Problems sleeping due to excess energy

[Floond]

Hi all, I stumbled on this forum today and I'm not sure why I haven't before but I guess I was looking for a Danish forum last time I checked the Internet, but it looks very useful and informative so I decided to sign up.
Anyways, I've been living with Kundalini for around 3 years now, it's much less intense now-a-days than it was in the beginning, where I was healing myself and the snake would violently mess with my body and emotional baggage but I do have some problems with excess energy from time to time which I'm looking for advice on.
When it's active I sometimes don't sleep for around a week and have to force myself to eat because I don't feel any hunger, then afterwards I sleep a lot for 2 days and then try for several to get my sleeping pattern back to getting up at 7am and going to bed at around 11pm which is quite impractical and I've been unemployed for these 3 years as a result.
While lurking today on your forum I read bits about doing grounding, exercising and eating a heavier diet to use some of this excess energy. I'd appreciate some more specific advice on this very much.
To take them in reverse order, I guess a heavier diet means more meat? Which is quite difficult for me to eat, I'm not a vegetarian but I can't swallow red meat, I do eat eggs, chicken and fish though, but that doesn't seem to do much difference for my energy level.
I started exercising at a gym about 3 months ago, but I only have free access to the gym 2 times a week which doesn't help me the rest of the week days, and exercising outdoors is a very cold experience this time of year in Denmark so I'm not sure what to do.
Grounding I know very little about, so advice on books to read with exorcises that could be beneficial for me would be much appreciated. As mentioned I'm unemployed so I don't have much money at the moment so paying for classes with a teacher is not an option right now.

[psionickx]

welcome to the forum. :D


it's much less intense now-a-days than it was in the beginning, where I was healing myself and the snake would violently mess with my body and emotional baggage but I do have some problems with excess energy from time to time which I'm looking for advice on.

*For a start I would reccomend autosuggestion or something akin.You experience is as traumatic or smooth as you want it to be.Start from the premise its going to be a good one


When it's active I sometimes don't sleep for around a week and have to force myself to eat because I don't feel any hunger, then afterwards I sleep a lot for 2 days

*Have you tried arranging your day in such a way that you get to have a rather large meal right before bedtime?.Break your pattern to check and see if this the crux of it.



I guess a heavier diet means more meat? Which is quite difficult for me to eat, I'm not a vegetarian but I can't swallow red meat, I do eat eggs, chicken and fish though, but that doesn't seem to do much difference for my energy level

*I noted your aversion to meat .Meat is a prime source of amino acids.I would reccomend efficient protein intake hence more amino acids , one of which is Tryptophan which is precursor to serotonin and finally melatonin which is known for sleep.Tryptophan is found in sesame and sunflower seeds too.




I started exercising at a gym about 3 months ago

*Genevieve paulson in her book is very adamant that sometimes exercise tend to release more of the Kundalini flames.How about giving your nervous system a breather.Cerebral vasculatre is sensitive to bloodflow.Allowing yourself the luxury of being lazy sometimes can be of help too

[CFTraveler]

Hi all, Hi Floond. I'm glad you found us. I hope we can help.

Anyways, I've been living with Kundalini for around 3 years now, it's much less intense now-a-days than it was in the beginning, where I was healing myself and the snake would violently mess with my body and emotional baggage but I do have some problems with excess energy from time to time which I'm looking for advice on.
When it's active I sometimes don't sleep for around a week and have to force myself to eat because I don't feel any hunger, then afterwards I sleep a lot for 2 days and then try for several to get my sleeping pattern back to getting up at 7am and going to bed at around 11pm which is quite impractical and I've been unemployed for these 3 years as a result.
Besides the energy bursts and irregular sleep patterns, are you having any temperature-type symptoms?

While lurking today on your forum I read bits about doing grounding, exercising and eating a heavier diet to use some of this excess energy. I'd appreciate some more specific advice on this very much.
To take them in reverse order, I guess a heavier diet means more meat? I would say not necessarily- more protein and fats, even if they are vegetable. Not so much 'junk' as 'dense'.


I started exercising at a gym about 3 months ago, but I only have free access to the gym 2 times a week which doesn't help me the rest of the week days, and exercising outdoors is a very cold experience this time of year in Denmark so I'm not sure what to do. Try doing calisthenics at home, and do them early in the day (not before breakfast, though) so that your body is not 'revved up' at night. Try to maintain a schedule every day, even if it is not very energetic.


