Insomnia.

TV and using a computer at night is supposed to be too stimulating. Just the light/flickering of the screen, I suppose. I go online when I have insomnia, which is exactly what you're not supposed to do.

Being up late at night just seems more interesting somehow.

Maybe this is the key thing. When you have roommates, you get to see people, talk to people at night. Without roomates you look for stimulation from things like TV, internet, reading etc. You need to do these things for much longer to get that socially tired out feeling that living with actual people brings.

I am speaking from personal experience, I live alone too. (Also that feeling of "tee hee, I live alone! I can do whatever I want at any hour I please, oh ho ho ho!" has never quite worn off with me)

Anyway, I have insomnia, but it's part of a broader thing, and I take pills for it. I don't have anything helpful to share, especially, but if the thread'd been here last night I could've at least rambled on about it for a few pages, damn.

But yeah, as I think I mentioned on one of those threads, Melatonin can really work well - it puts you to sleep but you don't wake up with that "having taken a sleeping pill" feeling. The problem is I think I built up a tolerance to it or something, as its efficacy seemed to wane in recent months.

Lately I've been taking this tea with Valerian about twenty minutes before bed, then going to bed with a book and the lite jazz of WBEZ; not the strain of jazz I largely listen to but it serves to relax me before bed for some reason.

Oh, and also, exercise helps, no question. Even if it's just some walking in the evening or something.

At first I blamed it on the storm of personal chaos, stress, and depression I was going through. Most of that has kinda dissipated now, but actual sleeping has been rare. I rarely drink coffee past lunchtime and especially avoid heavy eating in the late evening but the only thing that's sort of worked is having one glass of red wine beforehand.

Amateurist, you mention several times above that you're having a glass of milk whenever you wake up. Skip the milk next time. I used to drink milk in the middle of he night whenever I was insomniac and discovered that my stomach was keeping me awake from trying to process the lactose.

Try to make a routine for yourself, so you don't go, say, directly from computer to bed each night. Don't lie down earlier than you need to... get in bed when it's time to sleep, and give yourself 8 hours until you need to be up. At first, you'll lie awake, but your body will get used to it. Try not to get upset or anxious about going to sleep, as that will only make it harder.

Obviously, cut out coffee and caffeine stuff at least 6 hours before you want to go to bed, if not earlier in the day.

And exercise, definitely, just like everyone else said.

If you're having a lot of trouble establishing a routine, you could see a doctor and be prescribed a short dose (3 or 4 days) of something like Ambien, which is pretty damned effective at putting you out a few days in a row and getting your body back onto a schedule (provided you take it at about the same bedtime each night for however many nights your doctor prescribes).

Thanks everyone for the advice. I hope to gain the self-discipline to put it to good use.

My computer engineer/born-again Christian father calls it "defragging the hard drive," possibly because he is too born-again to realize how ideal that phrase is as a masturbatory euphemism.

Either that, or he DOES realize it, and I now know how my father deals with insomnia.

Ew.

like ppl said above, try cutting back on coffee, don't go the milk route (most ppl i know do find it keeps them up) and most importantly, try and get exercise. That is the only thing that sometimes helps me. Booze wakes me up even more and I find myself posting drunkenly to ILx.

My insomnia started when i was about 12 or 13. I'll be ok for a few months and then get a bad patch again. In normal cirumstances I usually have a least one night a week or so where I don't sleep. In bad patches it can be up to 3 nights of no sleep (and I mean none whatsoever) I've basically adjusted and try and either get some work done, catch up on reading and not force sleep.

In your case, if you are on a work schedule where you can go in a bit later and stay later, maybe try doing that for a while. Good luck.

Have you seen a doctor about it?

