Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Fun with Polls What are you like in bed?

Well, that got your attention! Time for another random poll to perk the boards up. Hopefully.

I'm actually just interested to know how long it takes people to fall asleep. I'll sometimes hear someone say that they went to bed and got up 20min or so later because they were having trouble sleeping. 20 minutes?? If I got up 20min after I went to bed I'd never, ever, ever sleep. It takes me a good 45 min to an hour, on an average night, to get to sleep, but I know some people are out virtually as soon as their heads hit the pillow.

Where do you fit in? I want to know just how weird/normal I actually am.

I couldn't really answer because it varies. I either fall asleep immediately or I'm still awake after an hour and have to get up and try again later.

I tend to go through cycles of one or the other. Right now, for instance, I've been unable to get to sleep before 3 am for the last couple of weeks. If I try going to bed before that I end up staring into the darkness and have to get up for a couple of hours and try again around 4 or 5.

This is a source of great annoyance to Homer, who definitely likes to get to his bed fairly early and doesn't appreciate being invited back downstairs to keep Mum company just when he's got there. Lots of heavy sighing and shows of reluctance to move. Although I don't know what difference it makes as he seems to find the sofa just as comfy as his bed...

LabRat

Depends. Usually I'm out within 20 minutes, but this week on vacation, I've had the worst time sleeping and haven't even bothered to try and fall asleep before 3am. So basically I need to stay retardedly busy to have a good sleep schedule.

JD
And HAH! at your poll title. Loved it.

I usually take about an hour to fall asleep, if not more. And to make matters worse, I even wake up several times during the night where it also takes me quite some time to get back to sleep. I think that's more like 15 minutes, but I don't usually keep track of time as I do my best to get back to sleep.

One thing I have found that helps me go to dreamland faster, is to start daydreaming. You hardly notice the difference that way.

Saskia

I wish I were one of those people that fell asleep instantly! Instead, It usually takes me at least an hour to fall asleep and that includes getting up a couple times.

Mona

I'm wondering how weird it is that in the instant I read "What are you like in..." in the preview, I fogured it would be "... in bed?" :p

Anyway... it doesn't take me too long to go to sleep but that's just the result from my staying up too long to begin with: I usually don't go to bed before 3 am, so that I sleep about 4.5 hours until I have to get up. Which results in me being terribly sleepy all day, especially the next evening... so that when I go to bed again at 3 am, I'm completely exhausted again
(Nope, don't tell me I could go to bed earlier - I don't really like that option )

Jana

If I take an OTC sleeping pill I can fall asleep within an hour of taking it. If I don't take one I will toss and turn for over an hour and tick off my hubby!

That one used to work for me - I've written whole fanfic in my head some nights

LabRat

Indeed, that's how I frequently lull myself to sleep - writing fanfics in my head that never get translated to paper (or computer). Somewhere during dreamland, I forget every well-thought-out thing I was going to write and it all just comes out as fragmented jibberish. :rolleyes:

I'm amazed at how many people here take over a half an hour to fall asleep! I'm big into 'sleep hygiene' - no books, television, lights, music, etc when I’m trying to go to sleep – and if I can't fall asleep within 15-20 minutes, I get up until I feel sleepy again. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), I keep myself so busy that by the time bedtime rolls around, I’m exhausted. I tend to perk back up a little as soon as my head hits the pillow (it's quiet, so my mind starts racing through my mental to-do list), so I generally don’t fall asleep instantly, which is where the mental fic-writing comes in handy.

3 words: Sleepytime with Valerian

I slept so well before I had children. Now I'm the lightest sleeper in the world. It was the same way with my mother. She sent me a funny e-mail that told about a new mother who came into the kitchen during the first week of her newborn's life to ask the question, "Mom, when will I stop waking up at every little noise the baby makes?" Before she could ask, however, her mother asked a question of her own, "Honey, are you alright? You were crying in your sleep last night."

Actually James and I have joked that it's just one more area where men are like microwaves and women are like crockpots, since he's asleep within minutes of him shutting his mouth off.

Funny thing is, my stress therapist (or a non-pathological Arianna Carlin, if you will) tells me its ok to read before I go to bed, but sometimes that works against me and I end up completely engrossed in something till 4am.

JD

Stress therapist? I needed one of those when I was studying. I actually did some work for a while when I was at university - something my brain wasn't used to - with the result that I was permanently wired and had terrible trouble switching off. Once before an exam I spent the whole night awake, not worrying or anything, I just wasn't sleepy. Had to go the sleeping pill route eventually.

As far as reading goes, I don't necessarily find it's a stimulant, but it certainly won't put me to sleep. People who can drop off a couple of pages into a book baffle me.

And those who can fall asleep quickly I find equally baffling. Is there such a mental difference between being upright and then horizontal in a dark room with your eyes closed that you can just shut your brain down? Or is there a secret off switch nobody's told me about? Either way, not fair.

I'm a 15-30 minute sleeper. I'm a super light sleeper though.

Seriously, when me and my hubby first got married and were living in an apartment, I was sleeping with earplugs and I woke up to this very quiet strange sound. I lay there for a few minutes, thinking it would stop. When it didn't, I took out my earplugs and woke up my hubby. "Do you hear that sweety? What the heck is that."

