Now this I would believe as the lead cause for such a high incidence of strokes in this Island:
news.yahoo.com/too-little-sleep- … 10867.html
http://news.yahoo.com/too-little-sleep-tied-stroke-risk-130410867.html
I needed to read that. Thanks for posting.
I can’t sleep more than 6 hours a night, no matter how much I try. What do I do? Being a chain-smoker and alcoholic with ridiculously high blood pressure doesn’t help, either, I presume. I think I’m a high-risk potential heart attack or stroke victim. Some words of wisdom would be appreciated. 
Do exercise that gives you an elevated heart rate (though not too intense) 20 minutes a day, three days a week.
Cut fast food and snack food out of your diet as much as possible.
Substitute coffee with green tea whenever possible.
Drink a large glass of water after eating local food (it is very high in salt).
Ration your cigarettes to a below chain smoking level.
Remove as many stressful elements from your life as possible.
DD gives good advice there.
Obviously you aren’t going to quit drinking/smoking, so try to drink the equivalent in water whenever you have a drink. This is very effective if you drink beer, not so much for a spirits drinker.
Don’t take blood thinning drugs and drink more water.
I’m supplementing my beer with bloody mary’s and it’s done me the world of good. Vodka, tomato juice, two anchovie stuffed olives and salt an pepper.
I take a power walk to work and back each day. I don’t eat meat and I don’t snack. I hate eating. It irritates me. I sometimes eat a small lunch. I usually only eat one meal a day. I NEVER eat breakfast. The mere idea nauseates me. Supper at around 9PM. I don’t drink tea nor coffee. I abhor hot beverages. I smoke on average 3 packs a day and drink a big bottle of Scotch each day. I’m a chain-smoker and alcoholic.
I guess my days are numbered.
Read the holy scriptures, if that won’t lull you into sleep, nothing ever will. :raspberry:
I cannot sleep more than 5-6 hours a night. I try, I really do. It’s just impossible. 
And I teach kindy each day. Jump around like a monkey every day. It’s not like I get no exercise.
[quote=“jimipresley”]I cannot sleep more than 5-6 hours a night. I try, I really do. It’s just impossible.
And I teach kindy each day. Jump around like a monkey every day. It’s not like I get no exercise.[/quote]
Hitler and Napoleon had the same problem. Don’t worry about it. You are completely normal.
[quote=“Charlie Phillips”][quote=“jimipresley”]I cannot sleep more than 5-6 hours a night. I try, I really do. It’s just impossible.
And I teach kindy each day. Jump around like a monkey every day. It’s not like I get no exercise.[/quote]
Hitler and Napoleon had the same problem. Don’t worry about it. You are completely normal.[/quote]
I’m not sure I’d have been happy sending my kid to one of their kindy classes. Having said that, at least they’d have maintained discipline.
[quote=“tomthorne”][quote=“Charlie Phillips”][quote=“jimipresley”]I cannot sleep more than 5-6 hours a night. I try, I really do. It’s just impossible.
And I teach kindy each day. Jump around like a monkey every day. It’s not like I get no exercise.[/quote]
Hitler and Napoleon had the same problem. Don’t worry about it. You are completely normal.[/quote]
I’m not sure I’d have been happy sending my kid to one of their kindy classes. Having said that, at least they’d have maintained discipline.[/quote]
Wait a minute, dude. I’m an exemplary kindy teacher, regardless of my vices. I rock the little kids. But I’m nearly 50. Perchance I should make some serious lifestyle changes. How to do that is a nasty quandary, however.
I vaguely recall reading that breakfast is important for the body clock: basically it “sets” the beginning of the day. Maybe that in turn affects what time your body wants to go to sleep. Who knows - try eating something in the morning, even if you abhor it at first. It may help with the sleep.
Some people don’t actually need that much sleep: the 7-8 hours is just an average, and people needing as little as six and as much as ten are fairly common (god help the people who need ten in today’s world). Are you normally tired? Do you wake up at the same time every day, regardless of whether or not you have to go to work? If that’s the case, then you’re probably sleeping enough anyway.
Apparently breakfast is also very important for weight maintenance: basically, if you just eat once a day, then your body permanently thinks it’s in a famine, so it conserves calories. But it sounds like weight gain isn’t the issue for you. I don’t know how blood pressure fits in for that; with the smoking and drinking I suspect that’s the figure that may be scary. I’m not one to talk, since I’ve developed this belief that, because I don’t know what my cholesterol or blood pressure are at, I don’t need to worry about my habits.
Oh, and you should probably be eating dinner at least four hours before you want to go to sleep. This is one reason amongst many that buxiban work is unhealthy.
EDIT: I hate to suggest this, but once my wife banned the cats from our bedroom, I started sleeping better. I miss waking up with them curled up in random inconvenient places, but I’m definitely not woken up as often.
I need about 5 or 6. There is too much living to be done to waste it sleeping.
[quote=“jimipresley”][quote=“tomthorne”][quote=“Charlie Phillips”][quote=“jimipresley”]I cannot sleep more than 5-6 hours a night. I try, I really do. It’s just impossible.
