Insomniacs anyone?

[Claire]

What do you do in the middle of the night to soothe yourself to sleep? I, personally, try to avoid the TV or computer, because, well face it, I'm unlikely to fall asleep with those. To me it is a glass of water and a book, but still, it might be hours before I fall back asleep again. It is, at this point in my life, not a big deal. I don't have to get up in the morning and go to sleep. I pretty much gave up on my insomnia decade ago; or I guess I should say came to terms with it. Most of my friends who only learned about insomnia during menopause are driving me nuts telling me how horrible it is.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

What do you do in the middle of the night to soothe yourself to sleep? I, personally, try to avoid the TV or computer, because, well face it, I'm unlikely to fall asleep with those. To me it is a glass of water and a book, but still, it might be hours before I fall back asleep again. It is, at this point in my life, not a big deal. I don't have to get up in the morning and go to sleep. I pretty much gave up on my insomnia decade ago; or I guess, I should say came to terms with it. Most of my friends who only learned about insomnia during menopause are driving me nuts telling me how horrible it is.

I've been an insomniac as long as I can remember, the only time I got a good night's sleep was after not sleeping for 2 nights. I'm in the middle of peri-menopause, my insomnia has gotten worse. Even more now that I've switched to a semi-dayshift schedule off of nights for 11 years.

About 9 years ago, I started taking melatonin and it has been effective in making me drowsy, but I still wake up 2-3 times a night. Even more now that the heat has been turned up.

So, my ritual is...an hour before bed take my melatonin and read until it's time for bed. Then I slep for about 6 hours, off and on.

 

[taxlady]

Not much of a problem for me, now that I'm not having the "personal tropical vacations" any more If I do wake up and can't fall asleep, I read some more.

 

[Zhizara]

I wake most nights, when my back gets uncomfortable so I just get up and check in on DC, then read. I watch Animal Planet's Orangutan Island at 5am and Escape to Chimp Edem at 5:30, then usually go back to sleep for a couple of hours.

This morning my back was feeling okay, but the neighbors decided to have a talk-a-thon next door, so I knew I wouldn't get back to sleep anyway. No biggie, I've got coffee and the last 75 pages of Scarpetta Factor to read.

 

[Claire]

When I was a kid, my mother insisted I stay in bed all night, no matter what. I realized what a good policy that was when I was up at 3 a.m. and found my 3 year old niece wandering the house .... in Florida, and I had a swimming pool! Scared me silly, made me glad for once that I was an insomniac (it wouldn't be beyond this child to take a moonlight swim). Instituted the rule that no one under age 10 could stay overnight.

But ... it took until I was almost 30 to realize, hey, if I can't sleep, I don't have to lie there watching the ceiling and the clock. I find I get a "nap" in just before sunrise if I get up and do something boring (this time of year, laundry fits the bill), then cuddle up in my lazy boy with my verilux lamp and a book. My librarians wonder how I can possibly read 3-4 books a week! Ha-ha, give up sleeping!

 

[Uncle Bob]

A Glass of Red Wine.......

 

[babetoo]

i have had problems sleeping all my life. well , except in teen years. reading doesn't do it or t.v. mostly now i wake up in the wee hours to go to the bathroom. i smoke a cig. and go back to bed. usually fall back to sleep. if i stay up til after 11 i have a better chance of falling asleep right away. i hate it but have just learned to live with it. especially since i don't have to get up til i feel like it, now that i no longer work outside the home.

 

[Frenchys]

I'm insomniacs.... but i'm french, so i can go to sleep at 5PM (US time :p)

 

[babetoo]

i googled melatonin. mayo clinic says should not be taken if you take diabetic meds. or meds for depression. that is me on both counts. though the psych. drugs are for pstd. so guess that leaves me out.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

i googled melatonin. mayo clinic says should not be taken if you take diabetic meds. or meds for depression. that is me on both counts. though the psych. drugs are for pstd. so guess that leaves me out.

Hmm, thanks for that info, Babe! I better Google drug interactions with melatonin.

 

[Claire]

Hmmm.... it is now 10:30 p.m. My husband went to bed a little bit ago ... and asked me if I'd sleep downstairs. No one knows, after 30 years of sleeping together, better than he, that I seldom sleep more than 3 hours straight. The temperature tonight is supposed to reach -10 (no, I'm not talking wind chill), and he knows I wake every few hours and am often up and down all night. If I sleep on the couch or my lazy-boy, when I get up to pee, I'll flush the toilet or start a load of laundry. In other words, my nocturnal wanderings will keep the water pipes from freezing. Of course I don't mind, and was actually planning to go to bed for an hour or two and come back downstairs for that very reason. We're talking major cold here. Big goblet of red wine, my Christmas tree lit. All I need is a new puppy. I'm really, really suffering from puppy lust right now.

 

[Chef Munky]

Clair.
Where were you the other night when I found a cutie!? He would have loved you. Fred loved to cuddle.

