I can’t cope

[Ru-bee]

Thank you @Bow that'd be really helpful. Anything in a trigger warning box still needs to be within guidelines so this sounds like something we do need to look into

[Bow]

Hope ya survived your shift @Captain24  on little sleep. I tried. Triggered again. But nothing. I give up. 

[Captain24]

I’ve just gotten into town @Bow @Ru-bee 

Can I email you about it in about 20mins @Ru-bee ? 

[Ru-bee]

Absolutely you can @Captain24 I was just typing up an email for both you and @Bow so keep an eye out for those shortly 

I hope work was okay!

[Captain24]

Hey @Ru-bee 

I got a some total of two hours and 28 minutes sleep! 

Strategies would be really helpful please. I’m exhausted after sitting around all day listening to shit, putting out a fire in a tin shed on a 35 degree day! Overwhelmed by all the people. Had to do grocery shopping while there was so many people around. It’s been a lot but I’m still really wired. There is no way that I could actually go to sleep if I tried. 

[rav3n]

hiya @Captain24! you survived training! gosh the weather would've made it a lot stuffier hey.

@Ru-bee had to head off but she did mention that she wanted to share some sleeping strategies with ya, one of which was the progressive muscle relaxation - i think you might've heard of this one before? it's when you tense up certain muscle groups and then relax them, i'll link a video below but feel free to find one that fits you (i know some peeps like myself prefer certain voices/music) 

• Progressive Muscle Relaxation | Pathlight Mood & Anxiety Center

if you're like me and tend to doom-scroll before bed, it's probably part of what keeps us awake unfortunately. things like dimming/turning off lights, keeping screens aways, sometimes even having a cool room can help (sometimes when our bed/room is too warm, it can harder to rest). 

this doc has some great yet simple tips too: ADHD and Sleep

do you only use your bed for sleeping? or do you tend to lay there outside of bedtime to do activities or relax? 

[Captain24]

The heat in that tin shed with the fire burning was intense. We all had our hi-vis clothes on too. My shirt was stuck to my back with sweat. @rav3n 

I actually did try the progressive muscle relaxation on my own without a recording but my mind kept wandering off and I forgot what I was doing. Part of my sleep hygiene is having a cool room. My bed is just for sleeping. I don’t have a tv in my room for this reason! I only go to bed to sleep. I never just lay on it. When I go down to my room for bed I put the lamp on not the ceiling lights.

I even got up and had a shower! To lamp light, I didn’t turn the bathroom lights on. 

The screen thing I know needed to stop but it was the only thing that would slow down my brain and it still wasn’t by much. I was so frustrated that I threw my phone at the wall. 

I really did try! 

[rav3n]

@Captain24 ahh that extra layer of clothing doesn't help, must've felt great to get out of that room! do you have another training coming up soon, or is that the last one for a good while?

yeah i find it hard to do relaxation type of strategies on my own cos my mind just wanders off 🙃 even with an audio guide, i do zone out at times, but i am getting better at focusing. if you do ever try the guided one, let me know how it goes!

looks like you've done all the sleep hygiene things right, it's just the phone screen that's been tricky to put aside hey. i'm honestly the same, and i really do get you about how it slows your mind - i do find it relaxes me emotionally. recently i've been trying to replace doom scrolling with audiobooks, so this way, my eyes can be closed and my hand doesn't have to touch the screen. i will say that the story needs to be really interesting for this to work tho... is that something you can see yourself giving a go? or are there other activities that 'slow down your brain' the same ways as doom scrolling that don't involve a bright screen?

oh and one more things - when you use your phone, do you turn the screen brightness down to "night shift" or at least that's what it's called on iPhones?

[Captain24]

It was 35 degrees outside that room! 😂 @rav3n and humid as we were about to get a storm. I love the heat but that was a lot! 

No more training days until next year. They usually have them in town at the club so I’m hoping they go back to that. The mental health guys did their last session today and won’t be back. We had a dietitian talk to us about eating healthy and how to eat healthy for nightshifts. She only touched on that briefly and I’m really glad that she isn’t my dietitian! It wasn’t very knowledgeable or helpful. 

I will try the recording and see how that goes. 

Im usually pretty good with sleep as I have had to make sure I get adequate sleep with bipolar. So this is concerning. 

I can’t do audiobooks as I just tune out and don’t know what happened. Same as reading, I’ll be reading and then have gotten through a couple of paragraphs and not known what I read as my brain was thinking of other things! Bloody ADHD! 

My phone is set to night mode from 9pm, so I’ve already done that too. I need my phone in my room as it’s my alarm and I have all my alarms set for the week as I forget to reset them daily so I can’t use an alarm clock! I also check constantly that they are set just incase I forget? It’s feeling a little OCD actually. 

Please don’t think I’m knocking back suggestions as I really am listening to them and appreciate you sharing them. 

[rav3n]

hey @Captain24 i ran out of time to respond properly sorry! OH i misread that earlier, that humidity is no fun at all 😅

before i head off, i do want to let you know that i hear ya and i know you're trying. i don't take it personally at all - it helps to know what has/hasn't worked for you in the past, and i appreciate your honesty 💙

will respond properly to you tomorrow, take care!