Poll- What do you do to relax before bed?

[Patrick Donnelly]

Originally Posted by Steven Low

Haha yeah black construction paper. I remember telling someone to do that.. worked out well, eh?

I agree with removing the cell phones/electronics though. I try to place my phone at least 6 feet away; noticable difference in sleep quality.

Yes, it worked amazingly.


I'll see what I can do about the electronics. I'm moving all of my stuff out of the dorms and into my own room off campus today, so not only will I have more space, but more control over that kind of stuff too.

[Daniel Labuz]

This thread is interesting to say the least, I always had very restorative sleep when I slept outside (during the summer at least). I have a lot of outlets in my room as well, so maybe there's some truth to it.

[Kris Reeves]

Originally Posted by Patrick Donnelly

I'll see what I can do about the electronics.

Patrick -

One thing that has worked well for me is to use a strip of blue painter's tape over any electronic display (cable box, clock, etc.). It looks a little goofy during the day, but things like the clock are readable at night time, as it shines through the tape, but it's not nearly as bright.

[Emily Mattes]

The past couple of weeks I've been having terrible sleep problems. I'm exhausted during the day, but come night I'm completely wired awake (though yawning too). When I fall asleep I wake up around 1:00am-2:00am like clockwork and can't sleep for another couple of hours. This is despite heavy lifting twice a day . . . I have no clue how to correct this. The thing is, the only major lifestyle changes I've made recently are good ones:

- I started doing heavy lifting twice a day beginning of last week
- I started seriously cleaning up my diet three weeks ago.
- I've been taking magnesium for a little over a month now, 500mg of magnesium oxide once a day--I haven't felt like I slept properly since then, but it may be confirmation bias.

The only good sleep I've had recently has been when I've had alcohol that night, that is obviously not an ideal solution.

I'm thinking I may try the following, could anyone give any further thoughts on fixing my sleep issues?

- Unplugging electronics (does this include lights?)
- An hour before bed staying away from the computer
- Buying a sleep mask
- Melatonin
- Possibly dropping the magnesium (?)

[Garrett Smith]

All of the things you're thinking of trying sound good.

Try moving your magnesium to the morning. If that doesn't work, you might want to try a different type of magnesium, the oxide form is poorly absorbed.

If you can, move your second workout of the day as early in the afternoon as you can, so that you aren't wired from adrenaline before bed.

No nightshades, they tend to cause a middle-of-the-night wakeup like you are describing.

[Scott Clark]

Reading, so long as it's not any sort of action book like Black Hawk Down, Lone Survivor, etc. Lately I've been reading Richard Dawkins and some work by Paul Chek. It's been working well.