Grounding I know very little about, so advice on books to read with exorcises that could be beneficial for me would be much appreciated. As mentioned I'm unemployed so I don't have much money at the moment so paying for classes with a teacher is not an option right now. There are various posts with grounding exercises on them, I'll see if I can round them up.

[Floond]

welcome to the forum. :D
Thank you, I'm glad to be here :)




it's much less intense now-a-days than it was in the beginning, where I was healing myself and the snake would violently mess with my body and emotional baggage but I do have some problems with excess energy from time to time which I'm looking for advice on.

*For a start I would reccomend autosuggestion or something akin.You experience is as traumatic or smooth as you want it to be.Start from the premise its going to be a good one
I do have a positive outlook and from the start decided to have faith in the process. There appeared to be two schools of thought in the literature I started reading at the time, after the word kundalini first had crossed my mind, some considered it something dangerous that should be tamed, controlled and restricted in every way, while others considered it a force that intelligently did it's magic to ones benefit. I chose the latter approach and tried to go with the flow as much as possible.
What I meant was that it's a more smooth experience now than it was back then, because at the time the energy would start circulating around in my body when I lay in bed at night, and would follow a certain path I became familiarized with, at certain points it would become a quite bumpy ride when it felt like it was untangling knots or something, in particular in relation to it fixing an old injury from a dislocated shoulder that had never gotten back in its rightful place which required some force to get relocated.
I had the sensation of being kneaded by a large entity which I suppose is some higher lever of myself, and my physical body would just tag along and was thrown around like a piece of dough. In retrospect this was a cool experience, but my surroundings wasn't ideal as I had concrete walls on two sides of the bed, a closet with wooden doors on one side and a marble table on the 4th side and was several times mere inches from banging my skull against the walls and table so it was also quite scary.
As I became more familiar with the energy's path around my body I would simply cover my head with my arms and hope for the best when I knew the more bumpy parts of the route was nearing. It did fix my shoulder though, something I had been struggling with for years and the doctors couldn't fix by operating, so now I appreciate very much I can use it freely again.




When it's active I sometimes don't sleep for around a week and have to force myself to eat because I don't feel any hunger, then afterwards I sleep a lot for 2 days

*Have you tried arranging your day in such a way that you get to have a rather large meal right before bedtime?.Break your pattern to check and see if this the crux of it.
I sometimes eat a light meal before bed, but will attempt to change my eating pattern to see if this helps. Thanks for the suggestion.




I guess a heavier diet means more meat? Which is quite difficult for me to eat, I'm not a vegetarian but I can't swallow red meat, I do eat eggs, chicken and fish though, but that doesn't seem to do much difference for my energy level

*I noted your aversion to meat .Meat is a prime source of amino acids.I would reccomend efficient protein intake hence more amino acids , one of which is Tryptophan which is precursor to serotonin and finally melatonin which is known for sleep.Tryptophan is found in sesame and sunflower seeds too.
I used to eat lots of red meat before kundalini was awakened but after that I started feeling strong resistance against it and can't enjoy it anymore and it's a struggle to squeeze down. I eat a lot of bananas which contains L-tryptophane if I recall correct, I'll try to include sesame and sunflower seeds into my diet. I used melatonin a long time ago (5-6 years I think), it worked well for about a week but then I seemed to develop a tolerance for it and it didn't have much effect anymore, I'll give it another shot though.





I started exercising at a gym about 3 months ago

*Genevieve paulson in her book is very adamant that sometimes exercise tend to release more of the Kundalini flames.How about giving your nervous system a breather.Cerebral vasculatre is sensitive to bloodflow.Allowing yourself the luxury of being lazy sometimes can be of help too
I assume the book is 'Kundalini and the Chakras'? I've actually ordered that a few days ago on Amazon heh. I only started exercising 3 months ago, so for the majority of the last 3 years I've allowed myself to be very lazy, but have had problems sleeping so I figured it was time to try something different.

[Floond]

Hi all, Hi Floond. I'm glad you found us. I hope we can help.
I'm glad I found you as well, you already are helping.




Anyways, I've been living with Kundalini for around 3 years now, it's much less intense now-a-days than it was in the beginning, where I was healing myself and the snake would violently mess with my body and emotional baggage but I do have some problems with excess energy from time to time which I'm looking for advice on.
When it's active I sometimes don't sleep for around a week and have to force myself to eat because I don't feel any hunger, then afterwards I sleep a lot for 2 days and then try for several to get my sleeping pattern back to getting up at 7am and going to bed at around 11pm which is quite impractical and I've been unemployed for these 3 years as a result.
Besides the energy bursts and irregular sleep patterns, are you having any temperature-type symptoms?
No, at least nothing that I'm consciously aware of, although I do sweat a lot when bicycling even though the temperature is often below the freezing point outside this time of year, but I'm not sure this has anything to do with Kundalini at all. I did feel unusually cold at the back of my spine for a few days two weeks ago, but this could just as easily be due to the weather. I don't feel heat circulating in my body as I did earlier on.



