Insomniacs anyone?

[msmofet]

I have been suffered from insomnia since I was a teen. I have gone 2 days with only 2 or 3 hours sleep. What REALLY (yes I am screaming LIVID) is when people say insomnia is a caused but mental illness such as manic/depressive bi-ploar blah blah blah!! I hate people that don't have a problem don't want to or refuse to accept that this is a ailment on it's own!!

I have learned that if I can't sleep it is better for me to just get up and do something rather than just lie there trying to go to sleep. This just causes me frustration which doesn't help me get sleepy. I sometimes feel sleepy but can't fall asleep or I just don't feel sleepy at all. This is a plus when on vacation I can drive for hours without being sleepy. Plus everyone else sleeps and allows me to listen to my music!! LOL One time while driving to AZ I drove 23 hours straight with just food and potty breaks. Then I took a 24 hour rest stop and got about 8 hours sleep.

BTW I have found that going on the computer helps me sleep. I have gotten naps at my laptop and woke up with my mouse in my hand!! LOL

 

[Zhizara]

I have been suffered from insomnia since I was a teen. I have gone 2 days with only 2 or 3 hours sleep. What REALLY (yes I am screaming LIVID) is when people say insomnia is a caused but mental illness such as manic/depressive bi-ploar blah blah blah!! I hate people that don't have a problem don't want to or refuse to accept that this is a ailment on it's own!!

I have learned that if I can't sleep it is better for me to just get up and do something rather than just lie there trying to go to sleep. This just causes me frustration which doesn't help me get sleepy. I sometimes feel sleepy but can't fall asleep or I just don't feel sleepy at all. This is a plus when on vacation I can drive for hours without being sleepy. Plus everyone else sleeps and allows me to listen to my music!! LOL One time while driving to AZ I drove 23 hours straight with just food and potty breaks. Then I took a 24 hour rest stop and got about 8 hours sleep.

BTW I have found that going on the computer helps me sleep. I have gotten naps at my laptop and woke up with my mouse in my hand!! LOL

Thank you for your post. I too am learning that it is better just to get up. I'm so glad to have DC. I can catch up with people I've learned to love here.

I may stay up from 11pm to 6am, then I can usually catch a nap. Coffee usually sends me to sleep. I know it sounds crazy, but coffee is like a comfort food. When I take that nap, I'm ready to start my day.

I try to let my body decide what it wants me to do.

I love being retired and living alone. I'm no longer at the mercy of anyone's schedule. I can stay up all night visiting with my friends here on DC and take a two hour nap in this comfortable recliner.

MsMofet, don't let it get to you. You are suffering from sleep deprivation. It will make you crazy. The more you want and need to sleep will stress you so that you can't sleep.

Also, my friend, the emotions of the holiday are affecting you and everyone else.

Have a peaceful Christmas. TBC

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Many of my Insomnia problems stopped when I went to nightshifts...seems I am a night owl! I have a hard time going to bed early now I'm on dayshifts, everyone says I'll get used to it, but it's not happening. To get back on my sleep schedule for work I have to knock myself out the first night. Staying on the sleep schedule doesn't work!

 

[Claire]

My husband has been rather puzzled (we're now retired, ages 55 (me) and 63 (him)) to actually realize the toll that insomnia takes. He, like almost everyone in my life, thinks that if they wake up a couple of times in the night and take a pee, then take more than 10 minutes to go back to sleep, they haven't slept a wink. Huh? He was also used to, without really knowing it (at this point we've been sharing a bed for almost 30 years) that I could, in days of yore, get by quite easily on three hours of sleep a night. I'd get up and move on, and household chores would magically be done when he woke up, and I'd still work a 40+ hour week. At 55 I can function with those 3 hour nights, but they do catch up with me after a few days. But I do NOT have to go to work in the morning. He'll wake up and wonder why I don't want to drive a few miles through snow and ice to run a simple errand or go to my exercise class. He's continually puzzled that what used to be my "down time" (about 3 p.m., give or take), used to be when I was sluggish, now has turned into a nap if I don't get up and move (i.e., if I'm doing my favorite thing, reading a book in my recliner). In my teens, 20s, 30s, 40s, I could go several days on 3 hours a night (and at that rate, not even consistently. In other words 3 hours might be an hour after I fall asleep at night, and two more just after midnight). This all worked to my advantage when young. But now, thank heaven, I don't have to do anything. So when I can't sleep I pick up a book. I used to do boring house cleaning chores, but I did get a little tired of a husband who seemed to believe that the good house fairy was at work when he was asleep!

 

[licia]

I've had a bit of a sleeping problem for years and even had a sleep study done, which only resulted in the advice to sew a tennis ball in the back of my gown or pj's so I wouldn't sleep on my back. I never sleep on my back anyway - on one side or the other.
My problem is that sometimes I wake up and can't go back to sleep for quite a while - then feel a bit sluggish the next day. Many times I can go for several weeks without the problem, but then a few nights in a row - I stay awake again. No reason that I can determine.
I've developed another strange thing lately: in the evening right about now (around 5pm) I start feeling stuffy and allergic. To what, I don't know, but it doesn't seem to matter where I am - it starts. Another sign of aging, I suppose.

 

[joesfolk]

I went through a bad time a couple of years ago. Just couldn't sleep. Then a friend told me that her doctor recommended that she take one dose of Benedryl at night, just the cheapest stuff she could find. I tried it and I'll be darned the stuff actually worked. Now it's not going to do anything for pain but you might try it for a few nights to see if it makes a difference for you. It's cheap and might help.

