Sleep used to be a delicious given in my life. I would lie down and five minutes later I would be flat out, floating in comfort through a set of twisted lovely dreams. And then life happened. Or I got old. Or ill. Or bonkers or something. And the universe stole my ability to sleep in order apparently, to force me to lie awake dwelling and worrying about all the things I cannot change. Dear readers, it is INFURIATING. I, Alison May, am absolutely INFURIATED, by my naughty body and silly, too full head.
So last week I embarked upon MISSION SLEEP.
I downloaded the much talked about sleep app, Sleep Cycle, to my phone and lined up a collection of sleep aids on my bedside table: namely earplugs, a sleep mask, valerian sleep tablets, lavender oil, magnesium tablets, chamomile tea-bags and some lavender and geranium massage oil and after being gifted a new mattress and installing a black-out blind I was good to go!
Sleep Cycle is an app that monitors your sleep and decides when you should be gently woken by a soft tra-la-la. You pop it under your sheet and by monitoring your night-time movement and weighing up the variables of your day, it produces a graph of each nights REM and deep sleep and then awards each nights efforts a percentage according to how well or badly you slept that night.
The variables include things like whether you drank caffeine felt stressed, ate late or worked out and you can then customize it to include your own variables: in my case lavender, alcohol, sleeping tablets, sleeping alone and chamomile tea.
The app takes five nights to really get a good grip on your sleep pattern and produce a collection of graphs describing how much sleep you get on various nights of the week, what time you go to bed, how long you sleep for and which variables have the most influence on good or bad sleep.
It is absolutely fascinating! And it all too quickly confirmed that a) my sleeping pattern is all over the place and that b) traditional sleep aids really DO make a difference.
This was my sleep cycle the first night:
The first night I went to sleep without using any of the listed sleep aids and had very little deep sleep and frequent waking moments.
The third night I slept alone because Richard was at his own house, did without caffeine all day (sad face), drank chamomile, and rubbed lavender scented almond oil into my skin before I slept. Et voila! My sleep quality shot up to 87%!
On the sixth night, we held a barbeque and I drank red wine and ate nibbly bits into the early hours and the (slightly drunk), disturbed sleep I fell into as soon as my head hit the pillow is hilarious: it is as though I died, when other nights it is clear that I struggle to catch my sleep, but of course that flat out, dead sleep was soon replaced with erratic, wakeful sleep and I woke up feeling like I had been dragged through a bush.
Finally last night, after enlisting the help of every sleep aid known to man I enjoyed a settled, blissful sleep only interrupted when I apparently woke up and had an ABSOLUTE HISSY FIT at Richard for being too hot. And not in a good way Ladies. Truth is though it is clear that I was awake at two, I do not remember shouting, and thus have convinced myself that Rich imagined it, and I merely fluttered my pretty little eyes open and uttered something charming … ahem.
~The moral of this tale? Sleeping aids make all the difference in the world, alcohol has a disastrous effect on my sleeping pattern and worst of all: the best nights sleep I had was on the nights Richard was eight miles away.
Thus, I am thinking of become a tee-total nun. Do come visit me in the convent won’t you?
Create your own Brocante Life Book, plan Christmas, set up routines and rituals or live life the BrocanteHome way with my guided workbooks and planners.
Look at her. She could be anybody now couldn’t she? That hair. The corsage. The insouciance.And yet this photograph was taken in 1928 when one Fay Watson was arrested for possession of cocaine. Is there not something astonishing about the fact that…
Yesterday you took a nap. In the afternoon. You lay down for just a moment and lost a lovely hour to lavender-scented pillows. When you woke up the light had changed and your body was weighted with sleep. Limbs aching for a…
All Set and Ready To Go! Those concerned: Angela Beck, Jennifer Houfton, Josephine Riley, Angela Grey, Valerie Morris, Tessa Malkin, Jessica Harrison… Having loaded up with tents, pots and pans and an ample supply of food- not to mention ruc sacks, cases…
Hello Sweeties, these are the links that have made me smile today… The French Factrice – I love this gorgeous little vintage postcard blog: the place where I found the little “dog-tired” Darling above… Anita Mathias – Domesticity In Art… A Little…
Yep. A new collection of random facts about yours truly…. 1. The pin above, sent to me by my lovely Ouissi, could not be more me. I do always wear black. But there are rainbows in my head. 2. I am smiling…
Come now. You didn’t seriously expect me to resist a video called “Housekeeping” now did you? Though the ties that bind this to the remit of BrocanteHome are so tenuous as to be barely there, the truth is occasionally the sight of…
6 Comments
Sleep and I have a love-hate relationship. I love it but it hates me. The only time in the last fifteen years I’ve slept more than four hours at a time was the night my daughter was born and the nurses took her to the nursery. I’ve tried all of the sleep aids over the years. Sadly the only thing that really worked was the drug Ambien. It gave me the sleep of the dead, I felt terrible the next day. So I just muddle along on broken sleep. I’ll still be trying to convince my daughter to nap when she’s 12, I think.
