Caffeinated?
Caffeinated?
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.
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.
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.
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.
Finding this guy on YouTube was a help to me with sleep.
E.g.
I like the fact that his Wikipedia article says he was born in 1972 or 1973.
I retired six years ago, but when I was working, I always got up between 0400-0500, as usually had long journeys to get to my clients. Also as I had long work days usually got to bed after midnight.
Even now, I’m often awake during the night, so go surfing keeping up to date with what’s happening on this Forum, etc. Plus reading various News Apps.
DG…
The BBC sounds app is my way to deal with waking in the night or just not being able to sleep. Putting on some comedy or a drama and I normally drop off. I find with out something to take my mind of not sleeping my mind starts wondering why I am not sleeping and then I won’t get to sleep.
Have a listen to ‘The Sleeping Forecast’ on BBC Sounds. It’s a combination of ambient music and the Shipping Forecast. Highly effective!
This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.