I've seen a couple of threads lately about fellow members with fucked up sleeping patterns, and wanting a change. I myself have been dealing with for almost all my life, however I've been slowly fixing this and to my amazement, it works wonders.
Alot of good advice given in those threads, I'm here to share the way I do it.
1. Sleep Early
This is probably the hardest part, which is why I'm addressing it first. You need to go to bed early, before 9pm or 10pm. When you start doing this you might find falling asleep to become incredibly hard. This is because you need to adjust and change your sleeping pattern, which is exactly what you are doing in this step.
Even if you roll over bed for 3 hours trying to sleep, you eventually will. If you make good practice of going early to bed for a month, this problem will dissapear. And you will notice that if you are still awake by 11pm-12pm you will feel tired and wanting to go to sleep. This is because you have changed your sleep pattern for the better.
2. Remove Distractions that interfere with #1
If you have computer with internet in the same room that you sleep, you will have an incredible hard time achieving step #1. I don't blame you, many nights I tell myself I'll go to sleep after watching another episode, reading and posting more at RooshV, watching youtube, downloading music, you name it.
Having internet and a computer interfering with step #1 is fatal, if you don't go to sleep early, even after you turn off your computer. Your brain will still be very active from all the previous activity you did, which will make falling asleep incredibly hard and frustrating.
Solution: Get rid of it. Put your computer (or whatever the distraction is) in another room where you don't sleep, and leave it there. You need to train your subconcious to recognize that the room where you sleep is for peaceful rest, not long nights of insomnia.
If you need to use the computer/TV, go to the new room where it should be located, and use it there only.
3. Don't Eat Late
Don't eat large meals late. Remember, you should be going early to bed. Going to bed with a full stomach is not good for you, and might make falling asleep a little harder.
However, I almost always take a bottle of cold water to my room in case I get thirsty. Just be sure to piss it before going to sleep, you don't want your precious sleep to be interrupted by going to the bathroom late after.
Recommendation: I have experimented with taking a glass of milk combined with honey and vanilla to be very relaxing and soothing for sleep. It is said that it improves your dreaming experience, you might want to give it a try.
4. Adjust Noise and Illumination
The noise and type of illumination present in the room can affect your sleep. This can vary for each individual, some might want to sleep in complete darkness, which can be great, others might want to have a lamp with dim color light, which can be very relaxing as well.
This is what I do: I put on my sleep playlist from my iPod. My playlist is composed mainly by Chill Out music, New Age, and Jazz. Check out Cafe del Mar and Enya. I place my iPod a little far from my bed, with enough volume for me to listen to the music, and enough low volume for it to don't complicate my falling-asleep process. Choose your music wisely, I love metal and hard rock, but lets be real here, I don't think you will have an easier time falling asleep that way.
SleepMachine is a great app for iOS that includes many ambient and nature sounds if you rather use that.
Remember to have your playlist on repeat-all, and your device charging. I'm telling you, the feeling of waking up with the music that helped you fall asleep is incredibly relaxing, and helps you start your new day with a positive attitude.
NOTE: DO NOT sleep with headphones. It makes sleeping harder, uncomfortable and its hard to control good sleep volume. Not to mention that you can damage your headphones like this.
Regarding Illumination, I like to sleep with as much darkness as possible, pitch black. However, I'm thinking on buying a nice red/orange colored Lava Lamp and experiment with it.
5. Sleeping Position
This is very important. The way you sleep will affect how pleasant and productive your sleep will be. Bad sleeping positions can harm your body.
Good sleeping positions:
It is said that a healthy amount of sleep should be at least 8 hours. For some people, this is too little. Be sure to get between 8-10 hours of good sleep.
If you do this by going to bed early, you shouldn't be having problems waking up with alarm. Neither should you be putting the alarm far away for you to get up and turn it off.
Recommendation: Set your alarm to trigger 20 minutes before normal time. If you are still too sleepy when the first sound triggers, snooze it for 10 minutes. If you are still too sleepy for the second alarm, snooze it again for 10 minutes. By the third alarm you should be getting your lazy ass up. This will train your brain to recognize the amount of snoozes you are making, even if you are barely awake when doing so. When your brain hears and recognizes the 3rd sound, it will alert you that you need to get up or you'll be in deep trouble.
Alot of good advice given in those threads, I'm here to share the way I do it.
