My Sleep Journey. (sorry for the length)
MikeFlyMike
Posts: 639 Member
Primal/paleo for 16 months. Great weight loss, great blood work, good bf% and feeling fantastic.
I kept reading about sleep. get good sleep. Well of course I do. Then I heard for the third time the nonsense, "use complete blackout shades, not a peep of outside light, black tape over your alarm clock and smoke alarm". whatever.. that seems pretty extreme.
Color me educated!!
My wife attended a seminar with me a few months ago and said, "see, I told you we need black out shades". I always justified "sheer" window coverings so I could wake up with the sun.
I figured I have thrown enough conventional wisdom out the window, lets try the complete sleep formula.
(aka, Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar, and Survival)
Step 1.
COMPLETE blackout shades.
I went with the best I could find - slumber shades.
http://www.energysmartshades.com/slumbershade-cellular-shades-category.html (great prices here too)
These put blackout fabric along with side tracks. This has helped the energy efficiency of the bedroom also. we used to have a space heater in the bedroom due to poor air flow and have removed it. After installing the blackout shades, I now noticed the little light on my phone charger lights up the room.
(this was the #1 best change)
Step 2.
New "alarm" clock.
I switched to an expensive wake-up light. No more annoying sound that you just want to snooze. We had a terrible habit of hitting snooze for 12 minutes - just enough time to not get into decent rem sleep. The alarm would end up getting set for almost an hour before we needed to get up, because the snooze wasn't getting us enough sleep and we woke up super grumpy, tired and miserable. Net effect was we were getting less and less sleep by trying to get more.
I know this sounds crazy expensive, but I cannot recommend the Phillips Wake up light enough.
http://www.usa.philips.com/c/Light-therapy/coloured-sunrise-simulation-hf3520_60/prd/en/
WHAT, you are telling me to buy a $170 alarm clock?
Yes, I would pay double that after experiencing it. Maybe go buy one and then return it if you don't love it - it won't happen.
I got mine off ebay for $130. My wife thought I was insane. Now she is pimping them to everyone she knows as the best thing ever. We are buying a second one so she can have her own if she needs it and we end up on different schedules.
WHY? This thing starts to light up like a sunrise, slowly and surely. If I haven't already woken up by the prescribed time, sweet birds start chirping. What I find is that I just all of a sudden I seem to be awake in the morning - much more fully rested. My body wakes up at the right point in my sleep cycle naturally rather than an abrupt jolt into reality which always seems to hurt.
(No WAIT, THIS is the single best change - well maybe tied together with the black out shades - I f-ing love this clock)
Step 3:
New bed. We had a $5000 bed. I refused to buy another one. then I admitted that it was 10 years old. Springs do wear out and so does foam. Ok, I got my $170 alarm clock, lets go look at mattresses. There are a million good mattresses out there - won't tell you what to do there - but I know my wife and I seem to like different firmness. So we investigated the sleep number system. We are quite pleased. This was very expensive, but we ended up with the full motion, vibrating, super deluxe model. I don't think that is required, but we aren't going to be replacing this anytime soon and I plan on spending 1/3 of my life in that bed. I didn't think I would like the adjustable feature, but really do. My wife and I are now on different "sleep numbers" so she can have it firm or whatever. no more arguments about which bed we want and there were no compromises.
For us a new bed was required due to age - but we went a little crazy here just because we could.
Step 4:
Kill inside light sources.
That flipping smoke alarm LED was now driving me crazy. I went around with electrical tape and covered the... smoke alarm, phone charger, power strip, tv "off" light, cable box power adapter and put a cover over time portion of the alarm clock previously mentioned. Can I measure this change - hard to tell, but heck, I am so far into this thing I'm going all the way. This room is now pitch black.
Step 5: eliminate certain environmental lights later at night
I do work on my computer etc after dark. This isn't going to change, but I did install F.lux onto my laptop.
http://stereopsis.com/flux/
My ipad isn't jail broken and I don't really want to go there so I won't be installing that. This is a free PC software and I think it does help. I have to work sometimes late at night and this makes it not so harsh.
SUMMARY:
I should have done this sooner. I feel better, better rested and have more energy. We both used to wake up tossing and turning several times in the night. That is gone.
I would highly recommend both the blackout shades (complete) and the wake up light - then go from there.
If you aren't convinced, you can buy blackout fabric at a fabric store and simply pin it over the windows.
I kept reading about sleep. get good sleep. Well of course I do. Then I heard for the third time the nonsense, "use complete blackout shades, not a peep of outside light, black tape over your alarm clock and smoke alarm". whatever.. that seems pretty extreme.
