Sleep hygeine

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Fluffy Pomeranian

Fluffy Pomeranian

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*****disclaimer: not looking for medical advice

What kind of tricks do you guys use to help you fall asleep faster and get a good night's rest? Exercise right before bed to wear you out? Hot shower? Chamomile tea? Sex? Alcohol?

For the past month and a half (so basically right after I took step 1) my sleep-wake cycles have been totally f***ed up. It takes me hours to fall asleep til it got to the point where I would be up til 8 am and then finally get a few hours of rest til the early afternoon. The other day I started trying to sleep around midnight and was tossing and turning for hours so I got up and just watched TV and didn't fall asleep til 1 pm the next day. My basic routine has come to be going to bed between 6-8 am and waking up around 4-5 pm in the afternoon. In a way its kind of fun cause I enjoy a lot of nighttime activities, but I'm about to start rotations in a week so I need to find a way to get back on a normal schedule asap! Plus this is causing my live-in boyfriend to freak out a little lol, even though I suggested we have so much sex until I pass out from exhaustion as a method of fighting insomnia hehe.

I've heard a lot about making sure your sleep environment is conducive to a good night's rest and don't do certain things in the last couple hours before bed. What exactly does mean?

And yes, I've already seen my doc about this and I've been trying Ambien, but it still takes me a couple hours to fall asleep after taking it although it makes me feel sleepy immediately, and I end up waking back up a few hours later. And I feel like I'm hungover the next day.

So any natural remedies you guys use are welcome! I'm willing to try anything for some 😴
 
Fluffy Pomeranian said:
I've heard a lot about making sure your sleep environment is conducive to a good night's rest and don't do certain things in the last couple hours before bed. What exactly does mean?
Click to expand...

Same old crap. Nothing but sleeping or sex on the bed. Set a bed time. No reading, TV, phone, pc an hour before bed. They should all be turned off and not within arms reach. Just lie down at your set bedtime. It's gonna be boring the first few days. You might lie there a couple hours before you fall asleep. Set alarms. Make sure you wake up at a good time (the same as when you plan to start your rotations). Try not even entering your bedroom during the day.

It'll take a few days to adjust, but you should.
 
Sleep hygiene is overrated. What you need to do is associate an activity with sleep.

Grab your laptop and start watching a tv show before bed (i recommend seinfeld), sure for the first few weeks you will end up staying awake but hey you are watching seinfeld its worth being a little tired the next day. Unfortunately eventually you will start falling asleep with it on, next thing you know you fire up an episode of seinfeld and you are asleep before Kramer comes bursting through the door.
 
I had/have a lot of problems with insomnia and poor sleep schedules. It's going to sound weird but whenever I can't fall asleep, I close my eyes and count sheep. Like literally try imagining sheep jumping over a fence and counting them lol. If I stay really focused on only doing this (and not thinking about anything else) then my mind isn't racing and at some point I just pass out.
 
Half glass of lukewarm milk.
Or you just dont sleep, suck it up for the rest of the day, and hope next night is a charm.
 
1. Wash sheets regularly + sprinkle lavender essential oil on linens, pillowcases.
2. Take steamy shower right before bedtime.
3. Make certain room temperature is comfortable.
4. Read book.

Avoid television, computer, phone, any visual stimulation at least 1 hr prior to bed.

I'm sure you already know about melatonin but it gave me nightmares and others have reported the same. There are these little Dream Water shots that I've used a few times (not sure if they're doing anything to enhance my sleep) - I've seen people rave about them. They too have a bit of Melatonin. http://drinkdreamwater.com/how-it-works/directions-for-use
 
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you can try staying up a full day (don't go to sleep between 6-8 am, but instead stay up) and then go to bed at 10 pm and keep a regular schedule after that. Avoid driving etc that day you stay up. Try exposing yourself to bright light the next am immediately upon getting up.
 
michaelrack said:
you can try staying up a full day (don't go to sleep between 6-8 am, but instead stay up) and then go to bed at 10 pm and keep a regular schedule after that. Avoid driving etc that day you stay up. Try exposing yourself to bright light the next am immediately upon getting up.
Click to expand...
best advice
 
Thanks for the advice guys! 👍 I'm definitely going to try some of it.

michaelrack said:
you can try staying up a full day (don't go to sleep between 6-8 am, but instead stay up) and then go to bed at 10 pm and keep a regular schedule after that. Avoid driving etc that day you stay up. Try exposing yourself to bright light the next am immediately upon getting up.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think my mind has probably just gotten used to sleeping during the daytime. I woke up especially late today (6:30 pm eek), so I'm going to do what you said and try staying up until tomorrow night and sleeping at a decent time.

