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Lie still in bed

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Re: Lie still in bed

#31

Post by vinaypai »

I went through a period where I'd wake up aboud 2-3 hours after going to bed and couldn't get back to sleep for most of the night.

I used a related technique to help. I count backwards from 1000, and force myself to keep my eyes closed. It's a task that takes just enough brainpower that it's hard to do on autopilot while my mind drifts to something else. If I do wander off I just go back to counting whatever number I remember.

It's been almost totally successful in the 2 months I've been doing it.

Re: Lie still in bed

#32

Post by kaffeeringe »

nerdchum wrote: post #25

This may work for non-neurotic people but laying still in bed is when the demons in my mind come out to play and remind me of all of my problems.

Then you should take some time earlier and face the demons while you are not trying to sleep. You have to think about thing - if you don't do it at day-time, the brain will force you at night.

Re: Lie still in bed

#33

Post by siva7 »

nerdchum wrote: post #25

This may work for non-neurotic people but laying still in bed is when the demons in my mind come out to play and remind me of all of my problems.

There’s always an ipad or iphone in the bed to hush away the demons :)

Re: Lie still in bed

#34

Post by microtonal »

nerdchum wrote: post #25

This may work for non-neurotic people but laying still in bed is when the demons in my mind come out to play and remind me of all of my problems.

In my experience lying still doesn't really work, because it's a deliberate practice with a goal and your brain starts analyzing that as well. You know the inner voice that says: I am still not calming down, I am still awake.

I once read that sleep therapists sometimes give people with bad sleeping problems the opposite advice: keep your eyes slightly open and try to stay awake. Not in the sense that you should put on loud music, put lucifers between your eyelids, etc. But just lie down and don't try to fall asleep. It often works, because people let go of the goal to calm down and get asleep (which makes it hard to do exactly that), once you let go, your body does what it wants to do, calm down and sleep.

A similar approach works very well for me: just stop caring. Ensure that you are on a regular schedule for going to bed and waking up (so that you biological clock doesn't get confused), don't drink alcohol (bad sleep quality), don't do anything exciting the hours before going to bed (heated discussions on HN), and write down stuff that bothers you before going to bed. Let your body do the rest. If you are awake for some more time, then just interpret it as: my body isn't tired yet, I am just going to enjoy the cosiness of my bed.

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor/therapist.

Re: Lie still in bed

#35

Post by nick__m »

ketanmaheshwari wrote: post #26
pictur wrote: post #24

Most sleep problems cannot be solved by sitting still. You should go to the doctor, get a sleep test and look for more serious treatment methods. I wouldn't recommend wasting your time with such suggestions.

Takes 2 months to see a doctor in Canada. Maybe better to give it a shot.

Acces to a doctor appears to be quite inequal in Canada as I can log on to my doctor clinic portal and book an appointment to see my doctor in the next week. However, I live in a town with a research hospital affiliated with to an university, so maybe that help.

Re: Lie still in bed

#36

Post by Waterluvian »

eulgro wrote: post #29
Waterluvian wrote: post #14

The best kind of parody: the one you almost can’t tell is parody. My sense is that the core issue with people who actually think this way is that they lack empathy. They assume that their context is shared by everyone. So if one simple trick worked for them, it surely must work for everyone else.

Is it really parody though? I haven't read other posts of the author to be able to know. It does make sense to me. When someone tells me they can't do something the problem isn't usually that they can't, but that they don't want to. In particular I like to apply it to acts for reducing one's environmental footprint: - Want to become a vegetarian? Just stop eating meat. - Want to switch to a more environmentally frien…

It’s basically a take on “it hurts when I do this.” “Have you tried not doing that?”

But I guess if trying to sleep helped someone get to sleep… awesome!

Re: Lie still in bed

#38

Post by layer8 »

Labo333 wrote: post #11

There is an amazing trick that I now use almost every time I want to sleep: the 4-7-8 breathing method. I don't remember using it and not falling asleep in less than 5 minutes, whatever the stress I was in. https://edition.cnn.com/2022/09/16/health/4-7-8-breathing-te...

Those ratios drive my music brain crazy.

Re: Lie still in bed

#39

Post by djtango »

microtonal wrote: post #34
nerdchum wrote: post #25

This may work for non-neurotic people but laying still in bed is when the demons in my mind come out to play and remind me of all of my problems.

In my experience lying still doesn't really work, because it's a deliberate practice with a goal and your brain starts analyzing that as well. You know the inner voice that says: I am still not calming down, I am still awake. I once read that sleep therapists sometimes give people with bad sleeping problems the opposite advice: keep your eyes slightly open and try to stay awake. Not in the sense that you should put o…

This agrees with all those times I wake up a bit before my alarm rings and then I can't go back to sleep UNTIL my alarm rings and then suddenly all I want to do is drift off...

Re: Lie still in bed

#40

Post by Tijdreiziger »

siva7 wrote: post #33
nerdchum wrote: post #25

This may work for non-neurotic people but laying still in bed is when the demons in my mind come out to play and remind me of all of my problems.

There’s always an ipad or iphone in the bed to hush away the demons :)

I discovered that having my phone next to my bed makes it too easy to say ‘ah, I can’t sleep, let’s just check HN for a while’, and it also makes it too easy to turn off my alarm in the morning. I’ve started putting it at the other end of my room before sleeping, and so far the results are promising.
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