I would just got to bed but I have three days to memorize all of this:

Lesson 6 - Adverbs

I. General considerations
II. Forming adverbs from adjectives
III. Position of adverbs
IV. Comparative and superlative forms of adverbs
V. Negative adverbs

I. Introduction

An adverb is an invariable word that can modify a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. Adverbs generally answer one of four questions: how, when, where, and how much

The following is a list of just a few adverbs:
adverbs of time (when): adverbs of manner (how):
aujourd'hui today bien well
autrefois in the past mal badly, poorly
tôt early ensemble together
bientôt soon vite quickly
tard late vraiment really
maintenant now réellement really, actually
aussitôt at once d'habitude usually
actuellement at present, currently heureusement fortunately, luckily
tout de suite right away, immediately
encore again, still, another time seulement only, however
déjà already autrement otherwise
d'abord first, at first brusquement suddenly, all of a sudden
hier yesterday très very
généralement generally
souvent often

adverbs of place (where): adverbs of quantity (how much, how many):
près near beaucoup a lot, very much
loin far peu a little, not much
ici here assez enough
là there, here trop too much, too many
là-bas over there plus more
ailleurs elsewhere moins less
partout everywhere
quelque part somewhere

adverbs of restriction
presque almost
peut-être perhaps, maybe
seulement only
à peine hardly, scarcely

Exercice (6.1)

II. Forming adverbs from adjectives

1. Many adverbs of manner end in -ment. This corresponds to the English -ly. To form such adverbs, take the feminine form of the corresponding adjective and add -ment :
curieux curieuse curieusement
normal normale normalement

2. If the masculine form of an adjective ends in a vowel, the adverb is formed simply by adding -ment (no extra -e is added):
poli poliment
absolu absolument
terrible terriblement
vrai vraiment

3. Adjectives which have two or more syllables and end in -ant or -ent are changed into adverbs by substituting these endings with -amment or -emment:
évident évidemment
différent différemment
courant couramment
élégant élégamment

4. The following adverbs are irregular:
adjectives adverbs
bon bien well
meilleur mieux better, best
mauvais mal badly
gentil gentiment nicely, pleasantly
rapide vite fast, quickly
bref brièvement briefly
commun communément commonly, generally
énorme énormément enormously, tremendously
aveugle aveuglément blindly
précis précisément precisely
profond profondément profoundly, deeply

Remember that vite is an adverb and cannot be used as an adjective. Rapide is the corresponding adjective:

Tu as mangé ton gâteau trop vite! Tu as mangé ton gâteau trop rapidement!
J'ai un modem très rapide.

5. Certain adjectives can be used idiomatically as adverbs:

coûter cher C'est très beau mais ça coûte cher.
It's very beautiful but it's expensive.
parler fort Pourquoi parles-tu fort?
Why are you speaking loudly?
parler haut/bas Pourquoi parles-tu bas?
Why are you speaking softly?
sentir bon/mauvais Ça sent bon ici.
It smells good in here.
chanter juste/faux Roseanne chante faux!
Roseanne is singing off key (badly).
voir clair Je comprends; maintenant je vois clair.
I understand; now I get it.
aller (tout) droit Pour arriver à la bibliothèque, tu vas tout droit.
In order to get to the library, you go straight ahead.
travailler dur Les élèves travaillent dur.
The students are working hard.

When used in this way, these adjectives are invariable (the masculine singular form only is used) and come directly after the verb.

Exercice (6.2)

III. Position of adverbs

a. in simple tenses

In simple tenses in French adverbs never come between the subject and the verb, as they often do in English. They are normally placed after the verb. Compare the following sentences in English and French:

Je vais souvent aux Etats-Unis.
I often go to the United States.

J'aime beaucoup les cerises.
I really love cherries.

If you want to place emphasis on adverbs of manner (how) that end in -ment, you can place them at the end of the sentence:

Il ferme la porte brusquement.

Certain adverbs usually come at the end of the sentence, or at least near the end. Specifically, these are adverbs of time (when) and adverbs of place (where):

Marie va au zoo aujourd'hui.
J'ai laissé mes affaires là-bas.

If you want to place emphasis on adverbs of time (when) or place (where), you can often place them at the beginning of the sentence:

Ici on ne fume pas.
Généralement, il fait beau en juin.

When the adverbs meaning "probably," such as peut-être, probablement, and sans doute begin a sentence, the subject-verb word order is inverted.
Ils sont peut-être en vacances. Peut-être sont-ils en vacances.
Tu as sans doute raison. Sans doute as-tu raison.

