How do you feel when you are falling asleep?

[kenny]

Do you toss and turn forever with your mind racing, or do you just conk out fast?

 

[loriken214]

Depends on whether I''ve taken my sleeping pills or not.

Lori

 

[merilenda]

I''m a tosser and a turner unless I''m really really sleep deprived. My mind definitely starts racing as soon as I hit that pillow - unlike FI who is usually out like a light.

I''ve found that the other side of the coin is that once I''m asleep, I''m a very heavy sleeper. I can stay asleep for a long time and not much is able to disturb me.

 

[yssie]

Depends. I like going to bed exhausted so I don't toss and turn, but if that's not an option I have certain topics I like to 'daydream' about until I knock myself out.. for the last few days buying a house has been top of the list

 

[kenny]

I'm one of those who lay down and am out like a light.

My SO hates that about me.

I think it's because I really get things off my chest all day so when I close my eyes there's isn't a bunch of stuff that bubbles up to bother me.

 

[MissMina]

Over many years of shift work I learned to sleep when the opportunity presents itself.
I rarely have something on my mind and if I do I write myself a note and deal with it
the next day.
And yes it is 3:40 AM but I am not counting sheep. I am talking to a friend in Japan
where it''s late afternoon.

 

[lyra]

Hmmm. I might have to let you know on that one. It''s 4:23am here and I''m not even tired. Listening to Cheap Trick on Youtube and reading PS.....

 

[Karl_K]

I actually had to develop a mental off switch or I would hardly ever sleep.
My brain tends to go into overdrive when I lay down so had to develop a way to chill out.
Even with it I will often wake up in the middle of the sleep period solving a problem I was working on the night before and write down the answer then wake up in the morning and see it and go huh?
I once wrote a 700+ line computer program that way....
It worked and compiled but myself and everyone who read it could not figure out why or how it worked.
It was almost like pearl ;/
The next shortest program in the contest was over 1500 lines to do the same thing.
I lost due to no comments and impossible to read.... but did win a few bucks with people that said it would not compile. lol

 

[mrscushion]

Out like a light.

 

[gemgirl]

I used to mull over what happened during the day and also plan what I had to do the next day, but now I just let my mind drift, imagine pleasant things and in three or four minutes, I''m asleep. And I like the feeling I get when I''m falling asleep. It''s a floaty, weightless, drifting feeling. A feeling of real release. Delicious!

 

[mrscushion]

Whoops, double post.

 

[gemgirl]

Date: 6/27/2010 4:24:19 AM
Author: lyra
Hmmm. I might have to let you know on that one. It''s 4:23am here and I''m not even tired. Listening to Cheap Trick on Youtube and reading PS.....

lyra honey, I hope you were able to catch some zzzzzzzzzs.

 

[elrohwen]

I have issues with tossing and turning and my mind racing. I'll go through a few weeks where it takes me an hour to fall asleep every night, but then I'll move past it and sleep ok again.

I often get excited about all the things I have to do - at bedtime, I'm actually excited about exercising the next day, or starting a project around the house and I will daydream endlessly about whatever I'm excited about. By the time I wake up, I've usually lost all motivation

 

[soocool]

If my DH is snoring before I fall asleep, I give him a good punch. He then wakes up and this gives me sufficient time to zonk out until morning. Otherwise, I close my eyes and usually within a few minutes am out.

*I used to have problems sleeping/falling asleep, but once I made sure our ceiling fan was on all night, all year I have not had any problems zonking out. Something about a cool room helps.

 

[Maisie]

I don''t fall asleep for ages. I sometimes don''t sleep at all. I hate it when that happens because I feel really unwell the next day.

 

[Demon]

Mostly I go right to sleep. For the times when I can''t shut off my mind, I keep 1/2 a Xanax (.25mg) by my bed. Works wonders, and then I can function well the next day.

 

[marcy]

I don''t fall asleep very quickly at all. Sometimes I lay there for hours. I wake up a lot too. Probably why I answered the thread about how do you feel when you wake up as "sleepy".

 

[diamondringlover]

I toss and turn and my mind races, I have woke up at night "working", my job is pretty stressful right now and I know that has alot to do with it....I also sometimes have to try to shut down my thoughts so that I can relax and try to sleep, during the week it is worse, I usually sleep 4-5 hours broken sleep and then make up for it on the weekends.

 

[merilenda]

Date: 6/27/2010 8:21:27 AM
Author: elrohwen
I have issues with tossing and turning and my mind racing. I''ll go through a few weeks where it takes me an hour to fall asleep every night, but then I''ll move past it and sleep ok again.


I often get excited about all the things I have to do - at bedtime, I''m actually excited about exercising the next day, or starting a project around the house and I will daydream endlessly about whatever I''m excited about. By the time I wake up, I''ve usually lost all motivation

I''m totally the same way! I''ll always think of some new project or new thing I''m going to do, and I start getting excited about it. My mind races for a while as I''m daydreaming and considering the details. Sometimes I even get so awake that I have to get up and start internet researching whatever I''m thinking about. And then the next morning, the motivation is totally gone. Ah well!

 

[radiantquest]

I have issues going to sleep so I take OTC sleep medications two hours before bedtime. An hour after I take them I wash my face and brush my teeth then by the time bedtime comes I am good and sleepy.

If I didnt take something I would be up until 2 or 3 in the morning and have to get up at 7. DH tried to get me off of them and he noticed how late I was up and after about 3 months he agreed that it was better for me to take the pills.

