Insomniac's Thread...

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caseydog

Master Chef
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I am a freelance photographer with a rather narrow specialty. So, I may work 25 days or more one month, and 5 days the next. On the 20-plus day months, I am rarely working in Dallas, so I spend a lot of time on planes, in airports and sleeping in hotels. On the 5-day months, my body clock takes time to get with the program.

This creates some sleep issues. Well, that and I'm an old fart.

My posts here are often a reflection of that. It is 3:03 AM as I am posting this. On the road, I have my laptop, and when I can't sleep, I surf.

So, any other insomniacs here? Just curious. I can't imagine I am the only one, but it wouldn't be the first time I was wrong.

CD
 
I usually hang out here at night. I work 12 hour shifts as an RN in the nursing home. Love my job. But right around now I'm done with my work and everyone is asleep.
 
I usually hang out here at night. I work 12 hour shifts as an RN in the nursing home. Love my job. But right around now I'm done with my work and everyone is asleep.

My sister is a hospital RN. She's been an RN for about 35 years. To patients, she is more involved than the doctors. I can't tell enough people how proud of her I am. I have very high regards for RNs. It is a very admirable profession.

CD
 
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Thank you! I've been an RN for 19 years. Fully dedicated to my old folks. Hospitals are too fast for me, I don't get to know the patients before they are sent home. Here, we are a family and I know my patients very well.
 
Thank you! I've been an RN for 19 years. Fully dedicated to my old folks. Hospitals are too fast for me, I don't get to know the patients before they are sent home. Here, we are a family and I know my patients very well.

I think my sister would sometimes like to change places with you. She is a hospital RN in Houston, currently the 4th largest city in the US, and it is about pass Chicago for third place. She doesn't get to know her patients for very long. But, she probably spends more time with them than their doctors. That part is probably not a whole lot different in your position.

CD
 
Nope, the doctors see them for about 20 minutes every two months, unless they get sick.

Time to go home soon...
 
I'm not an insomniac but I often wake up in the middle of my sleep and can't get back to it.

I don't reach for the internet but I do reach for the book I was reading when I fell asleep.

Sometimes it puts me right back to sleep. (For some reason the good books do this.)
Other times I end up reading until it's time to face the new day.
 
I used to be a terrible sleeper. I'd wake three or four times in the middle of the night. Sometimes I would just stay up because I couldn't fall back asleep.

Then, about 4 months ago, I purchased a new mattress. Previous to this purchase I had always slept on a firm mattress, because that was what a doctor recommended 25 years ago to remedy some back issues. He also suggested sleeping with a pillow between my knees to keep everything in alignment. So that's exactly what I did... for many, many years.

Well, a trip to California in 2015 changed my way of thinking. I stayed at a bed and breakfast in Santa Maria, and for the two weeks I was there had the best sleep of my entire life. I would go to bed around 10 and sleep though the entire night, often not getting up until 8 the next morning. My wife at the time also observed I wasn't tossing and turning as much, too.

So I went to the lady that ran the place and asked her about the mattress. Turns out it was an "ultra plush" design with a pillowtop - pretty much the opposite of what that doctor had recommended so many years ago. I would get into this bed and it would just sort of envelop me. It was awesome. Even if I tried, I simply could not stay awake in this bed.

When I moved into my new house last October, I bought myself a bedroom set, as well as the exact same mattress I had enjoyed at the B&B. Best decision I ever made. I also ditched the knee pillow after a couple of months because it would just make me hot and sweaty, and seemed to cause more problems than it solved.

Long story short: I truly enjoy bedtime again. I can't remember the last time I awoke in the middle of the night. And I no longer fight the urge to nod off at my desk in the middle of the afternoon.
 
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It also helps, I guess, to have the entire bed - of your choosing - to yourself.

When we moved into our new house, my wife and I had a few months to pick out a mattress as or bedroom furniture was being hand made in Amish communities in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
At the same time, we shopped for a bed for our son.

We must have tried out hundreds of matresses in dozens of stores. We drove the salespeople nuts.

DW and I ended up with a firm bed with just the right amount of "memory" give, and my boy chose a pillow top thing that I call the big marshmallow.

In the end, I'm lucky if I get 3 hours a day in our big bed. :(
 
I have a studio apartment in an elderly housing building. So there is not much housework to do to keep me busy. And having Pirate here with me, what little there is, I am only to happy to let him do it. It keeps him out of my hair.

So I can't say that I am exhausted at the end of the day. Unless I have to go out for several hours. As a result, being in the house all the time I can take a nap whenever the need for one overtakes me. I have a foam-pedic mattress. I have no trouble falling asleep. When I am really tired, I can easily sleep for 10 hours straight. But then I am up for 12-15 hours straight.

I eat only when I feel the need to. Not by the clock. As a result, I have lost 165 pounds this past year. I feel a lot healthier.

Tomorrow I have an appointment with Dermatology. So right now I have to jump into the shower and get my clothes ready.
 
Even though I used to be a Night Owl, age and "arthur" have changed that. I've never been a daytime sleeper, in spite of from time to time having to work the graveyard shift or back-to-back shifts. My body thinks the only time to sleep is at night. I've even tried to make my sleeping environment quiet and darker than the inside of a cow to "fool" my body to think it was nighttime. Nope. No dice.

