What a difference sleep makes!

Not if you quit eating.

Bah, you're no fun!

You could always skip the beer and go straight for the Jack Daniels. On occasion that works for me.

hehe, I have to admit -- I have used rum for that purpose on rare occasions.

Eating enough turkey works for me.

About once every two to three weeks I'll have a Wired Night, where I just cannot seem to shut down. I usually have pretty good luck with a little routine my Mom, a severe insomniac, picked up somewhere during her relentless search for help.

This is something you might want to try for light, occasional bouts of insomnia....chronic insomnia is a whole nother beast But hey, if it sounds appealing, give it a shot, bless your heart, whoever you are...I cannot conceive of living with chronic insomnia.

Anyway:

1. Get the bedroom kind of cool; a little on the chilly side. (I like a little white noise, and my a/c vent provides just the right dose of it as a side-effect.)

2. Get the bed set up comfy-snuggy. As in, at least a moderately weighty blanket.

3. Take a TEPID shower. Not cold, not warm, maybe a degree or two above body temperature.

4. Sluice off the extra water, but don't dry down completely. Leave yourself slightly damp.

5. Hit the sack immediately and without nightwear, and let the bed finish drying you off.


-- Danny's Innovation to Mom's System --

If you don't like blankets or weight on you when you sleep, consider using three pillows. Form a horseshoe shape on the bed, fairly close around you, and then pull the covers up over the two side pillows for a little private airspace. (An electric blanket is ideal for this, IMHO...when I hit a Wired Night in mid-July, the blanket goes on "Medium" and the bedroom temp goes down to the mid-fifties )

Very rarely does this fail me; usually, it's Instant Coma. My problem is that I spend half the night tossing and turning before I realize that I really am having a Wired Night, and that I must indeed drag myself out of bed and perform The Ritual.

Yes, this means your beloved companion, whoever s/he is, must suffer a night of exile. But let's keep it real: your BC will dutifully complain, but your BC will gladly take the couch or the guestroom. Your BC has seen this before, and your BC already knows that you are going to be an Asshat On Skates tomorrow unless you get some sleep tonight.

Oh, and Paolo: Is it possible you're overdoing the melatonin? A friend and I both tried it at about the same time, and we discovered independently that half a tablet was about right. If either one of us tried a full tab, it totally wired us.

== danny d.

Danny! I nominate you for the most helpful post of all time! I will try the 1/2 tab of melatonin this very night.

Otherwise, I have tried pieces and parts of your mom's routine, but not all at the same time. So, mebbe tonight will be the night I actually fall asleep. Woot!

It's funny that you mentioned the A/C, because I absolutely can't stand when It's hot and I'm trying to get to sleep. My body temperature is at it's highest around bed time and lowest when I wake up (supposedly a thyroid thing...who knows?). And, I LOOOOOVE a cold pillow, hehe.

my sleep schedule changes with the wind and i could care less. One night I'm in bed at 9pm up at 4am, next night i could go to bet at 2am wake up at 7am. Or other combinations, it really changes all the time. One thing constant, I rarely sleep more then 6 hours. Unless I get drunk the night b4, then i can sleep 8 hours easy. I don't get drunk much anymore, and since i quit smoking I've been sleeping even less.

Well, I certainly wouldn't eat a LIVE taco!