Sleepless nights

are you exercising enough?

 

I've had worse insomnia than at other times in my life. The more settled I've felt in my waking hours, though, the better my sleep has been. I think there's a tonne to process, and night seems to be the time my brain decides to do it!

 

Yes, my brain works harder at night than during the daytime, it seems. I've missed sleep sometimes, too.

I'm with Nick... exercise does help. I bicycle commute to and from work most days, and wearing myself out physically helps some.

But yeah, I do a lot of problem solving in my sleep. Back in college, I had a dorm roommate tell me that one night I was talking in my sleep. I was talking in computer coding language. Line by line, writing a program, I guess. LOL. Some things never change, I guess.

 

Lets see I sleep about 8 hours every two days..

 

I was designing a house once and couldn't get it...Just wasn't happening. But, I had a surgical procedure...you other 50 isn know about it...woke up and had to ask the nurse for a notepad...the design was just flooding in...i had worked it out in detail while under for like 10 minutes.

sleep is strange.

 

I've also noticed a lot of restless nights. When I was first coming to terms with my sexuality, I kept having dreams about being with women, and I would fight them so hard (I often lucid dream and can actively change my dreams while they are happening. Cool but insanely weird and surreal). This led to so many restless nights until I finally accepted I'm attracted to women, surrendered to my dreams, and let myself do the processing my brain so needed.

Now that I'm in the early stages of coming out, I keep having bad dreams about coming out to different friends. A lot of the time when I wake up from those dreams, or even worse find myself unable to sleep at all, I make an active effort not to judge myself for all of the extra work my brain is doing. Because there is nothing worse than being tired and then being mad at yourself for being tired. That just leads to a major anxiety cycle.

Have you tried journaling or doing some doodling before bed? Sometimes just aimlessly writing or drawing helps clear out my excess emotions before I sleep.

 

Excellent! I now keep a notepad on the nightstand to write down whatever I am mulling over. Then I can let it go and sleep.

 

You need good sleep hygiene. Napping in the evening is not a good idea. Set the same bed time everynight. Don't watch tv within the hour before bed, warm milk, light reading (not a book) but maybe flick through a magazine. Maybe some stretching and some relaxing breathing exercises, a bath within that hour. Bed is for sleeping not for anything else except sex. so dont lie around on your bed if you aren't going to go to sleep or maybe meditating.