I'm an insomniac. Melatonin has to be gradually be taken. It takes a while for it to fully build up in your system. It helps some people. I'm not one of them. It caused me to have nightmares. With all the meds I have to take now. I can't just take anything over the counter for pain or anything else. I have to take a prescription, of the smallest dosage available. Kiddy dose.. But it helps. To some degree. At least it's 4 hours sleep instead of 2. Talk with your doctors before you take anything.

Munky.

 

[buckytom]

claire, why not just let the faucets drip a bit and set the toilet float to slightly overrun so you can get some rest? what do you have to do to keep the pipes from freezing? are they insulated?

i hear you about getting things done in between short sleeps. that's become my life.

for 16 years, i've worked a midnight shift on my 2nd day off for overtime, so i'd kinda gotten used to staying up all night once a week.

but now i'm the permanent midnight guy, 6 days a week. sleep has become a cruel mistress. i'm lucky to get 4 hours a day now, from 10a to 2p. i've come to love dark, rainy days so i can sleep better. some nights, i get another quick nap after i put my son to sleep before i head into work. and if i'm lucky, i'll catch a nap on my dinner hour.

munky, i've never heard that about melatonin having to build up in your system. i've found the exact opposite to be true. i take 10mg on my one night off a week, and it works pretty well. if i take it on consecutive nights, it's effect fades.

btw, anyone who is prescribed ambien heed the warnings. it works too well, and if you've had any alcohol it'll knock you out like a prizefighter, but you may not get back up. my legs always felt like rubber and my head was filled with mush the next day after taking it, so i dumped the rest of the prescription.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Tom,
I found some black contact paper and put it on the bedroom windows. Blocks a lot of the daylight and the windows are still functional. Now it blocks the courtyard light at night.

 

[buckytom]

fee, i have room darkening shades and drapes but there's just something about gloomy days that make me want to sleep more. it's a weird but good feeling.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

fee, i have room darkening shades and drapes but there's just something about gloomy days that make me want to sleep more. it's a weird but good feeling.

Cool, was just thinking maybe the light was keeping you up. I know I had horrible insomnia trying to sleep during the day...now I can't sleep at night.

 

[CasperImproved]

Claire - You are entirely too cool. I can count on my two hands the number of hours I have slept in the last 30 days.

You seem to have the same issue I do. And yet you are able to deal with it.

I've tried 5 different scripts. Two did not work at all, and the other three? They made me even more dull than the lack of sleep.

I wish you well on your path to a happy sleep.

I am still looking for my sleep on a regular basis.

 

[Claire]

Casper, as I said, I do not have to get up and go to work in the morning, and haven't for a number of years. It makes insomnia so much more easy to deal with. No pressure. Bucky; leaving things on and running backfired on me one year when the sewer pipes froze. So I paid for all that extra water that was in the sinks, toilets, not to mention floors. It is no biggie for me to just get up when I'm awake anyway and run the water and flush the toilet. Since our freeze-prone back rooms (kitchen and downstairs bath/laundry room) are all together, if I sleep downstairs, when I "naturally" wake at 3 a.m. (as I already did), I simply start a load of laundry, go to the bathroom. It gets the water in the house moving and offsets a lot of problems. You don't want to hear about the mess when the sewer pipe froze, it was truly ugly and had my friends laughing for hours.

 

[CasperImproved]

Casper, as I said, I do not have to get up and go to work in the morning, and haven't for a number of years. It makes insomnia so much more easy to deal with. No pressure. Bucky; leaving things on and running backfired on me one year when the sewer pipes froze. So I paid for all that extra water that was in the sinks, toilets, not to mention floors. It is no biggie for me to just get up when I'm awake anyway and run the water and flush the toilet. Since our freeze-prone back rooms (kitchen and downstairs bath/laundry room) are all together, if I sleep downstairs, when I "naturally" wake at 3 a.m. (as I already did), I simply start a load of laundry, go to the bathroom. It gets the water in the house moving and offsets a lot of problems. You don't want to hear about the mess when the sewer pipe froze, it was truly ugly and had my friends laughing for hours.

I think I know well the issue we share. I've yet to sleep since last I posted.

I have not used an alarm clock in the last four years. No need. I sleep for only one or two hours before being fully awake again. I consider it a treat when I have a dream. I've even been reading up on lucid dreaming in the hopes I can participate in them once in a while.

Sweet dreams my friend. I will keep you in my prayers. Even something as small as the lack of sleep is an issue I wouldn't wish on anyone.

Casper

 

[Zhizara]

I too love to dream. Some are so vivid I'm sure it is reality. To prove reality/non reality, I ask myself (in my dream) how did I arrive here? did I drive, take a bus, ride with someone. If I can't answer, it's a dream. Kinda fun. Once I realize it's a dream, then I can choose to stay in the dream, or wake up.