Color me educated!!
My wife attended a seminar with me a few months ago and said, "see, I told you we need black out shades". I always justified "sheer" window coverings so I could wake up with the sun.
I figured I have thrown enough conventional wisdom out the window, lets try the complete sleep formula.
(aka, Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar, and Survival)
Step 1.
COMPLETE blackout shades.
I went with the best I could find - slumber shades.
http://www.energysmartshades.com/slumbershade-cellular-shades-category.html (great prices here too)
These put blackout fabric along with side tracks. This has helped the energy efficiency of the bedroom also. we used to have a space heater in the bedroom due to poor air flow and have removed it. After installing the blackout shades, I now noticed the little light on my phone charger lights up the room.
(this was the #1 best change)
Step 2.
New "alarm" clock.
I switched to an expensive wake-up light. No more annoying sound that you just want to snooze. We had a terrible habit of hitting snooze for 12 minutes - just enough time to not get into decent rem sleep. The alarm would end up getting set for almost an hour before we needed to get up, because the snooze wasn't getting us enough sleep and we woke up super grumpy, tired and miserable. Net effect was we were getting less and less sleep by trying to get more.
I know this sounds crazy expensive, but I cannot recommend the Phillips Wake up light enough.
http://www.usa.philips.com/c/Light-therapy/coloured-sunrise-simulation-hf3520_60/prd/en/
WHAT, you are telling me to buy a $170 alarm clock?
Yes, I would pay double that after experiencing it. Maybe go buy one and then return it if you don't love it - it won't happen.
I got mine off ebay for $130. My wife thought I was insane. Now she is pimping them to everyone she knows as the best thing ever. We are buying a second one so she can have her own if she needs it and we end up on different schedules.
WHY? This thing starts to light up like a sunrise, slowly and surely. If I haven't already woken up by the prescribed time, sweet birds start chirping. What I find is that I just all of a sudden I seem to be awake in the morning - much more fully rested. My body wakes up at the right point in my sleep cycle naturally rather than an abrupt jolt into reality which always seems to hurt.
(No WAIT, THIS is the single best change - well maybe tied together with the black out shades - I f-ing love this clock)
Step 3:
New bed. We had a $5000 bed. I refused to buy another one. then I admitted that it was 10 years old. Springs do wear out and so does foam. Ok, I got my $170 alarm clock, lets go look at mattresses. There are a million good mattresses out there - won't tell you what to do there - but I know my wife and I seem to like different firmness. So we investigated the sleep number system. We are quite pleased. This was very expensive, but we ended up with the full motion, vibrating, super deluxe model. I don't think that is required, but we aren't going to be replacing this anytime soon and I plan on spending 1/3 of my life in that bed. I didn't think I would like the adjustable feature, but really do. My wife and I are now on different "sleep numbers" so she can have it firm or whatever. no more arguments about which bed we want and there were no compromises.
For us a new bed was required due to age - but we went a little crazy here just because we could.
Step 4:
Kill inside light sources.
That flipping smoke alarm LED was now driving me crazy. I went around with electrical tape and covered the... smoke alarm, phone charger, power strip, tv "off" light, cable box power adapter and put a cover over time portion of the alarm clock previously mentioned. Can I measure this change - hard to tell, but heck, I am so far into this thing I'm going all the way. This room is now pitch black.
Step 5: eliminate certain environmental lights later at night
I do work on my computer etc after dark. This isn't going to change, but I did install F.lux onto my laptop.
http://stereopsis.com/flux/
My ipad isn't jail broken and I don't really want to go there so I won't be installing that. This is a free PC software and I think it does help. I have to work sometimes late at night and this makes it not so harsh.
SUMMARY:
I should have done this sooner. I feel better, better rested and have more energy. We both used to wake up tossing and turning several times in the night. That is gone.
I would highly recommend both the blackout shades (complete) and the wake up light - then go from there.
If you aren't convinced, you can buy blackout fabric at a fabric store and simply pin it over the windows.
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Replies
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What a great report! I'm waiting for a child to grow up and move out so I can have my own room far away from the snore monster (my hubby). Lucky for my sleep time, he's out of town a lot. We've enjoyed our sleep number bed for many years now. That alarm clock sounds absolutely revolutionary!0
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I loved reading this!