 

[fricassee]

Benadryl does help many people; unfortunately I am not one of them. However, as I am at home due to chronic back pain (I just teach cooking classes the odd time when I am able) and cannot work, I do not panic as I do not have to be "on" or "alert" at a workplace. However, as I have physiotherapy, massage, acupuncture, etc. so often I must be alert to drive to my appointments.

My Mom has told me that I needed far less sleep than others as a child. Now I am extremely fortunate to get from 2-4 hours a night. Sometimes 0 hours. Sometimes 6. I function very well with about 4-6 excellent hours as opposed to 8 icky hours. As my chronic insomnia is partially pain related I have been referred to a chronic pain specialist but the waiting list is 6-12 months (like most other specialists in Alberta). Sigh...

Still praying for that miracle!

 

[msmofet]

My husband has been rather puzzled (we're now retired, ages 55 (me) and 63 (him)) to actually realize the toll that insomnia takes. He, like almost everyone in my life, thinks that if they wake up a couple of times in the night and take a pee, then take more than 10 minutes to go back to sleep, they haven't slept a wink. Huh? He was also used to, without really knowing it (at this point we've been sharing a bed for almost 30 years) that I could, in days of yore, get by quite easily on three hours of sleep a night. I'd get up and move on, and household chores would magically be done when he woke up, and I'd still work a 40+ hour week. At 55 I can function with those 3 hour nights, but they do catch up with me after a few days. But I do NOT have to go to work in the morning. He'll wake up and wonder why I don't want to drive a few miles through snow and ice to run a simple errand or go to my exercise class. He's continually puzzled that what used to be my "down time" (about 3 p.m., give or take), used to be when I was sluggish, now has turned into a nap if I don't get up and move (i.e., if I'm doing my favorite thing, reading a book in my recliner). In my teens, 20s, 30s, 40s, I could go several days on 3 hours a night (and at that rate, not even consistently. In other words 3 hours might be an hour after I fall asleep at night, and two more just after midnight). This all worked to my advantage when young. But now, thank heaven, I don't have to do anything. So when I can't sleep I pick up a book. I used to do boring house cleaning chores, but I did get a little tired of a husband who seemed to believe that the good house fairy was at work when he was asleep!

OMG!! You just described by life to a tee!! Up till I was 46 I could go with maybe 3 hours sleep in a 24 hour day and function - 40+ a week job, 2 kids cooking etc. Now I don't work so it is easier not having to work but hub complains blah blah blah he works nights so he just thinks that when he walks in the door at 8 AM and I am awake that I got a nights sleep and just woke up!! I get you were home why didn't you sleep?

 

[PrincessFiona60]

OMG!! You just described by life to a tee!! Up till I was 46 I could go with maybe 3 hours sleep in a 24 hour day and function - 40+ a week job, 2 kids cooking etc. Now I don't work so it is easier not having to work but hub complains blah blah blah he works nights so he just thinks that when he walks in the door at 8 AM and I am awake that I got a nights sleep and just woke up!! I get you were home why didn't you sleep?

It's 6 pm my time and I am just now feeling perky enough to start running around and cleaning, cooking, etc. Shrek is beginning his wind-down for sleep. I know my neighbors do not enjoy the vacuum at 2 am... I think I will do some cleaning and maybe come up with something to eat!

 

[Claire]

Oh, another goodie? Some nights I'll be reading, and fall asleep. Jerk myself awake, just to nod off again. So I'll take my sorry butt up to bed and .... wide awake. I read myself back to sleepiness, and when I drop my book, it wakes me. Take of my glasses, put the book away, maybe get up to pee, and wide awake for the rest of the night, after a whopping hour of sleep, taken in 15 minute increments.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Oh, another goodie? Some nights I'll be reading, and fall asleep. Jerk myself awake, just to nod off again. So I'll take my sorry butt up to bed and .... wide awake. I read myself back to sleepiness, and when I drop my book, it wakes me. Take of my glasses, put the book away, maybe get up to pee, and wide awake for the rest of the night, after a whopping hour of sleep, taken in 15 minute increments.

That's the very reason I finally quite reading in bed. What I want to know, is why I can drop off sitting here upright at the computer, but lay awake forever.

 

[msmofet]

Oh, another goodie? Some nights I'll be reading, and fall asleep. Jerk myself awake, just to nod off again. So I'll take my sorry butt up to bed and .... wide awake. I read myself back to sleepiness, and when I drop my book, it wakes me. Take of my glasses, put the book away, maybe get up to pee, and wide awake for the rest of the night, after a whopping hour of sleep, taken in 15 minute increments.

You are scaring me!! The only difference is that I usually sleep in the recliner due to a damaged foot that needs to be elevated and back and joint pains that make lying flat painful and pinch the sciatic (SP) nerve.

 

[Claire]

Oh, now we're really getting creepy; or perhaps an insomniac is an insomniac, wherever they may be. I often sleep in my lazy-boy, and I broke my foot last spring, so it really worked better. Tonight hubby has a cold, so I'm not even thinking of going up to bed. The recliner will work better. But I often get up at 3 a.m. and come downstairs and sit with a book in the wee hours, then sleep for an hour or two just as the sun rises.

 

[msmofet]

That's the very reason I finally quite reading in bed. What I want to know, is why I can drop off sitting here upright at the computer, but lay awake forever.

I often fall asleep in my recliner with my laptop in my lap on a tray and a cool mat and I wake up with my mouse in my hand!!

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I often fall asleep in my recliner with my laptop in my lap on a tray and a cool mat and I wake up with my mouse in my hand!!

I've fallen asleep writing, with a pen in my hand, and my writing gets smaller and smaller until~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[msmofet]

I've fallen asleep writing, with a pen in my hand, and my writing gets smaller and smaller until~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

LOL