How to get some sleep?

J

JMowery1987

All I do is lay down, and think about charts, and the markets, and level 2 screens and all that.

It's now almost 4 am and I can't fall asleep.

Anyone else have this problem. I feel so miserable when I can't trade. To add insult to injury, I can't login to my trading platform, and am probably not going to be able to trade until later on today until this gets resolved.

It's like a horror story. I can't trade right now and I can't sleep :(

Anyone got any tips on how to fall asleep *i'm serious*

Every night I'm always laying in bed for 2 - 3 hours thinking about charts, thinking about AAPL, visualizing a chart going through my head and just plotting a price and then just figuring out how I'll react to it, all in my head.

Is that some insane stuff or what.

Is this normal to happen to traders? :p

WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?!?!?!?!

This is like the 5th time I've crawled out of bed to the computer.
 
Ha ha,

When I first started trading I used to have dreams about trading the markets, picking crescendo tops and knife catching turn-around bottoms.

Now, it's like running a machine (check 1, check 2, check 3, all systems go), enter the trade, monitor it, cut loses quickly and let the profits run.

Next.

(Oh, yeah, keep breathing!)

Best,

Jimmy
 
JMowery1987,

sorry to hear this - I hope you are sleeping now, while I am writing this.

I can give you one advice - try to use the bed for sleeping and not for thinking - as soon as you start thinking in bed, get up and take a seat in chair. You can easily accustom your body and mind to think in bed instead of sleeping, so you will start to think if you lay down and prevent yourself from sleeping.
The other part you can do is to create something like a ritual before you go to bed - for example drink a tea - so that your mind can connect this with sleeping and can already start to relax while drinking the tea.
One last thing I can suggest is to try to go to bed at the same time everyday - this is again something to make your body get used to it.

The fact that you can't let lose from trading is something you might consider to get professional help to, because this can be the origin of some really really bad problems. (I am assuming that you can't let lose - if I am wrong just forget the last part I have written).

Take care,

fritz_haber
 
Yeah, traders are not normal people. I mean, what normal person can do this day in and day out.

Quote from JMowery1987:


Is this normal to happen to traders? :p

WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?!?!?!?!

This is like the 5th time I've crawled out of bed to the computer.
More...
 
Get your thinking done in the tub it's the best place, then go to bed to sleep. Tea might be ok but make sure it's not a caffeine containing variety. I read somewhere that eating lettuce before bed works very well. Google lettuce and insomnia and you'll see what I mean.
 
I had some horrendous sleeping habits. Would lay awake for hours, or fall asleep only to wake up an hour or two later, then would start thinking and the next thing I know its morning and I never slept.

I read some book on self-hypnosis. Had a technique to get you in a relaxed state. You were supposed to sit or lay down someplace quiet and peaceful, with 4 boys, 2 dogs, and a wife, the only place quiet was in bed.

The exercise is to lay there then take a few deep breaths, clear your mind by only thinking about breathing, then relax your toes, then feet, then ankles, etc. Work all the way up to your head. The only problem was after doing this while laying in bed, I always fell asleep before I could ever get to the end. So I now use it as a technique to fall asleep fast. Give it a try, it works really well for me.

Another thing I do is read. I pick up a book at night and can only get through a few pages before I realize I am reading the same paragraph over and over again so its time to put the book down and sleep.

You gotta get past thinking of trading in bed. You will never fall asleep thinking about trading. If a trading thought pops into your head, acknowledge it, then think, "ok, I will think about that tomorrow" and then move on to relaxing thoughts.

Good luck, and good night.
 
'It's now almost 4 am and I can't fall asleep.'

Mate, if you not sleeping at the sleep time then most probably you are sleeping during the market hours. If so you got to break the cycle by loading up on Caffeine during market hours to avoid daytime sleep and by 8-9PM you are ready to sleep for good 8 hours.

If you are not sleeping at all, during night or day, then better get yourself worked up, like doing some heavy exercises, walking 5 miles, playing 30 min. of basketball etc. Body's energy works with basic maths, and it cannot stay awake with most of the energy depleted.

Drinking hot milk before bedtime also help. Anxiety kills sleep so take some herbals like Kava to get relaxed and soundly doze off.
 
well, I'm awake at 9:40.

I'm still ticked because I can't login to Laser.

I think I fell asleep at 5:15 - 5:30 actually, not sure.

I'm happy I didn't drink that Vault last night at around 10 pm, I'd probably still be awake :)

Going to have to try a new schedule or something.

I was up studying charts last night because I was chatting it up here for 6 hours straight last night (more like wasting my time with a few idiots... but that is another story), so I felt like I had to look at charts.

Of course that doesn't explain why I'm usually up until 3 am looking at charts anyways.

Just can't explain it.
 
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