Can't sleep so I am listening to my system at 4 AM

[JimDog]

@ratrat

go make a cuppa tea and a slice of toast.

Caffeinated?

[JimDog]

@Analogmusic

drinking a few diet cokes to lessen my stress

Caffeinated?

[JimDog]

@AndyJ

play music to go to sleep to and if I wake up as I often do, I reach out to the iPad and put the music back on.

Just listening to this at 4:15 for the next 79 and a bit minutes.

Yawn!

Makes me sleepy.

[JimDog]

@MikeD

an early start comes naturally - coffee and a slow three-pass brush and blade shave

I shave about once a week with an old pair of hair clippers that leave me with 1 or 2mm of stubble for comfort.

I wake most nights after say 5 hours - occasionally I drift off again, but if I’ve been awake for about half an hour and get thinking I get up, quietly go downstairs, make a cup of herb sleepy uncaffienated tea, and listen to music.

The only light I turn on is a reddish lava lamp, very soothing.

After an hour or two I go back to bed, usually as my wife is getting up, put on a comfortable black sleep mask (from Amazon) and go back to sleep until my alarm wakes me.

It works well, and I love those quiet times with music.

[Jimmyblues1959]

Having suffered from sleep issues since contracting chronic Lyme Disease in 1993,
I can certainly empathize with you. At least there’s always our favorite music to keep us company into the early morning hours.

[ryder]

@Blackbird

I’ve read about smartphones disrupting sleep in many ways. The recommendation was to not look at the phone or computer the hours before going to be and not sleep with the smartphone next to you since it will “ping” your brain wondering if something happened (fear of missing out).

You can also change the color on computers and smartphone screens these days so you get a more yellow light before bedtime since the cold/blue light otherwise triggers the brain to be more active (it is more close to daylight).

And of course as always, avoid stress.

I’ve read about not using smartphones before bed several years ago and used to believe that. That may be true for some but for me that’s not the primary factor of not being able to sleep after looking at the phone. I still do that most of the time and it’s no problem.

For me, it’s mostly having a daily fixed routine of having to wake up early the next morning for work. Fortunately I’m not retired yet. During COVID, there’s no fixed routine and I had trouble sleeping and waking up early the next morning. When I’m retired, I need to manage my time diligently to avoid the same problem.

I understand everyone is different but for me, having minimum 6 hours of sleep a night would be good. I now get 6 to 6.5 hours of sleep on a good day. Rarely touching 7 these days as I’m not that young anymore. If I get 7 hours I would feel much better throughout the day. At times I only get 5 hours or less, and those were the bad days as I would not feel good both physically and mentally. Yes, sleep is important and similarly I emphatize with people who have trouble sleeping since I’ve experienced that before.

FWIW I had a nose surgery earlier last year, a procedure called septoplasty as one of the nasal cavity is much narrower than the other one. I lived with the condition for 30 years I think, and I finally went with the surgery after I felt the condition got worse. I now feel better as the breathing is slightly improved with reduced blocked or runny nose. I still have occasional runny nose but am able to manage it much better than before.

[PJL]

Now retired so no longer bound by the daily and never ending grind of the work routine I find that I sometimes don’t spend long at all in bed. Some nights just a couple of hours.
Not unusual at all for me to watch something until around 2 or 3 am, go to bed for a couple of hours and get up at 4 or 5 am. Sometimes I take a nap during the day sitting in a chair depending on how I feel. I don’t worry about it.

I’ve been known to be out on the patio at 3am sipping a brandy. I love the atmosphere at this time, so peaceful and tranquil. And lovely to see the local wildlife going about their own routines during darkness.