Contributors to this thread:
Anyone else having trouble sleeping? I keep waking up at 3-4 in the morning. I cant quite my mind enough to go back to sleep. Im running the "to do list" thru my head, worrying about my unit choice etc. etc.
Still got 2.5 weeks to go.
Yep! Every couple of days. Stuff to take, stuff to do before I leave, places to look while I'm there etc
Staying too busy with work right now has helped but I get that way from time to time. Especially with the season so close. The anticipation is half the fun though! Try and enjoy it and you can always sleep after your bull is down.
Don't worry after the first full day of hunting you'll sleep like a baby or at least I do.
This drives my wife nuts... Try doing something mindless like watching a silly tv show or playing a game on the computer. The last thing I do is play my stupid iPad game then close my eyes... It helps
I'm about useless for anything else but chasing Elk this time of year and I wake up at 4:30 most mornings.
Yup. It was 3:00 yesterday morning. Once I realized it was useless even trying to fall back asleep I went to the gym and got in a good workout while listening to Bigdan's interview.
>>>-------------------> Almost here!
I did that from about 3 weeks out. Now it's down to 4 days 'm fine :-)
I've been having stomach issues this week, waking every night... Rains here near the Flattops in Colorado have been continuing non-stop...
Caribou hunt in 25 days.. Anxious about completing the Super Ten with archery when I manage to arrow a bou
year round....sometimes I get up and do 40 or 50 pushups and that usually knocks me right out for some reason.
I have had trouble sleeping for over a week now. I haven't been much good at work for a couple of weeks. Now to top it off I caught a cold. Sore throat, head congestion, lungs feel clogged up. Not good timing for that. I leave tomorrow after work for the first two weeks of season in Co.
"Rains here near the Flattops in Colorado have been continuing non-stop"...
Good luck, Scott.
Sounds like I might need an umbrella in the Flat Tops ;)
Best of Luck, Jeff
I stopped packing the trailer at 11:30 last night. Kept going over things every time I woke up and finally said screw it and got up at 4:45. The worst thing is I've done this so many times, have my lists, etc., but I still get wound up! Leaving today around noon to head to the Blues.
Haha... I thought I was the only one.... One of my hunting partners told me he can't make it this season... so now I'm analyzing everything over and over again... Looks like I'm solo this year. Will be lonely at camp and there will be no laughs but hopefully there will be elk hanging! Good luck all.... and try to get some sleep!
Todd
I just got an autoCAD 2014 users book. Over 1000 pages of black and white, small print excitement. It can make you go from wired to out like a light in one page. Try it out.
Some years ago, when I was still seriously hunting, I would go directly from caribou camp to elk camp and on to elk camp numbers 2&3. The back of my truck looked like a Cabela's.
One year, I left home on Aug. 25th and did not get back until the day before Thanksgiving. I think it was along about then, I started lose the enjoyment of hunting. I wish I could get back to those sleepless nights that are not due to having to pee every 90-minutes.
a wet flattops is a good thing.
A wet Flattops is bad for me. I have an archery deer tag and need it to be hot and dry for bucks to water! There are some real gaggers running around this year.
Have been seeing a lot of elk, Sunday night saw a big 6x7 bull with 40 cows and calves and his horns were completely velvet free.
The only elk hunting for me this year will be taking my son out 2nd Rifle season to help him again...
Most Americans are hormonally and habitually wired for crappy sleep. If you are eating processed carbs, drinking beer or consuming caffeine throughout the day, you are making yourself susceptible for poor sleep or a severely truncated sleep cycle. That's the way it works for me, anyway. Learning the hard way. :)
Make a list of all your gear. Check it at least twice. I check it all off in one color, then double check it all in another color! Plus, I've done about 15 out of state hunts now, that helps!
When I awake at night, I try to quiet my mind my thinking "breathe in. Breathe out." It eventually works....
Good luck to all you lucky folks going this year!
My trip this year is my 5th to Ontario for whitetails. Problem being that last winter killed 50 - 80% of the deer herd there..... :(
>>>>-------->
Year round anytime I have trouble sleeping I think about a cow I saw walking through the trees a couple years ago or the bull I watched wallow last season they are like little videos in my mind. I try to pick out shots throughout the video and the next thing I know it's 330 and time to get up for work.
Sleep with a pad of paper and pen beside your bed. I used to have a horrible time sleeping because I was always waking up thinking about things I needed to do for work. I would lay there and dwell on what I needed to get done and I didn't want to forget so I would stay awake. Finally a friend told me she had this same issue and writing it down made a huge difference and it definitely did. Now I don't go to sleep without a pen and paper by my bed.
I'm with curvebow, the list is a double check and checked off as I pack.
The constant excersize is helping me sleep. Feeling good, 14 days till I leave.
Good luck all!
I had a stroke on june 15 Father's Day I need a walker to get around and my left hand is still not good cannot shoot any of my bows looks like no hunting this year foe me ! Thank God at least I am still alive! Doctors say another eight weeks and things should be almost back to normal, they are confused I was never normal, lol!Anyway at LEast I will be able to drive again.
Nope! Couple of fingers of bourbon before bed time and 14hr work days, I sleep like a baby!
Wow, Ole Coyote, prayers your way. Stay positive!
Trouble sleeping before your hunt?
Ah! just wake the wife up each time and take your mind off hunting, She won't mind, honest!! You'll sleep great.
Disclaimer: Poster not responsable for any injuries or lost hunting time as a result of using this advise.
unsigned :)
I usually take most of November off to chase whitetails, I lose so much sleep working through stratagy, gear lists, weather reports, wind direction. Man you just gotta love it though!
Can't sleep, gut is messed up, and can barely think straight. This will be my third year of chasing elk and I remember reading here, that it would be this way. I leave in 5 days. Good luck everyone.
I'm sleeping ok, but having trouble focusing on work due to the checklist. Dangit, forgot to order Havalon blades. Make sure to call dad and make sure he printed and packed his archery stamp and conservation stamp.
Etc etc etc.
Ole Coyote I can't wait for the pictures of you shooting your bow again. You will get back...keep fighting.
I been takin melatonin since my back surgery 9 weeks ago just to get to sleep. If i dont take it, i stay wide awake til 230/3 and sometimes even later. Drives ya nuts when u know the alarm is goin off at 630. 5 mg of melatonin helps me fall asleep and sleep well.
There should be calm before the storm. I am trained, prepared and mentally ready.
Say after me; I am trained, prepared and mentally ready.
I WISH! ;-) Not going West again this year, but I got my health and I got my family, so life is still good!
Old Coyote- hang in there man! you beat the odds and sounds like it will only be a matter of time before you're shooting your bow again. Prayers for a quick and complete recovery. BTW, I work with folks every day that have permanent paralysis from stroke. So you are fortunate!
I'm a mess. I can't sleep more than a few hours a night.
Been waiting two years for this moment. I fly out this Friday to Anchorage. Then another hop down to Kenai for couple days and then a floatplane out into the bush for a week of moose hunting.
Sleepless nights always occur as the season opener approaches.
4 more days for us here in MT........
