Sleep

[Tryingtodobetter]

For some reason I have been unable to sleep through a night for a while now.

 

Each night I wake up around two o'clock in the morning tossing and turning, and usually covered in sweat. Then I eventually fall asleep again, sometimes it takes a while.

 

Each morning I am unusually drowsy and have a hard time getting out of bed.

 

What can I do so that I can sleep through an entire night?  

 

Why do I keep waking up in the middle of the night?

[Cleansox]

7 minutes ago, Tryingtodobetter said:

 

What can I do so that I can sleep through an entire night?  

In general:

Get up early. 

Get a lot of outdoors time. 

Physical exercise, preferably before lunch. 

Eat regular, with no heavy meals after 19.00.

Be younger than 65.

Do 15-20 minutes of slow breathing before bedtime. 

No screen time after 20.30.

 

If that fails, search for another cause. 

[Rara]

Yes, see what you get after you try the above. Hopefully it works oit for you. I might have some other ideas as to what's up/why it might not be a serious problem otherwise...that requires more of a Q&A about your lifestyle though.

[Tryingtodobetter]

On 7/31/2020 at 7:31 PM, Rara said:

Yes, see what you get after you try the above. Hopefully it works oit for you. I might have some other ideas as to what's up/why it might not be a serious problem otherwise...that requires more of a Q&A about your lifestyle though.

 

I would like to hear your thoughts on the matter

[forestofclarity]

It depends--- there are many factors that go into the quality of sleep. There is no one size fits all. A lot of effects are due to caffeine consumption, use of electronics at or near bed, stress, mental health, use of drugs and alcohol, amount of light in the room, temperature, etc. If this is something that just started, then look and see what has changed in your day life. If this is an ongoing problem, you need to take a closer look at your life. Basically, something is disturbing your mind. 

 

Cleansox has a lot of good tips. I would add making sure the room is sufficiently dark and cool is often helpful. Don't drink caffeine 6 hours before bed and lay off of drugs and alcohol if possible. 

[Rara]

15 hours ago, Tryingtodobetter said:

 

I would like to hear your thoughts on the matter

 

Sure. I go as far as to call myself an "insomniac", but given the fact that I've always been creative, worked shifts and lived nightlife voluntarily to perform to people, it is no wonder.

 

Interestingly, when I was in China, I adopted the "lights out at 10pm" rule quite successfully. I had nothing else to do but fall into the rhythm of my school. They would get me up at 4.45 anyway, so I had no choice but to sleep those hours. When I came back, I lost my rhythm again.

 

So it depends what you do generally by day, because the structured schedule works easily enough if you're already in a routine to adhere to and there is nothing particularly to stress you.

 

If you have no routine in place, often set by say a job/family or a kung fu school, sleep cycles can get weird. A slight change in psyche due to external factors will affect you - the pandemic and its knock-on effects may well have played a role in the back of your mind. There could be some sort of anxiety buried there that you're not fully aware of.

 

Waking in the night with sweats, makes me think that it is to do with something changing in your life. Many times has this happened to me, and it persisted because I feared it would happen again, so it did, and became a routine in itself. It passed eventually, but you never know when it will. You can't really consciously change these things, it doesn't work like that.

 

So now, are you ready for controversial answer B?

 

I tried the "leaving screens alone after a certain time" thing and it never worked for me. So I started watching TV again before bed because I figured, either I'm wasting time lying around, tossing and turning, or I'm wasting time enjoying something. Watching comedies puts me in a good mood, makes me drowsy, and I can eventually go upstairs and drop off. If I wake in the night, I do the same sometimes if I'm particularly wired. If I am closer to a more godly hour, I'll start my day and just do longer taiji sessions in the morning.

 

Answer C

 

A member on this forum suggested to me recently that it could even be a cycle associated with the Chinese zodiac. Sometimes our need to sleep will differ depending in what the moon is doing. I know nothing about this sort of thing, so short of you going to see a master, I wouldn't think too much about this.

 

I like to roll with it though, because it means I care less and forgive myself for having weird sleep patterns. I can just dismiss it as a problem, and that helps my energy anyway. As long as I get everything done in my day, does it really matter?

 

So there's a few things for you to reflect on based on your lifestyle. It's hard to point in a certain direction not knowing how you live in general because it will always be different for all individuals.

Edited August 3, 2020 by Rara
I can always write more XD

[idquest]

On 30/07/2020 at 5:14 AM, Tryingtodobetter said:

For some reason I have been unable to sleep through a night for a while now.

 

Each night I wake up around two o'clock in the morning tossing and turning, and usually covered in sweat. Then I eventually fall asleep again, sometimes it takes a while.

 

Each morning I am unusually drowsy and have a hard time getting out of bed.

 

What can I do so that I can sleep through an entire night?  

 

Why do I keep waking up in the middle of the night?

 

I've had a similar experience for some years. I believe that increase in temperature of the body is a reflection of some internal processes likely caused by a digestive cycle. An indirect indication to this is how in daoism theory different internal organs become active during different 2-hours cycles of time.

 

How to deal with the situation? I practice meditation and yoga for more than one hour a day. So I decided for myself that I would make my practice + sleep = 10 hours. I need 8 hours of sleep a day and the practice could take up to 2 hours. Now I go to bed earlier and if I sleep the whole night, I practice right after I wake up in the morning. If I wake up in the middle of the night and realise I will have hard time going to sleep again, I just get up, do my practice, and after that I go back to sleep. Whether I fall asleep sooner or not is not given, but at least I don't waste my time tossing around and feeling all frustration of the situation.

[welkin]

On 7/30/2020 at 5:14 AM, Tryingtodobetter said:

For some reason I have been unable to sleep through a night for a while now.

 

Each night I wake up around two o'clock in the morning tossing and turning, and usually covered in sweat. Then I eventually fall asleep again, sometimes it takes a while.

 

Each morning I am unusually drowsy and have a hard time getting out of bed.

 

What can I do so that I can sleep through an entire night?  

 

Why do I keep waking up in the middle of the night?

 

Hope, Motivation and Purpose. Figure those things out, and everything will fall into place. And if your answer is you can't find, it search more and give yourself up to finding it. Because there's no one whom it doesn't exist for. Fixing it in a robotic manner will cause you to run in circles only to end up in the same place.