 

[Luckyeshe]

I wish I could be out like a light! I don''t toss and turn either though. I normally try to read in bed until the words on the page don''t make sense anymore and then I pass out.

 

[HopeDream]

I fall asleep pretty easily unless I''m stressed about things to do the next day.
I don''t go to bed until I feel sleepy, and I close my eyes and concentrate on how safe and comfortable I feel. Then I let my thoughts drift and I find something interesting to think about, and it''s so interesting I think of only that and then my conciousness of everything else dims and evaporates and I drift into sleep. If I''m almost asleep, or have just gotten to sleep, and I am jarred into conciousness, I''m annoyed at having had my interesting train of thought broken.

If I have trouble falling asleep I think mildly about getting up to do soething and about how much effort thatwould take and about how comfortable I am now, and faced with the potential effort of gettting up, I drift of to sleep easily. If that doen''t work, I listen to an audiobook until I notice I''m not paying attention any more, then I turn it off and fall asleep.

Sleeping is no trouble, it''s getting myself there in the first place.

 

[Autumnovember]

SO is out in a matter of SECONDS, which I'm insanely jealous of. Me? Takes me about 30 minutes before I fall asleep as I am thinking about everything and anything. Sometimes my best ideas come out when I'm laying in bed and trying to fall asleep (this ends up leading to me getting out of bed and expanding on this "idea" I thought of while in bed).

Along with that, if someone walks into the room without making any sort of noise whatsoever, I'll still wake up. SO has done this many times when I've been sleeping and is amazed that I woke up and knew he was in the room.

It takes A LOT for me to sleep heavily. I'd probably have to be up for 24 hours straight running around all day to get heavy sleep. Otherwise, I'm a light sleeper and I wake up from anything.

 

[sillyberry]

I frequently have major sleeping anxiety. Although the thoughts aren''t even necessarily about things I''m anxious over, but just rather things I''m thinking. Sleepy drugs knock me out, though, but not in a good way - I can''t wake up the next morning.

The best thing for me is that I''ve put the audio of favorite movies onto my iPod. They allow me to concentrate just enough on something familiar that the thoughts stop racing and I''m able to relax and fall asleep. It''s a bit more challenging when I''m sleeping in a bed with someone else, though, because I always worry that the sound will wake him up and that makes me anxious... I really need to invest in a pair of SleepPhones, but I keep balking at the cost. $60 for being able to fall asleep doesn''t really seem like a bad deal, though.

 

[Cehrabehra]

I have a long term rotation that I end up going through with my go to sleep process. Mostly I play on my phone. Scrabble, cards, backgammon, sometimes I read. If I don''t do this I think. And generally it is an unhealthy anxiety ridden process. On the occasional times I can drift blissfully into sleep I enjoy the lucid phase. But if anything gets in the way of that - any of my list of anxieties, it can be difficult to even play or read to sleep. I generally reserve the natural sleep for naps

 

[Cehrabehra]

Date: 6/27/2010 3:27:06 AM
Author: yssie
Depends. I like going to bed exhausted so I don''t toss and turn, but if that''s not an option I have certain topics I like to ''daydream'' about until I knock myself out.. for the last few days buying a house has been top of the list

I do this too - I have a bit of a hobby drawing house floorplans and I will draw a house in my mind and walk through it and I usually don''t get very far lol Of course there have been times where I''m like dang! and get up to find a paper and pencil lol

 

[packrat]

I have sleep issues and have for years. Anxiety at different jobs, so I''d sleep a couple hours a night Sun-Thurs nights, and then sleep pretty good Fri/Sat. More nights than I can count of being awake all night, going to work and then sleeping a few hours that night. That would suck *so* bad. Most sleep aids made me groggy the next day so I didn''t take them much.

I''m like my parents tho, in that I can get thru the day w/out much sleep, and can function that way, and did for several years straight. Ha, I was well prepared for having newborn babies and the no sleep they bring with them.

JD does not function well on little/no sleep, and I admit I am not very understanding *at all* with him or anyone else who has once in a while nights of "only" 6 hours of sleep-straight uninterrupted sleep mind you, not up/down/up/down 5 times in 6 hours like I am. (and guess who manages to get the nap during the day? It''s not me)

I have however, developed the ability to sleep or at least do the half asleep half awake thing in circumstances I''d not ever before. I can sleep w/the tv on now, and in the recliner, and with the side lamp on. I sleep through the birds chirping too. However, I always have 1 ear cocked for the kids, so in that I''m still a super light sleeper. I still shove and kick JD for breathing too loudly.

I do the daydream thing when I lay down..I think of my ring projects, and things I want to do to the house. Sometimes a certain hot Pirate finds his way into my daydreams to shiver me timbers and that''s always welcome.

 

[Arkteia]

Out like a light. I also tend to fall asleep when I watch a movie with my husband - he is a movie fan. Yesterday we watched a mystery and I fell asleep at the most interesting moment. When I woke up he had to tell me who the killer was!

I can also fall asleep at work when I have a moment out, with my head on the table, or in my high-back chair, on a bus, anywhere. Just a "beauty nap" only it does not render you too beautiful because your face end up all crumpled. But it helps me go through the rest of the day.

It is an old habit which I developed in my residency days when we were on call every 4th night.

 

[oddoneout]

Most of the time I''ve been so busy during the day I''m really tired and I fall asleep pretty quickly.

 

[zoebartlett]

It usually takes me some time to fall asleep. I generally start thinking about all sorts of random things. If I''m really, really tired though, sometimes I can fall asleep pretty quickly.