Alternative to counting sheep...

As a middle aged man who will hitting the half century mark within a month's time, the notion of sleeping through an entire night without getting up at least once becomes more and more ludicrous. Last night was no different, and, as it luck would have it, the timing had me in-between REM states or whatever keeps you from falling back to sleep. Lolita, our Jack Russel/Poodle/Yorkie mix was taking up too much room on the bed, and as I shoved her over towards my wife, I laid there wondering how tired I would be at work the next day from lack of sleep.

My mind drifted and I began to recount the jazz chord progressions that I was learning for a song that we're going to perform at a future gig. It's a wonderful Bossa Nova by Jobim called "The Waters of March." Pretty standard progressions that repeat through the song. C Am6 Fm6 Cmaj9 Gmin7 C9 D7 Fmin6 Cmaj9...As I ran through the chords, I thought about the voicings, etc.

The next thing I knew, my alarm was going off and I woke up somewhat refreshed with only a brief disruption in my night's sleep. So from now on, I guess I'll count chords rather than the proverbial sheep...

Funny, I did something similar the other night. Just pictured playing My Dog Has Fleas over and over--I fell asleep within a minute.

I do that sometimes but it usually doesn't put me to sleep. I do it sometimes when I'm trying to learn a new song. I visualize myself playing the chords and the next day it does seem to have helped some.

John

That happens to me almost every night. I am usually sleep deprived and tired. But, the night I wrote my 1st song, in the wee hours of twilight, I was glad I was sleepless. I've played that song for at least 40 people already.

When I was hospitalised last year I couldn't sleep at all. The business of the hospital staff and all the bloodwork and checking my pulse and blood pressure made it impossible to sleep. I learned to relax and meditate on the ukulele fretboard. Now that I am home and better I still have nights when I wake up and can't get right back to sleep. So I do the same thing, rest and think about the notes and chords on my uke. I usually feel pretty rested the next day too and I learn to play better in my mind. It's so cool! Visualization is a skill!

Very cool idea! I will try this tonight.

let me try tha....






zzzZZZzzzzzzzz *snoork* zzzzZZZZZzzzzz

ukulelecowboy said:

As a middle aged man who will hitting the half century mark within a month's time, the notion of sleeping through an entire night without getting up at least once becomes more and more ludicrous.

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Hah! you're just a kid! I'll never see 50 again!

I have found, since getting my diabetes and blood pressure under control, that I once again sleep the entire night without awakening more often than not.

On the other hand, I also seem to require less sleep, usually going only 4-5 hours a night, and I'm fine. But I think that 45 minute nap when I get home from work each day may have something to do with it...

I think I just dozed off trying to find the Cmaj9, C9, and Fmin6 chords in one of my chord books... When did the print get so small?

flyingv8 said:

When I was hospitalised last year I couldn't sleep at all. The business of the hospital staff and all the bloodwork and checking my pulse and blood pressure made it impossible to sleep.

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Yeah...I love it when they come around and WAKE ME UP TO GIVE ME A SLEEPING PILL - no kidding folks, in all but the last of my hospital stays they did that every night, sometimes twice in a night. THe last time was when I had my pacemaker put in. I'd stayed up fairly late and the nurse kept coming in every thirty minutes trying to get me to take a percocet - I was like, "look, I'm fine, it doesn't really hurt at all, I've had headaches far worse than this little scratch."

"Oh...but we have to manage that pain...we don't want to wait for it to get bad..."

Finally, after Leno went off and I decided to try to get some sleep she came around trying to give me the stinking pill again. I looked her right in the eye and said, "If I take the stupid pill will you leave me alone and not wake me up to give me another?"

She agreed, I took the pill, and that is the only time I've gotten more than four hours of uninterrupted sleep in a hospital.

John

ksiegel said:

I have found, since getting my diabetes and blood pressure under control, that I once again sleep the entire night without awakening more often than not.

On the other hand, I also seem to require less sleep, usually going only 4-5 hours a night, and I'm fine. But I think that 45 minute nap when I get home from work each day may have something to do with it...

I think I just dozed off trying to find the Cmaj9, C9, and Fmin6 chords in one of my chord books... When did the print get so small?

-Kurt​

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Let me guess...you stopped or drastically reduced caffein intake? I completely stopped caffein for a few years after my heart attack and stopped snoring ( I was a freight train before that - I also would drink a cup of coffee and go to bed - if I didn't have coffee fairly late in the evening I would wake up about 4 in the morning with a caffein deficiency headache). Anyway, I have a cup of coffee in the morning now, and once in a blue moon a coke, but nothing like I used to.

I still am a pretty light sleeper, though. If a gnat farts in the next county it will wake me up.

John

Bzzz, bzzz... pffft!

OldePhart said:

Let me guess...you stopped or drastically reduced caffein intake? I completely stopped caffein for a few years after my heart attack and stopped snoring ( I was a freight train before that - I also would drink a cup of coffee and go to bed - if I didn't have coffee fairly late in the evening I would wake up about 4 in the morning with a caffein deficiency headache). Anyway, I have a cup of coffee in the morning now, and once in a blue moon a coke, but nothing like I used to.

I still am a pretty light sleeper, though. If a gnat farts in the next county it will wake me up.

John

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Actually, no I haven't. I've generally had one double espresso (150mg caffeine) and a 20oz diet Mt. Dew a day for the past 6 or so years. I've had the diabetes and blood pressure managed for about the past year, to the point where I'm off BP meds entirely, and off of two of the 4 diabetes meds I'd been taking.

However, before I retired from the FD, my BP and sugar levels were way up, I averaged about 10 minutes of REM sleep a night with light dozing the rest of the time - on or off duty. The stress was killing me - and probably would have, if I hadn't retired. (Oddly enough, before the promotion to Deputy Chief, I had no problems sleeping at all.)

What has happened to me is that I'm thoroughly enjoying my job at Starbucks, have two very relaxing hobbies (ukulele and making yarn with a spinning wheel) - will have the third back, once I get the Stained Glass fabrication area accessible again.

Anyway, sorry to hijack to topic - But I just dozed off again trying to deal with the Cmaj9, C9, and Fmin6 chords.