Tag Archives: Conditions and Diseases

Falling Awake is a success

7 Nov
Noise Pollution

Image by agroffman via Flickr

To wake up – do the opposite of falling asleep!

  • start thinking of something,
  • start making noise,
  • start moving

I have researched on the internet a bunch on how to wake up and no one seems to know about this technique.

When trying to fall asleep you want to calm your mind, be quiet and still.  If you do these things when trying to wake up you will be sending the opposite message to yourself.

Think of something – I have tried counting to ten slowly, then again faster, then again faster until my brain gets up to speed.  Sort of a brain motor warming up exercise.  This is just a test of the brain CPU and operating system software so to speak.  Try thinking of random things, types of animals on a farm etc.  Don’t worry if you do not increase awakeness at this stage, the next exercise will take case of that.

Move and Make Noise – Get a drum or a pad of paper or something and start playing it like a bongo slowly, then gradually speed up the tempo until you are really goovin’.  (this accomplishes both the noise and the movement part).  This is really where the action is!  Even if my brain will not fire up very well from step 1, step 2 will launch awakeness.  Drag the drum into bed and just start tapping out a simple beat on it.  Get at least a finger from each hand involved.  Then as you climb towards awareness, start hitting the drum a bit harder and try a different more complex beat.  If you progress to where you can sit up a play you have pretty much made it awake.  Congratulations!

Now get up and blow a horn – or – if you might disturb someone put a pillow over your face and yell loudly something fun!

I have only just discovered this, but I think it will work on a pretty consistent basis.  

If you want to read what I think is also a good expose on waking up try Steve Pavlina’s post at http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/04/how-to-get-up-right-away-when-your-alarm-goes-off/

Steve’s post is pretty long, but I believe he has some good points.  Better than the other standard tips I’ve read.

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Sleep Tip #2

27 Oct

Melatonin = “Mellow-tonin”

sleepy_mk

Zzzzzzzz zzzzzz zzzzzz zzzzzz!

Usually Sleep Tip #1 does the trick in about 10 minutes.  That is, alternating listening to the nothingness, and relaxing.  But on those nights that that is not enough I have another weapon.

For the last 2 nights I have tried to go to bed early only to have ideas pop into my head that I felt the need to follow up on such as:

  • looking up the caloric breakdown of peanuts vs cauliflower on the internet.
  • I know it’s kind of geeky, but did you know cauliflower has more protein per calorie than peanuts?

Anyway, I stayed up too late and was tired in the morning two days in a row.  So last night I decided I was really going to get some sleep so I pulled out my secret weapon.  Melatonin.

I buy the 3mg Melatonin capsules and break them in half, and then in half again so I get  somewhere around 1mg.  You have to experiment with the dosage yourself, too little and you don’t notice any difference, too much and you are too sleepy in the morning.  1mg seems to work really good for me.  I only rarely use this method to induce sleep, but man did I sleep great last night!

The great thing about melatonin is it is something your body naturally makes that gives you the sleepy feeling.  Also, if something/someone wakes me up for some reason, falling back to sleep is really easy.  Normally falling back to sleep after a disturbance is as hard as falling asleep in the first place!  I hate that.

So in recap – if Tip #1 is a little lacking in potency at times, try a mg or so of Melatonin and see how it goes.

Hopefully you will find yourself out like the monkey in the pic above!

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