[Sheel]

Originally Posted by rrsteer

A question- why would a machine as sophisticated as our body need to spend 1/3 rd of its time (8 hrs per day) in maintenance?

Could be that I am justifying my not more than 5 -5.5hrs of sleep per day - which is not out of compulsion, but a lifestyle choice.

All human bodies are different. Maybe, you and few others can do fine without sleep, but few can not. Do whatever suits you but for that, you have to be sure, if it suits you.

[redcruiser]

HI ,

I have come across this stuff where the sleeping technique is practised by US NAVY SEALS.

Members of the military must of course learn to sleep during uncomfortable and sometimes traumatising situations. Furthermore, their jobs require them to remain alert during duty, able to think fast in dangerous situations.

It is, therefore, vital servicemen and women learn how to get a quality night’s kip, even during times when their peace is punctuated by gunfire and their bed is somewhat less than cosy.

Imagine we are complaining about light and sound hindering our sleep but these guys sometimes sleep when there are gunfires.

So what is this magical method and how do we non-Navy Seals draw from it? Well, according to sports performance book Relax and Win: Championship Performance by Lloyd Bud Winter, this tried and tested piece of military wisdom can be broken down into four distinct steps.

Firstly, the sleepy person must relax their facial muscles; including their tongue, jaw and the six muscles surrounding their eye sockets. Squinting and frowning are big no-nos as tension needs to leave your face.

Secondly, the wannabe sleeper should draw their focus to their shoulders; dropping them as far down as they can. They should then relax their upper and lower arms; first on one side, and then on the other.

The third step is to breathe out, relaxing the chest. Finally, the sleep-wanter should relax their legs; beginning with their thighs before moving down to their lower legs.

After completing these four steps, the desirer of slumber must then spend a good ten seconds clearing away the clutter of their mind. Bud Winter suggests picturing one of three mental images in particular.

The first image is lying in a canoe on a serene lake, with a blue sky above you, while the second is being cuddled up in a black velvet hammock inside a completely dark room.

The third image is repeating ‘don’t think, don’t think, don’t think’ over and over for ten seconds. Although if you are sharing a bed, maybe keep your voice down a bit.

Well after reading this article I found that this is our desi Sabasan.


referred the article from this link
https://www.unilad.co.uk/science/us-...-in-2-minutes/

[Saanil]

I usually sleep for 7-8 hours. I get into bed by 11pm and get up by 6.45am in the morning. My body is well accustomed to this routine which allows me to wake up around my usual time without the assistance of an alarm clock. My energy level during the day is largely governed by the quality of sleep I experience during the previous night. I like to wake up early on weekends as well as on vacations which causes considerable grief to my friends while traveling together. There are certain occasions where I find it difficult to get sleep:

a) When I have not eaten my dinner properly and feel hungry.
b) When it is extremely hot and the AC is not working.
c) When I do not get to sleep on my side of the bed with my medium hard pillow and soft blanket.
d) When I go to bed without resolving a fight with my better half .

Barring the above scenarios, I sleep like a baby.

[pyrodrive]

Never had a problem with sleep.
I have an unusual workout time though, that is at around 11pm, 45min workout max, then a hot bath( irrespective of season) before hitting the bed at 12-12.30 and then I sleep like a log, wake up around 7.30 and go to hospital around 9.30. On some afternoons I grab a 15-20 min nap after lunch.
yes I do have blackout curtains, I like it pitch dark to sleep.
One point I would like to suggest is that in the colour scheme of bedrooms, earth tones are better than brighter colours, it makes you relaxed and sleep better at night.

[Swap_Abarth]

Nice thread. Good sleep is essential for good health. I keep my schedule simple. During weekday, I get up at 4.30 am for gym. And I go to bed by 10.00pm.
On weekends/holidays, I do sleep bit longer. But not more than 8 hours.

[civic-sense]

Are there any real health benefits of waking up early?

I sleep from 12:00AM to 8:00AM.
Have breakfast at 9:30AM,
Reach work at 10:00AM
Lunch at 2:00PM
Leave work at 8:30PM
Dinner at 9:00PM

My routine is roughly same as everybody else, except that I lag behind by 2 hours. I have heard that early-bird-gets-the-worm thing. But then since we don't have a worm to catch is it okay to do everything 2 hours late?

[coolmind]

Interesting thread.
I try to go to bed by 10.00 pm and wake up at 06.00 am everyday.
This helps me to be in office by 07.00 am. (Yes you read it right. I work in first shift).
I stress my body by playing shuttle for 1.5-2 hrs and cycling for 30 minutes daily.
During weekends, I play cricket for 3-4 hours
This helps my body relax better during my sleep and hence a sound sleep of 8 hours.

