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I know I need my sleep to deal with the challenges of caregiving, but I struggle to get myself into bed. Instead, I pretend it is “me” time and watch a show, check email, read shallow websites (yay, boredpanda.com...). Before I know it, it’s 2 AM or later. Obviously, I feel better in the morning if I get to sleep earlier, but it seems I face this challenge every night. How to stop this destructive behavior?

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I do the same thing, partly because it is my "me" time, but also because I have a hard time getting to sleep. My blood pressure medicine causes some drowsiness so I take it at bedtime and it helps sometimes. I know some of it is probably anxiety. I think as caregivers we get used to being hypervigilant and it's a hard habit to break, at least for me.
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I look at my laptop in bed. I watch some person on youtube. sometimes their videos are so long - sorta interesting, but sorta boring too. too drawn out. next thing I know the laptop is falling out of my hands. I know they say the light from the computer messes up your brain for sleeping. but it puts me in a relaxed state and I can fall asleep after putting my laptop to the side. if I try to go straight to sleep(without youtube) my brain starts re-call on my day or other personal issues.
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You stop by making the decision to go to bed at a reasonable time, just like deciding not to eat the cookies or drink the wine if those were your stress relievers - there is no magic bullet solution.
(My personal time has always included reading in bed, it is partly pure escapism and partly a wish to believe that putting off sleep is also putting off the need to wake up and start a new day)
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When I was helping my elderly parents, I use to "escape" to my computer. But then I found that being on the computer my mind wouldn't shut down so I could sleep :P

Eventually I had to give myself a time limit. Ok, 11pm, turn off the computer. Later I made 10pm my shut off time. Then I found 9pm was the best as then I could actually get some shut eye. And I made sure I had no caffeine after 7pm.
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bookluvr Aug 2018
Good idea about setting a time limit to be on the computer. My current limit is 12midnight. Then take a cold shower (because it's soooo hot here) and hit the sack. Unfortunately, by the time I hit the bed, it's about 12:30-12:45am. Maybe time to move my computer curfew to 11:30pm. Slowly wean myself backwards to then 11:00pm, etc.... I'm going to try that.
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It is 3:31 a.m., where did you all go?
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JuliaRose Aug 2018
Lol! I waited until 2:45 for replies. Then I thought, omg, what am I doing?
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I stay up every night web surfing. Multi-tasking among several websites. I know why I stay up late. When I first found this site, I was on it for hours. When I tried to wean myself off it, I couldn't. I realized that I was addicted to this website. Recent studies have shown that the internet can be addictive. Plus the blue light from the computer and the electronic devices messes up our brain and sleepiness.

For a while, I was able to move my bedtime hours from 1:00am to 12:00-12:30 slot. Even though my body/mind is sleepy at 11:30pm, I fight to stay up - because I'm on the computer. Addiction. I admit it. I'm addicted to surfing the web.
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Same here
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While I don't stay up that late, I do wake up like tonight around 3 wide awake, get online and now it is 5 am. I wish I understood this for not getting a good night's sleep does not fit well with my bipolar. I hope you have a good night's sleep.
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It is 2:55 AM right now and I am looking at this website.  So I am not sure how to stop this behavior. 

This is the time that my Mom used to get up and go to the bathroom every night before she was admitted to the nursing home in May 2017.  My body still hasn't gotten used to the fact that it can sleep all night and that I don't have to "watch and listen" for Mom to get up in the middle of the night.  While I miss having Mom at home, my stress level has decreased greatly and I feel more relaxed than I have for 9 years.   {Sigh.}
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