View Full Version : Any insomniacs here?
What works for you in working through this? How do you, or what do you do, to get back on track? I'm making a huge assumption here that many of you will not choose pharmaceuticals. I'm hoping to avoid that. :help:
HappyHiker
1-15-13, 12:26pm
I'm an occasional insomniac...when sleeplessness comes, sometimes melatonin and a magnesium pill works, sometimes Nighty Night Tea, and other times...I read through the night because my restlessness and over-active mind are in control. Especially during certain full moons.
Nothing's worst than tossing and turning when sleep will not come, so I give up and read.
Oh boy, the timing of this thread is just perfect! I have very rarely suffered from insomnia, but my mom is a lifelong sufferer. She says four hours of sleep is a GOOD night. Well, since returning from our Christmas vacation I find that I have not slept through the night in over two weeks. Since this is so rare for me, I have not yet begun to panic, but I am acting a lot like Kujo in the am... very grumpy!!! I will revisit this thread for ideas.
In the past, I know that my sleep is more restful if I avoid alcohol, excessive caffeine, and heavy/rich meals. I do best with moderate exercise. Currently I am seeking the magic "sleep through the night fix" - I have no problem falling asleep, but wake at 1 or 2 am and can't return to sleep. Oh, and I am a firm 8 hour a night sleeper - no more, and no less. I find no benefit or need to sleep in on a weekend, for example.
Take comfort in knowing, as we age, the quality of sleep we get decreases. Yes, steer clear of pharmaceuticals, which IMO, is more detrimental and unhealthy than an occasional bout of insomnia.
I sleep well, so don't have anything to offer.
Funny.... my facebook post this morning happened to be "Lord, when I prayed about becoming more of a morning person, I didn't mean 3 a.m. every day."
Our dimishing production of melatonin is often at the root of sleep problems as we age. I take 3 mg. of melatonin about 30-45 mins before going to bed. I try to have some transition time between screen time & bed time, so my brain can calm down. I keep a small basket with 1 mg. doses of melatonin in it at bedside, and take one in the middle of the night if I wake up.
It helped getting sleep apnea diagnosed & successfully treated, as after 10 years of dreadfully bad sleep, I was a zombie. We keep our room very cool; I prefer it around 40F/4C. And dark. We also sleep with a white noise track, a fan sound that is an app I downloaded onto my ipad. It masks the APAP sound, as well as the city noise, and our (poor, starving, mistreated, lonely, abandoned) cats outside the door.
I say, do not tolerate poor sleep. It's foundational to good health. It's in the deep sleep cycle that the immune system does its work, releasing helper T cells. Our brains need sleep to defrag, and carb cravings are often a result of poor sleep. Two weeks is long enough to get some help for this!
I hardly ever have a problem getting to sleep -- it's staying asleep that's sometimes elusive. Just too many more interesting things to do than sleep! :~)
My main weapon against insomnia is staying asleep. We have a white-noise-generating machine in the bedroom. All the pillows and bedding we want (we've "invested" in good stuff). No TV and not even a clock-radio anymore. I did undergo a sleep study that ruled out sleep apnea.
Doesn't always work, though. If I'm up more than a few moments, sometimes I'll recount the story of a particularly good day in my life; keeping track of all the details usually reins in my mind and I get sleepy again. If I'm awake longer than 15-20 minutes, I'll maybe surf the Internet a little on my phone (the browser on it is not so good I'm tempted to spend long at it) or look at one of only a couple of specific Web sites on my laptop that I know will distract me sufficiently.
Of course, the secret weapon now pretty much always is being able to take a nap in the middle of the day....
treehugger
1-15-13, 2:35pm
Take comfort in knowing, as we age, the quality of sleep we get decreases.
Yes, that is very comforting.
KayLRZ, obviously everyone is different, and there are even different types of insomnia, but I have found a daily (nightly) dose of melatonin to be very helpful (it is, however, a pharmaceutical, so a personal choice).
I never have trouble falling asleep; my insomnia only comes on when I wake in the middle of the night and have trouble falling back asleep. Because of that, I was convinced melatonin wouldn't help me. But I bought some for my DH and then found out he couldn't use it (would interfere with another medication he is on), so there it sat. I hate to waste things, so I decided to try it. And lo and behold, within 2 weeks, I could notice a difference in quality of sleep! I only mention all of that because that's how I know it's really helping and not just a placebo effect (although, that's not to say that the placebo effect cannot be very useful), since I really thought it wouldn't work.
I watched Mike Leigh's Another Year last night, and a line from it stuck with me. A doctor said to a patient (who came in complaining of insomnia and wanted a sleeping pill prescription), "Insomnia is not a diseases; it's a symptom." Sleeping pills might help with the symptom, but they won't cure anything. Much better to find out why one isn't sleeping well (anxiety, apnea, hormone levels, etc.).
