Sleep deprivation and insomnia have been dear friends to me recently. I think part of it is I’ve never LOVED sleeping, but always viewed it as a thing I had to do.
Even valerian doesn’t seem to help too much if I’m not in the mood for sleep.
Coffee is sometimes my favorite pillow.

I love sleep. XOXO to sleep. This is why Ethan will take over the world and I will not. I also need seven to eight hours of sleep. I don’t watch television, but I noticed when I was watching the Mad Men First Season DVD’s I stayed up later than I normally would. Another reason why television, even when its good, is like a Big Mac for your brain.
I think after 9pm, unless you’re indulging yourself or really have a deadline, everyone should just say no to their computer. The best methods I find to get myself to sleep if I’m feeling anxious are 1. That yoga pose where you put your legs up the wall. 2. A meditation/body scan for ten minutes. 3. Hot herbal tea. Simply reading in bed for a while usually does it, however. If I’m having an incredibly terrible time falling asleep (once every six months) I’ll do a hot toddy.
Truthfully, I have no problem sleeping whatsoever. The waking up is a different story.

Hugh Laurie is always saying, “Let’s go to bed already” – at least in my mind.
I think this depends a lot on yr constitution. I have super regular habits and sleep like a rock, and pretty much always have. Whether I stay our til 2am or pull an all-nighter, I snap back to pattern.
My hubby, on the other hand, lives in exactly the same environment (namely, our apt) and has HORRIBLE sleep patterns and habits. I actually feel bad for him, but at the same time I think that falling asleep with the TV on for years and years has a lot to do with disrupting brain and sleep patterns.
I think sleep hygiene helps, but a lot of it is just your constitution. I know that Ayurvedic medicine is big on good sleep hygiene and habits and has helped some of my friends a lot.
But monks or not, I think it’s inborn. I’ve read of Christian mystics, even in the days before TV, who lived highly regulated patterns of monastic life but still suffered terribly from insommnia.

Lately I’m all about Melatonin supplements. But I sleep well most of the time anyway. I love sleep.

This may sound crazy but the way we try to sleep (good eight hours rest) is absolutely NOT how we are meant to sleep. I’ll introduce a weird idea here – “pre industrial sleep”. Prior to the advent of clock-controlled industrial culture and pillowtop featherbeds, it was common and expected that you would sleep for a few hours, and then magically wake around the same time as your animals and friends and family around midnight or 1 am for an hour of talking, singing, smoking, and reflecting on “first sleeps” dream, then back to bed for another four hours or so.
seriously. look it up.

I remember reading about that – it is super fascinating. That middle of the night hour must have been surreal.
But I think that was only medieval Europe – I don’t think that was a universal thing. It does goes to show you there are possibilities though.

Interesting because my natural sleep patterns are like than. 3 hours here 3 ours there. I sleep like a cat.
Unfortunately I can’t get much done that
way.

Medieval Europe also did things like draw and quarter and dip your chained feet in saltwater then set goats onto them until they licked the skin away to bones. I endorse pretty much zero things that happened in Medieval Europe, with the exception of Breughel and pointed hats.

Also things that help you to sleep.
Hot bath/shower. Massage with oil/lotion.
Clean bed sheets. Simple bedroom.
If I can’t sleep.
draw
dance
clean house
home improvement projects

I’m w/you on the nonendorsement of Medieval Europe. But Breughel and pointed hats, yay!
Also those cloths you would wear on yr hair so you didn’t have to wash and blowdry it every damn day.
That alone saved them time for an extra hour of sleep in the morning.

sleep has been super weird for me. i used to not sleep more than 4-5 hours. now that i’m in my late 20s, it is absolutely necessary that i get at least 7 or 8 or i can’t function. it’s actually painful, and leads to being…less mindful.
these days, i’m coasting on 10 or 11 hours on my days off. i couldn’t understand why i was passing out so badly on those days. i think its because of yoga, but i thought i had some illness going on.

Also in Midieval Europe they were probably drinking ale all the time to avoid cholera etc., so the waking in the middle of the night was probably also alcohol related.

i remember a study done where they put people down in a large hole with artificial light and allow them to fall into their own natural sleep patterns. turns out we average somewhere between a 24 and 25 hour day. go figure. light cues are fairly important.
if you prefer a 28 hour day: http://xkcd.com/320/
when i go home to california from new york i always over adjust time zone wise and end up sleeping til 2pm. my dad claims i’ve adjusted to hawaiian time just fine:
http://xkcd.com/448/
and just one more on insomnia:
http://xkcd.com/313/
(alt text is particularly good on that one)

Actually, not just medieval Europe. Non-industralised nations today still have poly-phasic sleep. We, first-worlders, have been acclimatised to just one 6-8 hour chunk of sleep and worry if we can’t achieve this! In fact, we consider medication if this ideal isn’t met. Consider the technology: we have cheap access to light to allow us to extend our ‘days’ and they had to pay, comparatively, more simply for a candle. They may have worked much harder physically and with less calories than us and so going to bed early simply to recuperate would have been a sensible option ( we have easy, cheap access to transport and labour-saving devices – no comparisoneh? They walked 5-15 miles to work, we drive 2 miles LOL).
It would take a lot of nerve/commitment to change to that lifestyle. Could be a book in it for anyone out there who’s looking for a change – please feel free to add me in the Acknowledgements page – steviebouy2000 yahoo com heheheh.
Don’t forget they may have experienced a richer life by being able to access and acklowledge their REM sleepat a greater level than us. We only, usually, pick up the remnants of the night’s dreams; they could pick up several depending on whether they had bi-phasic, poly-phasic dream waking periods… and what of melatonin production, steroid production with this mode of sleep/wake … so interesting!
S.Slade