While lurking today on your forum I read bits about doing grounding, exercising and eating a heavier diet to use some of this excess energy. I'd appreciate some more specific advice on this very much.
To take them in reverse order, I guess a heavier diet means more meat? I would say not necessarily- more protein and fats, even if they are vegetable. Not so much 'junk' as 'dense'.

Ok I'll take that into consideration, as mentioned I eat eggs and also lots of tuna (too much probably considering the dangers of heavy metals) which are both high in protein, and drink a few protein shakes a day, but am slowly trying to vary my diet more although my culinary expertise is rather limited lol



I started exercising at a gym about 3 months ago, but I only have free access to the gym 2 times a week which doesn't help me the rest of the week days, and exercising outdoors is a very cold experience this time of year in Denmark so I'm not sure what to do. Try doing calisthenics at home, and do them early in the day (not before breakfast, though) so that your body is not 'revved up' at night. Try to maintain a schedule every day, even if it is not very energetic.

I wasn't familiar with the term calisthenics but after googling it I see I have been doing some of the exercises but not on a regular schedule so I'll try to make that routine.



Grounding I know very little about, so advice on books to read with exorcises that could be beneficial for me would be much appreciated. As mentioned I'm unemployed so I don't have much money at the moment so paying for classes with a teacher is not an option right now. There are various posts with grounding exercises on them, I'll see if I can round them up.[/quote]
Oh ok, great, I'll probably have a look around for them myself tomorrow.

A more technical question: Should I just quote your replies or include my own quotes? Different forums have different preferences in regard to this, so I might as well get it right from the start :)

Big thanks to both of you for your quick and helpful replies!

[CFTraveler]

Whatever works for you. I like to respond directly to quotes, unless I'm on a rant. :D

[newfreedom]

Anyways, I've been living with Kundalini for around 3 years now, it's much less intense now-a-days than it was in the beginning, where I was healing myself and the snake would violently mess with my body and emotional baggage but I do have some problems with excess energy from time to time which I'm looking for advice on.
When it's active I sometimes don't sleep for around a week and have to force myself to eat because I don't feel any hunger, then afterwards I sleep a lot for 2 days and then try for several to get my sleeping pattern back to getting up at 7am and going to bed at around 11pm which is quite impractical and I've been unemployed for these 3 years as a result.


Hi Floond,

Have you considered 'sleeping herbs or supplements at all ?

I had an awakening type of experience with kundalini types symptoms just over 4yrs ago now. I also have / have had bouts of not being able to sleep or eat for days and not able to sleep sometimes for weeks. This year i decided to look into supplements as a way of inducing sleep and i found the following listed as being helpful in promoting sleep

Valerian
Lemon Balm
Passion Flower
Chamomile
Kava Kava
Melatonin

Out of the above i have only tried Valerian and Melatonin, i did feel the valerian to have a 'shutdown' effect on myself that felt a little disturbing and altogether not completely 'right' {for myself}, but i find the melatonin {i have a ionic spray} really pleasent to take as a 'way into sleep'. For myself, the melatonin takes me gently into hypnogogics and brings me relief this way and then i slip comfortably into a sleep that does not feel 'drug-induced', forced or 'trapping' in any way.

I myself, have to be very careful not to go too long without sleep ---------------> 'NUT-HOUSE' :)
And I do find the 'back-up' plan of taking Melatonin a great way to feel safer and know i have a method to induce 'fear-free' sleep if it's absolutely necessary. In fact, i find the Melatonin so easy and 'natural feeling' to take, that i have no problems using it even if i have only missed a couple of nights decent sleep. {the melatonin product i use, i only take a quater of the recommended dose and that seems to be enough for me}
:)

[newfreedom]

OOooops Sorry Floond - i missed that part where you stated you had used melatonin :roll:

I'll leave my post up anyway, since i already wrote it now, maybe others might find it useful /helpful

[CFTraveler]

You may want to be careful with melatonin- it's extracted from animal brains (beware of the prions) so it's the only supplement that I would advise to make sure it's synthetic. Another thing about it is that if you start using it routinely your body will stop making it's own, so you want to only use it when you absolutely have to, like to reset your circadian clock, for example.

