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tricky

Skydiving affect sleeping?

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I'm a newbie to the sport.. and everytime I jump I have a hard time sleeping the following night. I close my eyes and all these images of freefall come flying into my head, my adrenaline starts pumping and I can't sleep...

anyone else experience this? what do you do to get some decent sleep?

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Man you must be in good shape! After a day of jumps I'm usually sleeping like a baby by 9:00pm. :P I do on the other hand have a hard time sleeping the night before a day of jumps due to anxiety.

-syn
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain
a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty
nor safety. - Benjamin Franklin

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The beauty of adrenaline is that it burns through all that blood sugar, leaving you exhausted. If you jump early enough in the day, then you sleep like a baby.
The disadvantage of adrenaline is when you are on the sunset load and are still excited come bedtime. ... far too much adrenaline racing through your veins to sleep!
Cure: jump until you are exhausted.

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Cure: jump until you are exhausted.


Bwahaha... B|
My choice!
@tricky: There is really not much you can do... trying to draw off one's attention from skydiving won't work unless you have a girlfriend. She might find ways... :)

Ich betrachte die Religion als Krankheit, als Quelle unnennbaren Elends für die menschliche Rasse.
(Bertrand Russell, engl. Philosoph, 1872-1970)

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I used to have that problem when i first started jumping 4 1/2 years ago. I would just keep replaying the jumps in my head...no worries though, you'll eventually stop doing that and be able to sleep just fine.

___________________________________________
meow

I get a Mike hug! I get a Mike hug!

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Man- Like many folks I sleep like a rock after a day at the DZ. (Drives the wife nuts because I come home and zonk out in front of the TV in minutes-) I also get a mild headache that is easily releived by a couple aspirin. Now, the night before jumping I would be up all night from excitement, but even that has subsided a little.

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I also get a mild headache that is easily releived by a couple aspirin.



Your headache is coming from lack of oxygen. If there is some in the plane, get on it. You will notice a big difference and no more headache.
May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. - Edward Abbey

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Your headache is coming from lack of oxygen. If there is some in the plane, get on it. You will notice a big difference and no more headache.




I never even thought of that - I was thinking maybe a crash off the andrenaline or lack of water. No O2 on the plane here, unfortunately. But I have given up the cancer sticks and am doing a bit of cardio work at the gym each week, hopefully that may help this old body process oxygen a little better, you think?

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No O2 on the plane here, unfortunately.



Okay, where is that Chris. I thought there were some kind of guildlines about o2 being in planes. OH CHRIS!


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But I have given up the cancer sticks and am doing a bit of cardio work at the gym each week, hopefully that may help this old body process oxygen a little better, you think?



Don't know, but it can't hurt over time. Go to your doctor and have him write out a scrip for some O2. Then go to your medical supply store and get a small canister. That's what a friend and I did, cause sometimes we couldn't get to the O2. It doesn't cost much.
May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. - Edward Abbey

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You only need to provide O2 if you are flying above 14k above mean sea level (MSL).

You have to have it available if you are cruising above 12,500 for more than 30 minutes.

But people who are not used to altitude or who smoke will feel fatigued at the end of the day.

Flying up and down all day I actually built a tollerance. But it is still fatiguing.
Chris Schindler
www.diverdriver.com
ATP/D-19012
FB #4125

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I think that once you start jumping more, you'll sleep like a baby.

Due to the "Opponent -Process" effect, you will begin to aclimatize and naturalize to the new stimuli, and your adrenal (amygdala) response will begin to diminish and become nothing but positive psychosomatic energy. The problem is, you are still experiencing the fight-or-flight response, and you body is in alarm mode. With repeated exposure, you will find that these kinds of effects loose their potency.

Hope this helps.
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hmm...

I didn't think about this before, but all the way through AFF 3, I got headaches every time I went to the DZ. I started taking excedrin before I left home, and that seemed to solve the problem, and after a while I just kinda stopped taking it, and haven't had an issue since.

maybe its just getting used to the rapid changes in air pressure?

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I agree. After a day of skydiving (which for me, at the moment, is at most 3 jumps) I'm exhausted. Just recently, I spent a day jumping, came home and CRASHED like a baby. So don't get me wrong, skydiving DOES exhaust me... but, around 2:30 AM I woke up (who knows why) and didn't fall back asleep until 5ish.. and the whole time I was restlessly thinking about skydiving. I tried reading, watching TV ... anything to get my mind and body to chill... but the adrenaline just kept coming.
I suppose, eventually, I will get over this... but in the mean time, I might try taking some tylenol PM or something...
(Oh and by the way, I'm a girl B|)

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I might try taking some tylenol PM


Nah don't! [:/] Save the money for skydives! Drink a hot tea with honey or go for a walk or something...

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(Oh and by the way, I'm a girl B|)


Whoops! :)It didn't say in your profile, so I just "naturally" assumed you were a boy. (Still, most skydivers are male... :P)

Ich betrachte die Religion als Krankheit, als Quelle unnennbaren Elends für die menschliche Rasse.
(Bertrand Russell, engl. Philosoph, 1872-1970)

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I'm a newbie to the sport.. and everytime I jump I have a hard time sleeping the following night. I close my eyes and all these images of freefall come flying into my head, my adrenaline starts pumping and I can't sleep...

anyone else experience this? what do you do to get some decent sleep?



I had trouble sleeping the night of a skydive when I started last summer and sometimes the second night too! As my eyes would close, I'd drift off and find myself standing in the door of the plane about to exit and my heart would start racing! After I got to sleep sometimes I would wake up with my heart racing. I solved the problem with Ambien (a prescription sleeping pill). It put me right to sleep and kept me there all night!

The problem gradually went away and I was able to sleep after a skydive. I started feeling like a real skydiver when after about 25 jumps I managed to take naps in the school between jumps. The instructors would come in and kick me and tell me it was time to get up and get geared up for a 10-minute call.

It will get beter my friend.
"We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

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It comes and goes for me... I have a little over 500 jumps now. Sometimes I just have to make myself think of something else in order to fall asleep. If you're putting a lot of pressure on yourself to succeed, that could be contributing. I used to relive all of my mistakes, "bad dives" or stupid landings. As I progressed in my training, I'd keep thinking about new techniques I wanted to master, which can be good-- but not at 3 a.m. when you've got to work the next day.

Forgive yourself your errors. You haven't done anything as a new skydiver that someone else hasn't done before (or worse). Take a deep breath and think about your most boring teacher ever-- you'll be snoozing in no time.

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Due to the "Opponent -Process" effect, you will begin to aclimatize and naturalize to the new stimuli, and your adrenal (amygdala) response will begin to diminish and become nothing but positive psychosomatic energy.



Ah! Brian's Psychology degree strikes again.

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