He groggily wakes up and strains his ears. "Oh my gosh, you have problems." "What?" I ask defensively. "That's someone's dog barking inside in another apartment building and you can hear that with ear plugs? You need therapy."

So, I still sleep with earplugs every night but I've started taking this cherry juice stuff before bed and I sleep all the way through the night now. I used to wake up a lot from neck and back pain too but now it zonks me right out.

mmmmm... I love that stuff.

That's Sleepytime with Valerian (best price online!)

We sleep much more soundly and more relaxed when we have the tea.

Now, about MY mouth keeping me up...I seem to remember a few times when it wasn't ME doing the talking.

Don't get me wrong, I love to listen to Elisabeth talk and read fanfic aloud....But I am not the only talker.

James

I saw this and the last poster was Mr. Data! I almost had a heart attack, you devil greatshades
you!
Now, to answer the question. I put down 45 minutes, but I often lie in bed longer than that reading LnC fanfic on my handheld computer. Preferably nfic.

Artemis

Ah, bed. Where I wish I was right now.

I am not the best sleeper. I don't get home until about 12:30 a.m. from work, and I can't go right to sleep. So I usually am up until 3-4 a.m. reading or writing fic, or talking on IRC, or watching TV. It helps me relax to have some "fluff" in my brain after having dealt with news stories about the war and the economy and the housing-bubble bursting etc., etc., etc.

When I do go to bed, I usually lay there for some amount of time, possibly listening to SOMEONE snore before I fall asleep. And unfortunately, I not only am a light sleeper -- and wake up at least once a night -- but I also talk in my sleep. Steph is going to love sharing a room with me at LAFF.

Chronic insomniac. It takes me an hour or more to fall asleep and I can almost never stay asleep. I'm always tired during the day.

Oh, I remember that. Some years ago, I worked for a spell doing computer ordering for a national store supplier. I loved the 3pm - 1am shift that I worked - a 3pm start to the working day was handy. But I did find that, coming home at 1am, I had to 'decompress' for an hour or so before I could even contemplate going to bed.

LabRat

Yep, that pretty much describes me, too. It usually takes me an hour and a half to fall asleep.

For me, not sleeping is a super power. Case in point, I'm typing this after 3 am.

(Although, once asleep, a charging elephant couldn't wake me. )

*snort* I slept through a tornado during Ivan. Funny how I can't fall asleep, but once I do, elephants couldn't wake me either.

JD

It varies for me. Most of the time, it's probably in the 15-30 minute category, so that's what I chose.

On occasion it can take hours. Or if I've taken a nap sometime during the evening, I can forget about getting a good night's sleep. I try to avoid the nap, but sometimes I'm just so tired I can't stay awake. In those cases I try to sleep through the night, but often I'm not very successful.

You know, I used to be like that. Once, when I was a teen, a car wrapped itself around a lamppost on the road right outside my bedroom window and I managed to sleep right through the ensuing fuss, including sirens and my parents getting up and bringing over blankets etc for the driver. (Who fortunately survived pretty much unscathed.)

Several years of dealing with a hound who had a major allergy and couldn't get through a night without trying to rip his paws apart a dozen times cured me of that though! Even though we now seem to have gotten through and he's fine now, I still wake up if he so much as twitches in his sleep.

LabRat

I like the bit about the charging elephant...

I think a charging elephant would probably awaken me when I get to sleeping really good... But I have been known to carry on complete conversations with someone when I'm quite asleep.

Well, it takes me between 30 minutes and an hour to fall asleep, depending on how tired I am. Since I'm usually very tired, I opted for 30 to 45 minutes in the poll.

BTW, a little searching on the web has informed me that the average adult takes 15 - 20 minutes to fall asleep, even though the majority of this poll suggests otherwise...

And I seem to fall into the most popular category here. So, not weird at all then! :p

I chose 0 - 15 minutes, but probably it takes me less than 10 minutes. I fall asleep almost instantly.

It must be because I have to wake up early and I normally get to sleep late. So, I'm always tired when I go to bed.

And, once asleep, elephants couldn't wake me, too.

Andreia (off to bed)

I hate going to bed. I was that way when I was six and now at 31...I still have trouble writing that...31 31 31 31 31 ACK how did that happen.

*cough*

Okay, where was I? It used to take me hours to fall asleep. Now I'm now to around 30-45...but lately 1 hr. The A/C is not good up in my room on the second floor and that has made it hard for me to sleep. I love a cold room. That discovery has helped me improve my sleep a lot. In the winter, the window is open a crack. I don't care if it is -30C out there. Blankets make me happy. I love my Hudson's Bay blankie I have an ugly pink one and blue one.



When I was in grade six I had this warped idea that every day I'd have trouble falling asleep. Well, I just knew if I had a good sleep one night, the next night would be torture. It used to take me four hours or so to get to sleep.

My 'up' time I now know is 8-11. I could be dizzy with sleep during the day, but MAN I get my house cleaner than clean during that period of the day - I'm SO productive.

I can only think of a few times, as an adult, when I've fallen aleep within 5 minutes.


(Ugh! I was looking for pictures and I saw a blanket I want! SIGH. Cranberry! Maybe one day *sigh*)

Incredible. Oh wait, that's not what you were asking.

It really varies. Some nights I can crawl into bed and be asleep in five minutes. Other times I toss and turn for an hour or more before I finally fall asleep.