[newfreedom]

You may want to be careful with melatonin- it's extracted from animal brains (beware of the prions) so it's the only supplement that I would advise to make sure it's synthetic.

Oh No, i didn't know that -YUK
i hope the one i bought is a synthetic one, i will check . . .


Another thing about it is that if you start using it routinely your body will stop making it's own, so you want to only use it when you absolutely have to, like to reset your circadian clock, for example.

Yes, i did actually only buy it for those 'emergency' times when i absolutely needed something to help me get 'back into to sleeping' from a 'non-sleeping' phase. {i haven't needed it in this way yet} So i have only tried it twice to get a 'feel' for what it did, how and if it worked and if it was 'suitable' and 'right' for me.

Thanks for the information and advice

[sleeper]

You may want to be careful with melatonin- it's extracted from animal brains (beware of the prions) so it's the only supplement that I would advise to make sure it's synthetic. Another thing about it is that if you start using it routinely your body will stop making it's own, so you want to only use it when you absolutely have to, like to reset your circadian clock, for example.

good tip!

[newfreedom]

You may want to be careful with melatonin- it's extracted from animal brains (beware of the prions) so it's the only supplement that I would advise to make sure it's synthetic.

Oh No, i didn't know that -YUK
i hope the one i bought is a synthetic one, i will check . . .

Ok, well i wrote to the company that was selling the product i bought, as i couldn't tell from the listed ingredients if it was synthetic or not. They are not calling it synthetic, so it's alittle confusing to me, to be honest, but this is what they said.

We can assure you that there are no animal components in the Melatonin Spray. The Melatonin is manufactured using natural product starting materials. The natural source material of 5-Methoxytryptamine (5-MT), also known as mexamine, is closely related to the neurotransmitters serotonin and melatonin. 5-MT has been shown to occur naturally in the body in low levels.

So i'm not sure if what they are saying is, that the product was started from using animal products, but now doesn't contain any directly ??

From the above reply, I am hoping and assuming that the product i have bought is safe . . .

Back around 1989 when the BSE scare was going on in the UK, I and my family stopped eating beef and all products containing gelatine and have never gone back to eating these, so i was recently rather 'horriffied' to think i might have over-looked this danger in the melatonin product. Although i knew it was a hormone, i just {carelessly} assumed it would not be from animals and that it would have been got / made in a different way. I think also perhaps i was lulled into a 'false sense of security' as well, because the supplement website that i purchased the product from, was one recommended on the website of a very aware and knowledgeable nutritionalist friend of mine.

[CFTraveler]

I took a look at Mexamine.
They are quoting the same article I linked to.
I found out that melatonin is used to make mexamine usually, by taking some stuff off it, so I'd wager that they may be doing the opposite with the mexamin to turn it into melatonin.
But I couldn't find anywhere that explained where they get mexamine in the first place. I wonder if you can get vegan melatonin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5-Methoxytryptamine

Any chemists here that know or can find out?

[Floond]

Both Melatonin (N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine) and Mexamine (5-methoxytryptamine) can be obtained from animal Pineal glands or made by inorganic total synthesis. Melatonin is basically mexamine with an additional acetyl group, so each can be used as precursor for making the other by acetylation or deacetylation.

Here is a snippet from a patent application concerning total synthesis of melatonin :


1. A total synthesis method for making N-acetyl-5-methoxy tryptamine having a high purity and being easily soluble in water for therapeutic use against acquired immunodeficiency syndromes,comprising the steps of combining potassium phthalimide and dibromopropane to provide 3-bromopropyl-phthalimide,adding acetacetic ester in the presence of anhydrous ethanol dissolved sodium to provide ethyl-2-acetyl-phthalimido-pentanoate and adding diazo-p-anisidine, to provide 2-carboxy-ethyl-3-(2-phthalimido-ethyl)-5-methoxy-indole characterized in that the tabs prepared 2- carboxy-ethyl-3-(2-phthalimiio-ethyl)-5-methoxy-indole is further processed by the further steps of mixing it with 2N NaOH to provide a mixture,refluxing said mixture at 135°C for 2 1/2 hours to provide a full solution,holding stirring and temperature,adding a 20%(v/v) H2SO4 solution and further refluxing for four hours to provide raw 5-methoxytryptamine.
The said raw 5-methoxytryptamine is refluxed for 12-14 hours with hexamethyl-disilazane,under refrigeration and sodium hydroxide protection distilling the solution under normal pressure so as to recover excess HMDS and distilling at a reduced pressure so as to provide a mixture of the mono- and bi-derivatives,hydrolizing the silyl derivative by aqueous methanol so as to provide 5-methoxytryptamine with a purification yield of 80%.
The method further comprises the step of adding to an ice cooled suspension of said pure 5-methoxytryptamine, a cold solution of acetic anhydride in methylene chloride, cooling and stirring for one hour,so as to provide a full solution, and washing with 2N Na2CO3 twice and then with water, drying the organic phase on anhydrous Na2SO4 and evaporating so as to provide a slightly colored high purity N-acetyl-5-methoxy-tryptamine.


