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I woke up this morning at 4, wide awake and couldn’t sleep. I laid there reading google news on my phone. Finally I got out of bed and made it out into the living room. It was pitch black outside, yet my path through the house was well illuminated by little, mostly blue lights. About 30 of them. Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, routers, scanners, label maker, alarm clocks, microwave, coffee maker, toaster oven, range, bathroom nightlights, charging chromebooks… I’m sure I missed a few. I was stuck wondering how the pioneers negotiated their houses at 4AM. Then it hit me, they were able to sleep all night because they didn’t have all these stupid (mostly) blue lights waking them up.
I’m not sure what my point is. Chris says I’m a grumpy old man sometimes. But hey, that’s what makes me happy. My back hurts. I’m gonna take a nap.
Living N of 47degree latitude, nature seems to get increasingly insistent about getting up earlier and earlier as we head toward the Summer Solstice. If I open up a window to get a little air at night, the damn birds are making noise at 4am. And, despite a wonderful blackout shade over the window, the room gets bright as well. But, let me say the opposite for December; sleep can go on till 8am…….
This time of the year with sunrise so early it is hard to sleep in. Chris
I woke up at 4 this morning and stayed up. That was after getting up twice during the night to pee-old man’s affliction. Not to be too graphic but my doc explained that with an older man’s prostate, we are trying to get the job done through a swizzle stick when it was a straw when we were younger. Anyway, despite taking a drug for this, I am always up at least 1x and 2x about average. Most of the time I can get back to sleep, sometimes it’s a challenge. A reason I was up at 4, which is an hour or two earlier than my normal routine is I took a long nap yesterday afternoon not too long after a challenging workout. Speaking of naps and sleeping, I read the comments about lights and blackout curtains-I personally have increasingly started using a sleep mask. I have a few of them from various business class flights over the years. They seem to make a difference, especially for that all-important nap.
Rob, Reminds me of the first conversation I had with the surgeon after I decided to have that cursed prostate removed. The doctor told me we would accomplish two things
Thankfully both objectives were accomplished.
I’ve started taking 26-minute NASA naps. Allowing a minute to transition to calm, I set my computer timer for 27 minutes. I sit back in my recliner with feet up, cover my eyes, and soon drift off. Sometimes I’m refreshed and ready to rise in even less time. After a nap with this method, since my sleep deficit is intact, I’ve had no trouble at night falling and staying asleep. Wakefulness at night when I’m occasionally stressed is a different story…
I used to drive at all hours of the night. I’m not exaggerating when I say those NASA naps likely saved my life.
I live in an urban area of Raleigh, NC. Even if I eliminated every indoor LED, I have plenty of outdoor light shining in. We have blackout curtains in the master bedroom, but even with that there’s enough light for me to wander into the bathroom at night.
My blackout curtains do a good job until the sun comes up. I’m planning to supplement them with blackout blinds….
I don’t allow things with those annoying lights into my bedroom. I use my iPad as an alarm clock, but it’s closed. When I was traveling and was stuck with them, I blocked all the ones I could reach.
You might try valerian.
When I had trouble falling asleep and not being able to sleep through the night I started taking 5mg of Melatonin, now I sleep like a rock. It was a game changer for me.
A walk in the sun shortly after waking will help the body with its circadian rhythm and melatonin production.
My wife tapes slips of paper on the front of the devices. Why don’t you market a device shade to help fellow insomniacs escape from a world of indoor light pollution?
There is such a device under patent already…. something they call duck tape.
Kerosene lanterns as they stumbled their way to the outhouse.
I was up at 5:40 today and about the same every day. McHales Navy is on TV then where we live.
My mom says they used a chamber pot. Didn’t have indoor plumbing till high school. I think about that when I get up in the middle of the night especially when cold and wet outside….we are spoiled.
Ha! That’s precisely the reason I was up in the first place. Lucky for me the new house came with indoor plumbing.