How do EM docs and other people who sometimes, but not always, work night shifts switch back and forth regularly between sleeping during the day and sleeping at night?
 
alpinism said:
Or Propofol.

What could go wrong?
Click to expand...

Jackson Juice?


Quitting sleep is like quitting smoking. Sleep is very addictive and the urge to sleep can come out of nowhere. Quitting is very hard to go cold turkey. I recommend the step down approach. Over a period of 8-12 weeks (e.g. beginning of internship) go from your usual 6 hours and every week cut back half an hour. By the end you're down to zero!
 
Law2Doc said:
Your body will sleep when you need it bad enough. Don't focus on it so much.
Click to expand...

I've been on more than a few benders and fallen into poor sleeping patterns several times. If you're starting classes soon, you need to take it in hand asap.
 
Fluffy Pomeranian said:
*****disclaimer: not looking for medical advice

What kind of tricks do you guys use to help you fall asleep faster and get a good night's rest? Exercise right before bed to wear you out? Hot shower? Chamomile tea? Sex? Alcohol?

For the past month and a half (so basically right after I took step 1) my sleep-wake cycles have been totally f***ed up. It takes me hours to fall asleep til it got to the point where I would be up til 8 am and then finally get a few hours of rest til the early afternoon. The other day I started trying to sleep around midnight and was tossing and turning for hours so I got up and just watched TV and didn't fall asleep til 1 pm the next day. My basic routine has come to be going to bed between 6-8 am and waking up around 4-5 pm in the afternoon. In a way its kind of fun cause I enjoy a lot of nighttime activities, but I'm about to start rotations in a week so I need to find a way to get back on a normal schedule asap! Plus this is causing my live-in boyfriend to freak out a little lol, even though I suggested we have so much sex until I pass out from exhaustion as a method of fighting insomnia hehe.

I've heard a lot about making sure your sleep environment is conducive to a good night's rest and don't do certain things in the last couple hours before bed. What exactly does mean?

And yes, I've already seen my doc about this and I've been trying Ambien, but it still takes me a couple hours to fall asleep after taking it although it makes me feel sleepy immediately, and I end up waking back up a few hours later. And I feel like I'm hungover the next day.

So any natural remedies you guys use are welcome! I'm willing to try anything for some 😴
Click to expand...

Time released melatonin + sleepy tea (the one I use in particular has catnip in it, go figure) works for me, every time.
 
neusu said:
Quitting sleep is like quitting smoking. Sleep is very addictive and the urge to sleep can come out of nowhere. Quitting is very hard to go cold turkey. I recommend the step down approach. Over a period of 8-12 weeks (e.g. beginning of internship) go from your usual 6 hours and every week cut back half an hour. By the end you're down to zero!
Click to expand...

Lol my goal isn't to eliminate sleep. I love it too much to ever consider that.

On another note, anyone else get the nighttime munchies?! Sometimes I find myself laying in bed looking up the menus at my favorite restaurants with my mouth watering until I just have to get up and make a snack. Everything just seems to taste better at 4 am.
 
Fluffy Pomeranian said:
Lol my goal isn't to eliminate sleep. I love it too much to ever consider that.

On another note, anyone else get the nighttime munchies?! Sometimes I find myself laying in bed looking up the menus at my favorite restaurants with my mouth watering until I just have to get up and make a snack. Everything just seems to taste better at 4 am.
Click to expand...
I associate too much guilt with nighttime eating for it to be pleasurable. 🙁
 
Okay, seriously...