And I teach kindy each day. Jump around like a monkey every day. It’s not like I get no exercise.[/quote]
Hitler and Napoleon had the same problem. Don’t worry about it. You are completely normal.[/quote]
I’m not sure I’d have been happy sending my kid to one of their kindy classes. Having said that, at least they’d have maintained discipline.[/quote]
Wait a minute, dude. I’m an exemplary kindy teacher, regardless of my vices. I rock the little kids. But I’m nearly 50. Perchance I should make some serious lifestyle changes. How to do that is a nasty quandary, however.[/quote]
Not in any way having a dig at your kindy teaching, old boy. Never seen it in action, but have heard from others that it is damned fine. I was just making a rather poor joke regarding the idea of Adolph/Boney teaching kindy - which does evoke some amusing images.
As for serious lifestyle changes - you’re right, they are a nasty quandary indeed. Probably having a crack at the smoking is the best thing to try, but 3 packs a day will be tricky.
Don’t worry. You are in good company.
I am lucky if I can sleep 4 to 5 hours a night, without a dose of sleeping pills that would euthanise a blue whale.
Also love the smokes and th odd scotch.
Back home I went to every specialist in the book.
The only decent answer I got was from my GP. He is of the school,that if a drug works use it and bugger the rest. Here’s a 6 month prescription.
Used to cost me a fortune back home. Thank god for NHI.
Tried heavy exercise, meditation, various herbal remedies, Chinese medicine, and plenty others. Nothing.
In all seriousness though, some people are just bad sleepers.
Try the other options, and if all else fails remember that drugs are cheap here. Your local shrink will hook you up.
[quote=“lostinasia”][quote=“jimipresley”]
Some people don’t actually need that much sleep: the 7-8 hours is just an average, and people needing as little as six and as much as ten are fairly common .[/quote][/quote]
I’m one of those people that do best with 9-10 hours a night. I haven’t slept that much / day in years, though – dislike working too much to end the night early – so I’m always a bit tired.
I seem to remember, a year or so ago, giving you advice on how to do that.
Argh, can’t find it. Never mind: stop smoking and do regular exercise. Eat regular small meals. Problem solved.
good night em o effers. struggle on into the night while I sleep it away.
OK, you asked, and I will only be so blunt because the words of wisdom I am about to give you are more or less the same words that I told myself a about 2.5 years ago, and which you need to say to yourself: get off your @ss and set some goals for yourself.
You are not going to be able to change everything all at once, but you need to set a range of achievable goals for yourself. Here are some ways of setting goals and ideas for achieving them:
-Three packs a day? Aim to reduce this in increments at first, with specific goals for specific dates. Then maybe play with the patch or gum. You might quit for a while with those, but you will backslide after a while, until one day you have built the resolve to quit cold turkey (everybody always says that quitting cold without any aids is the way they quit for good, but they never mention that they had build up to that point by quitting with things like the patch or gum a few times). Unsuccessfully quitting a few times is all part of the process.
-Alcohol? Cut out a lot of empty beer carbohydrates by switching to spirits and whisky if you’ve not already done so. Then set incremental goals for how many units you will consume every week. Allow yourself the odd megapissup every now and then. Drink Suntory if you really want to put yourself off the sauce. If you are going to exercise in the mornings, avoid drink at night. If you can’t avoid the drink at night, then exercise before you imbibe.
-Go to the doctor for advice about how strenuous of exercise you can take. Then buy a basic heart rate monitor to help you monitor your effort at whatever cardio work you find is right for you. It will help you quantify your exercise. Set goals for how many hours you will do each week. Can’t run without getting repetitive injuries? Find some hills and do brisk walking reps up them; hills will send your heart rate as high as you want to take it. Don’t like to sweat (please don’t tell me you’ve gone that local)? Get in the pool. Getting some rigorous cardio exercise at least every other day was one of the most important factors in helping me sleep a normal schedule. According to my parents, I NEVER slept normally since birth, and this basically continued until I pulled my thumb out 2.5 years ago and started exercising regularly.
-You might try using a trainer/coach, or finding exercise buddies, but my experience of getting 40 pounds off of my repulsively ogre-like figure was that it was best to avoid any excessive mental reliance on others to help me get in shape. I occasionally run trails with others, but I avoid scheduling my runs around them as this puts me off my optimum schedule. Too many missed runs=backsliding, losing a bit of fitness, and before I know it I’m up late one night drinking beer, eating popcorn and wasting time watching TV, or engaging in some BS argument on Forumosa.
-Get out of bed at the same time every day, and try to make it as early as possible. I found this a bit difficult in Taiwan since I had a messed up teaching schedule, but looking back, I think I could have forced myself to sleep a solid 7 hours a night after leaving work at 9pm.
-Whatever form of exercise you take up, research it constantly not just to find out as much as you can about it, but also to keep yourself mentally focused on it even when you aren’t doing it. I am hooked on trail running. I generally have to take two rest days a week; on many of those days, I keep my mind on trail running through reading.
-Count your calories (again, quantify your progress), and use an online calculator to see approximately how many calories you are burning in whatever exercise you do. Don’t know how many calories that nightly biandang has? Quit eating them and make yourself a sandwich instead. Perhaps ease yourself toward a higher protein, lower carbohydrate diet as the high protein foods are more likely to keep you sated. You might keep a record of your daily calorie intake and burn, but please don’t post this online. That is so cliche.
Short term achievable goals. After you achieve them, set some new ones. Do it, or you are going to die far earlier than the people who love you can stand to see you go.