Sleep

fitbethlin

How do you make sure you get enough sleep for you?

Honestly, sleeping 8 hours (and making that really high quality sleep) is necessary for losing weight for me. I think some of my past attempts were thwarted when I tried to sacrifice sleep for workouts, or when I went to bed late after staying up meal prepping, etc. Now I'm less ambitious about both things and more attentive to my sleep. I still have a hard time getting "quality" sleep though. I'm following most sleep hygiene recommendations, but I still toss and turn 3 nights a week. The must annoying thing I've discovered is that my deepest, soundest sleep seems to come at 4-6 am. I need to start my day at 5 though, which means I'm doubly grumpy those days.

fruitydelicious

maybe a benedryl to help you get to sleep. or an audio book?

Machka9

I simply don't get enough sleep. Most nights I manage 6.5 hours.

mrramsey1969

I manage to average 8 hours every night. That also averages to about a 50/50 mix of deep sleep and light sleep. Weight does play into sleep quality and as you mentioned good sleep hygiene. Other things I have noticed was to be sure to make our room as dark as possible. I will also take 3mg of melatonin as this helps your brain to shift into sleep mode. I will take it when I am feeling unprepared for sleep, about 30 minutes before i would usually go to bed.

fitbethlin

I love melatonin for beating jet lag, but only if I have 10-12 hours to sleep. So, red eye to the EU, stay up till 6-7 pm, then sleep till 6 am the next day. It's brilliant for resetting my internal clock. I end up sleeping so long though that it doesn't work in everyday life. Of course, on my last trip, I found out it's a prescription med in Germany and I shouldn't actually be bringing in OTC melatonin from the US. oops!

Benadryl does knock me out, but it's like alcohol - I'll wake up at 1am and my sleep quality is awful.

jrowden0711

What about just a smaller dose of melatonin?

TimothyFish

Six hours is more than plenty for me, but if you aren't getting enough sleep them maybe you need to go to bed sooner.

cwolfman13

I have a 4 & 6 year old...I know nothing of this sleep thing you speak of...

jkwolly

I usually get 8-9 hours.

EricaCraigie

I get 8-11 hours per night lol I need it.

fitoverfortymom

I really have to work at getting enough sleep. I'm best with 7-8 hours. Any less, and it seems like the weight comes off slower--the difference between 1-1.5lbs in a week vs 1.5-2lbs in a week. I try to be in bed by 9 and sleeping for sure by 10. Wake up is 5:30-5:45.

Emily3907

I was going to suggest melatonin too. It's a bummer that it doesn't work for you. That has been a miracle for me. I struggled with being able to "shut off" my brain at the end of the day and would lie awake for 2-3 hours trying to fall asleep. I tried so many things, but melatonin was the only thing that worked consistently.

Another thing that worked for me was keeping a notebook and pen next to my bed. When I thought of something, I jotted it down so that I could "forget" it. It helped my mind relax and helped me wind down for sleep. It was also great comedy the next morning to see what I had written down.

fitoverfortymom

I used to be horrible at getting to sleep. Now it seems much easier (and I avoid overeating by going to bed). Being more active during the day has helped. My son and I have also started having tea time before bed. We steep a pot of Sleepytime tea and have made a sort of ritual of it.

lemurcat12

I never get enough sleep. I've decided that 6 hours is enough for me (which is probably silly--people always tell me that people think they are fine on less until they actually start sleeping more), but the problem is I struggle to get 6, and usually am at more like 5. And I can tell, although it doesn't mean I can't lose weight (I lost plenty with the same poor sleeping habits).

However, as part of my occasional efforts to get more sleep I've read a decent amount about it and have a sleep tracker (S Plus--works a lot better than the Fitbit) that I use sporatically, and:

fitbethlin wrote: »

The must annoying thing I've discovered is that my deepest, soundest sleep seems to come at 4-6 am. I need to start my day at 5 though, which means I'm doubly grumpy those days.

this is common. My pattern, and it seems to be typical, is light-deep-light-more deep-bit of REM-little light-back to deep--bit more REM -- and so on with the only sustained REM right before wake-up time (which for me should be 5 but too often is around 4 since I just wake up then).

If your wake-up times are coming too soon, my guess would be that you should go to bed sooner, annoying as that is.

