Sleepless in Umeå

Many years ago I was sleepless in Barcelona but it didn't really matter cause it was so accepted to take a nap. Here in Umeå you are suppose to work your 8 h shift, come home, go do your excercise or whatever til it's bedtime. I can´t do that, without a nap during the day. Now when I´m older I´m even more depended on feeling fully rested, and if I don´t I go into a depression. That´s common, starting with bad sleeping habits.

I´ve been trying a lot of things, not exercising less then three hours before sleep, reading instead of watching TV or smartphone. Keeping my routines, always going to sleep about 10 oclock and waking up at the same time. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn´t.

Last night I watched a interesting documentary about sleeping habits with working shifts. Working shift, and at night actually reduces your abilitity to regulate bloodsugar and increases the risk for diabetes. They did many scientific experiments where they induced glucose in nightshift worker when they were working night and not fully rested, and when they were off and fully rested. It showed that when they were fully rested it took a lot less time for the body to manage the glucose then when they had been working night. Because when you work night you usually only sleep 6 h effective time.

You are also suppose to reduce your time in bed, this means instead of lying in the bed trying to fall asleep for hours you should get up and wait til you feel sleepy, the same in the morning. And always keeping a track of your routines, always waking up the same time in the morning. No matter how late you go to sleep, instead of hunting hours of sleep because it creates a inner stress.

It was also bringing up a lot about sleeping pills, that it gives a synthetic sleep that helps in shortterm whilest congnitive theraphy was helping more in the long run. Kind of the same when it comes to depression, medicine helps in short term, but if you wanna live a life without medication you have to work your problems in other ways.

This documentary was mostly interesting about the sleep and it´s relation to depression, how insomnia usually escalate to depression and other pains and how you can handle it. Because insomnia is something many middle age women suffer from, working their problems through during the night, keeping them up all night.

So gonna keep my routines, exercise and have one hour of relaxation before going to sleep. It´s not easy, especially when it´s dark most time of the year here, but I can always try.