Now I have, on average, 8 hours of sack time, of which most of it is spent sleeping. However, with recent health issues involving both of us, I am now sleeping about 4 hours per night. Not consecutive hours unfortunately. One of my docs even has prescribed a sleeping aid, but it helps very little. All it does is ensure I fall asleep without any delay.

I usually lie down for about an hour in the afternoon to get some rest, but I don't sleep as I already explained. At least, being still and calm recharges my battery.

My sleeping issues aren't likely to change in the near future and I've accepted that this is the new normal and will make my way through it.

Sure wish I could fall asleep on a dime at a moment's notice like Glenn does. I swear he could fall asleep walking to the bedroom.
 
Funny, I almost started a generic thread the other night about how many pillows y'all use when sleeping. :LOL: I have 3 pillows on my bed - being a lone side sleeper in a big bed, one pillow is for under my head and 2 are for cuddling. :) Great for winter, but a little too constricting for the warmer months.

I used to sleep 6 or 7 hours straight but the past few years, not so much. Sometimes I'll flip on the TV in the wee hours - I don't like to do that because I don't want to become dependent on it. :(

I love my pillow top on a rather firm mattress, works for me. Usually. ;)
 
I have a studio apartment in an elderly housing building. So there is not much housework to do to keep me busy. And having Pirate here with me, what little there is, I am only to happy to let him do it. It keeps him out of my hair.

So I can't say that I am exhausted at the end of the day. Unless I have to go out for several hours. As a result, being in the house all the time I can take a nap whenever the need for one overtakes me. I have a foam-pedic mattress. I have no trouble falling asleep. When I am really tired, I can easily sleep for 10 hours straight. But then I am up for 12-15 hours straight.

I eat only when I feel the need to. Not by the clock. As a result, I have lost 165 pounds this past year. I feel a lot healthier.

Tomorrow I have an appointment with Dermatology. So right now I have to jump into the shower and get my clothes ready.

Addie, the BS meter is clanging..... if you are really the 4'7" you claim, the only way you could have lost 165 lbs. is if Pirate actually moved out.:ROFLMAO:
 
It also helps, I guess, to have the entire bed - of your choosing - to yourself...
I love Himself dearly. Honest, I do. BUT...the best thing that happened for me when it comes to quality-of-sleep was him having bad back issues and then broken bones from a motorcycle accident. The first time his back acted up, he had to sleep on the floor. I got our bed all to myself...and loved it. Once his back was fixed, back to sharing the bed. Then he wiped out and my tossing and turning at night hurt him, so I moved down to the guest bed. Hmm, liking this sleeping alone. It got to the point that I moved down the hall almost every night when his snoring woke me up. Now, I start out in my own bed when it's time to sleep. ;) Still love him, but once he's asleep there's not much else to do but sleep. :D

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Cheryl, my answer is "five". Two shoved between the wall and the side of the bed at the head so nothing slips between the bed and the wall, one off to the side with the first two (to cover my ears with if outside noises make it through my earplugs), and two under my head.

Now, foam? Or down? Some of my down pillows are from when I was a kid. Wash them regularly, dry the daylights out of them, and they'll last for-eve-er!
 
I love Himself dearly. Honest, I do. BUT...the best thing that happened for me when it comes to quality-of-sleep was him having bad back issues and then broken bones from a motorcycle accident. The first time his back acted up, he had to sleep on the floor. I got our bed all to myself...and loved it. Once his back was fixed, back to sharing the bed. Then he wiped out and my tossing and turning at night hurt him, so I moved down to the guest bed. Hmm, liking this sleeping alone. It got to the point that I moved down the hall almost every night when his snoring woke me up. Now, I start out in my own bed when it's time to sleep. ;) Still love him, but once he's asleep there's not much else to do but sleep. :D

**********

Cheryl, my answer is "five". Two shoved between the wall and the side of the bed at the head so nothing slips between the bed and the wall, one off to the side with the first two (to cover my ears with if outside noises make it through my earplugs), and two under my head.

Now, foam? Or down? Some of my down pillows are from when I was a kid. Wash them regularly, dry the daylights out of them, and they'll last for-eve-er!

Yes, quality of sleep is everything! My daughter and SIL are 40 and 48 - SIL is a firefighter and has to sleep at the fire station a few nights a week, plus they have 3 little boys ages 7, 5, and 4. They decided a year or so ago to do the sleeping part of their relationship :D in adjoining bedrooms....works out best for everyone.

Mostly foam, but I have a few down. Love them both interchangeably. :wub:
 
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Insomniacs Thread...

I can be a bit of a night owl. We've got a really nice pillow-top, and DH sleeps with five pillows. I have two, one relatively flat but squishy, the other because I don't think he needs six pillows. When I can't roll DH over when he snores, I head to the guest room with my squishy pillow. It's our "travel room", so I may have to scoot the suitcases around. Only problem, I haven't found a blind that fits one of the windows yet so it can get a bit sunny in the a.m.

I'm a waker-upper too. Takes me awhile to get back to sleep.
 
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I hear ya, Dawg. I tend to be a night owl too, by nature. My largest bedroom window faces east and there's a big tree right outside. It's annoying when I'm sleeping peacefully in the morning and the sun and chirping birds wake me up. Other times the fickle me loves it. :LOL:
 
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Heh. When we have the windows open in warmer weather, the birds and groundsquirrels start their serenading at 5 a.m. I'm not really appreciative!
 
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