Your completely the opposite of me then. My sleep problems are/were due to peri menopause and, thankfully, are getting better. I did all the usual non prescription tricks and four years of struggle later, gave up and got the doc to prescribe low dose Zimovane that I take prn. I find I use it less and less the past few months as well. I don’t find herbal sleep aids anything but a waste of money (slightly embarrassing considering I’m an aromatherapist) and I don’t sleep well when my OH isn’t with me. Plainly the nunnery will have manage without me.
I hope you get some relief regardless of which methods you employ because poor sleep is right up there with nutrition for kicking the crap out of you, physically and emotionally.
My sympathies Alison! Nights alone can be quite blissful really, though a dim memory for me. I gave birth to a ” poor sleeper” baby 5.5 years ago, who didn’t sleep through as in not waking three times a night until 4 and still is a very light sleeper. With low sleep need. So the sleep specialist informed me when I was just about hallucinating from sleep deprivation. She stopped napping at 18 months. Now I find she just talks in her sleep and is restless several times a night, but the way I sleep has changed! It’s very light now, as in I find I wake up fully. She half wakes I do fully. I wished for a birthday gift of a day in bed when she was just turned 3.
And got influenza for my birthday. It was in bed, but not the cool sheets of the lovely hotel bed I was dreaming of. I absolutely adore her, she is the light of my life, but sleep. I miss it.
As I was taking in every detail of your description of your sleeping notations, I started wondering if I was a bit odd…..because I found it fascinating! I suppose we become a bit pre-occupied with sleep as we get older!
{"id":null,"mode":"form","open_style":"in_place","currency_code":"USD","currency_symbol":"$","currency_type":"decimal","blank_flag_url":"https:\/\/brocantehome.net\/wp-content\/plugins\/tip-jar-wp\/\/assets\/images\/flags\/blank.gif","flag_sprite_url":"https:\/\/brocantehome.net\/wp-content\/plugins\/tip-jar-wp\/\/assets\/images\/flags\/flags.png","default_amount":300,"top_media_type":"featured_image","featured_image_url":"http:\/\/brocantehome.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/tipjar-2.png","featured_embed":"","header_media":null,"file_download_attachment_data":null,"recurring_options_enabled":true,"recurring_options":{"never":{"selected":true,"after_output":"One time only"},"weekly":{"selected":false,"after_output":"Every week"},"monthly":{"selected":false,"after_output":"Every month"},"yearly":{"selected":false,"after_output":"Every year"}},"strings":{"current_user_email":"","current_user_name":"","link_text":"Leave a tip","complete_payment_button_error_text":"Check info and try again","payment_verb":"Pay","payment_request_label":"BrocanteHome","form_has_an_error":"Please check and fix the errors above","general_server_error":"Something isn't working right at the moment. Please try again.","form_title":"BrocanteHome","form_subtitle":"Help Me to Keep BrocanteHome Online","currency_search_text":"Country or Currency here","other_payment_option":"Other payment option","manage_payments_button_text":"Manage your payments","thank_you_message":"Thank you so much: helping me keep Brocantehome online really means the world to me.","payment_confirmation_title":"BrocanteHome","receipt_title":"Your Receipt","print_receipt":"Print Receipt","email_receipt":"Email Receipt","email_receipt_sending":"Sending receipt...","email_receipt_success":"Email receipt successfully sent","email_receipt_failed":"Email receipt failed to send. Please try again.","receipt_payee":"Paid to","receipt_statement_descriptor":"This will show up on your statement as","receipt_date":"Date","receipt_transaction_id":"Transaction ID","receipt_transaction_amount":"Amount","refund_payer":"Refund from","login":"Log in to manage your payments","manage_payments":"Manage Payments","transactions_title":"Your Transactions","transaction_title":"Transaction Receipt","transaction_period":"Plan Period","arrangements_title":"Your Plans","arrangement_title":"Manage Plan","arrangement_details":"Plan Details","arrangement_id_title":"Plan ID","arrangement_payment_method_title":"Payment Method","arrangement_amount_title":"Plan Amount","arrangement_renewal_title":"Next renewal date","arrangement_action_cancel":"Cancel Plan","arrangement_action_cant_cancel":"Cancelling is currently not available.","arrangement_action_cancel_double":"Are you sure you'd like to cancel?","arrangement_cancelling":"Cancelling Plan...","arrangement_cancelled":"Plan Cancelled","arrangement_failed_to_cancel":"Failed to cancel plan","back_to_plans":"\u2190 Back to Plans","update_payment_method_verb":"Update","sca_auth_description":"Your have a pending renewal payment which requires authorization.","sca_auth_verb":"Authorize renewal payment","sca_authing_verb":"Authorizing payment","sca_authed_verb":"Payment successfully authorized!","sca_auth_failed":"Unable to authorize! Please try again.","login_button_text":"Log in","login_form_has_an_error":"Please check and fix the errors above","uppercase_search":"Search","lowercase_search":"search","uppercase_page":"Page","lowercase_page":"page","uppercase_items":"Items","lowercase_items":"items","uppercase_per":"Per","lowercase_per":"per","uppercase_of":"Of","lowercase_of":"of","back":"Back to plans","zip_code_placeholder":"Zip\/Postal Code","download_file_button_text":"Download File","input_field_instructions":{"tip_amount":{"placeholder_text":"How much would you like to tip?","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"How much would you like to tip? Choose any currency."},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"How much would you like to tip? Choose any currency."},"invalid_curency":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Please choose a valid currency."}},"recurring":{"placeholder_text":"Recurring","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"How often would you like to give this?"},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"How often would you like to give this?"},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"How often would you like to give this?"}},"name":{"placeholder_text":"Name on Credit Card","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Enter the name on your card."},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"Enter the name on your card."},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Please enter the name on your card."}},"privacy_policy":{"terms_title":"Terms and conditions","terms_body":null,"terms_show_text":"View Terms","terms_hide_text":"Hide Terms","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"I agree to the terms."