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Your sleep patterns?

LindaC781

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Do you typically get 8 hours of sleep a night, sometimes 6 and then occasionally 13 hours? I just got up from 13 hours of sleep! LOL!

What is your sleep pattern? I'm just curious...I want to know if anyone else is like me....(God forbid! LOL!)
 
8 hours? I'm lucky if I get 5.

I have a problem. I guess there are just too many distractions in my bedroom...TV, computer. There's also a touch of rebellion. And some anxiety. But I can't seem to get to bed before 2AM or 3Am most nights. I'll try for a night or two to go to sleep by 1am but pretty soon I'm back in the old pattern.
 
Mine suck! I teach dancer aerobics so I can't sleep when I get home. When I do set a pattern of going to bed every night at a set time and have no stress I'm okies.

I suffer from Sleep Paralysis(Something I wondered MJ had) cause his sleep was jacked up to and I lucid dream (which is cool but feels like you been awake all night).

I pray to God to take away those disorders! there are some people who practice those things things it disrupts me and I can live without.

So far I have been good with being in the bed between 10:30-11:00 and drifting off around 11:30 or before. yay!:D
 
I struggle to get sleep before 2:30am.. but that's okay for weekends, but on weekdays when I have to get up at 7:30am, it sucks. :(

On weekends I get about 11 hours of sleep, but on weekdays I get about 4 or 5. I look like a zombie these days.
 
My sleep pattern varies from 6hrs to 12 hrs.. I'd like it to stay at the same every night (I think that would be healthier too?) but I just can't make it happen..
 
They say if you keep the same schedule night and day, it helps....I don't know. Waking up at 5:20am on the days i have to work is killing me! lol
 
suzynyc said:
8 hours? I'm lucky if I get 5.

I have a problem. I guess there are just too many distractions in my bedroom...TV, computer. There's also a touch of rebellion. And some anxiety. But I can't seem to get to bed before 2AM or 3Am most nights. I'll try for a night or two to go to sleep by 1am but pretty soon I'm back in the old pattern.
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Me too. I normally work evenings and get home late and so I dont want to go right to bed. When I finally go to bed its usually in the middle of the night and I dont get up until past noon.
 
MJstarlight said:
Me too. I normally work evenings and get home late and so I dont want to go right to bed. When I finally go to bed its usually in the middle of the night and I dont get up until past noon.
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But that's good MJstarlight. Cause you are getting what you need. I feel bad for those who stay up till 2am then have to get up at 6am to get to work. That's not healthy.

I recently gave up caffiene....I have 1/2 cup of caffienated tea in the morning, but then drink caffiene-free the rest of the day. That helps.

I try to get to bed by about 8:30pm every night I work, so I can get up at 5:20am every morning. It's taking some doing though. Cause I just recently started working days....before, I worked 3pm to 11:30pm, then wouldn't be able to get to sleep until about 1am. But then I slept till about 10am....

You need to get at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep every night...reading this may help:

From http://www.umm.edu/sleep/sleep_hyg.htm


  • Fix a bedtime and an awakening time. Do not be one of those people who allows bedtime and awakening time to drift. The body "gets used" to falling asleep at a certain time, but only if this is relatively fixed. Even if you are retired or not working, this is an essential component of good sleeping habits.
  • Avoid napping during the day. If you nap throughout the day, it is no wonder that you will not be able to sleep at night. The late afternoon for most people is a "sleepy time." Many people will take a nap at that time. This is generally not a bad thing to do, provided you limit the nap to 30-45 minutes and can sleep well at night.
  • Avoid alcohol 4-6 hours before bedtime.Many people believe that alcohol helps them sleep. While alcohol has an immediate sleep-inducing effect, a few hours later as the alcohol levels in your blood start to fall, there is a stimulant or wake-up effect.
  • Avoid caffeine 4-6 hours before bedtime.This includes caffeinated beverages such as coffee, tea and many sodas, as well as chocolate, so be careful.
  • Avoid heavy, spicy, or sugary foods 4-6 hours before bedtime. These can affect your ability to stay asleep.
  • Exercise regularly, but not right before bed. Regular exercise, particularly in the afternoon, can help deepen sleep. Strenuous exercise within the 2 hours before bedtime, however, can decrease your ability to fall asleep.
Your Sleeping Environment


