Okay, I have a few test coming up..papers due and a career change coming very soon. Anyway, i'm a bit stressed.
Sometimes when I try to sleep I can't help but think about everything I need to do. I can't stop. ...it's a cycle, when I swim, i'm less stressed, but when it does creeps up on me I don't swim in he morning because i'm too tired in the morning to go, and I need to be rested for work which just makes me antsy the next day and so on. Well, I end up skipping days and days at the pool. Frustrating.
Swimming in the morning is usually the only time to go to be sure I can get a spot. How can I get myself to go in the morning, how can I sleep better at night? Have any of you come up with any strategies for this?
Cheers, :coffee:
Eric
I've totally been there and have been there BAD at particularly stressful career times. Can't say I've solved this, but here are things that work for me getting to sleep:
cut back on alcohol ... seems counter-intuitive given that it's a depressant, but I sleep best and get to sleep best when I'm not drinking at all or very little
meditation / deep breathing ... deep breathing in bed on your back in "corpse pose" slowly counting backwards from 10 down to 1, one count each breath. If you don't feel relaxed by the time you get to 1, start over.
warm milk ... sounds hokey and maybe this is a placebo effect, but it seems to work for me ... this time of the year, warm egg nog is even better
turn off the TV some period of time before you climb into bed ... what works best for me is simply to read for the last ~30 minutes before I try to go to sleep
if all else fails, try OTC sleep aids and then, if that's not working, ramp up to Rx sleep aids. I've only had to resort to the Rx stuff when doing short int'l business trips.
As to getting up in the morning, I totally rely on the sweet drug of double espresso. My rule of thumb, though, for skipping AM workouts is if I'm getting less than 5 hours of sleep. I've done workouts on 3 and 4 hours of sleep and the result is a crappy workout, a crappy day and a crappy mood.
Excellent advice!
I've totally been there and have been there BAD at particularly stressful career times. Can't say I've solved this, but here are things that work for me getting to sleep:
cut back on alcohol ... seems counter-intuitive given that it's a depressant, but I sleep best and get to sleep best when I'm not drinking at all or very little
meditation / deep breathing ... deep breathing in bed on your back in "corpse pose" slowly counting backwards from 10 down to 1, one count each breath. If you don't feel relaxed by the time you get to 1, start over.
warm milk ... sounds hokey and maybe this is a placebo effect, but it seems to work for me ... this time of the year, warm egg nog is even better
turn off the TV some period of time before you climb into bed ... what works best for me is simply to read for the last ~30 minutes before I try to go to sleep
if all else fails, try OTC sleep aids and then, if that's not working, ramp up to Rx sleep aids. I've only had to resort to the Rx stuff when doing short int'l business trips.
As to getting up in the morning, I totally rely on the sweet drug of double espresso. My rule of thumb, though, for skipping AM workouts is if I'm getting less than 5 hours of sleep. I've done workouts on 3 and 4 hours of sleep and the result is a crappy workout, a crappy day and a crappy mood.
Excellent advice!