However, if one wishes to avoid the inversion, que may be used after peut-être:

Peut-être que vous êtes perdus.

b. in compound tenses

The position of the adverb in a sentence with a compound tense depends on the type of adverb. Most often, the adverb is placed between the auxiliary verb and the past participle. Adverbs that fall into this category are: adverbs of quantity, adverbs of manner , adverbs of manner that imply restriction, and certain adverbs of time.

Elle a bien fait son devoir.
Nous avons presque terminé notre repas.
Il a vite compris la leçon.

A second category of adverbs, however, never go between the auxiliary and the past participle. These are adverbs of place and certain adverbs of time (avant, après, aujourd'hui, hier, autrefois, tôt, tard):

Je ne suis jamais allée là-bas.
Etes-vous sorti hier?

Exercice (6.3)

IV. Comparative and superlative forms of adverbs

The comparative and superlative forms of adverbs are used according to the following constructions:

comparative: (plus, moins or aussi) + adverb + que

Je marche plus vite que toi.
I walk faster than you.

superlative: (le plus or le moins) + adverb + de

Elle marche le plus vite du groupe.
She walks the fastest in the group.

* Note the use of de in the above sentence. Where English uses the word in in superlative expressions (in the world, in the class, in the family), French uses the word de (du monde, de la classe, de la famille).

Some adverbs have irregular comparative and superlative forms:
bien mieux le mieux
beaucoup plus le plus
peu moins le moins

* Remember that mieux and le mieux are adverbs (they describe verbs) and that meilleur(e) and le/la meilleur(e) are adjectives (they describe nouns).

Superlative adverbs, just like superlative adjectives, can be intensified by possible:

Venez chez nous le plus tôt possible.
Come over as soon as possible.

Il est arrivé le plus vite possible.
He arrived as soon as he could.

Exercice (6.4)

Exercice (6.5)

V. Negative adverbs

To form a negative sentence, you use both the negative particle ne and a negative adverb such as pas, jamais, rien, plus, etc. Study the list of negative constructions below:
ne ... pas not Ils n'ont pas appelé leur mère.
ne ... point not at all (literary) M. de Charlus n'aimait point les arrivistes.
ne ... plus no more, no longer Mon père n'a plus de cheveux.
ne ... jamais never Tu n'as jamais mangé d'huîtres?
ne ... que only Il ne mange que des hamburgers et des frites.
ne ... rien nothing Elle ne m'a rien offert.
ne ... guère hardly Ils n'étaient guère gentils.
ne ... pas encore not yet Vous n'êtes pas encore partis?
ne ... plus jamais never again Jean ne va plus jamais chez ce dentiste.
ne ... plus rien no more, nothing else Je n'ai plus rien à vous donner.
ne ... personne no one Ils n'ont vu personne au café.
ne ... nulle part nowhere Elle n'est allée nulle part toute la journée.

ne ... ni ... ni ... neither ... nor Il ne parle ni français ni espagnol.
ne ... aucun(e) none, not any Nous n'avons eu aucun problème.
ne ... nul(le) none, not any Il n'y a nulle raison de se fâcher.

* Note that aucun(e) and nul(le) are adjectives and agree in gender with the noun they modify. They always remain singular.

Il n'a aucun ami.
He has no friends.

*Note that de and d' replace du, de la, de l' and des after a negative adverb.
J'ai toujours de l'argent. Je n'ai jamais d'argent.
Il a des pommes. Il n'a plus de pommes.

However, this rule does not apply to ne ... que whose meaning is not negative.

Anne n'achète que des légumes frais.
Anne buys only fresh vegetables.

Ni....ni will replace indefinite or partitive articles but not definite (le, la, les) articles.
J'ai un frère et une soeur. Je n'ai ni frère ni soeur.
Voulez-vous du sel et du poivre? Je ne veux ni sel ni poivre, merci.
BUT: Tu aimes les chats et les chiens?

Je n'aime ni les chats ni les chiens.

Depending on the particular adverb, a negative adverb can be placed before or after the past participle of a compound tense such as passé composé.

Before the past participle:

Je n'ai pas vu cet homme que tu cherches.
Je n'ai rien acheté.
Je n'ai jamais entendu cette chanson.
Je n'ai plus écrit à mon frère.
Je n'ai guère travaillé hier.

