Sleep and food

I just read this article about being careful about what you eat when before going to sleep. One of the concerns being Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) causing sleep disruption.

I am pretty sure that this has not been a problem for me but I do find if I eat some foods to close to bedtime I have an even greater problem getting any sort of good sleep that night.

Begs the question why I keep doing that on occasion.... :-)

Drugs vs Therapy

I have done a lot of research on the internet about getting a better sleep. Today I just came across this blog post on the NY Times site which includes some interesting links about studies showing how cognitive behavioral therapy in some cases was as helpful as a drug.

These articles speak about how such therapy is just effective at getting you to fall asleep as medication. That is all well and good but what about someone such as myself that falls asleep, wakes up, gets back to sleep, wakes up etc multiple times during the night?

This other article I found that was a link on the above noted NY Times blog post, talks about sleep medication specfically. Again the focus is on how soon the person falls asleep and when they get out of bed the next day, missing the issue of STAYING asleep during the night. The article does make good note about the concerns about medication as well, which are very important.

I would love to have a full night's sleep based solely on good sleep hygiene but it is just not that simple for me (and I imagine I am not alone) so something that helps me stay asleep during the night is what I need.

All I Want Is Some Sleep

Have you ever watched those commercials on TV where the person wakes up well rested and refreshed from a great night's sleep? Have you ever wished that was you? I know I have for many years as I am a very light sleeper and I have nights of a thousand naps and not one long restful sleep. I can likely count on one hand the number of good sleeps I have had in any given year.

I am going to utilise this blog to outline what I have done to try and address this problem as I am not the person I like to be when I am always really really tired. I have seen so many results from my search for solutions where people were asked if they had troubles sleeping and/or were light sleepers (with lots of responses showing a lot of people out there) but not always much info on experiences trying to combat this problem. I know I would find it very helpful if there was one place where I could find out what techniques have worked and what have not. I am going to try to pull such information together here.

At the very least this will be a great reference for me to keep track of what I have done :-)