Well, I've never been much of a sleeper. Apparently I slept for almost 2 weeks straight with short breaks to eat when first born, and then defied all usual sleep patterns.
I have a heck of a time getting to sleep, and once there, a pin drop could wake me.
Another interesting observation, starting about 2 years ago I started consistently sleeping next to someone. For the first 9 months or so this actually worked ok, and ever since I feel like I'm sleeping next to a heater, no matter what temperature it is in my room. (I usually need my room to be 65 degrees F or under in order to sleep well.)
I've tried all the tricks of the trade, I exercise, get sun, do relaxation techniques, etc.
Lately, I find all I can do is catnap. That's interesting in itself because I've never been the napping sort. I'd stay up except for the (maybe) four hours of sleep I got at night. But now I can fall asleep in a comfortable chair or on a couch much easier than I can in any position in bed.
Which brings me to...I can't sleep well on my back. Allergies/sinuses and related respiratory problems are aggravated that way. I can't sleep on my stomach, because it puts stress on my neck to turn my head. And no matter how many pillows I go through I can't seem to get comfortable on my side anymore, my neck tightens up in that position too. It feels too high, so I'll lower it and it'll feel too low, even if I change it just a hair.
So, the point is, do you think blockages or any other problems in the energy body could be behind sleep problems? If so, what techniques should I try?
What about coffee, caffeine, or chocolate. Do you try to sleep on a full stomach?
I can cat nap in a chair or on my back, but when I want to officially go to sleep, it is on my side or stomach.
I definitely watch my intake of caffeine and any foods that are supposed to disturb sleep. I don't sleep on a full stomach, but I usually eat something light about two hours before bed so I'm not starving either.
Try NEW before going to sleep. If I have a sleepless night, and try NEW, it makes me sleepy, and I get a great amount of very vivid dreams.
Hmmm....I had a similar problem for about 4 years. I would feel tired and sleepy so I would go to bed. But then something would stop me from actually passing out unconscious for many hours. I'd lay there trying to think of nothing and actually relaxing just fine. But it would be 3, 4 or 5am before I actually drifted off to sleep for a few hours. Either that, or else I'd fall asleep right away at 10 or 11pm and then wake up at 2 or 3am and never fall asleep again.
The effect is that I'd feel dreadful the whole next day at work--just burned out and kind of joyless. And this sleeplessness sometimes would last 3 days in a row or more before I would finally get maybe 6 unbroken hours of sleep.
I went to a sleep disorder doctor and she told me that, unfortunately, the hormones that a person needs to fall into a deep restful sleep are actually synthesized in the body during-------sleep. So if you are getting low on sleep, then your body can actually get into a self perpetuating spin cycle of burned out tired/but can't sleep either.
I looked at the problem from many angles in my attempt to fix things and one important piece of the puzzle seemed to be the fact that during sleep, the average person ingests most of the prana he needs for the next day. I found this out by reading from many sources including Theosophy and RB.
So I investigated whether adding a greater supply of prana could at least relieve the burned out feeling from lack of sleep and low vitality/prana. That's when I discovered NEW. I started practicing NEW on a daily basis about a year ago and since then, not only have I been able to boost my vitality during stressful/overworked periods, I also haven't been sick once and my whole sleep problem has completely gone away. I sleep for around 6-7 hours every night now which, along with the added prana I ingest via NEW, keeps me brimming with vitality all the time now.
I simply can't say enough about the efficacy of regular NEW practice. I believe that the basic action of NEW (breathing in prana through the extremities to clear out density and to enhance the store of personal vitality) is probably something which adepts and yogis throughout the ages have known about and practiced.
Boydster,
That was a great little essay about sleep disorder.
Hey, what about Melatonin... many people take it to help make them feel sleepy and some people claim it helps them to have bigger and better dreams.
Perhaps it could have to do with the nature of the NEW... I mean they say alot of energy is used just to repair damage of the energy path ways when u first start... maybe you've bitten off more than u can chew????