Sleep Hygiene

For the better part of the past year I have had some serious problems with sleeping, and sleeping well. Many nights I find it very difficult to get tired enough to fall asleep and even if I do I find that when I wake up in the mornings I rarely have managed to sleep in a restful way. As a result I've had some strange experiences with crashing in class, taking six hour naps on the weekends, etc.

Finally after the problem has been getting worse for the past couple of months I decided that perhaps it would be a good idea to go and see a doctor about it. I wasn't sure if it was stress induced, a chemical imbalance of some kind, or something else entirely.

Yesterday I had my appointment with Dr. Wilmore, and told him that I would like to first try solutions that did not revolve around taking any sort of medication if that was possible. The last thing I want is to be knocked unconscious for eight straight hours and unable to help with Jack during the night. He sleeps quite well most nights now, but we still have nights where he wakes up a couple times and that isn't something I want to leave Holly entirely responsible for.

Dr. Wilmore said that was entirely doable and that he often suggests that as the first step for anyone who comes in with similar problems. He then gave me the rundown on what is officially called "Sleep Hygiene" and the basic idea is to condition your body to expect certain activities shortly before going to sleep so it gets into a rhythm each night and you can fall asleep more easily.

The steps he told me to use for the next three to four weeks include the following:

1. 30 minutes of light exercise each day before 7:00pm
2. A warm shower just before it's time for bed each night
3. Reading just before bed, but not in bed
4. A relaxation technique
5. Don't stay in bed longer than 15 minutes if not asleep

I gave it a try for the first time last night and I slept like a dream. I didn't wake up for anything, and luckily Jack didn't wake up either, so the first night was nice and easy. I'll do it all again tonight and see if the habits can start forming for me. It would sure be nice not to have trouble sleeping anymore.

Not Sleeping Well

When Holly left town with Jack for a full month I thought I would catch up on some sleep, maybe rest up for the coming semester, etc. What happened instead was that I developed some sort of sleeping problem that I cannot seem to shake.

I've had trouble sleeping before in my life, but usually it lasts for a few days, maybe a week at most where I can't get to sleep until really late at night, but I can always manage to wake up just fine the next morning for the most part.

This time around I not only can't fall asleep, but I also can't wake up, and when I do sleep, even if I don't wake up during the night, the sleep is not restful to even the slightest degree. I spend the rest of the day wishing for naps and wishing I didn't have to be to work so early in the mornings.

The most unfortunate part of the whole situation is that I feel terrible about the lack of sleep because I want to be helping with Jack during the night since Holly had to do it all on her own for a whole month. Luckily, Jack is starting to learn to sleep through the night a little better, but sometimes he still wakes up and I try to help if I can.

What I wish for most is that I could solve this problem and get into a pattern of healthy sleep that would allow me to function at a much higher level.

Sound Asleep

I don't know if anyone else experiences this phenomena.

Most night I sleep fairly well. I wake up rested well enough to go about my activities for the day and I don't feel too terribly groggy or like I am dragging my feet. Sometimes I feel a bit tired, and some days I feel like I have a little extra energy. I figure it is about the same with most other folks that I know.

However, on occasion I have a night where I absolutely am dead to the world. Last night was one of those nights. I'm talking about the kind of sleep that is so intense you never move and when your alarm goes off in the morning it feels like your limbs are full of cement and you can't move them. Sleep so intense that when you sit up for the first time you have to wait a minute before you get up because you aren't sure you are really awake.

The strange thing about this is it never happens after I've been exhausting myself with physical activity, or when I'm sick. It just happens on random occasions, not very often, and sort of comes out of the blue. I can't come up with an explanation for it, but I feel so awake the day after I sleep like that I wish I could do it every night.

Sick Little Jack

A couple of days ago both Jack and I woke up with this strange runny nose/cough ordeal that we were not suffering from the day before. I took solace in the fact that I personally had not made him sick since we both caught it at the same time, but I was still not all that happy about the situation because it befell us at a rather inconvenient time.

It was the first day of reading days for the semester and I was supposed to be getting all sorts of awesome work done on my web project as well as several other things to get ready for finals. Instead I was feeling like an inflamed nasal cavity and having a really hard time focusing on anything.

Luckily I made it through the day without too much drama, although I did not accomplish nearly as much as I had hoped I would, and when I woke up the next day I was feeling better. Every day since then I have gradually progressed to a better state, but Jack has not. He stayed even for a day or two, got better for a day, and then last night was coughing and hacking so hard that he was making himself throw up and having a really difficult time breathing.

It was a hard night for me, and I didn't sleep much at all. I was constantly checking on Jack every time I woke up to roll over and probably spent more time in the rocking chair next to his crib to make sure he was still okay than I did in my bed last night. He made it alright though, and eventually Holly brought him into the bed with her which seemed to help him sleep a little bit better for the last couple of hours.