@newfreedom
Thanks for your suggestions I'll read up on these herbal supplements, but would prefer to find a solution that didn't involve 'medicines'.

[sleeper]

Thanks for your suggestions I'll read up on these herbal supplements, but would prefer to find a solution that didn't involve 'medicines'.

what is your sleeping area like? what is the temperature in your room (cool/warm)? how much light is in your room at night? are there many electronic devices in your room? have you tried sleeping in other areas of your room/moving your bed? have you tried sleeping on the floor (with several blankets underneath? how quiet is your room at night? do you have pets that sleep with you? do you wake up to an alarm clock?

how is your adrenal health? are you under a lot of stress during the day? do you feel fatigued in the middle of the day? do you feel energized or catch your "second wind" of energy late at night? do you consume much caffeine or energy drinks? when do you eat dinner and what kinds of meal does your dinner consist of?

have you tried expending your energy in other ways before bed?

[Floond]

have you tried expending your energy in other ways before bed?


what is your sleeping area like? what is the temperature in your room (cool/warm)?
I have a small apartment so besides a bathroom and kitchen and an entrance I only have a single room which I use for both sleeping and living.
My bed is next to a window which is slightly open all year round, and I usually open it fully for 10-15 mins. before bed time to cool the room but also to ventilate, so it's cool at bed time.

how much light is in your room at night? are there many electronic devices in your room?
There's no light in the room besides a small red LED from my TV when it's in standby mode. Besides the TV I have my computer and an guitar amplifier but they're (usually) turned off at night.


have you tried sleeping in other areas of your room/moving your bed? have you tried sleeping on the floor (with several blankets underneath?
I sometimes fall asleep on my couch instead of my bed, but the room is rather small and filled with stuff and furniture so moving the bed is not really an option, as I'd have to move everything else as well and it's placed most conveniently as it is now. I have thought about it before though, actually ever since I read Castaneda's books when I was 15 or so, to see if facing north, south, east or west would make any difference.
I'm not to keen on experimenting with sleeping on the floor since I had a bad experience a couple of years ago when the cleansing process was more intensive. I was moving to a new apartment at the time, and was going to spend the night there because I had a party to attend in the city I was moving to the day after, bud hadn't had time to move my bed yet. I remember the night before my intuition told me this would be a problem, but I didn't listen much to it back then and since I had slept on the floor at friends' places many times with no problem I figured it should work just the one night. I had two thin madrases and slept ok as far as I can recall but the morning after I could barely move and had a horrible pain in my back for 3 days, so I prefer a bed these days :).

how quiet is your room at night? do you have pets that sleep with you? do you wake up to an alarm clock?
My room is quiet at night apart from the occasional car on the road outside and my cat walking around and chewing dry food. He's usually outside hunting at night if the temperatures aren't too low though.
I use my mobile phone as an alarm clock the days I have to attend something at a specific time.


how is your adrenal health? are you under a lot of stress during the day? do you feel fatigued in the middle of the day? do you feel energized or catch your "second wind" of energy late at night? do you consume much caffeine or energy drinks? when do you eat dinner and what kinds of meal does your dinner consist of?
I don't know how my adrenal health is. I'm not under much stress as I'm unemployed, two friends died recently and untimely though and that has been on my mind a lot but have coped with it now. Yea I do experience a period of fatigue in the middle of the day or in the morning when I'm supposed to wake up instead heh. But I usually don't have time to sleep at those times and also don't want to mess up my sleeping pattern more than it is, so I try to stay awake till night time, where instead of falling asleep early as I'd hoped I feel energized and often stay up all night again and so the circle continues. I don't use any stimulants at all and haven't for a long time. I usually eat dinner at around 6PM and eat lots of vegetables and fish, eggs, chicken and turkey.

