Sleep, Lack Thereof

I’ve been struggling to maintain a regular sleep pattern for a while now, and spent part of this past week trying to pin down the causes.

Part of it is temperature related, depending on the weather outside I’ve either been too hot or too cold at night. Living in an Edwardian house doesn’t help matters in that regard.

Another factor appears to be how I’m lying in bed. I seem to have switched to sleeping on my side this past year, which is okay but not really optimal for deep sleep. Changing my pillow has confirmed my suspicion that it had gotten lumpy and uneven. At some point I’ll probably need to replace the mattress, as that is now over a decade old.

Then there’s the stress and anxiety of the past few years, which has caused an increase in the number and frequency of weird dreams I have at night. The worst ones leave me in a state where I find it difficult and sometimes impossible to get back to sleep, because my brain just won’t shut up.

I recently purchased some Bluetooth sleep headphones, and I’m using those at night with soft ambient music playing on low volume from my iPad. That seems to be helping me sleep better and for longer.

(I should add that I occasionally have to get up during the night to use the toilet, but I think that’s more a case of my needing to make sure I’ve been before bedtime than any health issues.)