Oddly enough, Jack is scheduled to go see the doctor today for his four month checkup, so it was a bit of fortuitous timing that he didn't get to a really bad state until late last night. I'm hoping the doctor will have some suggestions on how we can help him get rid of this cough and/or give him some medicine to make him feel better. I really hope he doesn't have anything serious. One of the other babies in the ward has RSV recently and came to church a week or so ago still coughing and hacking even though the parents said that the doctors told them he was fine to go out.

Needless to say, I'm a bit skeptical at the moment.

Learning the Sleeping Baby Rundown

Jack has been home for four nights now, and the first one was alright, he didn't sleep a whole ton, but at the same time he didn't really leave us with no sleep. However, the second night he just cried and cried and cried. Nothing we did could make him stop, so that was a bit of a rough night.

Then, the last two night he has slept the night away, only waking up to eat for 45 minutes at a time twice a night, and then falling right back to sleep. If he can keep that up I might be able to get just enough sleep to survive I think.

Can't Sleep? Do a Survery Thingie

Once again, I cannot sleep. Holly is the lucky one being pregnant these days because she can get to sleep pretty easily once she settles in for the night, like tonight, when she dozed off while we were watching Memento from Netflix.

Anyways, I'm up late (and probably will be for a while yet if the trend is the same as always), so I figured I would read some blogs. As it turns out, Shyla tagged me to do a survey on hers so I'll pass the late night hours doing my duty as a tagee.

Crazy 8s Tag

8 Favorite TV Shows:

1. The Big Bang Theory
2. The Mentalist
3. The Office
4. Dirty Jobs
5. Knight Rider
6. Las Vegas
7. Deadliest Catch
8. Sportscenter

8 Favorite Restaurants:

1. El Burrito
2. McDonalds
3. Olive Garden
4. Chili's
5. Village Inn
6. P.F. Changs
7. Carraba's
8. Del Taco

8 Things that Happened Yesterday:

1. Rode my scooter
2. Went to class
3. Worked on my CHum 345 Mid-Term
4. Watched "The Office"
5. Wrote on my blog
6. Worked on Jack's blanket
7. Figured out how to use Adobe Kuler
8. Visited Paul and Molly Burkinshaw

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To:

1. Holding Jack
   
2. Finishing Jack's blanket
3. Finishing my CHum 345 final project
4. Graduating from college
5. Being a dad
6. Getting a web development job
7. Leaving Utah
8. Visiting Bartlesville, OK with Holly

8 Things I Love About Fall:

1. The leaves changing color
2. Wind blowing
3. Cooler temperatures
4. Football season
5. Colorado Avalanche hockey
6. BYU Basketball
7. Thanksgiving Day food
8. The first snowfall

8 Things on My Wish List:

1. New computer monitor
2. A solution to my sleeping problems
3. Jack
4. CODA software
5. Tickets to a Colorado Avalanche game
6. To win my fantasy hockey league
7. Good grades this semester
8. To fully understand PHP someday

8 People I Tag:

1. Holly
2. Roxy
3. Julie
4. Shelley
5. Joelle
6. Mom
7. Cooper
8. Cymbre

The Sleeping Strangeness

Yes, it is 3:46am, and yes I am awake. Have I been staying awake? No. I went to sleep at like 10:00pm last night and somehow managed to wake up fully alert and refreshed this morning three hours before I actually need to get up.

Am I happy about this? Not particularly.

Nighttime Friend Adventures

Most of you know, or at least I think most of you know that I have a very healthy attachment to a few stuffed animals in my life. There is Squishy Friend, the giant green frog that Holly bought me for our first Valentine's Day as a married couple; Moxy, the soft pink hippo that I bought for her on the same day; Doodle, the turtle from Build-a-Bear; and Gunner, the giant hippo from IKEA.

I'm pretty certain that my level of attachment comes from the fact that my father has a tendency to make stuffed animals come to life and did so throughout my childhood. Every kid in my family has an animal and a large collection of stuffed versions of that animal.

Anyways, my four "friends" as they are referred to at home spend their time next to the bed. Sometimes one of them joins me in the night to make things more comfortable, sometimes Roxy or Shelley or Julie will grab Gunner and snuggle him while watching television at our house, or sometimes they are used for makeshift pillows.

However, two night ago, something very strange happened...

I went to bed as I usually do, and is my wont, I had gunner in the bed with me because I was waiting for Holly to join me. Doodle, Moxy, and Squishy Friend were all lined up next to the side of the bed on the floor like they always are, and that's the last thing I remember.

Fast forward to the next morning however, and we find Doodle in the laundry basket, Moxy in the corner of the bedroom closet, Squishy Friend underneath my desk, and Gunner lying on the floor in front of the couch. I'm still in bed of course, and Holly swears that she didn't have anything to do with it which I'm inclined to believe because she rarely, if ever sleeps with any of the friends.

So, they all wound up in various locations throughout the house, I don't remember ever waking up last night, and I'm positive they were all next to the bed when I went to sleep.

Perhaps they really are alive like Dad thinks... spooky.