Sleep Hygiene - Best Practices?

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C40
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Re: Sleep Hygiene - Best Practices?

Post by C40 »

C40's Top 3 tips for best sleep ever:
1 - Exercise often. Ideally daily. With enough intensity/duration that your fitness is continually improving. You may find that exercising at a certain time of the day works a little better. But consistency is the most important thing.
2 - (This can have immediate effect) - meditate as you go to sleep. I once read a two page magazine article from some 1970s weightlifting magazine. One written in an intentionally cheesy way. It had very simple instructions on how to meditate as you went to sleep. Basic stuff like focusing on and relaxing one part of your body at a time. Counting slowly and intentionally and repeating some sort of sleep mantras (in your head, not out loud). I tried that and within the second night had the best sleep of my life
3 - Regular sleep times. Be in bed with your eyes closed at the same time every single night. (No late nights on weekends!) Wake up at the same exact time every morning.

(Extra tip - other stuff needs to be at least 'good enough' - low stress, good nutrition, comfortable enough sleeping area (the Soviet Russians found that 63 degrees F is the ideal room temperature for best sleep), and so on)

The best period of sleep in my life was while I was using all of these three with complete regularity. (Though my meditation was not the sleeping stuff, it was for sports performance). I slept very well. I had my alarm set for 6:00am every day. For a period of a few months, I woke 90% of the days on my own between 5:55 and 5:58, feeling well rested and ready to spring out of bed.

chenda
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Re: Sleep Hygiene - Best Practices?

Post by chenda »

@Ego ;) :lol:

Eureka
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Re: Sleep Hygiene - Best Practices?

Post by Eureka »

Smashter wrote: reminds me of this fascinating paper on ancestral sleeping habits.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1119282/
Oh, yes, this paper is indeed fascinating. Thanks for reminding.

I am especially drawn towards the Tibetan caravaneers and how they are able to sleep soundly in the freezing cold of the Himalaya only by use of body heat. Does anyone have experience with this sleeping position? Or knows more about it?

A while ago, I experimented a bit with trying to fall asleep like the caravaneers, but so far without much luck. I cannot stay for long in this position (under my cover) as the heat that is generated in the stomach, intestinal, lung region quickly gets too intense. Next step is probably to skip the cover and try to relocate some of the heat from the front of the body to the back side of the body.

I guess I should keep on exploring. And that it will take some practice to achieve.

Being able to sleep like this would be really something though: one would no longer need a house nor bedding, but could literally sleep in any place. At least for hiking trips there would be no need to carry tent or sleeping bag.


Image

Smashter
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Re: Sleep Hygiene - Best Practices?

Post by Smashter »

C40 wrote:C40's Top 3 tips for best sleep ever.
Slightly off topic, but have you found these tips help you lucid dream as well? I'm curious if you've found a correlation between what helps sleep in general and what helps you take control of your dream self and go on flying adventures. (or maybe I'm the only one who tries to fly during every lucid dream :) )

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C40
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Re: Sleep Hygiene - Best Practices?

Post by C40 »

Eureka wrote:
Image
Ok. I'm currently out at a gathering of vandwellers in the desert in Arizona. I do a lot of walking around, including in the morning just before sunrise when most people are still sleeping. I read your post yeterday. Last night I dreamt that I was on one of those early morning walks here, and I came upon a man AND A DOG sleeping in that exact pose. :-D :-D :-D



Smashter wrote: Slightly off topic, but have you found these tips help you lucid dream as well? I'm curious if you've found a correlation between what helps sleep in general and what helps you take control of your dream self and go on flying adventures. (or maybe I'm the only one who tries to fly during every lucid dream :) )
Uhhh, I don't know. My lucid dreaming skill is currently at 08/100. I have them only rarely now and if I do, I'm really only 1/2 lucid. I'd expect they help, but I think "dream checks" make a much bigger difference for me. I never got to where I actually did the dream checks in my dream, but forming the habit of being aware of whether I am awake or possibly dreaming is what seemed to be making the biggest difference for me back when I was trying before. But I wasn't trying very hard or having much success, so I'm not good for advice on this.

thrifty++
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Re: Sleep Hygiene - Best Practices?

Post by thrifty++ »

I have found that at times when I am on a 0% alcohol run my sleep improves dramatically. Conversely if I have had a few drinks one night my sleep turns to shit. Going on 0% for periods of weeks or months certainly has made a big difference. Alcohol is quite well documented to mess with sleep quality and the ability to achieve REM.

