[pct-l] my sleeping problems

[radpin at gmail.com (Eric)]

My $0.02:

Sleeping problems for me are either physical or psychological.

For physical, it's pretty straightforward. Have a good pillow,
mattress, and a WARM BAG. Your body will wake you if you are too cold,
and it will not let you go back to sleep. I think a simple test is in
order. See if you can sleep on your bedroom floor with your "rig". If
your mattress / bag / pillow / mattress combo can't cut the mustard
three feet from your nice bed, something is wrong. This helped me a
lot, because when I got out on the trail, the feeling of me "rig"
isn't that foriegn to me. I kind of slid into the adjustment cycle.
There's gonna be a slew of unique problems "out there", and the more
that you can adapt to in the comfort of your own home, the better.
Standard stuff; cut down on the variables. So that when there's a bump
in the night, it's not compounded with other difficulties sleeping.

For psychological, that's a much different story. Sometimes I get
worried about my girlfriend, I miss my dog, I worry about school, I
worry about money, etc. Some of these things can make me lose sleep
even at home. Dealing with them all so that you can focus on what
you're doing makes a big difference.

For sleep "enhancement", I can only say what I've used, which is a
particular plant product that when set on fire and inhaled tends to
make some people (myself anyway) quite sleepy. It's lightweight,
environmentally sound, cheap, and has pretty much no side effects that
I've noticed about myself. I would never recommend people with moral /
religious / otherwise convictions against it to use it, but if you
don't have an existing objection, it might be worth a shot. It's
certainly not something you'd want to use all the time, but similiar
to booze, it will knock you out pretty good. Hell, I'd bring a bottle
of red wine and use that if it weren't so damn heavy. :-)

Eric

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