Sleep Fairy
Hi N3000,
You are not alone. 2008, year of the good sleep is nearly here.
Several years ago i made the transition from flying regular day patterns, to a mixed day and night operation/ multi-sector/ min-rest operation. My body clock was not happy. It was not uncommom for me to only get 2-3 hours sleep per day during an 8 day pattern. The harder I tried, the lower the quality of the rest achieved until I would get to the hotel at 08:00 local time, wake up 2 hours latter with the ons........Uniform ON, Lights ON, TV on and not know where i was or what was happening until i cross checked the date with the hotel stationary and roster. However, it seemed the harder i tried the more my body would refuse to shut down, so i would go another 8 hours without sleep and report for duty knackered.
This was a problem. My research and experimentation started with quizing senior pilots about there rest techniques. There responces varied from, discipline??? to get a girl friend in each port!!! I also tried the the exercise thing, hot coco, counting sheep, etc. A yoga guru friend then put me on to a relaxation technique with combined listening to a CD and tensing and relaxing various muscle groups. This seems to work well for me especially when combined with a, "I dont really need to sleep" mantra. I hope this helps with your situation.