Is insomnia a bass player thing?

[lowdown]

Sleeping is a complete waste of time, and is expensive.
I was born in 1957 and have never been to bed to sleep.
The money I have saved on beds, pyjamas and cornflakes is pretty amazing.

[charic]

^ like

[Fat Rich]

I used to have sleep problems but a few things helped fix it.

Firstly I gave up coffee and caffeine filled fizzy drinks completely but found I was sleeping worse. I now have a couple of cups of coffee during the day but no caffeine in the evenings.

Secondly, there's some historical evidence that we never used to sleep right through the night, there are references to "First sleep" and "second sleep" in some old literature and paintings of people up and about during the night. There's a theory that were forcing ourselves to do something the body isn't meant to because we now work set hours in the day, try to relax set hours in the evening and then sleep 7 to 8 hours. If I was wide awake at 4am I used to get stressed and annoyed with myself, now I just accept it as natural, don't get stressed and usually fall asleep as a result.

Thirdly, alcohol really messes with your sleep patterns. You might fall asleep faster but it's not the kind of deep sleep that makes you feel better. The science is currently saying the body needs 2 hours sleep, then tends to come out of deep sleep for the rest of the night. They are saying if you drink you're more likely to wake up after a couple of hours and then your body clock is all messed up. The alternative is to drink so much you pass out and need medical assistance to revive you, I probably wouldn't recommend this.

Good luck

[ras52]

[quote name='Fat Rich' timestamp='1379938791' post='2218413']

Secondly, there's some historical evidence that we never used to sleep right through the night, there are references to "First sleep" and "second sleep" in some old literature and paintings of people up and about during the night.

[/quote]

Yes, I read something about that recently... before gas/electric lighting, people without access to large amounts of candle-power (everyone except the chandelier-toting aristocracy?) Would go to bed when it got dark, when wake up (and do what?!) four hours later.