  • Use comfortable bedding. Uncomfortable bedding can prevent good sleep. Evaluate whether or not this is a source of your problem, and make appropriate changes.
  • Find a comfortable temperature setting for sleeping and keep the room well ventilated. If your bedroom is too cold or too hot, it can keep you awake. A cool (not cold) bedroom is often the most conducive to sleep.
  • Block out all distracting noise, and eliminate as much light as possible.
  • Reserve the bed for sleep and sex. Don't use the bed as an office, workroom or recreation room. Let your body "know" that the bed is associated with sleeping.
Getting Ready For Bed


  • Try a light snack before bed. Warm milk and foods high in the amino acid tryptophan, such as bananas, may help you to sleep.
  • Practice relaxation techniques before bed. Relaxation techniques such as yoga, deep breathing and others may help relieve anxiety and reduce muscle tension.
  • Don't take your worries to bed. Leave your worries about job, school, daily life, etc., behind when you go to bed. Some people find it useful to assign a "worry period" during the evening or late afternoon to deal with these issues.
  • Establish a pre-sleep ritual. Pre-sleep rituals, such as a warm bath or a few minutes of reading, can help you sleep.
  • Get into your favorite sleeping position. If you don't fall asleep within 15-30 minutes, get up, go into another room, and read until sleepy.
Getting Up in the Middle of the Night

Most people wake up one or two times a night for various reasons. If you find that you get up in the middle of night and cannot get back to sleep within 15-20 minutes, then do not remain in the bed "trying hard" to sleep. Get out of bed. Leave the bedroom. Read, have a light snack, do some quiet activity, or take a bath. You will generally find that you can get back to sleep 20 minutes or so later. Do not perform challenging or engaging activity such as office work, housework, etc. Do not watch television.
A Word About Television

Many people fall asleep with the television on in their room. Watching television before bedtime is often a bad idea. Television is a very engaging medium that tends to keep people up. We generally recommend that the television not be in the bedroom. At the appropriate bedtime, the TV should be turned off and the patient should go to bed. Some people find that the radio helps them go to sleep. Since radio is a less engaging medium than TV, this is probably a good idea.
Other Factors


  • Several physical factors are known to upset sleep. These include arthritis, acid reflux with heartburn, menstruation, headaches and hot flashes.
  • Psychological and mental health problems like depression, anxiety and stress are often associated with sleeping difficulty. In many cases, difficulty staying asleep may be the only presenting sign of depression. A physician should be consulted about these issues to help determine the problem and the best treatment.
  • Many medications can cause sleeplessness as a side effect. Ask your doctor or pharmacist if medications you are taking can lead to sleeplessness.
  • To help overall improvement in sleep patterns, your doctor may prescribe sleep medications for short-term relief of a sleep problem. The decision to take sleeping aids is a medical one to be made in the context of your overall health picture.
  • Always follow the advice of your physician and other healthcare professionals. The goal is to rediscover how to sleep naturally.
Remember. Sleep should come naturally. You shouldn't be depending on sleep medications even in the long term.

 
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Well I usually go to bed around 11:30pm and get up at 10am.
 
Getting to sleep is difficult, but with time, and if you follow these instructions, plus see your health professional, these suggestions do help. I sometimes take an over-the-counter pill called Melatonin. Melatonin is a natural sleep hormone. This helps also.
 
I am becoming a night owl more and more. Going to bed before 1 am is early ... :ph34r: If I am in bed I read a bit and then I sleep. I even can go out for a run in the evening and then go to sleep without problems. Only when I am having some stress or worries I wake up several times but usually I sleep like a baby.

But don't ask how I get out of bed in the morning ...
sy_nocomment.gif

Because I am someone who needs lots of sleep, 8 hours minimum. *yawn*. Perhaps I should shut down my compy now for a change, it's 11 pm now. :scratch:
 
My sleeping patterns are rubbish :doh:
It's 4:49 am here currently, I'll probably be off to bed in a minute and get up again about 11am. That's the pattern at the moment.
 
