(no subject)

[spacefille]

For the last two weeks, maybe three, ever since I had my cold and slept all day, I haven't been able to sleep at my normal sleep times (i.e. – 1:30 am to 6:45... I'm okay on 5 hours of sleep)

I'll crawl into bed at 7:30 pm absolutely exhausted and wanting very much to sleep through the night, then I'm WIDE AWAKE again at 9 pm. I won't be able to get to sleep again until 4:30 am, and then get up at around 6:45 feeling like crap.



I’ve been trying everything. I tried writing before bed, which used to make me sleepy. I’ll be exhausted but when I lie down nothing happens. I’ve been logged out of chat at 10 pm, so that I’m not wound up and staring at a computer screen. Then I won’t be able to sleep and end up playing mindless computer games an hour later (curse you Mafia Wars). Or cleaning my bedroom by dangling my hand over the side of my bed and rearranging what mess I can reach.

I’m anxious. My mind races. I’ve gained 10 pounds in a month, which is frankly disturbing as hell. I’m on damage control at work, my exhaustion at work covered up by sneaking off during breaks or napping for 10 mins at lunch.

Some have suggested I not nap at all during the day. That didn’t work.

Last week I tried to not nap at all during the day and still only got to sleep at 4:30 and got 2 hours of sleep that night. That was the night that my sister sent me an e-mail and my sister in law was in labour, so it may be because of that that I couldn't sleep at all, but I don’t think so… it’s like my body has hard programmed 4:30 am as sleep time.

The only day I was able to sleep normal-ish was Friday night Saturday, when I fell asleep at 3:30 am after napping in the evening, and then getting up again at 10 am to go about my day. I didn’t nap at all on Saturday, though I got extremely tired at around 8 pm at the party I was at, and after getting home from the party I fell asleep at 3:30 am again. I thought, great! An hour earlier is awesome! But then I slept until 4 in the afternoon on Sunday, with a brief period of consciousness in the middle to eat breakfast, and on Monday morning I was back to my 4:30 am to 6:45 am routine.

I do have one question, I know I shattered my Circadian Rhythm with the oversleeping/sleeping all day when I was sick. If I take sleeping pills to knock myself out at my old sleep times (or say, 11 pm) will the Circadian Rhythm adjust to the new time so eventually pills aren’t needed?

Comments

[bunnynumber13.livejournal.com]

Hmm, this sounds like a question you should be asking a medical professional. I'd advise either doing that or going to a medical website that answers common health questions or one specifically for people who have problems with their sleeping patterns. Here are two sites you can look at. I hope they help some:

http://sleepdisorders.about.com/

http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/default.htm

[greenwillow27.livejournal.com]

The only problem with sleeping pills (even non-Rx stuff like Tylenol pm)is that once you stop taking them people tend to have a withdrawal-like reaction. In other words, it can be even harder to fall asleep than it was before you started taking anything.

I'd say set your alarm for the time you want to wake up normally even on the weekends and use whatever other sleep-inducing tricks you can at night. Maybe getting off of the comp even earlier than 10:00, warm milk, warm bath, soft music, sex... heh...

Meh.. yeah. It's hard to get back to normal cycles if you've been thrown off by something. Hope this helps some....

[kc-anathema.livejournal.com]

If you can't control your sleep and it's going on for this long, it's probably also caused by an amount of stress. Are you currently undergoing significant stress? /sarcasm

Might be best to talk to a doc, as suggested above.

[ravenshaelo.livejournal.com]

Last time I had insomnia, I had to sit down and figure out how to manage my stress. I don't think one off day is enough to throw off your sleeping patterns for this long.
Figure out all what's stressing you, work through it and do what you can to fix it, and not worry about it. Also try meditation. I will admit I am bad at it, but I think it does help for what little I manage to do. Take it easy, if possible.

And I'm glad you're rid of the creepy roomy :S

Feel better eh?

Thanking you for "Monster"

[sirah-morgan.livejournal.com]

Oh, sweetie. I have done all kinds of things to help me sleep better. I hope some of your sleep issues have leveled off by now. If not this should give you some suggestions to try. (I talk about this often on a yarn/Crochet/knitting forum-- so lots of cut pasties here.)

Try a thesaurus or dictionary of symbols. Guaranteed to leave you yawning in no time. Also, I find either a big nutritious meal or adding extra vitamins will make me able to sleep better. I had to give up on warm milk but a mug of hot cocoa helps me sleep.
Making sure your room is darker after dark helps. Also, no UV Lightbulbs.

I was once told by a doctor or read in a scientific article that sleep between 11pm and 2 am is the most restive. The human body is geared to be most deeply asleep by 3 am.

Now for the big one which nobody ever lets me explain well enough in chatrooms. This is a technique my Research methods teacher brought up randomly in class. It’s just a simple Pavlovian-style retraining so your bed is your bed and not a trigger to re-awaken you. (Sometimes that can be a real problem for people with a lot on their minds or bad sleep habits.)

Pretty much, the first night you lay down at a reasonably early time when you first feel tired and close your eyes and stay there no matter what for 20 minutes (if you must a simple ‘ding’ egg-timer can be used to time this– just get one with a weak, single ding to it or pack laundry on top). If you have not fallen asleep by the ding… GET YOUR ASS UP and LEAVE the BEDROOM. Yes, walk out of the room! Do not stay hoping you will fall asleep. Go somewhere else and work on something quiet for 20/30 mins or so or until you do feel tired again. Then go back to the room and try another 20 mins of laying quietly. If not asleep after 20 mins then get up and LEAVE AGAIN… Just go! Keep repeating that until you fall asleep within the first 20 minutes of laying down. Most people are able to fall asleep within the first 20 minutes of laying down in a dark room and you are training your body to realize it gets to sleep as soon as it’s in a bed.

Along with this sleep modifying plan one has to resolve not to use the bed itself for anything other than sleeping (my teacher was single so those filthy-minded questions never got brought up– but I say it’s a good excuse to break in other household places if possible but not to be ridiculous about it)! Not using the bed for anything else makes the bed itself a trigger for sleep and helps your body prepare itself to sleep once you are laying down. This sleep training can help people who just need to shut down and sleep when they head to bed.

Other alternative to drugs or to help you wean yourself off them.
* Warm or hot milk
* Melatonin pills OR L-tryptophan pills with or w/out N- Acytl Cystein (N- Actyl + Tryptophan = melatonin in the body)
* Sleepytime tea from Celestial Seasonings or up the ante & get a sleep aide tea from health food stores

My other complex suggestions involve bodywise or healthy nutjob thinking like make sure you take good vitamins- including lots of b’s and adding on a fish oil, can absorb them better by healing your gut with a multi-strain probiotic, and make sure heavy metals aren’t encouraging your insomnia by trying to detox (cilantro is great for this, so is good ol’ vitamin C– warning lots of vitamin C will attach to fatty foods in the GI and race for the exit). I swear the first time I loaded up with a lot/2000 mg of vitamin C changed how I thought about vitamins and got rid of racing thoughts 4 years of assigned drugs hadn’t fixed.

So, I might be a bit bonkers... but please consider me friendly! I hope to get around the TMNT fics and find where to properly review some of your wonderful writing that was linked to the AFFA's. Have good dreams, dearie.