Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Ah, Teddy, I am about to trundle off to bed to see if I can catch an early night…
I was just in the “Insomnia Help” forum overview page – don't you love how it says HOT next to our thread?!
I love it!!!!!
Sweet dreams!
Groggy
Haha, Teddy 😆
I agree 100% – and yep, I too had that thought about working in the evenings – I am too groggy to reply to that indepth right now, but I will get back to it later in the day…
I fell asleep really well again last night – not quite as amazingly as on Tuesday night (I think it was Tues…?) but still really well.
In a bit of a stupid turn of events, I didn't hear my 2 alarm clocks going off (repeatedly) this morning at 6am – so I slept for 12 hours!!! From 1am to now 1pm, lunchtime. Ooops!!
I would be so embarassed to write that to anyone but fellow insomniacs…. But I know you will understand that it has nothing to do with laziness or being a slack person….
Anyway, the long sleep-in is not what I was planning for, obviously, but I am going to make the best of it now, cos what else can I do, right?
It was certainly very refreshing and it's nice to not feel mega-sleep deprived, as I have been for most of the last 3 weeks…
Well, I'd better get to work now, else I'll not make my Monday deadline for my current contract…
Well done on another night of sleep and insomnia that you have spent successfully.
Hey – I've got a question for you too – since you and Mr. M both have some insomnia issues and since snoring is an issue for you (as it is in so many relationships) why do you guys only have one truly comfy bed?
If I were you I would make sure to have the other bed be just as comfy, so that at least it's not a daily issue of who sleeps where and in what shifts – cos surely that's adding to an unsettledness?
My “theory” is that maybe your 2nd bed is uncomfortable cos you 2 are hoping not to need it – that you would prefer to sleep side-by-side in the big proper bed (which I too aspire to with my b/f as it seems the most romantic option) but seeing as we both struggle with insomnia too, we have 3 comfortable beds!! (One of our sofas is a daybed-sofa) So there is always plently of comfy sleeping space and it's eays to pick who can go where…
Have a lovely day!!
Groggy 🙂
Hi all,
wow – this is cool 🙂
So nice to read how you guys are doing.
My boyfriend takes Melatonin too, to help him sleep and I have wondered whether I should try it too.
But at the moment I'm following the advice in Martin's email course and I don't want to get myself muddled up by trying all sorts of stuff all at once.
Thank you for explaining about the intense dreaming with the Melatonin, as my boyfriend has that too, but we thought it was from something else – we had assumed that surely Melatonin would not be having that effect, but I'll let him know to ask his doctor about it.
Well done on shaking your flu Susana – having a flu feels so crap, doesn't it!
Oh and I must echo Tired Teddy's words – the 14 day email course that Martin does has been incredibly valuable for me. I think it's turing into a life-changer as far as my insomnia goes, which I've had since I was a kid. As Teddy says, it hasn't “cured” my insomnia in the sense that I can now “fall asleep” quickly – but it has revolutionised my experience of insomnia and sleep and taken so much of the frustration, exhaustion, helplessness etc out of it.
Wishing y'all an easy day!
Groggy
And no, that's not me – it's a pic from the “Stress Pilot” website…
And sorry if I'm just mentioning one product here – there are others of course, but I can't remember the names…
This is absolutely not intended as “advertising” – in fact let me say something critical about it:
I don't like the images/ pictures they use – I think they are crap – and I think with a BIT more effort their programmers could EASILY have come up with better images.
Also the music is crap (there is gentle, relaxing music going on in the background).
And as you cna see from the last pic, the cable on the ear clip thingee is so short that it's always “tight” – surely they could have designed that better too!
But apart from those criticisms, it does seem to work – which I guess is what's most important to me…
Don't know if this pic is large enough, but this is what the screen looks like that I use:
And this is what the picure with the butterfly looks like:
This is the ear-clip thingee:
And this is what is looks like when you are doing it:
Hi Martin,
yeah, I'm happy to describe that.
I just thought I'd get the basic info sorted out first so that ppl aren't thinking “What the heck is she talking about?!”
I will start with the Biofeedback, as that is easiest to explain.
As I said above, you could do a feedback to help you learn to slow down your heart rate.
Or, if they attach the sensors to the muscles in your neck/ shoulder area, you could learn to stop unconsciously tensing those muscles as much…
The biofeedback exercise I'm doing is a bit hard to explain. It used a programme/ software called “StressPilot” and it's got something to do with synchronising your breathing to your heart beat.
To be honest, I don't understand how it works, why it works or what it's trying to achieve… but the results are good – when the computer tells me I'm “doing well” my breathing and my body does feel much more relaxed.
And that's kind of the point with Bio and Neurofeedback – you don't have to consciously understand the process. If you do the indepth research and are smart enough, then you can figure out, what it is they are getting your body to do… But it is rather complicated!!
So with that StressPilot exercise, all I have is a clip on my earlobe, measuring my heart rate…
There's a computer screen with a visual cue showing me when I should be breathing in and out and at which (slow) rate I'm suppose to try and be breathing at.