[Nimalan]

Simple tips to sleep better and to wake up better, from a yogic perspective. These can be followed by anyone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPznkcqemo8

[sinharishi]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Is it healthy? Not sure, most definitely no! Currently is it a matter of choice? No either!

Been following almost same routine as yours from last 5 years. My usual working hours are from 7:30 PM to 3:30 AM and from 6:30 PM to 2:30 AM during daylight savings. Luckily for me, there is no travel to/from office involved since day 1 of this job.

I am 32 now and lately have been thinking on how long I can continue with this schedule. I do get enough sleep, 7 hrs post work and 2 hrs in the afternoon. On somedays it gets worse, less than 4 hrs of sleep due to extended working hours. Its difficult to plan road trips, have made a bad habit of hitting the road right after the shift ends.

Not sure how is this going to work in the long term, been worried to the point of switching jobs. Could really use some advice on how can one lead a healthy lifestyle working EST hours.

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by sinharishi

Been following almost same routine as yours from last 5 years. My usual working hours are from 7:30 PM to 3:30 AM and from 6:30 PM to 2:30 AM during daylight savings. Luckily for me, there is no travel to/from office involved since day 1 of this job.

I am 32 now and lately have been thinking on how long I can continue with this schedule. I do get enough sleep, 7 hrs post work and 2 hrs in the afternoon. On somedays it gets worse, less than 4 hrs of sleep due to extended working hours. Its difficult to plan road trips, have made a bad habit of hitting the road right after the shift ends.

Not sure how is this going to work in the long term, been worried to the point of switching jobs. Could really use some advice on how can one lead a healthy lifestyle working EST hours.

Vocations and industries that have had to practice night shifts long before the IT/BPO industry have well proven schedules of night shift - rest - day shift schedules. Industries like aviation, shipping, hospitals. I have been/am a part of the latter two industries and know we follow the rest schedules/day off schedules quite rigorously. Unfortunately the IT/BPO industry, which I think you work in, has chosen to pretend these issues of sleep cycles do not matter. As most employees are very young their bodies take the knocking. But that doesn't mean it is right.

Tests conducted on submariners showed that sleep you miss accumulates in your body. It never goes away till eventually you catch up with one long nights sleep or that long afternoon nap.

[Rangy62]

Originally Posted by BlackPearl

Nice thread, but unfortunately I cannot contribute anything. I have absolutely no sleep pattern. I can sleep anywhere anytime, whether I am alone or getting bored in a party full of people. Similarly I can keep awake for hours at a stretch if I am driving. I can go off to sleep after having coffee or red bull and i can stay awake without these. My college friends used to call me cyborg
I don't know if this is a good thing or not, but absolutely love it

Aah A soulmate!!! I am the same, in fact I prefer driving overnight it’s very relaxing experience.

[RonXRi94]

Love this thread!

As someone who has spent a good bit of my second year of graduation (2014) researching sleep and dreams, here's my 2 cents:

Our bodies follow something called sleep cycles. We sleep in cycles of approximately 90 minutes, after which a sleep cycle ends and a new one begins. Ever had nights when you've slept for 6.5 - 7 hours and wake up feeling all disoriented and groggy, but sleep for 6 hours and wake up totally refreshed? That's your sleep cycle at play.

We can easily wake up feeling refreshed, if we set alarms to wake us up at the end of a sleep cycle. Basically, set your alarm to wake you up after either 1.5, 3, 4.5, 6 or 7.5 hours, depending on how much time you have. Need to be awake in 2 hours? Sleep for 1.5 hours instead. Trying to wake up when your body is in the middle of a sleep cycle is what causes the horrible disoriented feeling that we've all experienced at some point in our lives.

Observe yourself when you sleep soundly and allow yourself to wake up naturally, without alarms. You will always wake up at a time which is(or very close to) a multiple of a 90 minute interval. Please remember to take into account the time it takes you to actually fall asleep, after you go to bed.

This knowledge of sleep cycles changed my life forever, and waking up has never been a problem for me for the past 6 years.

Slightly OT. Mods, please edit if inappropriate:

As the night progresses, our bodies enter a phase of deep sleep known as REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep. REM sleep is when the body maximizes the repair process, and is also the phase when we dream the most. In the earlier sleep cycles of the night, REM occurs only for a few minutes, and progresses to around 30 minutes (out of a 90 minute sleep cycle) as the sleep cycles advance. If you've ever woken up in the middle of the night for a drink of water/use the washroom, and gone back to sleep, chances are that you remember a long-ish dream when you wake up in the morning. This is because when you went back to sleep, you entered into a later sleep cycle with longer REM periods.

