I love it because I fall asleep easier and wake up more fresh
Nah, I like to eat potato chips and shovel salt into my mouth until my lips crack in ecstacy
Everyone laughs like this is obvious, but I really struggle to do this. I'm not sure if it's an ADHD thing, but I just can't make myself go to bed at night. Extremely tired? Nah, I'd better wait until I hit a second wind. There's unimportant stuff I'd rather do.
I envy those that can just fall asleep whenever they want. It usually takes me an hour or more of laying there to finally bore myself enough to pass out.
What do you mean, unimportant? Calculating the exact scaling factor for my desktop environment to match the look on my old Thinkpad was urgent!
Yeah i WISH i could control when i sleep, but I have lifelong serious problems falling asleep. I've tried all the things people talk about - counting sheep, no screen right before bed, melatonin, meditation, exercise early in the day, etc etc. Some of them help somewhat sometimes, but so far there's no fix. Actually there was one thing that totally fixed it, which was taking zoloft. Taking it at noon everyday completely fixed my lifelong sleeping problems even though it did little to help the depression i had back then. Now that i say it, i think i should start taking it again just because it fixed my sleep so completely.
This is me. I met someone who once had a psychotic attack and told me she has weaned of to a micro-dose that helps calm her internal voice so she can fall asleep.
I convinced my doctor to try that medicine (after i underwent sleep trials) and it works really well. It's no sleeping pill, it just shuts up you internal monologue for long enough to get to sleep. It's great, it got me off my alcohol self medication. It doesn't make me feel sleepy, though, I need to remember to get to bed. But then it works.
Anyway the medicine is this one, of course check with your doctor, as I'm just a guy from the internet.
That seems like a very powerful medication with a lot of effects and side effects that you would only want to use as a last resort. Wiki says it has effects on serotonin and dopamine receptors, which are also receptors effected by zoloft, so if seroquel helps you then you might want to consider switching to zoloft. But honestly what the hell do either of us know, we're just sharing anecdotes, which is useful but shouldn't be assumed to be true.
Yup, hence me saying to consult your doctor.
I'm on 25 mg dosage, which is quite low so I don't get major side effects.
it just shuts up you internal monologue for long enough to get to sleep
Though it takes longer to achieve, it's effects go beyond just helping you sleep - regular meditation, even purely secular "mindfulness meditation" can help achieve the same, with lasting effect, and much wider implications in day to day life.
There is sometimes still an internal monologue, but it's not as powerful or overwhelming, and it's much easier to ignore or shut off.
Shout-out to all my homies who are tired all day, avoid screens before bed, read for a bit, journal, do mindful meditation, and take melatonin, but nonetheless lie in bed staring at their eyelids for 2 hours before slipping into a kind of restless unconsciousness that's too long and groggy to be a nap but too short to be a refreshing night of sleep.
I invested in my sleep this year. Bought a white noise machine, comfy percal cotton sheets, ear plugs, eye mask, mouth tape, try to go running consistently, implemented basic sleep hygiene stuff like no phone in the room, and… I still have trouble. I went on a 50km bike ride over the weekend and still had trouble. But… the reality is that it has gotten better on average after implementing all of this and fuck it, I’ll take it.
I drink a cup of coffee only once a day. It’s extra strong though. Maybe that has something to do with it. But I really love that one strong ass coffee in the morning.
Mouth tape? Is this like a sleep apnea home remedy or something? I’m now worried I’m sleeping wrong.
All I know is that I would often wake up with a dry mouth and that I was definitely breathing through it all night.
I can't enjoy a good night's sleep unless I have to force my consciousness into submission with a cocktail of 1937 Glenfiddich, Nyquil, and whatever I managed to steal from the hooker I just kicked out. Waiting until you're tired is for pussies.
For me it's a cocktail of bath salts, incense, Enya, a long soak in the tub, and the screams of whatever housepet I happen to be drowning that day.
No, I'm really bad at falling asleep at that point. I'm much better at falling asleep when I'm sorta awake and still have things I need to do before I fall asleep.
You'll find waking up on your own time instead of using an alarm clock to be better. Good luck reconfiguring your sleep schedule to allow it and still be up in time for work or whatever.
There's a school of thought that says going to bed early and waking up early to do your things has several advantages (and disadvantages ofc). There are people that wake up 2 hours early to do their homework, write their reports, play games, whatever. Doing so improves information retention, and performance as you're doing any work fully refreshed having slept on the problem(s) the night before.
It also allows for the strategy I mentioned before. Go to bed at 8, wake up at 4 and have the house to yourself without being groggy (which is almost always caused by being interrupted prior to a REM stage of sleep cycle instead of right afterwards). The issue is changing your sleep schedule. Melatonin could help with this.
Ok hear me out. I’ll have a nap and be so glad to fall asleep. But then I get to bed and I’m like nahhhhh I just keep reading or playing this game.
I gotta get better at sleep hygiene 😅
As someone who slept 13.5 hours last night. Yes, the trick is to always be extremely exhausted!
It's an artform, like perfectly baking a poo. If you time it right you can basically fall straight asleep without your brain going "hey, I just thought of something!"
I messed up last night when I hit the wall after 9 days solidly on the go - I thought the bed looked nice and a little lie on it wouldn't hurt but I still had shit to do before bed. So I dropped off but my brain kept prodding me back to near consciousness and I kept on having weird sleep paralysis/false awakening dreams - including one in which I heard a woman murder a friend outside my bedroom door but I couldn't force myself off the bed to intervene.