-Get a schedule and STICK TO IT. Up at the same time every day. To bed at the same time every night.

-Get some ear plugs/a sleep mask if you need to block distractions that are keeping you awake. Practice meditation and deep breathing (there are 100 strategies for this--find the one that works for you).

-When you get up, do something loud (listen to Greenday on your iPhone) and turn the lights up.

-Essentially, you want to do all in your power to create a GO TO SLEEP environment and a WAKE UP environment. Be sure to enter each environment at the EXACT SAME TIME every day. Eventually your body will adjust to the schedule you are imposing on it.



BTW, this is from a chronic insomniac who spent >10 years reading articles and books with obvious statements like "don't drink coffee before bedtime", and had to create their own schedule from bits and pieces found here and there.

It doesn't work 100% of the time, but that's what Klonopin and Benadryl are for.
 
Spinach Dip said:
Okay, seriously...

-Get a schedule and STICK TO IT. Up at the same time every day. To bed at the same time every night.

-Get some ear plugs/a sleep mask if you need to block distractions that are keeping you awake. Practice meditation and deep breathing (there are 100 strategies for this--find the one that works for you).

-When you get up, do something loud (listen to Greenday on your iPhone) and turn the lights up.

-Essentially, you want to do all in your power to create a GO TO SLEEP environment and a WAKE UP environment. Be sure to enter each environment at the EXACT SAME TIME every day. Eventually your body will adjust to the schedule you are imposing on it.



BTW, this is from a chronic insomniac who spent >10 years reading articles and books with obvious statements like "don't drink coffee before bedtime", and had to create their own schedule from bits and pieces found here and there.

It doesn't work 100% of the time, but that's what Klonopin and Benadryl are for.
Click to expand...

Good advice. How do you do this though when you're on rotations and your schedule is constantly changing?
 
Seriously though guys, if you wanna keep posting, you have to tell me what your favorite late night snack is first. 😛
 
Fluffy Pomeranian said:
Good advice. How do you do this though when you're on rotations and your schedule is constantly changing?
Click to expand...

You can't. Same thing goes for Homework assignments that are due 2 days after they are assigned.

Your sleep schedule will be wrecked for days.
 
Fluffy Pomeranian said:
Lol my goal isn't to eliminate sleep. I love it too much to ever consider that.

On another note, anyone else get the nighttime munchies?! Sometimes I find myself laying in bed looking up the menus at my favorite restaurants with my mouth watering until I just have to get up and make a snack. Everything just seems to taste better at 4 am.
Click to expand...

That's because your level of leptin is low, so you don't have the hunger suppression.

Yeah, we might've just gotten a lecture on the importance of sleep in residency yesterday...
 
mvenus929 said:
That's because your level of leptin is low, so you don't have the hunger suppression.

Yeah, we might've just gotten a lecture on the importance of sleep in residency yesterday...
Click to expand...

Wow, this was seriously kind of mind-blowing.

I'm starting to get sleepy :yawn:

So what's your favorite midnight snack?
 
mvenus929 said:
That's because your level of leptin is low, so you don't have the hunger suppression.

Yeah, we might've just gotten a lecture on the importance of sleep in residency yesterday...
Click to expand...

I'm not sure that they considered the audience properly when they chose that topic. The way I remember that is that your stomach is ghrelin (growling) when you're hungry. Leptin does the opposite.
 
Melatonin is great but there's not a good standard for taking it. It doesn't act like other sleep aids. I've found that less is more. Additionally, I try to take it sublingually about 1-2 hours before bed.


If you go to the grocery store, some manufacturers will have 5 mg tablets, others are 300 or so mcg (MICROgrams).

For me, the 5 mg ones more often than lead to intense, lucid nightmares. Still get them with the lower dose but not as reliably. Upping the dose doesn't seem to make you fall asleep any faster but will add a groggy haze in the morning that one cup of coffee will do nothing against.

So my route is taking one 320 mcg (sometimes I'll half it too) sublingually 1-2 hours before bed (some recommend even earlier), usually watch an episode of Oz on HBOgo and then drift off to a podcast.
 
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