Ugh...There is no method in this madness, I usually only get to sleep at around 1:00-2:00 A.M. but I'm only starting to cut back on late nights, but my body doesn't seem to want to adjust so i've had to resort to a sleeping pill that actually works really well and its all natural so that makes it better. I still have to work my way beyond 5-6 hours of sleep each night -_-
 
What makes some of us able to get to sleep easily while others have a hard time? Is it because of caffeine? Anxiety?? Why do some of you have trouble getting to sleep? Sometimes, with me, it's a simple matter of me fearing I'll miss something important if I sleep...I also use a sound machine to help lull me to sleep....it makes a soft, crackling noise...so it's not too too quiet in my room...
 
I only have sleep problems when I have racing thoughts and major thinking going on, then I need help sleeping or I'll be staring at the walls all night. :mello: Other than that, give me a pillow and blanket and I'm out. Even after drinking coffee/caffeine, the minute my head hits a pillow that's it. I swear I'm part cat, I can nap anytime and anyplace. :p LOL
 
Gah, don't get me started. I sleep, I just don't go to bed as early as I should. On weekdays (bearing in mind I go to school), I go to bed at 2am and get woken at 7am. Is there such a thing as someone not needing as much sleep as someone else?

A lot of my friends and people I talk to say they would look dead with very little sleep, but with me it's different. Sure, if I have a sleepover and go to bed at 5 or 6am I will be tired when I wake up but after a few hours I feel right as rain.

That causes a few problems. The main one is fatigue. Recently I've struggled to stay awake on the bus both to and from school, literally over a period of seconds becoming drowsy. Movement helps majorly (keeping me awake during the day) but in a boring class or a journey home where activity doesn't occur has me struggling to keep my eyes open.

A less annoying but more regular problem I have is yawning. I literally yawned while I wrote this sentence. Sometimes I just can't stop yawning, and I don't really know why. Even getting a good sleep doesn't help. I just yawned again.

Now I know what you are saying, "Dude just go to bed earlier!". I really would like to but I totally hate wasting days. I feel so angry at myself for waking up at noon sometimes, and I go to bed as late as I can. Linda, it's a similar thing to what you said. I don't want something to happen while I'm sleeping... maybe a big piece of news surfacing or a new post to read on MJJC.

Overall though, I have no real problems with going to sleep. One thing though is I find the smallest things annoying as hell. At my Grandparents, where I usually sleep in the living room, I have to move a little clock they have so I cant hear the faint ticks emitting from it. Also, having the slightest pinch of light seeping underneath my door or shining through my curtains bugs me. Oviously, as you'd expect, I seem to lay in bed for hours at 1am because I went to bed at 3am the night before, for example too. But, after a day or so of going to bed at a similar time I can fall asleep pretty quickly.

So now I'd like to pose a question to you... why do we enjoy sleep? I mean, when I wake up I can't wait to sleep again. Why? We are lying in bed, concious one moment and then we wake up, again having the feel of conciousness. So where does that great feeling of sleep come from, and how do we feel it?

Oh and by the way Linda I love this thread :) I'ts really informative and interesting, and those tips can really help people. Thanks :)
 
My sleep patterns are generally consistent. Obviously there will be nights where I wake up during the night or nights where I just cant get to sleep. I usually go to bed about half 12 and wake up at half 8, giving me 8 hours. I usually get into bed at half 10 and just spend a couple hours with my laptop before I go to sleep.
 
I consider sleeping as my dearest hobby :D but I do have some serious issues with it. There was a time when I went to bed early, but every single night I woke up a few times and always exactly at the same time. Let's say for example at 2am and then again at 5:30am and like I said this happened every single night. Even the doctor I went to see was surprised how this was even possible.