The negative adverbs which go after the past participle:

Je n'ai vu personne.
Je n'ai fait que le premier exercice.
Je n'ai vu ni chien ni chat.
Nous ne sommes allés nulle part cette anée.

Similarly, if the negative adverb modifies an infinitive, it is sometimes placed before the infinitive and sometimes placed after it, depending on the particular adverb. The same adverbs that preceded the past participle will precede the infinitive and vice versa.

Before the infinitive:

Elle préfère ne pas voir ce film.
Nous préférons ne rien dire.

After the infinitive:

Elle préfère ne voir personne aujourd'hui.
Tu préfères ne faire que le début?
Il préfère ne lire ni celui-ci ni celui-là.

Nous préférons n'avoir aucun visiteur cet après-midi.

Je préfère n'aller nulle part ce weekend.

*If a negative adverb is used as the subject of a sentence, ne must be placed before the verb.

Personne ne m'a dit la vérité.
No one told me the truth.

Aucun de mes amis n'est venu à la fête.
Aucune de mes amies n'est venue à la fête.
None of my friends came to the party.

As you saw in the list at the beginning of this section, more than one negative adverb can be used in a sentence:

Je n'entends plus personne. I don't hear anyone anymore.
Il n'y a plus que moi. I am the only one left.
Elle ne va jamais nulle part. She never goes anywhere.
Ils ne parlent jamais ni de leur travail ni de leurs enfants. They never talk about their work or their children.

The negative adverbs will always be placed in the following order in a sentence:
que
rien
ne . . . plus . . . jamais . . . personne
ni . . . ni
nulle part

*Note: "pas" can only be combined with ni and que:

Je n'ai pas envie de la voir ni de lui parler.
I don't want to see her or talk to her.

Il n'y avait pas que des livres dans cette librairie.
There weren't only books in this bookstore.

When answering a negative question with an affirmative (yes), "si" is used instead of oui.
Tu n'as pas apporté les photos? You didn't bring the pictures?
Si, elles sont dans mon sac. Yes, I did. They are in my bag.

* Ne . . . que means only. The que is placed before the relevant noun.

Je n'ai acheté que deux pêches.
I only bought two peaches.

Exercice (6.6)

Hou ! Hou ! Hou ! Hou !
En quatre couleurs
Allez hop !
Un matin
Une louloute est v'nue chez-moi
Poupée de Cellophane
Cheveux chinois
Un sparadrap
Une gueule de bois
A bu ma bière
Dans un grand verre
En caoutchouc
Hou ! Hou ! Hou ! Hou !
Comme un indien dans son igloo

Allez hop ! La nana
Quel panard !
Quelle vibration !
De s'envoyer
Sur le paillasson
Limée, ruinée, vidée, comblée
"You are the King of the divan"
Qu'elle me dit en passant
Hou ! Hou ! Hou ! Hou !
I am the King of the divan

Allez hop !
T'occupe
T'inquiète
Touche pas ma planète
It's not to day
Quel le ciel me tombera sur la tête
Et que l'alcool me manquera
Hou ! Hou ! Hou ! Hou !
Ça plane pour moi

Allez hop ! ma nana
S'est tirée
S'est barrée
Enfin c'est marre, a tout cassé
L'évier, le bar me laissant seul
Comme un grand connard

Hou ! Hou ! Hou ! Hou !
Le pied dans le plat
Ça plane pour moi
Ça plane pour moi
Ça plane pour moi moi moi moi moi
Ça plane pour moi

why are you up?

I'ts 7:30 AM and I haven't slept AT ALL. I have to catch a train for a day trip that is sure to be no fun anymore in an hour. Everything is starting to feel surreal and over-emotional, and OH IRONY OF IRONIES now that I have to drag my ass out of bed I'm finally fucking tired enough to pass out.

This is going to be one of the longer days of my life.

I just wanted to bitch, kthxbye.

I listen to podcasts — it takes my mind off of stressing about not being able to
sleep and also I feel like I am learning something. Right now I’m listening to The Fall of Rome but I always fall asleep in the middle of an episode and am not sure where I should start again. This one is pretty straightforward but I’ve listened to more creepy/ engrossing ones and it still worked. I often get really interested and then the next thing I know I can barely stay awake.