I have actually slept really well these last two nights for around 7 hours I think, I'm not entirely sure thought as I've gone to bed rather late at night and then woken up around noon, but it feels like an improvement for sure. I'll do more experimentation but I'm pretty sure it has to do with I've tried walking around barefoot in the garden outside before I go to bed to do some grounding / earthing, it's freaking cold this time of year though, so visualizing roots from my root chakra isn't possible for me this time of year, I simply can't focus on it because it's so cold for my feet so I've just taken a really quick walk from one end of the garden to the other and back maybe 1-2 minutes in total, but I believe is had had an positive effect.

[niki123]

It took me awhile to answer your post.I've been growing restless and agitated and full of energy lately and everything made me more energized but today,on a whim,I sprinkled salt in all the rooms in the corners and even outside my door and under the beds.I felt relief right away so I decided to come here to answer your post.Can't hurt trying ! :D

[Floond]

It took me awhile to answer your post.I've been growing restless and agitated and full of energy lately and everything made me more energized but today,on a whim,I sprinkled salt in all the rooms in the corners and even outside my door and under the beds.I felt relief right away so I decided to come here to answer your post.Can't hurt trying ! :D

That sounds interesting and splendid if it works for you. You used regular table salt / hydrochloride? Could you tell me more about the mechanism of action or 'philosophy' behind why this should work/wokrs? The correlation between sprinkling salt and sleeping isn't that obvious to me but would love to learn more.

[CFTraveler]

Sodium chloride sprinkled on the floors are passive countermeasures against the possibility of nonphysical entities interrupting your dreams, so there is no direct correlation in a physical sense. Salt was used in ancient times to bless and purify in a ritual way, and is still used for protection.

[niki123]

I used natural sea salt but it might even work with regular salt.To tell you the truth I don't know why it worked.Kundalini energy feels different and this kind of energy was annoying me making me nervous.Of course waking up at 2:45am after a weird dream and not being able to go back to sleep because of all the excess energy might be a reason too.My upstairs neighbors moved out and my psycho LL was upstairs walking around like a maniac all weekend and mostly every evening.I wonder why he harbors such hate towards me ?I can sure feel the hate and my body reacts in not such a pleasant way hence the energy and such.I don't know why I react like that when him or his wife are upstairs.Maybe it's the noise ?


It took me awhile to answer your post.I've been growing restless and agitated and full of energy lately and everything made me more energized but today,on a whim,I sprinkled salt in all the rooms in the corners and even outside my door and under the beds.I felt relief right away so I decided to come here to answer your post.Can't hurt trying ! :D

That sounds interesting and splendid if it works for you. You used regular table salt / hydrochloride? Could you tell me more about the mechanism of action or 'philosophy' behind why this should work/wokrs? The correlation between sprinkling salt and sleeping isn't that obvious to me but would love to learn more.

[sleeper]

wow you actually answered all of the questions.

most people just get overwhelmed.

i'll give you whatever tips i think will help, but i must tell you in advance that you are on a journey and the best approach will probably be to take one step at a time, making little bits of progress with each step.



have you tried expending your energy in other ways before bed?


what is your sleeping area like? what is the temperature in your room (cool/warm)?
I have a small apartment so besides a bathroom and kitchen and an entrance I only have a single room which I use for both sleeping and living.
My bed is next to a window which is slightly open all year round, and I usually open it fully for 10-15 mins. before bed time to cool the room but also to ventilate, so it's cool at bed time.

I have lived in many places that are tight on space. It is very important, critical, that you keep your belongings organized and tidy. If you have any piles, make sure that they are sorted and folded. That means books with books, pants with pants, shirts with shirts. bad spirits will take up residence in messy homes, and they can ruin your sleep and invade your dreams (and waking mind). Everything should be stacked as squarely into rows and straightly as possible. remember: what is "tidy" and "sorted" to you might not be enough to keep the bad stuff away; a tight adherence to feng shui is usually required at minimum to garnish the benefits of this.



how much light is in your room at night? are there many electronic devices in your room?
There's no light in the room besides a small red LED from my TV when it's in standby mode. Besides the TV I have my computer and an guitar amplifier but they're (usually) turned off at night.
any light shining on your body can lower your melatonin levels, even if it only hits your skin on your hand or leg. so cover the computer light with a sticker or a sock or something, if you can.

do you stay up late playing on the computer?



