Are you just always tired? Do you have some kind of bedtime ritual? Have you had issues sleeping in the past and how did you handle that?
Constantly exhausted.
I got old.
Did you have trouble falling asleep before this chronic and terminal illness hit?
I did!! I used to lay awake and struggle to fall asleep. I also used to be okay as a college student and gamer getting 4 hours of sleep.
Thus, no more. I got a job I actively work 8+ hours and when I lay down now I KO within 5 mins and sometimes mid conversation with my husband.
I of course want to leave you with more tangible things to try.
Once, with my friends, we went to a spa with a salt room. Best nap I have ever had in my life. I was then inspired to improve my quality of sleep and these worked for me:
- Sleep face mask (I dont know if weight makes a difference?. Mine is unweighted)
- Weighted blanket. Make sure to look up the math on your size and weight needed
- Quality bed. (Nolah)
- Quality pillow (Coops Home Goods Pillow)
- If all else fails, reading in bed puts me to sleep.
I swear I’m an adult but my friends and I also have adult sleep overs lol. I have found some use white noise machine, ear plugs are among some things I haven’t tried but works for them.
Good luck on your sleep journey!
I doubt you’re actually old, because that’s not how it usually works.
Addressing Sleep Problems in Older Adults
As many as 57% of older adults complain of major disruption of sleep, 29% struggle to fall asleep and 19% complain of early-morning awakening.
Chronological age is different than cumulative age. I’m not sure if those are the correct terms.
Always been like that. I fall asleep on planes before take off and wake up when we hit tarmac.
Would you say you’re a pretty happy person in general? Like not too much trauma or major problems in life that creep into your mind as you lay silent?
I don’t carry it with me. I also used to work swing shifts when I was younger so my circadian rhythm is entirely fucked. If I close my eyes, I sleep.
That’s never particularly been me, except when I’m sleep deprived. But in recent years I’ve been consistent about my sleep and wake times (including not changing them on weekends) and that seems to help a lot. According to my tracker it usually takes me about 10 min to fall asleep.
Be tired enough. I jave ADHD and my strategy is to stay up until I am literally falling asleep. The next day can be tough sometimes though if I need to get up early. On those nights I just take Melatonin
I hate sleep, so I get it over with as quickly as possible. I fall asleep quickly and I wake up quickly and spend as little time as possible in between
I envy you. Waking up is bar none the worst part of everyday. I don’t necessarily mean that in depressive sort of way, but coming out of sleep is the worst feeling. If I could have a normal and healthy life sleeping 12+ hours at a time, I would.
I wish I could hate sleep as much as I hate starting a new day.
No secret, I’m hammered before bed.
I can (mostly intentionally) zonk out pretty quickly in most sitting or laying positions. Clear calm mind helps me. I might use 1 of 2 exercises. The first I started using is for when my mind is too active from the day and thoughts just keep popping up, each time one does, I imagine putting it in a cardboard box, closing it up and tossing it away. The second one I use more when my body is physically tired, but I’m not mentally sleepy, I imagine I’m laying down at the trunk of an impossibly tall tree, looking at a single leaf near the edge that I can just barely make out, then imagine I’m rapidly floating up where I can see the trunk rapidly moving “down” behind my head, but the leaf just only so very barely seems to get any closer, and just keep that up until I fall asleep.
No secret technique. I go to bed when I’m tired, I’m asleep as soon as I hit the pillow. Literally-sometimes I fall asleep on the way down to the pillow. Just how I’ve always been. /shrug
I used to be able to do this…I’m not saying diabetes stopped it, but I got diabetes and stopped being able to do it.
It’s a ritual. The secret for me is basically counting sheep. Except, I don’t actually count sheep, but there’s lots of other things. Nowadays I can just clear my mind, but that was not always so.
When I was a kid, I had trouble sleeping. I was scared of the dark or something. So I closed my eyes and started focussing on the shapes I saw to take my mind off it. It were basic geometric shapes in different colors that floated to the edge of my vision. Than new ones would pop up. That helped and eventually I was using that methid every day to fall asleep fast.
In my teenage years I was into “lucid dreaming”. Never managed to really do that, but they use special methods to fall asleep which also create some kind of ritual. Like looking at your alarm until you fall asleep. And than when it shows weird numbers, you know you’re asleep, but that part is speculative lol.
Like that there are a few otger “rituals” you can try. I think tge most important part is a semi regular sleep schedule and a ritual. Also, don’t watch tv or phone in bed. That’s the kind of ritual to prevents you from sleeping.
Genetics
Don’t even need to hit a pillowThe steering wheel however…
“I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather. Not screaming and in agony like all of his passengers.”
Hey, I can do it in minutes. Just, like, 90-120 of them.
Vitamin D deficiency
Ive always had trouble sleeping, too active an imagination I suppose. So for me the trick was drugs, they work a treat… Maybe too much of a treat.