},"unchecked":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Please agree to the terms."},"checked":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"I agree to the terms."}},"email":{"placeholder_text":"Your email address","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Enter your email address"},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"Enter your email address"},"blank":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Enter your email address"},"not_an_email_address":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Make sure you have entered a valid email address"}},"note_with_tip":{"placeholder_text":"Your note here...","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Attach a note to your tip (optional)"},"empty":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Attach a note to your tip (optional)"},"not_empty_initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Attach a note to your tip (optional)"},"saving":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Saving note..."},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"Note successfully saved!"},"error":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Unable to save note note at this time. Please try again."}},"email_for_login_code":{"placeholder_text":"Your email address","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Enter your email to log in."},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"Enter your email to log in."},"blank":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Enter your email to log in."},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Enter your email to log in."}},"login_code":{"initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Check your email and enter the login code."},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"Check your email and enter the login code."},"blank":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Check your email and enter the login code."},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Check your email and enter the login code."}},"stripe_all_in_one":{"initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Enter your credit card details here."},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Enter your credit card details here."},"success":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Enter your credit card details here."},"invalid_number":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card number is not a valid credit card number."},"invalid_expiry_month":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's expiration month is invalid."},"invalid_expiry_year":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's expiration year is invalid."},"invalid_cvc":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's security code is invalid."},"incorrect_number":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card number is incorrect."},"incomplete_number":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card number is incomplete."},"incomplete_cvc":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's security code is incomplete."},"incomplete_expiry":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's expiration date is incomplete."},"incomplete_zip":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's zip code is incomplete."},"expired_card":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card has expired."},"incorrect_cvc":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's security code is incorrect."},"incorrect_zip":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's zip code failed validation."},"invalid_expiry_year_past":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's expiration year is in the past"},"card_declined":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card was declined."},"missing":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"There is no card on a customer that is being charged."},"processing_error":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"An error occurred while processing the card."},"invalid_request_error":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Unable to process this payment, please try again or use alternative method."},"invalid_sofort_country":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The billing country is not accepted by SOFORT. Please try another country."}}}},"fetched_oembed_html":false}
Sleep and I have a love-hate relationship. I love it but it hates me. The only time in the last fifteen years I’ve slept more than four hours at a time was the night my daughter was born and the nurses took her to the nursery. I’ve tried all of the sleep aids over the years. Sadly the only thing that really worked was the drug Ambien. It gave me the sleep of the dead, I felt terrible the next day. So I just muddle along on broken sleep. I’ll still be trying to convince my daughter to nap when she’s 12, I think.
Your completely the opposite of me then. My sleep problems are/were due to peri menopause and, thankfully, are getting better. I did all the usual non prescription tricks and four years of struggle later, gave up and got the doc to prescribe low dose Zimovane that I take prn. I find I use it less and less the past few months as well.
I don’t find herbal sleep aids anything but a waste of money (slightly embarrassing considering I’m an aromatherapist) and I don’t sleep well when my OH isn’t with me. Plainly the nunnery will have manage without me.
I hope you get some relief regardless of which methods you employ because poor sleep is right up there with nutrition for kicking the crap out of you, physically and emotionally.
Ali
My sympathies Alison! Nights alone can be quite blissful really, though a dim memory for me. I gave birth to a ” poor sleeper” baby 5.5 years ago, who didn’t sleep through as in not waking three times a night until 4 and still is a very light sleeper. With low sleep need. So the sleep specialist informed me when I was just about hallucinating from sleep deprivation. She stopped napping at 18 months.
Now I find she just talks in her sleep and is restless several times a night, but the way I sleep has changed! It’s very light now, as in I find I wake up fully. She half wakes I do fully. I wished for a birthday gift of a day in bed when she was just turned 3.
And got influenza for my birthday. It was in bed, but not the cool sheets of the lovely hotel bed I was dreaming of. I absolutely adore her, she is the light of my life, but sleep. I miss it.
As I was taking in every detail of your description of your sleeping notations, I started wondering if I was a bit odd…..because I found it fascinating! I suppose we become a bit pre-occupied with sleep as we get older!
Good article. I definitely love this website. Keep it up!
Good article. I definitely love this website. Keep it up!