What's ironic for me is that I consider myself to be a very low-maintenance person, in all areas of my life, except for sleeping. I need just the right mattress and pillow, a dark, cool room, my night guard (just got a new one that I think will really help my chronic jaw clenching), my melatonin, earplugs, and sometimes a breathe-right strip. *sigh*
Kara
Funny.... my facebook post this morning happened to be "Lord, when I prayed about becoming more of a morning person, I didn't mean 3 a.m. every day."
Hey, Float On, have you been hanging out at OUR house lately?? :) I always fall asleep right away, but 3am seems to be my time to wake up lately. I can stave it off if I get lots of exercise, sunshine, and good positive behaviors, but oftentimes insomnia finds me anyway.
My best remedy is to take a hearty dose of calcium, magnesium, and B vitamins, in addition to an herbal Scullcap capsule, all washed down with a half-glass of red wine. I plug some relaxing guided meditations into my headphones (Jon Kabat-Zinn has some wonderful ones) and I'm asleep again in 15 minutes, and sleep the rest of the night.
I don't expect this fix to last forever.......my body seems to adjust to my "remedies" and get around them, then I have to think something up. But for now, it's keeping me from being hellgirl in the mornings. I know it's just my body reacting to chemical changes as I age, and so I try to just do what I can and then shrug my shoulders at the rest.
Our sleep hygiene is also very exacting: No TV an hour before bed, no TV in the bedroom ever, white noise, good temperature, breathable bedding, prayer/meditation before sleep, etc.
Things that help me sleep:
exercise, no food after dinner, last cup of tea at least 2 hours before bed, time to wind down and read in bed before turning off the light.
I usually fall asleep immediately, but as others have posted, have more difficulty getting back to sleep after I wake during the night.
If I've been awake for a while and my mind is hopping, I usually get up to make a cup of tea and commit to being up for a couple of hours. I read or check email. Sometimes I do laundry or clean the house or work on crafts.
I used to be a little concerned that I couldn't get a solid, continuous 8 hours of sleep a night as recommended. Then I read a great article on BBC about Second Sleep!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16964783
It mentions how a growing body of evidence from history such as writings from Charles Dickens and science says that a "Second Sleep" may be the norm.
Like many of the other posters, I have no trouble getting to sleep but I do usually wake up for a bit in the middle of the night.
My solution is to keep my iPod/iPhone w/the Kindle app under my pillow at night. I just bring it out to read something light and relaxing but distracting enough to keep my thoughts from running away too fast. I don't even have to turn the light on.
Reading something boring and Benadryl.
This is really weird that alot of us seem to wake up in the middle of the night. I do too. Fortunately, I can fall back asleep fairly quickly. Sometimes not. A couple months ago, I started waking up around 5a.m., and I was done sleeping. I figure as long as I'm not dragging during the day, that's okay.
I usually get 7 hours sleep. If I fall asleep at 9, I'm done sleeping at 4. If I fall asleep at 11, I'm done at 6.
When I was young, I had a heck of a time falling asleep. Thank heavens that's over.
Kay.....I find that even caffeine in the morning can affect my sleep. Don't exercise or do any intensive thinking or focus work several hours before bedtime. Alcohol keeps me from sleeping too.
Try taking some calcium and magnesium supplements before bedtime. And as hard as it might be, don't nap during the day.
I get up early, too - realizing that I'm done sleeping, whether it's 4am (in summer) or 6am (winter) or somewhere in-between, is something that helps me sleep through the next night until that time again, because I'm too tired to do anything else.
Also, not staying up past the point of fatigue. Staying up too late can impact my sleep for the worse for several nights. Parents of young kids know how this works!
Blackdog Lin
1-16-13, 9:52am
Dhiana - that was a fascinating article on "second sleep". I'd never heard of this research before. Maybe I could make use of it. My sleep patterns suck.
I get bouts of insomnia when I am stressing out, but I usually craft or read and accept that I will sleep during the day instead. I have no problems sleeping otherwise and don't wake up either during the night.
Dhiana, that IS a fascinating article...and thank you everyone for your input. I got some melatonin a while back, but hadn't been taking it (I'm a poor pill-taker). Last night I took some and only woke once to use the bathroom...and thankfully went right back to sleep until morning. This was a relief! The night before I was up from 1 a.m. on. Could not go back to sleep, so just got up and read. Usually that does it, but not that night. I know job-related stress is a huge factor, not quite sure what to do about that right now. I also clench my jaw in the night as someone else mentioned.
I'm going to try melatonin for the waking-up in the middle of the night problem. I've had insomnia since I was 9, so kind of know how to work around it, but not well enough.
treehugger
1-16-13, 2:53pm
I also clench my jaw in the night as someone else mentioned.
Jaw clenching is a chronic problem for me. I have had one type of night guard for years, but it didn't prevent clenching, only lessened wear and tear on my teeth. Just got an NTI-tss one (completely different type from my old one) and I think it's really going to help. Ask your dentist about it.
Kara
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