Blackout shades sound very tempting! We get a lot of outside ambient light and I know it's disruptive to me. For years my daughter had to sleep with a light on in the room across the hall and it was driving me crazy. There's also a street light right across the street from us.0 -
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!! I have wanted that alarm clock for a long time, but yeah.... $170? You've just convinced me!
And blacking out the room with the blackout shades? I want to do that too.... just need to convince the hubby. He doesn't buy in to my ideas that easily.0 -
My main reason for posting in such great detail is because I have heard many times, "complete darkness". I not only resisted, I refused.
The single greatest thing.
The QUALITY of sleep is RADICALLY different. You can get the alarm clock for less than $170 retail - but I wouldn't go for the cheaper models personally. well worth the extra. The one a bit more with iphone integration seemed silly to me (and I don't own an iphone). KBG - If he wants to be convinced, you can buy black out fabric and try it for a few dollars. Changing out the blinds was about $600 for our bedroom, but we have several large windows. Seriously buy this clock and return it if you hate it. It ROCKS. My wife is so not a morning person. Downright evil before 10am. We would have arguments about waking up. She raves about how when she wakes up, it is soothing and a comfortable wake up.
NJD - DO it. the only outside light that could come in was from the moon and I figured that was natural enough. I was wrong. Complete darkness - not a peep - I LOVE it and I was the most resistant.
MRSA - I have a bit of a snore monster at times in the room. I actually sleep with headphones on. It soothes me and blocks out any roar.0 -
- Sorry Mrs Ables - I didn't mean to call you Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. I have a tendency to shorthand everyone's MFP name and didn't notice it until after I hit POST. 0 -
Hmm.. I wonder. When we moved into our house 4 years ago, due to a streetlight, our bedroom was too bright for me. I learned to sleep with a sleep mask ($40.00 from Brookstone). Ever since I was gotten fablous sleep. My husband often complains of not getting good sleep maybe it's time to black out the whole room.0
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blackout shades are the best!! i also have noticed the room is warmer, and stays so longer with the heavy shades.
maybe i'll look into that light alarm, thanks for the tip!0 -
I've been called worse, Mike...lol! I've thought about head phones, but I sleep on my side mostly. I've tried ear plugs, but they don't work. His snoring is really loud. I can hear him in the next room with the door closed. Sometimes it makes me so angry. He falls asleep as soon as he hits the pillow and snores immediately, unceasingly, every night. My best bet is to try to fall asleep before him. If I feel angry, I just grab my pillow and go to the furthest room with a couch.0
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Thank you for posting this! My girlfriend and I are snoozers and wake up very cranky. She wants to try a gradual alarm but I'd rather try this light one and return it (like you said) if it doesn't work to wake us up. It'll be a trial to get a blackout shade to work on our apartment window but I'm sold.0
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Hmmm. Great post. Sleep is my worst habit.
I basically have had terrible sleep patterns for almost 6 years. When I was pregnant with my first, I would wake up every single night STARVED and totally awake at about 1am. Instead of lying in bed thinking about food, I got up and ate, and since I was up, I usually worked or surfed, googling about diapers and baby stuff.
Then, I was up several times a night with a new baby for the next 10 months.
Then, I was pregnant again and the same middle of the night thing happened, and I was running a cloth diaper biz, so I worked in the middle of the night again.
Then, kids started sleeping through the night, but I still often woke up to work.
Now, no more diaper biz, but my regular job is creative. So I often find that I circle around ideas for days, but then the deadline looms and I buckle down and pump out the work in the middle of the night when the house is quiet. 1-2 nights a week, I fall asleep at about 8-9p when the kids go to bed, or stay up until 10 on my stupid iPad reading. Then I wake up naturally at 1am-ish, and work through to morning. Sometimes I have to do this 2 consecutive nights in a row, so I get a total of about 8-10 hrs sleep over a 48 hr period. Then I'm wrecked, and it takes me a couple of days to recover. And I often wake up in the middle of the night and have a hard time getting back to sleep because my body is used to it.
I'm sick and tired of this routine, and I need to change. I know the sleep deprivation affects my moods significantly. At least I don't eat in the middle of the night anymore. I think that was a big part of my weight gain.
Mike... thanks so much for your post. I think I'm going to invest in the shades, especially since it's starting to get bright earlier.
Now... if somebody would just turn off the damned BIRDS in the morning. Especially the flicker that nests in the random metal hole in our siding outside of our bedroom.0 -
Sir, I just want to let you know you inspired me to get those blackout blinder things. Past two nights have been the best sleep I've had in months - usually I get ~four hours, the past two nights I've gotten around seven.
Cheers. ;D0
