get past 500 tonight!
Posted on: 24 May 2015 by Ebor

+1 for no alcohol for a good few hours before bed. I'm 41, and since my mid-thirties I've had to progressively rein in my liking for a glass or two in the later hours since I managed to identify it the cause of me to falling asleep quickly but waking up reliably around 3am and being unable to get back to sleep until 5. Total pain in the speaker outputs, but it turns out that being grumpy about it doesn't stop it happening. So, no booze for me after 8pm and I can usually rely on a very solid night's shuteye.

 

On the matter of screen-time before bed, this has indeed been shown to be a factor in poor sleep patterns, but it seems to be only self-luminous screens that are the problem, so Kindles or anything else you can't read with the lights off should be fine. The problem's thought to be due to the high proportion of blue light in self-luminous screens making your brain's internal clock reset itself to an earlier hour. When subjects were given orange-tinted specs to look at their screens with before bed, it didn't cause as much of a problem.

 

Interestingly, TV watching hasn't been found to be anything like as much of a problem in the studies I've read - thought to be related to the viewing distance.

 

Mark

Posted on: 24 May 2015 by GraemeH

Most illuminating Ebor!

 

Thanks,

 

G

Posted on: 25 May 2015 by Kevin-W

I've always been a terrible sleeper, and as I get older it gets worse. Last night I didn't get off until about 5AM, and the night before, 6AM. It doesn't help when one consistently wakes up at 9AM. I am completely knackered today, unsurprisingly enough.

 

I actually find that either a brisk walk (although walking around London at 4AM sometimes means being stopped by the Plod ) or laying on the sofa watching some non-taxing telly helps me get to sleep eventually. The worst thing to do is just lay there tossing and turning.

Posted on: 28 May 2015 by dayjay

It's 02:49, so I guess the answer is no!  Doesn't help that I have raging man flu too.  So a little quiet music and a cup of tea and I will have another attempt to drift off in an hour or so.

Posted on: 28 May 2015 by joerand
Originally Posted by dayjay:

Doesn't help that I have raging man flu

Man flu, that's a new one on me. I first took it to be some sort of euphemism that might be found in the urban dictionary .

 

Then I googled it;

Man flu is a pejoratively used phrase that refers to the idea that men, when they have a cold, exaggerate and claim they have the flu. Whilst a commonly used phrase in the UK and Ireland, it is referred to in other cultures and there is a continuing discussion over the scientific basis for the phrase.

 

Hope you get better dayjay.

 

 

Posted on: 28 May 2015 by Steve J

I guess that I just have bog standard flu as my wife has it too. 

Posted on: 29 May 2015 by dayjay
Originally Posted by joerand:
Originally Posted by dayjay:

Doesn't help that I have raging man flu

Man flu, that's a new one on me. I first took it to be some sort of euphemism that might be found in the urban dictionary .

 

Then I googled it;

Man flu is a pejoratively used phrase that refers to the idea that men, when they have a cold, exaggerate and claim they have the flu. Whilst a commonly used phrase in the UK and Ireland, it is referred to in other cultures and there is a continuing discussion over the scientific basis for the phrase.

 

Hope you get better dayjay.

 

 

I hadn't realised it was a local term, interesting, but I can see it catching on as its a very useful one.  Many thanks, I'm sure a few days of complaining and sulking will see me right   Steve, hope you, and  the wife, get well soon too. You're lucky though, well known fact that man flu is worse than the standard form