Sleep improvement (I feel kinda awkward going on about something Tricia is struggling with) that has a few more moving parts than would allow drawing a fixed conclusion from. 9.5 freakin hours sleeping and not noticing the fitbit vibe alarm, this morning and yesterday, with no wake ups. This, on top of a couple of naps during the day is unprecedented with no supps but some sleep-tea. The moving parts: -Deliberate prep and avoiding any violations (the screens are a chronic infraction... just one more check of blah-blah-blah) to the glide path. Decide when bedtime is to occur and start that prep a couple hours ahead. I keep coming back to the gliding metaphor to maintain the controlled gradient without any sudden drops or reversals. Sometimes thats a utopian ambition because happens. I take that scenario on by bumping my bedtime decision forward (it doesnt have to be a full 2 hour do-over for prep) favoring the return to the glide over tumbling around in bed trying to relax. Even with the sleep time duration being cut, I found that getting to sleep beats trying to get to sleep as more effective for recovery. -Keeping with the 6+ hour stimulant embargo which, along with the obvious candidate of caffeine, includes stimulating entertainment. If fun = stimulating entertainment take a pass and do it later. Yes, Virginia, you can have too much fun. -Dont go to bed hungry but dont go to bed stuffed either. I sorta drew this conclusion when engaging in pranayama breathing exercise before bed which, in part, involves some sharp exhales that sloshes things around to the point of discomfort. Lighter stomach burden, even when missing the breathing routine seems to help. -Meditation. It doesnt empty the mind but, with the flavor I am involved in, limits the thoughts to a mantra with occasional detours that I try to gently move aside. Sometimes it doesnt work but becomes an opportunity to think thru some persistent distraction. I dont try to solve it, I just sort of study it to see why it is bothering me. If that thing that jagged up the meditation is closer to being settled, its one less distraction come sleep-time which disqualifies the distracted meditation as a failure. After that, the task is to protect this pseudo-bliss by closing shop for any new business. A good defense is to stay obsessed (maybe a better word is focused) with the inner self; where the mind was during meditation but reaching out to issues of comfort and self awareness. This has also been a frequent spot that seems super-appropriate for gratitude and prayer. -White noise generator to block TV, outside noise or routine noises like refrigerators or the HVAC. The unit I have starts with a sound from nature and times out into straight white noise; what they call sleep therapy. My choice is the brook, not because its my favorite but because the Homedics unit I have has this inconsistent defect that cuts the volume down to near nothing for most of the other selections. My fave is the sound of moving water, wind and crickets. I think they call it everglades. There may be some overkill, redundancy, or sleep-princess stuff in the above but my motivation is remembering how bad stone-cold insomnia (the ambien-required, audible hallucination, insomnia) SUX and frequent reminders of the huge wonder-drug level gains from better sleep.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 14:53:08 +0000