Can you fall asleep?

[Penguin]

Last night: went to bed at 21:45, wasn't riding the coffee high, wasn't having an excessive daydream, didn't have loud noises or uncomfortably hot room temperature. And yet it took me close to 2 hours to fall asleep.

I wake up everyday except Sunday at 05:45 trying to get my sleep pattern to align itself and it's not going too well. No matter what I do, I always end up having to wait at least 30 minutes to fall asleep, usually well over an hour. And it's not that my body tends towards a later sleep-time either, I've tried other bedtimes and the result is the same.

What happens for me is that even though I might not be engulfed in some intensive daydream, I still cannot stop my mind from having them. I just keep hopping from one fantasy to another and I usually need to have a relaxed mind for a while before I can fall asleep, which means no conscious attempts to stop DDing and force myself to sleep.

Anyone have the same problem? Have you found ways to cope with it?

[Penguin]

New plan: Go to bed at 20:45 (veeery early) and try to imitate the pre-sleep mind-fuck (you know, the brainstorming of unrelated images). Thanks to that i managed to fall asleep in thirty minutes last night, which is great.

[Cordellia Amethyste Rose]

Ok, I'm a crazy lifer, so my situation will hopefully never mirror yours.................but a doc did say I couldn't change my sleep pattern by more than 15 mins a day. Just a heads up. My daydreaming, wandering thoughts, and sensory sensitivity have kept me up all night, every night, for most of my life. I had to start drugging. Personally, if you can get to sleep in 30 mins, you're doing great. I wouldn't worry about that. It's up to you, though. I'll bet any number of relaxation tricks will work............but I wouldn't go the daydreaming route. That can put you to sleep, or it can get your brain riled up & you could stay up all night. Good luck. :)

[Penguin]

'Ok, I'm a crazy lifer, so my situation will hopefully never mirror yours.................'

Wait, you're saying you are crazier than I am yet you are hoping that your situation will never be as easy as mine is? 0.o

'but a doc did say I couldn't change my sleep pattern by more than 15 mins a day. Just a heads up.'

You mean go to sleep earlier by at most 15 mins?

'My daydreaming, wandering thoughts, and sensory sensitivity have kept me up all night, every night, for most of my life. I had to start drugging.'

Yeah, similar for me, spent ages mid 8-late 16 around 3 or 4 hours at night daydreaming -_______-

'I'll bet any number of relaxation tricks will work............'

They don't.

'but I wouldn't go the daydreaming route. That can put you to sleep, or it can get your brain riled up & you could stay up all night. Good luck. :)'

I'm not talking about daydreaming, I mean the state between sleep and awakeness (I know I'm not making this up here) where you start having dreamlike images, thoughts start freeflowing, legs get all sorts of weird twitches, etc. Not real sleep, but not real awake either. This is the only time for me when I don't actually DD but I can only imitate it when I'm feeling sleepy. Seems to work pretty well as long as I don't let any strong DDs build up before bed.

[Cordellia Amethyste Rose]

I meant I hope yours never gets as bad as mine. It's been pretty bad. I'd be up all night & be horribly ill. I don't know how people function on little to no sleep. I'd feel like I was going out of my mind, and my body would tremble and ache all over. Horrible way to live. I build such a strong tolerance to drugs, that I'm constantly having to change doses & try new drugs. If you can find another way that works, go for it.

Docs have told me that you can't go to sleep more than 15 mins earlier each night, so if you're planning on going to sleep earlier than that, don't bother. That's just what they told me.

I'm all too familiar with in-between states of consciousness...........but I don't know why anyone would want to go through that on purpose. I hated it, but that's just me. Then again, mine were completely involuntary.


Penguin said:

'Ok, I'm a crazy lifer, so my situation will hopefully never mirror yours.................'

Wait, you're saying you are crazier than I am yet you are hoping that your situation will never be as easy as mine is? 0.o

'but a doc did say I couldn't change my sleep pattern by more than 15 mins a day. Just a heads up.'

You mean go to sleep earlier by at most 15 mins?

'My daydreaming, wandering thoughts, and sensory sensitivity have kept me up all night, every night, for most of my life. I had to start drugging.'

Yeah, similar for me, spent ages mid 8-late 16 around 3 or 4 hours at night daydreaming -_______-

'I'll bet any number of relaxation tricks will work............'

They don't.

'but I wouldn't go the daydreaming route. That can put you to sleep, or it can get your brain riled up & you could stay up all night. Good luck. :)'

I'm not talking about daydreaming, I mean the state between sleep and awakeness (I know I'm not making this up here) where you start having dreamlike images, thoughts start freeflowing, legs get all sorts of weird twitches, etc. Not real sleep, but not real awake either. This is the only time for me when I don't actually DD but I can only imitate it when I'm feeling sleepy. Seems to work pretty well as long as I don't let any strong DDs build up before bed.

[Penguin]

'Docs have told me that you can't go to sleep more than 15 mins earlier each night, so if you're planning on going to sleep earlier than that, don't bother. That's just what they told me.'

If that is the case, it really means that I should expect up to only a week of forcing myself to go to sleep early, not really something discouraging. Of course, maintaining that routine is difficult if I don't catch myself having an intense daydream, but good to know anyways :)