Machka9

fitbethlin wrote: »

I love melatonin for beating jet lag, but only if I have 10-12 hours to sleep. So, red eye to the EU, stay up till 6-7 pm, then sleep till 6 am the next day. It's brilliant for resetting my internal clock. I end up sleeping so long though that it doesn't work in everyday life. Of course, on my last trip, I found out it's a prescription med in Germany and I shouldn't actually be bringing in OTC melatonin from the US. oops!

Benadryl does knock me out, but it's like alcohol - I'll wake up at 1am and my sleep quality is awful.

I drink a cup or two of chamomile tea before bed ... I've found some flavour infused ones I like. They seem to relax me.

I also take valerian. I talked to a pharmacist about valerian and it is supposed to help keep a person asleep once they go to sleep. The recommendation was that I take it right before bed, then lie down and relax. The pharmacist said that it seems to be less effective if you take it, and then get busy doing something around the house.

So ... while I'm drinking my chamomile tea ...
-- the TV is off
-- I've got soft music playing
-- the lights in the house are mostly turned off, it's fairly dark
-- I'm doing something I enjoy and find relaxing, like reading or processing my photos

And then I take my valerian and go to bed.

Ready2Rock206

I never get enough sleep anymore. I used to attempt to catch up on the weekends but almost a year ago I got a dog. He doesn't understand the concept of sleeping in.

jaedwa1

I sleep in blocks of 3-4 hours. It's not something I set out to do, it's just how my body works. For example, I went to sleep around midnight last night and woke at 4am. Now I'm hanging out and reading and will probably fall back to sleep around 7 or 8 for another 3-4 hours. I'm not working right now so this broken sleep isn't too stressful...but when I was fully employed and I couldn't get that second block of sleep, I was miserable.

Machka9

Machka9 wrote: »

fitbethlin wrote: »

I love melatonin for beating jet lag, but only if I have 10-12 hours to sleep. So, red eye to the EU, stay up till 6-7 pm, then sleep till 6 am the next day. It's brilliant for resetting my internal clock. I end up sleeping so long though that it doesn't work in everyday life. Of course, on my last trip, I found out it's a prescription med in Germany and I shouldn't actually be bringing in OTC melatonin from the US. oops!

Benadryl does knock me out, but it's like alcohol - I'll wake up at 1am and my sleep quality is awful.

I drink a cup or two of chamomile tea before bed ... I've found some flavour infused ones I like. They seem to relax me.

I also take valerian. I talked to a pharmacist about valerian and it is supposed to help keep a person asleep once they go to sleep. The recommendation was that I take it right before bed, then lie down and relax. The pharmacist said that it seems to be less effective if you take it, and then get busy doing something around the house.

So ... while I'm drinking my chamomile tea ...
-- the TV is off
-- I've got soft music playing
-- the lights in the house are mostly turned off, it's fairly dark
-- I'm doing something I enjoy and find relaxing, like reading or processing my photos

And then I take my valerian and go to bed.

Something else that works for me is exercise. If I don't get at least an hour of exercise each day, I find I don't sleep as deeply and I'm restless. But if I exercise an hour or more, I tire myself out enough to sleep quite deeply.

pinuplove

I need my sleep! Things that seem to help me:
A cool room
White noise (just a fan)
NO screens in bed (no TV in the bedroom; phone goes on the charger on my night stand since it's my alarm, but if you're tempted to peek I'd suggest and old school clock radio)
A book (paper of course), boring is best. I've been slogging through that incredibly popular book about introverts for months now 2 pages and I'm ready to crash lol

Hearts_2015

Relaxation in the evening before I go to bed has changed so much since I got myself a diffuser (the kind with water in it) that uses essential oil. I love lavender oil, peppermint oil or even a mix in of eucalyptus oil if I need to un-stuff my head. lol It's totally changed how I sleep. I can stay asleep now, I wake up so relaxed and rested, total change from where I was at before I started with the lavender. I love the white noise of the diffuser...the bubbles are nice in the background. Before I got it I couldn't fall asleep or stay asleep, I somehow lost my sleep pattern.

Highly recommend it... you don't have to spend big $$ I started out with a $29 diffuser that had bottles of lavender and peppermint included.

fitbethlin

jrowden0711 wrote: »

What about just a smaller dose of melatonin?

Last night, I took a 5mg dose because I knew I had plenty of time to oversleep this morning if I needed to. So 11.5 hours later my husband is shaking me awake to let me know that my phone was ringing....my project manager calling to move our meeting up.

I might try a 3mg dose at some point, but I have to wait until I have another day I can sleep in, just in case.