GP has referred me to a sleep clinic and I have the options of "Home Sleep Studies" at the Churchill, Oxford or "Overnight Sleep Studies" at the John Radcliffe ... Genuine question: what's the difference?

This comes with the usual disclaimer of: I know here isn't the right place to ask this.

For me - home sleep study = self-placement of all the monitor electrodes (upper torso/neck/head), bad night's sleep in my own bed; overnight sleep study = technician placement of all monitor electrodes including leg monitoring, semi-decent but short night's sleep in a hotel room-like setting.

gaaaaah

Jesus fuck I am going insane.

Never been a problem in my life before now. the problem is multi-faceted:

1) I cannot get my brain to settle down enough to go to sleep. I lay down and a myriad of issues and worries just flood it, which even despite me being an anxiety patient, never happened pre-COVID. it's like a stream of permanent dread and sadness.

2) Sleep aids, which used to be the solution, have outright stopped working. half the time they do nothing.

3) time of sleep doesn't help either. I go to bed early, I go to bed on time, I go to bed late, it makes no difference...it still takes me until very late to get to sleep if it happens at all

4) i have a real hard time pulling myself away from things at night to go to sleep, as well. I become a news junkie at 12 am. sometimes I have to find articles that put my mind more at ease.

5) Part of it is also that I don't do things anymore to tire myself out. I was a night owl prior to the pandemic, so in a given week, I used to go out 4-5 times, if not more. concerts, movies, hangouts with friends, bars, etc....so I'd be mentally and physically spent. now, it's just...sitting in my room working, not much else. I think i'm going to try exercising before bed to tire myself out.

any other suggestions?...I'm going on like 3-4 hours of sleep in 3 days.

do you meditate? do you go for long walks to exhaust yourself like a dog (i do)?

learning some meditation practices and focusing on breathing is the only thing that has worked aside from drugs, and if they don't work anymore i would suggest trying to practice some meditation techniques to re-focus your brain on rest.

also exercise helps

or even having a sleep cue, like the smell/taste of a certain type of herbal tea or an essential oil. you're trying to retrain your brain to read the cues so you need to establish some cues that indicate to your brain TIME 2 REST NOW

Sympathy, I have this very badly right now too and it's the same dynamic... I sorta stopped fighting it for a bit because that's even more draining. I just stay up until I drop from exhaustion. I'm lucky in that I talked to my boss about it and have the sort of job where I can work any 40 hours in a given week so she is OK with my random schedule. For me it's just hopeless to address it until the election is over and the course of COVID-19 is a little more clear... those external stressors are just too strong. I'll revisit attempting to "fix" it in January.

I also figured out if I go out for a walk there are places outside (on our college campus mainly) that I can sleep for an hour or so. I can't really sleep in my bedroom anymore.

also be careful exercising before bed, it can have the opposite effect. calm, slow stretching works very well but as a runner, I learned that going for a run less than about four hours before bedtime means my body is still too jazzed from aerobic exercise to fall asleep.

Yeah, some of the things people always recommend (exercise, meditation, stop screen time well before bed, don't drink coffee after at certain point on the day) do seem to work. You mention sleep aids, do you mean prescription/otc stuff? Because I find melatonin to be really effective, but that seems to differ from person to person. And alcohol is bad for a good night's sleep, period, but we all know that, too.

Re: exercise, sometimes just a walk is enough, just to let your brain settle. My wife has stopped running but goes for a 2-mile walk every morning (and sometimes at the end of the day) and she swears by the effects.

One trickier solution that sometimes works is a change of scenery. I've never had insomnia, but I have a good friend who suffers from anxiety, which leads to insomnia, and she said a trip they just took as a family really helped her catch up on rest, because it forced her to take a break from many of the things/triggers that cause her anxiety. But that's another different strokes/folks sort of thing. A trip with my family is the last thing I would want right now.

Interesting and counterintuitive, I find that if I feel tired and go to bed too early I actually not only often wake up in the middle of the night but have trouble waking up in the morning. But when I go to bed later, I generally have less of a problem waking up earlier, even if I get fewer hours.

I can't really sleep in my bedroom anymore.

