Sleeping.... or the lack thereof...

lemondropdreams

so for whatever reason perhaps stress i have not been able to sleep for the life of me for the past 3 days... i went two days without sleeping and tonight i slept 3 hours and woke up and couldn't fall back asleep... how does your sleeping patterns affect your metabolism? will it slow it down?

if i eat a snack before i go to bed and then don't end up falling asleep is it still a midnight snack? or is it then carried over to breakfast for the following day?

lemondropdreams

so for whatever reason perhaps stress i have not been able to sleep for the life of me for the past 3 days... i went two days without sleeping and tonight i slept 3 hours and woke up and couldn't fall back asleep... how does your sleeping patterns affect your metabolism? will it slow it down?

if i eat a snack before i go to bed and then don't end up falling asleep is it still a midnight snack? or is it then carried over to breakfast for the following day?

jenjen84

I have had the same problem the last 4 night I can't fall asleep and then once i do I can't stay asleep, it is horrible! I say anything after midnight is the next days food!! Hope tonight is better for you!!

keiko

Some things to look at are caffeine intake. I had to go off coffee, even morning coffee just a few months ago. Even decaf coffee has some caffeine and is to much for me. I can drink green tea though, so not as much caffeine.

If you think it is stress try setting up a bedtime routine to relax you.
Here is a link to a sleep questionare It will give you things to try at the end.
http://www.realage.com/health_guides/RLS/intro.aspx

I just had two people on two different days this week tell me that they have had good results using Stress Cleanse by Enzymatic Therapy. You can get it at health food stores or on the net. Just be careful using any herbals if you are on any kind of medication because they can change the affectiveness of your meds. Both said they are sleeping much better.

Fitness_Chick

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/32720--our-body-is-not-wired-for-sleep-deprivation-great-read

Marla was just asking about this very thing on another thread....here's something I posted a bit ago...I'm sorry I didn't see your thread before now so I wanted to post the link here for anyone to read...

I know there are any number of things that can keep us from a good nights sleep... stress can play a HUGE part in being unable to relax and get to sleep, caffeine as someone already mentioned, I've read getting up at the same time each day, no naps for some folks work best...others it doesn't effect their sleep at night. Also getting a regular bedtime set so each night your body is set for when the sleep effects hit your brain.

I wish you well in getting your sleep pattern straightened out... good food, excercise, drinking plenty of water...those are also helpful in preparing our body for a good sleep.

dewpearl

Don't stress over it. I used to run in a vicious cycle when I couldn't fall asleep and was thinking ahead of how tired I'll be next day and worried the whole time about the hours that were passing by without me falling asleep.

How I got out? Well, I only went to bed when I was tired - and not because it was the time to go to bed (although they do say you should have a time to go to bed and stick to it).
I tried not to worry and if I couldn't fall asleep I would wake up and do something to distract me and tire me. If you're worried your house is not clean and the guests will arrive before noon, then tidy it up for 1hr (or less, until you're so tired all you want is to crash on your pillow) and that'll take some weight off your shoulders.
And when you're in bed try thinking how good it is to be there, to finally lie down, to rest and relax.

Hope this helped for a tiny bit.

dewpearl

And yeah, stress has got to do with it. If you can't switch off your thinking about all the things you've got to do the next day, you're not relaxed enough to fall asleep. Try not to do exciting things in the evening, chose a book over TV, avoid exercising hard late in the evening and let tomorrow handle its own excitement - the night's for rest and relaxation .