have you tried sleeping in other areas of your room/moving your bed? have you tried sleeping on the floor (with several blankets underneath?
I sometimes fall asleep on my couch instead of my bed, but the room is rather small and filled with stuff and furniture so moving the bed is not really an option, as I'd have to move everything else as well and it's placed most conveniently as it is now. I have thought about it before though, actually ever since I read Castaneda's books when I was 15 or so, to see if facing north, south, east or west would make any difference.
I'm not to keen on experimenting with sleeping on the floor since I had a bad experience a couple of years ago when the cleansing process was more intensive. I was moving to a new apartment at the time, and was going to spend the night there because I had a party to attend in the city I was moving to the day after, bud hadn't had time to move my bed yet. I remember the night before my intuition told me this would be a problem, but I didn't listen much to it back then and since I had slept on the floor at friends' places many times with no problem I figured it should work just the one night. I had two thin madrases and slept ok as far as I can recall but the morning after I could barely move and had a horrible pain in my back for 3 days, so I prefer a bed these days :).

Do you fall asleep easier on your couch than on your bed? do you ever split the sleep between your bed, floor and couch? do you have back pain often? how is your posture when you're standing? is your spine strong and healthy? do you have a lordosis or scoliosis or any other curvature problems? In what position do you sleep best (face down, face up, fetal position, etc.)?



how quiet is your room at night? do you have pets that sleep with you? do you wake up to an alarm clock?
My room is quiet at night apart from the occasional car on the road outside and my cat walking around and chewing dry food. He's usually outside hunting at night if the temperatures aren't too low though.
I use my mobile phone as an alarm clock the days I have to attend something at a specific time.

that sounds pretty much ideal. for the most part.





how is your adrenal health? are you under a lot of stress during the day? do you feel fatigued in the middle of the day? do you feel energized or catch your "second wind" of energy late at night? do you consume much caffeine or energy drinks? when do you eat dinner and what kinds of meal does your dinner consist of?
I don't know how my adrenal health is. I'm not under much stress as I'm unemployed, two friends died recently and untimely though and that has been on my mind a lot but have coped with it now. Yea I do experience a period of fatigue in the middle of the day or in the morning when I'm supposed to wake up instead heh. But I usually don't have time to sleep at those times and also don't want to mess up my sleeping pattern more than it is, so I try to stay awake till night time, where instead of falling asleep early as I'd hoped I feel energized and often stay up all night again and so the circle continues. I don't use any stimulants at all and haven't for a long time. I usually eat dinner at around 6PM and eat lots of vegetables and fish, eggs, chicken and turkey.

I have actually slept really well these last two nights for around 7 hours I think, I'm not entirely sure thought as I've gone to bed rather late at night and then woken up around noon, but it feels like an improvement for sure. I'll do more experimentation but I'm pretty sure it has to do with I've tried walking around barefoot in the garden outside before I go to bed to do some grounding / earthing, it's freaking cold this time of year though, so visualizing roots from my root chakra isn't possible for me this time of year, I simply can't focus on it because it's so cold for my feet so I've just taken a really quick walk from one end of the garden to the other and back maybe 1-2 minutes in total, but I believe is had had an positive effect.

when you fall asleep, do you wake up about 25 minutes later with a "jolt?"

are you on a low fat diet?

are you familiar with the "circadian rhythm?" (if not, you should google-search the terms and look at some of the pictures and articles and you'll benefit from seeing it).

i recommend that people sleep when they are tired. unless there is an important or urgent reason to stay awake, i really think you should snooze a bit when you are tired. on the first night, you might stay up late again but in the long run it will take pressure off of your endocrine system and may help you tremendously in your goal of getting to bed on time. also it might help you to think more clearly.

ok this is probably enough for now.

ciao!

~dale

[CFTraveler]

One more thing, since we're doing this- Blue LEDs are terrible for sleeping- amber or red are not so bad for sleeping, but blue LEDs have been shown to mess with brainwaves and not allow your sleep to get to the deep stage.
I can't quote a source because I saw it on a TV special about sleep.

[Floond]

wow you actually answered all of the questions.

most people just get overwhelmed.

i'll give you whatever tips i think will help, but i must tell you in advance that you are on a journey and the best approach will probably be to take one step at a time, making little bits of progress with each step.

Well to be honest I was a bit overwhelmed by the amount of questions lol but figured when you are trying to help me the least I could do was to reply. I'm in no hurry and just enjoy the ride.