1. Sleep Early
This is probably the hardest part, which is why I'm addressing it first. You need to go to bed early, before 9pm or 10pm. When you start doing this you might find falling asleep to become incredibly hard. This is because you need to adjust and change your sleeping pattern, which is exactly what you are doing in this step.
Even if you roll over bed for 3 hours trying to sleep, you eventually will. If you make good practice of going early to bed for a month, this problem will dissapear. And you will notice that if you are still awake by 11pm-12pm you will feel tired and wanting to go to sleep. This is because you have changed your sleep pattern for the better.
2. Remove Distractions that interfere with #1
If you have computer with internet in the same room that you sleep, you will have an incredible hard time achieving step #1. I don't blame you, many nights I tell myself I'll go to sleep after watching another episode, reading and posting more at RooshV, watching youtube, downloading music, you name it.
Having internet and a computer interfering with step #1 is fatal, if you don't go to sleep early, even after you turn off your computer. Your brain will still be very active from all the previous activity you did, which will make falling asleep incredibly hard and frustrating.
Solution: Get rid of it. Put your computer (or whatever the distraction is) in another room where you don't sleep, and leave it there. You need to train your subconcious to recognize that the room where you sleep is for peaceful rest, not long nights of insomnia.
If you need to use the computer/TV, go to the new room where it should be located, and use it there only.
3. Don't Eat Late
Don't eat large meals late. Remember, you should be going early to bed. Going to bed with a full stomach is not good for you, and might make falling asleep a little harder.
However, I almost always take a bottle of cold water to my room in case I get thirsty. Just be sure to piss it before going to sleep, you don't want your precious sleep to be interrupted by going to the bathroom late after.
Recommendation: I have experimented with taking a glass of milk combined with honey and vanilla to be very relaxing and soothing for sleep. It is said that it improves your dreaming experience, you might want to give it a try.
4. Adjust Noise and Illumination
The noise and type of illumination present in the room can affect your sleep. This can vary for each individual, some might want to sleep in complete darkness, which can be great, others might want to have a lamp with dim color light, which can be very relaxing as well.
This is what I do: I put on my sleep playlist from my iPod. My playlist is composed mainly by Chill Out music, New Age, and Jazz. Check out Cafe del Mar and Enya. I place my iPod a little far from my bed, with enough volume for me to listen to the music, and enough low volume for it to don't complicate my falling-asleep process. Choose your music wisely, I love metal and hard rock, but lets be real here, I don't think you will have an easier time falling asleep that way.
SleepMachine is a great app for iOS that includes many ambient and nature sounds if you rather use that.
Remember to have your playlist on repeat-all, and your device charging. I'm telling you, the feeling of waking up with the music that helped you fall asleep is incredibly relaxing, and helps you start your new day with a positive attitude.
NOTE: DO NOT sleep with headphones. It makes sleeping harder, uncomfortable and its hard to control good sleep volume. Not to mention that you can damage your headphones like this.
Regarding Illumination, I like to sleep with as much darkness as possible, pitch black. However, I'm thinking on buying a nice red/orange colored Lava Lamp and experiment with it.
5. Sleeping Position
This is very important. The way you sleep will affect how pleasant and productive your sleep will be. Bad sleeping positions can harm your body.
Good sleeping positions:
- Laying on back, facing up.
- Laying on the side, facing sides. Use pillow between your legs if you need more comfort.
- Body facing down, head turned facing sides.
- Fetal positions
It is said that a healthy amount of sleep should be at least 8 hours. For some people, this is too little. Be sure to get between 8-10 hours of good sleep.
If you do this by going to bed early, you shouldn't be having problems waking up with alarm. Neither should you be putting the alarm far away for you to get up and turn it off.
Recommendation: Set your alarm to trigger 20 minutes before normal time. If you are still too sleepy when the first sound triggers, snooze it for 10 minutes. If you are still too sleepy for the second alarm, snooze it again for 10 minutes. By the third alarm you should be getting your lazy ass up. This will train your brain to recognize the amount of snoozes you are making, even if you are barely awake when doing so. When your brain hears and recognizes the 3rd sound, it will alert you that you need to get up or you'll be in deep trouble.
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This is it. I think I have covered pretty much everything I take in consideration for my good sleep. I will be sharing more new good sleeping music if I find any. If you have any I would appreciate you sharing it.
