Do you sleep well the night before a contest?

[frank carlisle]

It's a quarter after 5 in the morning and I'm having a smoke and a cup of coffee and mulling over whether I've got everything packed. I'm heading for Brodak this morning. I have a 350 mile road trip and a week of playing model airplanes with 200 or so of my closest friends. I NEED to be rested up. Bur all night I tossed and turned and never got more than about three hours of sleep.I'll make the run on adrenaline and caffiene.
Does anybody sleep like a baby the night before a contest? If so, how do you do it?

[philip metzner]

I rarely sleep good. My son is getting ready for work and i'm still up.

[David Shad]

Well...truth be known...I make sure I sleep by taking an Ambien...no dreams
and sleep like a brick...otherwise it would be the same...tossing and turning wondering if it's all packed and ready...

[Randy Ryan]

Well Dang!! I guess that's my problem. I used to get all keyed up and anxious, but I don't anymore. I hope the thrill isn't completely gone.

[Steve Fitton]

I usually can't sleep before the long road trip to a contest.  When I finally get there, I'm usually so wired from caffeine, nicotine and fatigue I can't fly for squat till I get some sleep.

[Richard Entwhistle 823412]

When I fly I put the judges to sleep.  Most of the time they wish they had slept in.  So, if you are having trouble getting to sleep I'll send you a tape of my latest flight.  Works every time!

Richard

[john e. holliday]

Used to be that way. Guess I am gettig old.  When Mother and I moved back to KC the first contest was at Swope Park.  Had the car packed and ready to go.  Did have a full tank of fuel, that day I got a locking gas cap.  I was up and shaving after taking bath.  Mother looks in and asks me what I am doing.  I told her I was getting ready to go.  Was told to go look at the clock.  Two o'clock in the morning and the alarm was still set.  Then I slept like a baby.

[Mark Scarborough]

When I fly I put the judges to sleep.  Most of the time they wish they had slept in.  So, if you are having trouble getting to sleep I'll send you a tape of my latest flight.  Works every time!

Richard

Richard,
I have seen you fly,, no I dont think its boring,, I have seen some new and creative new manuevers in YOUR pattern.
Mark
" always watching for the new and different ways to screw up the pattern"

serious, it was a good contest, beautifull weather,, well except for the variable wind gusts saturday, oh and the nice little bout of turbulance sunday lol,

[Randy Powell]

I slept like a baby before the Stunt-A-Thon. Probably due to moving furniture and driving 350 miles the day before.

[Dennis Adamisin]

I slept like a baby before the Stunt-A-Thon.

You mean you woke up crying every two hours? (rimshot!)         

[Howard Rush]

The Jive Combat Team
Stays up late with the groupies.
That's why we doze off
In the round outside loopies.

[Clayton Berry]

Why should a contest be any more important than a first day of school, a night of camping, or a night in a motel room with two rooms full of sleeping relatives and a TV with a test pattern on it and an AM radio playing WWL out of New Orleans with Buck Owens singing about having a tiger by the tail?  I haven't slept since 1964. 

Careful with the Ambien.  Lest you find yourself asleep and applying monokote or cooking dinner for three or driving to McDonald's for a chocolate milk shake.  One of the Kennedy family miscreants was arrested for driving while on Ambien a few years back.  Me?  I just wondered who had left the ingredients and the dirty dishes from what must have been a great omlette (I'm a pretty good cook) and a half pot of coffee in the kitchen, and then woke up remembering nothing more than some silly-assed dream of Dolly Parton asking me (in a most sincere Kentucky drawl) if I wanted to see the other one.  I did.

Ambien is harsh stuff - please be careful.  Lunesta is a great substitute (albeit expensive).  And if all else fails, try counting by thirteens to ten thousand and back while listening to Pink Floyd.

[Larry Cunningham]

Jack Daniels and Vicodin seem to work pretty well for me..

And "Comfortably Numb" playing in the background also helps.

L.

"There is a computer disease that anybody who works with computers knows about. It's a very serious disease and it interferes completely with the work. The trouble with computers is that you 'play' with them!" -Richard P. Feynman

[peabody]

Maybe it's because I suck in competition, but I sleep fine...

[Larry Renger]

If you know how you will do (it sucks), there are no nerves to overcome.  I figure I have risen as far in the pilot rankings as I ever will, and it will be pure luck to do better.  No stress, no strain, ENJOY.

[Garf]

Does anybody sleep like a baby the night before a contest? If so, how do you do it?

NO!

[Garf]

Jack Daniels and Vicodin seem to work pretty well for me..

Now that has some possibilities.