Then there's the feedback responses – I can see a visual cue (in my case I picked a hot air balloon – I liked that better than the butterfly) flying up in the air (there's a landscape scene as a background) and if I do well, the balloon floats up higher and if I'm not synchronising my breath right, then it floats down towards the ground…
It's a bit weird, cos all you are doing is “practising” something that feels quite odd. There's not a whole lot of mind/ intellect involved in the process…
I guess I would say it's a bit like learing to ride a bike. While you consciously understand that you need to learn to keep the bike from wobbling and tipping over sideways while you pedal to make it go forwards – it basically comes down to trial and error until your BODY has grasped what it needs to do (balance-wise etc) to make it “work”…
Right, that's my description of the biofeedback exercise for now.
I will try explaining the neurofeedback exercise next and then try explaining how what you learn in the sessions helps you when you're at home/ during your day-to-day life…
Haha – yeah, I'm so lazy, aren't I?!
But it's such a complicated thing to complain… I keep feeling overwhelmed by it!! 😮
Shall we just add bits and pieces and collate what we know?
I can start by saying that the overall term is Biofeedback – and it means that you are getting a visual and/or audio feedback of what your body is doing – for example you might be able to see your heat rate displayed on a monitor…
Then you can try different relaxation approaches to see what helps you slow your heart rate down…
Neurofeeback is a subset of Biofeedback. It is specialised only on measuring what your brain is doing – registering your brain waves…
I am doing both – Bio and Neurofeedback.
Here's a few more details copied from Wikipedia:
Biofeedback is a process that enables an individual to learn how to change physiological activity for the purposes of improving health and performance. Precise instruments measure physiological activity such as brainwaves, heart function, breathing, muscle activity, and skin temperature. These instruments rapidly and accurately 'feed back' information to the user. The presentation of this information – often in conjunction with changes in thinking, emotions, and behavior – supports desired physiological changes. Over time, these changes can endure without continued use of an instrument.
Oh, no it didn't… it just put it on a new page, but sneakily made it look like it hadn't…
Ach, technology…
Hm, well that is not polite – the forum just ate my post to you…
And I am too TIRED to re-write it…
Sorry!
Sleep tight and sweet dreams!!
🙄
Heyho Teddy,
Oh lucky you to have a holiday tomorrow! That sounds lovely. I hope the snow behaves itself for you!!
I ended up having a good afternoon and getting a lot done. And Mr Napsy was put in his place just fine…
In fact, I got so much done, that I gave myself the whole evening off (not something I do all that often! – I usually do quite a bit of work in the evenings too, cos insomnia keeps me up anyway and I've often been dragging my heels throughout the day.
I'm very happy at the moment, with the insomnia/ sleep progress I've made over the last fortnight. The results are definitely going in the right direction.
Pffft – soon we will have graduated Martin's sleep classes too and then the forum will be even quieter… Do you think his course is too good? Curing everyone and then they're off sleeping at nights and keeping busy during the day?
Ach Teddy, I'm yawning too now… I could just go and get and early night, I guess.
Go and see if Mr Napsy wants to cuddle with me, after I was so rejecting of him this afternoon – haha!
But somehow, I think that he does the day shift and Scrumble the insomnia monster is the one who works the night shift… :wacko:
Getting drowsy now, so i will go and brush my teeth!
XXX Sweet dreams!
Mr Napsy GO AWAY.
I am a grown woman, a working professional who cannot simply NAP all the time, do you hear me?!
While you are a cutey, in your own bumbling dunce way, I cannot be snoozing about on the sofa with you all day.
Forgive me, but you are going to have to do some snoozing without me.
I understand that you are a big snooze fan and that is fine and I will gladly join you as often as I feel able, I need you to not interfere with my days all the time. You're just making it hard for me to cope.
How about we reserve ourselves as much snooze time as we want from 6pm onwards?
Does that sound like a deal?
Okay, so bide your time, cos we still have 3 hours of non-nap time to go yet…
XXX
Haha, well that picture turned out bloody ENORMOUS!
I had made it smaller, but it doesn't seem to have worked…
Haha, well that fits – Mr Napsy is too daft to do anything right, other than NAP…
Pfft <_<
Okay, I think this will be Mr. Napsy:
I decided that I want him to be an idiot. A slack-jawed fool. Who is only good at one thing: napping.
I need him to be an annoying dope, so that the persistent “Let's have a napsy!” suggestions really get on my nerves!!
So there you go, he's a bumbling fool…
Mr. Napsy
Ew, hello…!
Just came back from my jog and am pooped now!
But it went really well – no “lack of sleep” issues as I feared… (Sometimes, if I get close to zero sleep, I feel like my heartbeat goes a bit wonky, which doesn't feel very nice – and to have that happen during strenguous exercise would feel scary to me!)
Unfortunately I “managed” to squeeze another 2 hour nap in this morning… drats.
My best friend called at 8:30am and we had an hour's gas bag and then I was so comfy on the sofa that I dozed off after the phone call…
I think I'm going to have to give my nap monster a name too and find a pic for him – cause it's certainly not just Scrumble the insomnia monster haunting me any more… Mr Napsy is being the bigger pain at the moment!!
Ah, well, I need to get back to work – it's not going to do itself while I nap, unfortunately!
Cross your fingers for me that I don't have any more nap-mishaps today!!
Groggy 😎
Well, I figure we can stay here unless someone else turns up that wants to talk to us…. I started one called Insomnia 2013 – Hi! How're y'all coping? (Or something like that…)
But it's nice and cozy here, so my vote is that we stay put here for now, but like I say, if people want to join in a conversation, maybe they'll feel less like they're butting in on a D&M there??
More later… got to work now…
🙂