While I'm on the subject of dreams, did you know that ALL of us (unless you're suffering from a sleep disorder) have at least 5-6 dreams EVERY night? That's right, we all do. You might feel that's not the case with you, because the last dream you had might have been a month ago. The reality is, however, that we just don't remember our dreams when we wake up, because dreams happen in our subconscious mind, and we experience our waking states with the conscious mind. Dreams are a natural phenomena that help our brain process everything that we go through in our waking life.

You can train yourself to remember your dreams. I could go on and on, but it's beyond the scope of this post. If you'd like to learn more, please Google search for dream recall. When I was working on my dream recall skills, there was a point where I had 200+ dreams written down in my dream journal over a 2 month period, until my tab crashed and I lost everything.

My apologies for the long post, and thanks for reading if you've read all the way. Most people around me don't care 2 hoots about the mechanics of sleep and dreams, and I usually get dirty looks and eye rolls if I try to explain to people at home. Naturally, when a thread about sleep came out on Team-BHP, I couldn't help going all out

[Rama Kumara]

Originally Posted by kavensri

gh I cannot say that I am fully ‘cured’ of my sleep problem, at least I am feeling much better compared to 4 years back.
And this is my routine:
1) Try to have dinner before 7.30pm.
2) Do brisk walk for exact 40mins (around 4.5kms) between 9.00-9.45pm.
3) Go to sleep between 11.00-11.30pm.
4) Wake up between 6.30-7.30am.

Wow, are you me?? Looks like we in same boat.
I was diagnosed with sleep apnea and still continue to suffer debilitating effect of this silent killing disease.

May i ask you how much you weighed before your prognosis of O.S.A came about?

I currently weigh 93 and i have been on the ResMed Airsense 10 c-pap machine for 2 months now.
Also, did you do any sort of yoga or pranayama to get rid of this disease or just a regular brisk for 45 mins from 9pm to 9.45pm?
Do advise,
Best

[am1m]

Originally Posted by RonXRi94

Ever had nights when you've slept for 6.5 - 7 hours and wake up feeling all disoriented and groggy, but sleep for 6 hours and wake up totally refreshed? That's your sleep cycle at play.

Wow, that makes so much sense! Thank you for explaining this!

Originally Posted by RonXRi94

My apologies for the long post, and thanks for reading if you've read all the way.

Oh man, not at all, thank you so much for posting, this is gold! More often than not I don't end up sleeping well. And the few times I do, I treasure that and see what a difference it makes on my mental and physical performance the next day. I also have never been able to nap in the afternoon for as long as I can remember, even as a child. I really envy people who can nap at any time and fall asleep easily, it's a gift and a blessing.

Originally Posted by Rama Kumara

Wow, are you me?? Looks like we in same boat.

(And thank you for posting on this thread and so bringing it to the top of the section, I wouldn't have noticed it otherwise.)

[am1m]

(Apologies for the back-to-back posts, but the last one was more than 2 years ago, so.)

Happy to report that I'm sleeping a lot better these days. When I last posted two years ago, I'd have only perhaps one or two days in a week where I woke up feeling refreshed. Now I seem to be getting more 'good sleep' days a week than bad. The 'inadequate' sleep nights seem to be down to once in two months, which is a big improvement.

Some things that I think helped:

* Establishing a routine. We almost always go to bed at the same time everyday, including weekends. And this has certainly been the most important thing we've done to be able to sleep better. The downside is that we've become a bit inflexible when it comes to late night visits or entertainment. But both of us now treasure our sleep so it's been an easy decision to turn down late night outings, parties, etc. Makes us a boring couple no doubt, going for movies in the afternoon, meeting friends early evening and wrapping up early, but the refreshed mornings that come with it are totally worth it.

* Reading a physical book with a table lamp instead of watching something on the phone before going to sleep. Reading something on the Kindle seems to work ok too. But the phone was a definite sleep killer.

* Getting some physical exercise everyday. Using the early mornings to go for a run. See that while I'm physically tired when I get back, I'm very mentally fresh when I start work. And the early mornings ensure that I'm tired and ready for bed early at night.

* Turn off the stress. By nature I'm a worrier. Last couple of years, made it a point of not worrying about things I can't control. And thinking about the things I can control only post-breakfast. Almost to the point of 'not caring'. Sounds callous, but it seems to have made a difference to my sleep. I used to wake up in a panic or at least mildly down because of all the things I was thinking about the previous night. But not anymore.