Now I am having problems with going to sleep and falling asleep. It seems like I just can't switch off my brains and go to sleep. For example I might lay in my bed for hours without falling asleep until I get so frustrated I just get up. Or when you wake up early you may think "this is good now I'm gonna be tired and go to bed early".. Ha, so does not work for me. Even if I woke up early, let's say at 8am it can easily be the next morning at 8am when I finally go to sleep. I've been prescribed for sleeping pills and they do work, knocks you out in 30mins, but I have realised I've formed an addiction so I seriously need to get rid of them before it goes from bad to worse.
 
No matter what time I have to get up I RARELY go to sleep before 1 a.m.
 
I have a love/hate relationship wth sleep. It's always a matter of 'to sleep, or not to sleep? That is the question...' :p

Like some of the op's have said, I think sleep is a waste of time. There's so much for me to do, learn, see, read that I feel like I am losing out when I go to sleep. And it doesn't help that I am a night owl. So I often have to force myself to go to sleep. For instance, it's around 2 AM right now and I do not want to go to bed!

BUT, when I do go to sleep, that's a different story! I am a deep, deep sleeper, and it takes a lot of effort to wake up in the morning. I usually have to convince myself I can take a nap(not that I ever have time) or I will go to bed earlier(not that I ever do) to get out of bed. It's like once I am out, I AM OUT. It's probably a combination of my body trying to catch up on sleep and the fact that I am not really a morning person.

I realize the two contradict each other and it drives me nuts lol.


This article is pretty interesting. Talks about ideal sleep times regarding life longevity and how too much sleep may not be as good as one thinks.
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1812420,00.html
 
In the last couple of years I would say I only get about 4.5 - 5 hours which is very poor...before then I got 7-8. This is largely due to the fact that I moved out with my boyfriend, quit my job, and enrolled in a UNI course unsuccessfully.

Now, because there's just too many distractions, I go to my parents during the week as I work Mon-Fri from 8:30 to 5:30. I get abit more now, at least 6 or 7 hours. Hopefully we will get our own place soon. Also I am thinking of seeing a Doctor about it as I suspect there may also be something at play as to why I'm so tired. I think it mostly is just sleep deprivation :/ *sigh* I hope I feel better soon.
 
I really need to change these bad sleep patterns I have been having and that have been getting progressively worse.

There are a few reasons why I end up going to bed finally around 2am or 3am most nights. Firstly, after I come home from work (around 6pm or later sometimes) the time seems to fly by so quickly that I guess by staying up later I am extending the day in a way. Because going to bed earlier means the morning will come all the quicker. And I am not a morning person. It's not that I am all that busy. I just don't want my freedom (being home from work) to end just yet.

Also, I have a big problem with procrastination. I put off doing the normal things people do to prepare themselves for sleep until the very last minute, i.e., showering, brushing teeth, getting the next day's clothing ready, etc. I even have dinner late many nights (9pm)!

Many evenings I fall asleep around 8pm watching TV and then a couple of hours later I am wide awake and can't fall asleep for many hours later. So I use the energy on the computer or watching TV. Bad, bad habit. My sleep rhythms are completely screwed up.

I also usually have a cup of coffee when I first get home from work but I usually have it light with milk so I'm not sure it's strong enough to keep me up. But who knows.

There is also just a rebellious streak in me. I'm like a college kid who finally moved out of their parent's house and there's nobody around to tell me what to do. I live alone so I can stay up as late as I want to and surf the web or watch TV. I can do whatever I want and there's nobody around to nag me...heh.

I am my own worst enemy. Save me from myself! LOL
 
I have night terrors.. & l urge you incase you don't know what they are, to look up Night Terrors.


& I kick in my sleep. lol
 
I try to and typically get about 7-8 hours of sleep a night, usually going to bed between 12 and 1 AM. It isn't always easy though, especially on those mornings when I have to get up before 6.
 
I sleep really well, about 7-9 hours of sleep every night, but my problem is that I still feel tired. If I go to sleep at 12 I'll usually wake up between 9 and 10 feeling like I should sleep some more. I generally am not able to do anything without my 2 mugs of coffee in the morning, and it takes a while to get me going. Exercising helps a bit and drinking lots of water, but I still wish I could get up in the morning feeling good and energetic instead of feeling like it's the middle of the night.
 
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