lifehacker.com— There are lots of ways out there to beat insomnia, increase the quality of your sleep, and master the power nap. Today we've got our top 10 favorite sleep techniques, tips and facts.
Oct 10, 2007View in Crawl 4
A lot of those are not so good, especially number 3. If you do that, you are preventing yourself from getting anywhere close to REM sleep. This is when all repair work is done in the body and brain. I'm not sure how this is a good thing, you are just taking a micro nap. Its not even a power nap because you barely get through a few of, if any, the stages of non-REM.
It can be tricky at first, but with practice you'll get better at it. It's a matter of getting to deep and losing lucidity, or becoming too lucid and waking up.
Instead of the two-alarm system, just get an alarm that uses a 'gentle wake' type alarm that gradually increases the volume of the buzzer/radio/CD. I have one from Philips I'm very happy with, Sony and other companies make them as well. You can get expensive alarms that use a light to simulate the rising sun, but a desklamp and a plug-in timer could do the same thing I suppose.
I've found another list of sleep tips: <a class="user" href="http://www.healthassist.net/tips/tips-sleep.shtml">http://www.healthassist.net/tips/tips-sleep.shtml</a>Some tips that work for me:Don't worry about how much sleep you get. Excess worry and anxiety are the main triggers of "learned insomnia", when you worry about whether or not you will be able to fall asleep.Do not look at the alarm clock during the night.Try to stay awake. One of the scientifically proven tips. Trying to stay awake as long as possible can have the opposite effect and help fall asleep.
Everyone with serious insomnia should have their Doctor order an overnight home pulseoximetry recording by the local homecare company, a simple very inexpensive screening test that will detect any serious sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is very treatable, and the associated insomnia can be eliminated with proper treatment. Serious sleep apnea can produce hypertension, heart disease, strokes, depression, etc.
Hey, funny you should mention relaxing nature music and sleep induction... I use this cloth headset and relaxing nature CD to get to sleep and it really does help! The website explains that it has something to do with "binaural beat technology" that helps to induce "delta" or deep sleep. You can read about the science here: <a class="user" href="http://www.sleepphones.com/home#binaural_beats">http://www.sleepphones.com/home#binaural_beats</a>
a007proxyOct 11, 2007
A lot of those are not so good, especially number 3. If you do that, you are preventing yourself from getting anywhere close to REM sleep. This is when all repair work is done in the body and brain. I'm not sure how this is a good thing, you are just taking a micro nap. Its not even a power nap because you barely get through a few of, if any, the stages of non-REM.
Closed AccountOct 11, 2007
What is this "sleep" you speak of?
manonfire285Oct 12, 2007
1417
tanathOct 12, 2007
It can be tricky at first, but with practice you'll get better at it. It's a matter of getting to deep and losing lucidity, or becoming too lucid and waking up.
toecutter169Oct 15, 2007
Instead of the two-alarm system, just get an alarm that uses a 'gentle wake' type alarm that gradually increases the volume of the buzzer/radio/CD. I have one from Philips I'm very happy with, Sony and other companies make them as well. You can get expensive alarms that use a light to simulate the rising sun, but a desklamp and a plug-in timer could do the same thing I suppose.
karenbenOct 25, 2007
I've found another list of sleep tips: <a class="user" href="http://www.healthassist.net/tips/tips-sleep.shtml">http://www.healthassist.net/tips/tips-sleep.shtml</a>Some tips that work for me:Don't worry about how much sleep you get. Excess worry and anxiety are the main triggers of "learned insomnia", when you worry about whether or not you will be able to fall asleep.Do not look at the alarm clock during the night.Try to stay awake. One of the scientifically proven tips. Trying to stay awake as long as possible can have the opposite effect and help fall asleep.
clawyerJan 26, 2008
Everyone with serious insomnia should have their Doctor order an overnight home pulseoximetry recording by the local homecare company, a simple very inexpensive screening test that will detect any serious sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is very treatable, and the associated insomnia can be eliminated with proper treatment. Serious sleep apnea can produce hypertension, heart disease, strokes, depression, etc.
foodie1741Apr 20, 2008
Hey, funny you should mention relaxing nature music and sleep induction... I use this cloth headset and relaxing nature CD to get to sleep and it really does help! The website explains that it has something to do with "binaural beat technology" that helps to induce "delta" or deep sleep. You can read about the science here: <a class="user" href="http://www.sleepphones.com/home#binaural_beats">http://www.sleepphones.com/home#binaural_beats</a>