Skip to main content

Naps & Sleep Routines

I could go for a nap right now. My sleep has gotten totally out-of-wack over the past month, and I am in need of some serious sleep therapy. Thankfully, this feels very different than a year ago, when my inability to sleep well became a source of great frustration...

 
Several suggestions have been given. None of them seem easy or guranteed enough for me to fully commit:

  1. Ear plugs. (lost my pair. should probably just shell out another $8...but it takes me at least 3 tries to get them in properly every single time I wear them.)
  2. Sleep mask. (have one. wear it occasionally, not sure if it makes a difference, hate that I have to lift it to check the clock when I wake up unexpectedly.)
  3. Bedtime routine. (I think I generally do things in the same order? I can't see myself fully keeping track of this.)
  4. Sleep-only in your bed. (but skype! journalling! reading! watching TV! In my next bedroom*, I will have a couch. No really, that's my plan.)
Any other sleep advice? Am I being lazy about sleeping well? Should I try really hard to do these things "right"?



*I am feeling both excited and sad about the fact that I will be moving and changing roommates in two months. We've had a good run here, Nadine and I...
Labels:

Comments

  1. Ariana3:45 PM

    Don't bring your computer to bed with you! Seriously! There's something about the light it emits that fails to relax you and put you in sleep-mode. This is the single most important sleeping-better tip. It's made all the different for me. (Read, though. It's ok to read in bed.)

    Also: lavender relaxation spray on your pillows.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jackie7:15 PM

    I struggle with this a lot but I found that on the days when I do extra vigorous exercise it's significantly better. Vigorous as in you're dead tired after you do it and refuse to do anything else but sleep at 10pm.

    For lent I'm committing to iphone-free bed, aka cutting the wifi out so I'm not tempted to read in the dark when I should be falling asleep. I feel great about it so far.

    Couch in your next bedroom sounds delightful.

    Jackie

    ReplyDelete
  3. sarahtp7:53 PM

    I am stealing some of the advice from your readers— I am totally having a difficult time sleeping as well! And I've been a zombie at work too.

    I lost my sleep mask (which usually works for me), so that might be a contributing factor.

    In the winter, when I was sick with a throat cough thing, I put a shot of whisky in my tea before bed. That did the trick. But then again, you don't want to build up any kind of dependancy on the stuff.

    If you get any advice that really works, let me know!

    Also, we should meet up soon. I am going to be in Toronto on Sunday— are you free in the afternoon before 4?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Beth1:14 PM

    ariana: noted...

    jackie: vigorous exercise should be more a part of my life. and will be soon. once the weather is consistently +5 degrees.

    sarah: one thing i do is slow/deep breathing to fall asleep. one hand on my chest, one on my stomach, and relax. it helps. and counting keeps other thoughts at bay. also, sending you a message right now.

    ReplyDelete
  5. jonathanturtle9:14 AM

    Do you know where you're moving yet? I hear there is a sweet opening in Riverdale. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Beth9:59 AM

    jonathan - same plan as before...Karen is buying a place, likely just west of downtown. I'm going to live with her. Sorry, Riverdale peeps.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Simone Weil: On "Forms of the Implicit Love of God"

Simone Weil time again! One of the essays in Waiting for God  is entitled "Forms of the Implicit Love of God." Her main argument is that before a soul has "direct contact" with God, there are three types of love that are implicitly  the love of God, though they seem to have a different explicit  object. That is, in loving X, you are really loving Y. (in this case, Y = God). As for the X of the equation, she lists: Love of neighbor  Love of the beauty of the world  Love of religious practices  and a special sidebar to Friendship “Each has the virtue of a sacrament,” she writes. Each of these loves is something to be respected, honoured, and understood both symbolically and concretely. On each page of this essay, I found myself underlining profound, challenging, and thought-provoking words. There's so much to consider that I've gone back several times, mulling it over and wondering how my life would look if I truly believed even half of these thi...
1 comment
Read more

I Like to Keep My Issues Drawn

It's Sunday night and I am multi-tasking. Paid some bills, catching up on free musical downloads from the past month, thinking about the mix-tape I need to make and planning my last assignment for writing class. Shortly, I will abandon the laptop to write my first draft by hand. But until then, I am thinking about music. This song played for me earlier this afternoon, as I attempted to nap. I woke up somewhere between 5 and 5:30 this morning, then lay in bed until 8 o'clock flipping sides and thinking about every part of my life that exists. It wasn't stressful, but it wasn't quite restful either...This past month, I have spent a lot of time rebuffing lies and refusing to believe that the inside of my heart and mind can never change. I feel like Florence + The Machine 's song "Shake it Out" captures many of these feelings & thoughts. (addendum: is the line "I like to keep my issues strong or drawn ?" Lyrics sites have it as "stro...
2 comments
Read more

Esse - Czeslaw Milosz

I'm on a bit of a poetry binge this week, and Monday afternoon found me lying on the luxurious shag rug of a friend's tiny apartment, re-reading some of my favourite poets (ee cummings, William Carlos Williams, Czeslaw Milosz). It is an adventure to re-open a collection and wonder what will pop out, knowing something you've read before will strike you afresh, or you will be reminded of a particularly moving line that you had somehow forgotten. Like this piece from Milosz, which floors me. Every. damn.* time. The first time I read it, I lay in a park with a friend (this same friend who offered me her rug as my reading burrow) and demanded that I share it with her. I spoke it carefully, and then, into the post-reading silence, I slammed the book shut, and dropped it as loudly as I could onto the grass. "I'm never reading anything again," I declared, "What else is there to say?" Esse I looked at that face, dumbfounded. The lights of métro st...
Post a Comment
Read more