[Stealth3si]

Originally Posted by thesteve

From what I understand alcohol has a confusing affect on sleep.

On the one hand it makes a vast majority of people sleepy and helps them fall asleep.

However (and this may be what the study was talking about) I've read that alcohol prevents your body from going into a deep sleep so even though you fall asleep easier, you aren't getting as well rested as you should be.

Originally Posted by MrCrabby

This is correct. Alcohol causes both drowsiness and insomnia. I find that I fall right asleep after a couple beers, but I usually wake up several times during the night. Of course everyone will have a slightly different experience though.

I saw a BBC doco "10 Things You Need To Know About Sleep" that talked about this in detail. But it compared that to coffee and coffee gave better sleep than beer. It was in UK I think.

[Kris.]

edit; never mind, these advices already dropped by

[Art]

Just throwing this out there. I couldn't sleep last night and finally did my relaxation thing. I fell asleep almost immediately.

[DaGeek]

Originally Posted by Art

Just throwing this out there. I couldn't sleep last night and finally did my relaxation thing. I fell asleep almost immediately.

Funny that you say that, actually, because I tried that technique for napping yesterday and it worked like a charm . I think I was out right about the time I got to my shoulders .

[link_gmc]

breath, exercise, eat meat, dont drink beer, relax.......right, got it!

[pfirst]

Originally Posted by Art

Avoid drinking alcohol before bed? I'm curious about the reasoning behind that. I find it quite easy to fall asleep after a beer.

Alcohol has a relaxing action for a few hours and then it acts as a stimulant. Then one leads to two.

[Travis]

Originally Posted by SupaNova

The title says it all

I'm not an insomniac by any means, just occasionally find myself lying awake longer than I'd like to. Anybody have some suggestions?

Black out your room. Turn your lights off early, basically to match the setting of the sun. Go to sleep at a normal hour. Do not watch TV before bed. The human being is not used to extremely bright boxes of light flashing at them before they go to bed. You need to get yourself into sleep mode, and that means taking at least these steps and probably more.

Originally Posted by pfirst

Alcohol has a relaxing action for a few hours and then it acts as a stimulant. Then one leads to two.

Right. Alcohol will help you pass out; it will not help you get sleep. You will wake up feeling like you got even less sleep than you really did. Terrible idea for help with sleep.

Originally Posted by BillSPrestonEsq

Some harmless, non-drug suggestions I got from a sleep specialist.
1) Do exercise, but halt exercise 3 hrs before bed.
2) Make sure you get sunlight right when you wake up. It seems unrelated, but it has been useful to me. It helps establish your circadian rhythm.
3) Eat protein with dinner.
4) Do not read in bed.

I take some stuff at the advice of a physician, OTC stuff, but it is definitely not for everyone.(I am leaving it out to avoid the suggestion of medical advice) I have severe insomnia that runs in my mom's side of the family. Without any regulation I will stay awake 48-72 hours before any sleep routinely. However, given the fact that several of my family take ambien and such constantly, I am trying to avoid anything like that.

Good, smart stuff here.

See how his #2 correlates with what I said about blacking out your room and working with your lights to match the sun? That also works in reverse as Bill has pointed out. Some people try to wake up in near darkness. That's stupid. The human body needs light in the morning to wake up and it needs darkness for a few hours at night to sleep. He's also right about all the rest, and for the same reasons. Humans for thousands of years walked around for miles. We ate protein (meat) for dinner and fell asleep when it was dark.