Lights Out: How Fast, How Slow?

I've heard that sociopaths sleep easily. Do you think that's true david. (I, of course, mean statistically)

I think its true, Dys.

I like a book nearby to read a bit before sleep. Most often, that is one paragraph, then I'm out like a light.

I'm odd in that if I stop reading and turn out the light, I instantly wake up.
Thus I always have a low light somewhere nearby and leave it on. Cuts out the wakeup scenario.

In my whole life, I've probably slept a combined half hour on planes. At least two books in purse...

I'm restless in sleep, usually wake up once or twice during the night, and take a while to fall asleep when I turn out the light. But ... the moment I hit the off button on the alarm clock, I fall into instant, deep sleep. I'm thinking that I should start setting it for midnight.

I can't sleep when there's a lot of people around me -- so not in a plane, for example -- except lecture halls. When the lights go down, the powerpoint comes up, and the droning lecturer's voice starts, I'm out.

Oh, and I've learned that I must have warm feet to get to sleep.

I heard that by sniffing a crushed onion, sleep will come to the insomniac, within fifteen minutes. I gave it a try, today, for my nap. I slept very well, and may have drifted off, more quickly than normal. It will take a few tries more, before I conclude anything.

If I'm tired, I can fall asleep anywhere/anytime in seconds.

However, if it's the time I think I SHOULD go to sleep it can take a while.

Trains/planes/airport benches/buses/sitting on chairs on the verandah, beds, sofas, floors - I can, and have, slept in/on them all.

I'm usually excited about travel; I'd probably be different if it was more of a routine. I love all of it, the good, the mediocre, and the horrible parts, thus am caught up in some hyperawareness thing that I don't particularly want to qwell.


Aside from that, I famously to myself fell asleep in Music class, a general run through type class, with a droneing lecturer, an after lunch class, and great auditorium seats. Blue seats.. blue cushiony seats, low light, we're discussing the sonata...

I also fell asleep during some of my favorite tv shows. So and so going through the archeology of Egypt... which interests me at least in the reading........ snore.......

I eventually figured out that certain wonderful shows connected in some way to my hypothalamus or wherever and zapped the shutoff valve of my mind.

i'm all over the place : from a few minutes to an hour .
generally read for a while before it's "lights out" . generally sleep about 7 hours - but NOT on planes , trains ...
i sleep best on a ship , must be the bit of background hum and gentle rolling - perhaps also getting a lot of fresh air throughout the day .
i MUST have absolute darkness !

mrs h can sleep with the lights on , just fine for her .
so i did an experiment recently :
i asked her to close her eyes while i shone a strong flashlight on her eyes . she said it was all black - no light .
i did the same ; it was like bright daylight !
i guess i have SENSITIVE eyes - i'm a very sensitive fellow :wink:
hbg

(i did find the test interesting)

Every day is different. Sometimes I sleep instantly, other times it takes a while. I too like reading a few pages before turning off the lights.
I nap on a sofa, but I can't sleep in planes, and other public places.

These are all interesting replies, I think the quickies are leading the pack.

I taught myself to fall asleep quickly when I was in theatre class. We would often have 30 minute periods of waiting, waiting for the lights to be fixed, waiting for the costume adjustment. I used the same relaxation techniques we used before the performances only let it lead me all the way to sleep. Crossing my legs, I could sit in a corner and be out in seconds. Of course, part of that was I was exhausted. I was working some side jobs, going to school, playing guitar on Charles Street and getting only about four hours of real sleep.

The "dropoff the world" technique got me in trouble in basic training for the USAF. Everytime they said something about 'smoke'em if you've got'em, I'd catch a few winks. Twice this one sargent uh, expressed his dismay that I should actually use my break to actually rest. The first time I ignored him. The second time I asked him (with all due respect) if he didn't think sleeping was healthier than smoking.

Joe(I enjoyed the twenty pushups very much)Nation

I remember a horrible experience I had in high school.
( I shuda just gone home, but it did not occur to me at the time. )
It was at the end of my high school career.
Everyone was assembled in the auditorium.
Thay were giving awards for athletic competition,
or who raked up the leaves the best, etc.

I cud not possibly have cared less than I did.
I was tired.
I fell asleep in the audience.
There were applause; thay awakened me.
I fell asleep again.
MORE applause awoke me again.
We went thru too many cycles of this. I have become aversive to applause.
It was driving me nuts; ( yet, my gun remained safely in its holster ).

I was too sleepy to realize that all I had to do
was get up n go home.

David

Hey Dave - that looked like a poem - but there were no rhymes (iambic pentameter?)




I imagine this doesn't restrict your day to day life.

Are you feeling OK. Your writing is all one font, colour and size.







__________________
A hamster ate my sig.

I hope that no hamster will eat MY SIG.
Thay 'd cry out in DISMAY,
as thay r going down his gullet.
( Admittedly, this theory has not been empirically proven. )
David

Omigosh.. This has happened to me too. They have doing that Law&Order AllDay AllNight thing up here and a couple of times I have dozed off, come to and looked at the screen and tried to figure out how THAT GUY figures in the murder of the horsewoman.

It takes me ten minutes to realize that it's a completely different show and that I shall never know who the prep was.

Joe(and that the Lenny wasn't in the one about the horses.)Nation

I had a nice little snooze down at the beach this morning - sitting in my beach chair - one dog on the bench - one under the bench - I probably napped for about half an hour. Woke up when an "s.q." (squirrel when there are dogs nearby to hear me) got too close to the bench.

I'm all over the place, like hamburger.

It doesn't matter if I'm extra tired or not, sometimes I just rest and quietly think for an hour or so.

I'd guess the soonest I fall to sleep in about 15 minutes. I need 3 to 5 minutes just to get my body positioned in a comfy position sometimes.

I've fallen asleep on a couch maybe a dozen times in my life, never fallen asleep in chairs, on floors, etc. Not in front of the TV either.

Well, except one time, but that was more like passed out drunk. I woke some time later, and there was a horror movie on TV, and some girls head was being cut off.

That woke me up fast.