Thanks so much to the others for the white noise suggestions! I live downtown so there is some horrendous short sharp people noises at random ridiculous times. In winter I deal with this by having my dehumidifier on which has a nice gentle hum. But now that its summer I have to have my windows open which makes it even louder and cant use dehumidifier. I have been using ear plugs but I find ear plugs quite useless. I was thinking of playing meditation music at night but that would use heaps of data. White noise generators look like much less usage. Does anyone know how much data they use overnight?

Smashter
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Re: Sleep Hygiene - Best Practices?

Post by Smashter »

When I use white noise I search on youtube for "white noise." There are many options that last for 10+ hours. I play the video on my phone, but you can play it from a computer if you need it to be louder.

FBeyer
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Re: Sleep Hygiene - Best Practices?

Post by FBeyer »

Riggerjack wrote:I have slept in C130s....
Holy Shit!
I spent 5 hours in one of those once. If you could actually sleep there, then that goes in the Feats of Strength thread, not this one.
A Hercules could only be worse for sleeping if the noise from the props wasn't constant...
Its a flying earthquake simulator. You can only communicate via hand signals 'cause the vibrations make your voice sound like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcbAts02rBc (WARNING adjust volume before[1] clicking)

[1] Then try cranking it up and imagine sleeping in 100 dB while you sit/lie in a web of red seatbelts...)

Riggerjack
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Re: Sleep Hygiene - Best Practices?

Post by Riggerjack »

My white noise generator is a commercial product, that just plays a seamless loop continuously. I bought it probably 20 years ago. I could turn it off and on, it has a half dozen loops to choose from, and a volume control. Not much to break.

I'm old enough that it never occurred to me to use a PC or phone. :oops:

Riggerjack
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Re: Sleep Hygiene - Best Practices?

Post by Riggerjack »

Oh, undiagnosed sleep apnea means staying awake is a feat of strength.

As a side note on free medical, about this time, I went under the knife to correct breathing problems from having my nose broken by enthusiastic amateurs when I was young.

These two pros got a little freaked out by my apnea, and cut the surgery short. Instead of smashing up the cartilage to a fine consistency, they stopped at " chunky salsa" and wrapped up.

At my post op appointment, they described the problem and their decision.

Fifteen years later, I got diagnosed with sleep apnea.

An ear nose and throat specialist in the army didn't recognize sleep apnea, right in front of him. Free medical is worth every penny.

Eureka
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Re: Sleep Hygiene - Best Practices?

Post by Eureka »

C40 wrote: Last night I dreamt that I was on one of those early morning walks here, and I came upon a man AND A DOG sleeping in that exact pose. :-D :-D :-D
Wonderful! I will go straight to Dreamland and find the man AND HIS DOG to learn how they do it.

bryan
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Re: Sleep Hygiene - Best Practices?

Post by bryan »

Ego wrote: Rigger said that sleeping in a loud, light place is a learned skill. I agree. Exposure (or immersion) to noise and light at night may encourage your brain to get better at prioritizing noises/lights and determining which to filter and which represent a threat. Maybe start with a night when you know you don't have to be 100% the next day and try sleeping with a radio playing in another room. See if you can train your brain to up the endurance to noise.

One of my favorite stories, which I am sure I told here before, is of the homeless woman who was offered a bed in a shelter after years of sleeping out on the cold hard sidewalk. The first night she had to sleep on the floor beneath the bed because she found the soft warmth of the bed uncomfortable. She had become accustomed to cold concrete.
Absolutely. New van-dwellers will meet a few restless nights as they get used to some new noises (wind, rain, pedestrians, cars, etc).

Stahlmann
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Re: Sleep Hygiene - Best Practices?

Post by Stahlmann »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfcAVej ... ioRh2kqHvB
especially
Marconi Union - Weightless (Official Video)

infrared bulbs for reptiles

https://www.amazon.de/Uvex-Eyewear-scto ... B000USRG90

__

,,I have motion sensitive exterior lights. When one of the lights trip, or in the summer, with windows open, there is a noise, I get up, check the source, go back to sleep. A glock, a flashlight and a night vision scope are within reach. Waking in the night should not be an adrenaline rush, it should be the norm."

interesting behaviour design. in such case I tend to wake up with almost heart attack and without possibility to sleep again :-DDD need to "hack" this.

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