Huge bummer — time to rearrange the home for a reset. That’s the worst feeling, to be triggered by the idea of sleeping in xyz area and I relate. I have to reset myself a lot!! I’m very easily conditioned :(

the thing that has worked for me honestly has been finding some podcasts I can listen to as I “go to sleep”. It keeps me from ruminating on myself/life and kinda promotes a sort of semi-hypnotic state. before I started doing this, I would generally just fill up with existential despair anytime my head hit the pillow. I would stay up way too late because it was the only way I knew to “get sleepy”. The podcast listening initially just helped manage the obsessive thoughts, filled in the empty space. But soon enough I started falling asleep like 15-20 minutes after turning the light off (at which point I groggily take my earbud out and stab the pause button on my iphone before conking out)

the worst part... (does this happen to anyone else?) is when you notice yourself getting sleepy and get so excited at the prospect of sleep that... you are no longer getting sleepy

well that’s not the worst part

I have another friend who has trouble sleeping who often successfully winds down and falls asleep to audio books. Typically non-fiction.

thanks everybody, I will try all of these things. did try melatonin once, it had mixed effects on me, but i wouldn't be opposed to another round.

the weird thing is I don't have a gauge on how tired I actually am because I do so little in a given day now.

Have you tried doing the thing where you keep a notebook by the side of your bed and write down the things you're stressing about so you can deal with them at another time? I've never tried it myself, but I've heard it helps get your brain off the hamster wheel.

I've also read that part of the purpose of sleep is to let your brain sort through memories from the day and forget the unimportant ones. So when I'm lying awake stressing about something little that happened that day, I try to tell myself that I don't even know yet if it's worth thinking about, because my brain hasn't had a chance to do its overnight sorting and processing. This may not work for you but I find it weirdly comforting.

Forgot to mention one of the most effective things I have tried --
the weighted blanket!

When I go to the dentist (where I have a lot of problems), I always wear the lead x-ray vest the whole time, and it really helps. Turns out a weighted blanket is like that only huge. I just put mine back on the bed and it's really helping me fall back asleep when i wake up at 3am with my mind racing.

There are some cons: it can be hot and they aren't exactly cheap. But that's it! Otherwise, I love mine and it really helps.

Ugh

yeah this shit is making my life impossible basically

I’ve managed to avoid it for a long time but tonight’s the night tonight. I’m kind of emotionally high for various reasons, and in my head I am having a future conversation I am looking forward to, this internal dialogue which I can’t turn off, an old habit I long ago broke myself since it’s the kind of expectation that brings disappointment, or so I’ve heard, oh wait, actually experienced firsthand many times.

Past the point where I will vet even one four hour REM cycle. Hello walls!

Zero hours of sleep last night, fun fun fun. I can take the brain derangement but the constant feeling like I'm about to have a heart attack is, well, killing me.

Nytol works well for me, you can get it over the counter without prescription. Weirdly the other thing that works for me is the Calm app in which you have various soothing-voiced people (even Matthew McConaughey pops up) to read you a bedtime story.

Is that the free or premium version of that app?

Premium

There's a great podcast called The Maritime History Podcast that used to knock me right out. It took me months to make it past Hammurabi. But then my brain got used to that, and started a new trick: letting me go to sleep for about an hour from midnight to 1am, then waking me back up again for the rest of the night. The night before last I didn't sleep at all and eventually got up at 5:30.

It definitely helps me to get some exercise during the day and not eat late at night, and to avoid alcohol. But those things only help. They don't guarantee sleep.

“Nytol will help you get your zzzzzzzzs” = jingles u will never get out of your sleep deprived head

Come on over to this thread, LL: Thread for random old TV voiceover/announcer phrases that pop into your head

it's baaaaaaaaaack. but now I have an anxiety-cause to some of it. pretty much for the majority of the year, some nights I try to go to sleep, and feel like every time I start to go under, I jolt awake, and my heart races and it repeats over and over for an hour or so until finally I fall asleep (or don't). it only started when I acquired an assload of stress and usually on nights when I have a lot in my head at bedtime.

also it's long past time I do a sleep study. i am 99% sure I have apnea, p much everybody in my family does.