i did achieve some sleep last night, about 5 hours worth i'd say. more than i have in a while.

i did toss and turn for about two hours. i then got up, ate a banana, switched beds, and then upon laying back down began a light meditation. if my alarm had not gone off i probably wouldn't have woken. it's definitely getting to sleep that's the biggest issue. ugh.

A few months ago I went 45 strait hours.

After the first 20 it got to be kind of fun. :D

holy crap that sounds awful!

My ex-boss once told me "Unfinished work keeps us awake".

That was so true for me. If I ever had problem sleeping (and there were no other problems like too high room temperature or noise or something), it was related to work-related stress where I knew shit was going to hit the fan the next day when I go to work due to some unfinished work etc.

So yeah, for me the best way to get good night's sleep is to make sure I don't have much to worry about the next day, kinda like the "empty your mind" like someone else suggested.

Then again I don't seem to require that much sleep anyway. 7 hours per night is plenty for me, 6 feels quite often enough, as long as it is uninterrupted sleep. Sometimes I even use ear plugs to make sure no noise etc. wakes me up at nights.

That makes me so envious. Seven hours is not nearly enough, I'd say I need closer to nine (and if I spend a week sleeping 7-8 hours a night, I'll spend the weekend sleeping 10+ and still not feeling quite refreshed). Also I have to wear ear plugs every night or there's no hope of sleeping :(

Hah. I was just coming back to this thread to add something like that.

I heard or read the following advice somewhere a few years ago:
Concentrate on your breathing and count one - two (on breathing in - out or out - in). (Edit: Only one - two, one - two. That part is important.)
Sometimes it works for me. Other times my thoughts just keep overwhelming me.

yes! that's basically what i did last night. need to try that earlier tonight instead of at 1am.

I occasionally sleep longer than 7 hours, but very seldom more than 8 hours per night, even on weekends where nothing is stopping me from sleeping as long as I want. At the same time though, sleeping "only" 6 hours per night is pushing it for me, I probably amass a bit of "univelka" (sleep debt?) if I keep sleeping only 6 hours per night, but I normally get by with it. 5 hours per night is too little, then I can certainly feel I could have slept longer.

I know two of my relatives (around 20 years old now) who can sleep like 12 hours per night easily. Somehow it is hard for me to understand how they can stay in bed that long, sleeping.

I don't know what it is. If someone sleeps well over 8 hours per night and still feels tired, I feel there is some other reason there, like problems breathing while sleeping (sleep apnea).

P_Dawg,
My dog (energetic westie) sometimes has insomnia and wants out at all hours of the night. So I started putting him outside a couple of hours before his bed time. He runs around and pees and poops, and barks at everything in sight. Couple hours of that and he hits the hay like a brick.

So that's my advice to you. If you're feeling sleepless, go outside and run around and piss and shit and scream at everything that moves. An hour or two later, come inside and then drink some warm milk. You'll sleep like a baby.

Mmmm, I wish there were such a simple explanation, because then there'd likely be a simple cure... I don't think it's sleep apnea though.

And now I'm going to take a much needed nap..

Can nutrition affect sleep? It`s been really hard for me to fall asleep lately. I become tired at work, I don`t always eat well. I think maybe problem is because of this? If I take sleeping pills sometimes, won`t it make my body feel worse? Think to buy etizolam or something similar. I read that it is good at healing insomnia.

dunno if you read the whole topic, but i used to bodybuild (nearly went pro), and to answer your question yes nutrition absolutely does affect sleep and/or sleep quality. back when i used to start cutting a couple of months out from a competition, my sleep quality would decline every week until my off season began again as the stress on my body and mind would increase leading to a massive increase in coritsol, etc.

that said, my insomnia has greatly reduced the past three or so weeks. i made it a point stay far and away from prescription sleeping pills as they have highly addictive qualities. my insomnia this past january and february was so bad that when it peeked id be up for 3 or 4 days straight in between nights where id get 4 or so hours of very very light sleep. it was like, id be dreaming but i maintained full awareness of the fact that i was not sleeping deep. i even dreamt once that i was a guy with a sword running along a huge barrier, every so often id take a couple of swings with my sword at the barrier trying to smash through, on the other side of the barrier was the deep sleep my mind craved, but i couldn't break through. scary shit.

i honestly thought i was going to have to check myself into a psych ward, but then that wasnt an option because i have a job, house, wife, kids, etc and they all rely on me in a big way (im THE primary earner in our house) so i had to muscle through and try to hold it together for them. it got to the point that when nighttime would come, id get a massive spike in anxiety. never in my life had i experienced anything that crazy, in fact i'm still a bit traumatized from the experience.

so on march 14 i started dosing myself with cbd pills every night and then every two nights id take 50mg of diphenhydramine to essentially tranquilize myself to sleep. did that for about two and a half weeks, now i just take cbd pills on sunday nights and wednesday nights and now i get between 4 and 6.5 hours of sleep most nights (my normal sleep).

I can tell you from my experience, serious sleep deprivation can get you into a psych ward. I had a psychotic episode after just 2 days without sleep. I'm amazed that you can get through 4 days and still be yourself.

Back on topic, did you try Melissa (lemon balm)? You can brew it as tea, it has calming effect, helps you fall asleep and it's not addictive. I don't know how well this herb is known in US, but I can tell you it helped me fall asleep and feel generally less stressed on many occasions.

edit. Shit I didn't notice this thread is a necro...

yeah i did some reading on lemon balm and will give it a shot if that ever happens again. ashwagandha root taken as a supplement seemed also to help me a bit.

ill tell you what, if i didn't have a wife and 3 kids (and i job i have to be up at 6am for), i absolutely would have committed myself. my family doesn't know that though, in fact i've only recently discussed with my wife how bad it actually was. it wasn't a stress i wanted to subject them to or scare them with so i often dealt with it myself in the quiet hours of the night.

friends, coworkers, and family mentioned that i looked "uncomfortable" and that's the best way i can think to describe it... maddeningly uncomfortable. exhausted to the bone but not tired. ugh.