I have lived in many places that are tight on space. It is very important, critical, that you keep your belongings organized and tidy. If you have any piles, make sure that they are sorted and folded. That means books with books, pants with pants, shirts with shirts. bad spirits will take up residence in messy homes, and they can ruin your sleep and invade your dreams (and waking mind). Everything should be stacked as squarely into rows and straightly as possible. remember: what is "tidy" and "sorted" to you might not be enough to keep the bad stuff away; a tight adherence to feng shui is usually required at minimum to garnish the benefits of this.

Ehem, looks like I've got some work cut out for me here as I've never been very organized, always excused myself being on those that rule chaos. But this should help as motivation to get all my stuff sorted . I see bad spirits and negs often mentioned, how common are they? I recall one experience years ago when I was in an altered state where I felt the presence of some spirits with bad vibes which I 'fought' off by sending them love. But haven't been consciously aware of anything similar since neither in waking state or dreams.
Could you recommend me any books on Feng Shui? as I'm often skeptical about topics from Eastern thought that have become popularized and even trendy in the West, it often seems to spawn some diluted versions of the original, like the "yoga" teached locally is basically a form of gymnastics deprived of the spiritual side of yoga practice.


any light shining on your body can lower your melatonin levels, even if it only hits your skin on your hand or leg. so cover the computer light with a sticker or a sock or something, if you can.

do you stay up late playing on the computer?
I'll just start turning off the TV at the power socket, the standby LED is only lid due to it being most convenient to use the remote to turn the TV off. Sometimes I stay up late using the computer, I rarely play games, but use the computer for listening to, playing and recording music, for chatting, programming and also use it to stream TV-shows in stead of watching what ever is on the channels. So it's always turned on when I'm doing something at home. I turn it off before going to bed if I feel sleepy.



Do you fall asleep easier on your couch than on your bed? do you ever split the sleep between your bed, floor and couch? do you have back pain often? how is your posture when you're standing? is your spine strong and healthy? do you have a lordosis or scoliosis or any other curvature problems? In what position do you sleep best (face down, face up, fetal position, etc.)?

Yes I often fall asleep easier on my couch actually, especially when I take a nap in the afternoon. I'm not sure I understand what you mean by splitting the sleep, like a couple of hours in bed then move to the couch for a couple of hours or? I rarely have back pain, not since my sleeping on the floor experience mentioned earlier. I'm pretty sure my spine is strong and healthy but I guess everyone assumes that till they get back pain problems. At a Zen retreat once I was told that my spine is a little too straight, I'm not sure what the medical term is for it though. I usually sleep on my right side with my right arm under the pillow, I've sort of gotten used to that from when I suffered from problems with my left shoulder as it would hurt a lot whenever I moved around during sleep, enough to wake me up. I've never could fall asleep when lying on my back but remember always sleeping on my stomach with my face to the left side as a kid.



when you fall asleep, do you wake up about 25 minutes later with a "jolt?"

I can't recall ever experiencing that no



are you on a low fat diet?

I'm not on any particular diet, but have been trying to loose some weight to get rid of my wheel hehe, I'm just trying to eat more healthy these days as I have been living mainly on junk food in the past and haven't been physically active much for years. I've been intrigued by raw food diets lately though and waiting for a cookbook to arrive with solely raw food recipes.



are you familiar with the "circadian rhythm?" (if not, you should google-search the terms and look at some of the pictures and articles and you'll benefit from seeing it).

Thanks so much for bringing this to my attention, the wikipedia entry on circadian rhythm eventually led me to 'Delayed sleep phase syndrome' which I'm absolutely positive I've been suffering from since my teens and long before Kundalini awakened. The symptoms sound exactly like the story of my life since I was 15-16 years old. So while kundalini in some periods makes me not sleep for days at a time and at other times makes me feel fatigued for days, the other syndrome is what causes me problems most of the time. There is a certain comfort in a diagnosis but I'll have to figure out how to put this realization into practical use.



i recommend that people sleep when they are tired. unless there is an important or urgent reason to stay awake, i really think you should snooze a bit when you are tired. on the first night, you might stay up late again but in the long run it will take pressure off of your endocrine system and may help you tremendously in your goal of getting to bed on time. also it might help you to think more clearly.

Yes I agree, but in my current situation that's usually not an option. As mentioned elsewhere I'm unemployed and on welfare, and to get my welfare check I have to check-in each morning at 8 am at a place and twiddle my thumbs for hours each working day otherwise they deduct an amount of the little money I get. 7-8 am happens to be around the time when I'm usually tired enough to fall asleep so it isn't an ideal situation, but I can't live without any income at all so I just try to cope with it. I often take a nap in the afternoon though if I don't have other appointments to attend.