Blackout shades
The best thing about hotel rooms is that they have blackout shades – you pull those sweet babies closed at night, and you could wake up at 3:00 in the afternoon and still think it was the middle of the night. The room is pitch black (as long as you turn off the annoying alarm clock lights!).
Photo from here
I stayed at a hotel the last two nights for a work conference. I was really hoping the blackout shades would help me sleep better. I have not been sleeping well lately. I wake up every few hours and have crazy thoughts running through my head that sometimes make no sense but keep me awake, such as:
- Should I buy another pair of Adrenaline 9s before the marathon? (why would this thought come to me in the middle of the night?!)
- What if someone breaks in to my hotel room?* Should I swallow my engagement ring so they cannot steal it? How long would it take to poop it out?
- Will my contractor get their travel set up in time before airline prices rise?
You get the idea. I start thinking about something and cannot stop.
And the blackout shades did not help, obviously (if I was thinking about someone breaking in to my room?). I still woke up about 4 times each night, and only one of those times was to use the bathroom.
I have tried to cut back on drinking too much water in the evening, so I won’t have to get up during the night. I try to relax before bedtime. I try not to eat too much junk. But I am still waking up frequently. For about two months now.
I wonder if it is because of my early wake-up call of 4:30. Maybe my body is confused? Or maybe I am just subconsciously stressed out about stuff and think about it during the night.
Either way, it sucks. I hate waking up, because I feel like I cannot fall back asleep, even though I eventually do. And when I wake up, I feel like I am in the middle of a deep sleep.
Have you ever dealt with sleeping problems like this? How did you deal with them? Do you have blackout shades in your bedroom?
*Mom, I think this thought came to me because you told me the story about Nick’s friends and they guy harassing them in their hotel this weekend.
Themocracy
It sounds like maybe a combo of body clock confusion and stress– it is surprising I think how little can throw off our body’s equilibrium! I’m not a sound sleeper at all though…up every night at least once; it was over an hour last night so I’m a bit groggy today 🙁
I have awesome blackout shades in my room! Karl hates them, bc it’s super dark in the morning, I love them exactly for that reason!
I’ve been getting crappy sleep lately too, nothing like thinking too much, more like I keep waking up many times during the night… It sucks.
But the swallowing the ring thing made me laugh! I bet that would be so freaking painful!
I love hotel rooms with those big comfy beds and blackout shades.
I hate waking up in the middle of the night with worries running through my brain. It is not a frequent problem for me, though, so I don’t have any good strategies to offer.
I haven’t been sleeping well lately, either. First I’m too cold and then I’m too hot and then I feel like the sheets or my pjs are strangling me. Plus I keep having stressful dreams. I wish I had a solution!
Ugh, YES, I *know* how frustrated you are! I have had sleeping problems since I was a kid. Now, I use melatonin, which is natural, and that really helps me sleep through the night. I also have to wear earplugs; I can mostly sleep through the light–as long as I can’t hear anything. I also take a medication as-needed for anxiety, because I, too, get racing, random thoughts. I feel your pain!! I hope it gets better, lady! (Meditation regularly helped this for me, too, but I haven’t been doing that much lately.)
I can identify. Husband has been travelling a lot and when I’m home alone, I go thru the same types of situations & find myself worrying about things I would normally not even think about!
Whenever I can’t sleep it’s usually because I’m thinking too much, and usually I think too much when I’m stressed out. Keeping a piece of paper and pen by my bed to write things down that I think of at night helps because then it’s written down and I can move on and go to sleep.
I can’t stand when that happens to me. It’s so bizarre how in the middle of the night some of the weirdest, most random things seem urgently important. I have phases like this, when I wake up at different times and can’t get thoughts out of my head. Sometimes, it helps me to just jot them down so they’re not swimming around in my brain. Sometimes, I’m just anxious and I have to accept that I won’t be sleeping much, without stressing about it (stressing leads to even less chance of sleeping). Funny story: For a while, I kept waking up right at 3am with random thoughts. I typed into Google, “waking up every night at 3am” and ran into a bunch of people who claim that 3am is the devil’s hour and that if you wake up, you’re possessed. Um, yeah.
Ha! I need to check if I am getting up at 3 am 😉
And I have heard the tip about the notebook. I should try that. The notes would probably make me laugh in the morning!
I completely identify with waking up a million times in the middle of the night. I have phases when it’s worse, I think usually tied to stress. I’m really reluctant about taking anything (though for a while it was BAD and I considered seeing a doctor about it)…I wish I had an answer!
Matt really wants black out shades but we don’t have any in our room right now. We just have 2 inch blinds, which aren’t great for keeping out the light, but we can’t decide on curtains. However, I can sleep with light pouring into a room and a TV blaring, so it’s not at the top of my priority list but if Matt wanted to pick something out (he has good taste) I would be fine with that.
I have the same sleeping issues! It seems to go in phases…I just came out of one where I would wake up in the middle of the night, be up for a couple of hours and then eventually pass out just in time for the alarm clock to ring. It’s getting better in the last couple of weeks so maybe your sleep thing is a phase that you just have to get past? Sometimes what helps to get back to bed for me, is thinking of something like, if you had to design (or decorate) a kitchen how would it look? Something along those lines. I guess the planning tires me out. : )
Blackout shades are the best!
I think it is just a phase. AND, I do the same thing! Think about something totally boring. When I was in architectural school and had this problem I would think about building models 😉
I bet if Courtney starting thinking about designing at kitchen she would have all of these great ideas and have to get out of bed and wake up David so they could sketch them out. Ha ha 🙂
The “how long will this ring take to poop out” thought is a classic.
I use to have sleep issues all the time but a lot of it had to do with waking up because I had to pee.. so I stop drinking water about 4 hours before I go to bed and that almost always helps. Another thing that messes up my sleep in a MAJOR way is when I have to be up early for something and I absolutely CANNOT afford to sleep in (ferry to catch, appointment, work). Even though I have an alarm I stress so much about not hearing it that I basically spend the whole night tossing and turning.
I am the SAME way! I will not be stressed out about a race AT ALL but I cannot sleep because I worry about getting up in time. I wonder if that is what is happening to me on work days. I should take some notes, maybe a sleep journal is in order!
I have serious sleep problems and it definitely goes in phases with me. I have trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, worried I’m going to oversleep – it’s a hot mess! We have blackout shades in our bedroom. It is so nice and definitely helps when my mind isn’t running a mile a minute! I use lavender spray for my sheets too. It may only be a placebo effect but it seems to its job.
I have phases like this too. The thing that helped the most was being really vigilant about not having any caffeine after about 2 pm and using passionflower extract to help me sleep through the night. I always feel like these periods coincide with stress.
Whenever I start traveling again, it always takes me a day or two to get into a good sleeping flow. Funny you said that you wanted to throttle back the water. I always feel like I need to drink more while traveling. If I don’t I sleep like crap
How was the convergence overall?
My money is like 3 days to get your ring back. Totally worth it IMO. Gotta sacrifice!
Three days! Yeah… probably. I would have to check in between (I am a daily poo-er).
The conference was okay. Probably not worth the money, but a nice change of pace!
Both my wife and I love the blackout shades when we stay in hotels. Lots of them still need to be replaced, but many of them – especially the Hampton Inn and Hilton Garden Inn that have had the best blackout shades.