Insomnia.

Ugh. Mosquito bite. All itchy and sweaty (allergy, idk?), fetched the mosquito repellant thing, now awake at 2am, hearing cats fight in the street, a far away train, someone up the road who also has his/her window open at night coughing. Meh. Alarm goes off in less than 4 hours. Ok, let's see if I turn this thing off and at least try to sleep.

being itchy sucks, i'm sorry.

in other insomnia news:
maybe you think this is fruity, but i started acupuncture today to treat insomnia/migraines/stress/anxiety and i am really excited about it. i love the practitioner, and she totally speaks my language. i like the idea of channeling harmful energy away from my head and out of my feet, but i guess only time will tell if this is going to be effective for me.
has anyone else tried this?

well shit

in case anyone cares, the acupuncture (combined with an herbal extract formula) has been working out pretty well for me. i don't feel drastically ~different~, it has only been a week, but there have been a lot of moments where i would have freaked out (anxiety not so lol imo) but i'm just takin' it cool, like "this thing will be tough, but it's not going to get to me" this is REALLY NEW for me.

it's kinda like i am wearing a coat of armor that i didn't have before. next few weeks are set to be ROUGH, so even if it's magical thinking, it's working.

slept well 6 nights out of the last 7

6 out of 7 is a winning score!! Are you refreshed and revitalized?

Hmmm...yes? I mean, I feel calm and prepared. That's way better than manic and crazy/exhausted and irritable.

Anyone itt tried amitriptyline? I went to my GP and asked for Ambien and she refused to prescribe it and gave me this instead.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Seroquel. You might have to lie to your doctor and say you are crazy to get it but it is the only thing that works. I crush mine up because a whole pill will cause you to sleep 14 straight hours.

I can't sleep. I think I'm just stressed but it's not very nice. I feel like crying.

*hugs* sorry to hear, E. I think you need some tea, a back massage & a pep talk!

Exhaustion can be totally tear inducing even without stress. Can you give yourself some relaxation time over the weekend?

Xpost

Yeah I need all those things and I'll def have time to relax over the weekend. I'm just overly tired and frustrated and, like I said, stressed. It'll pass. Going to try to sleep again now though. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can etc.

i thought i was tired when i got home tonight, but i'm still winding down. i also thought the two strong g&ts would knock me out, but apparently i have some rock & roll left in me.

aw e <3 hope u fell asleep

Aw thanks Lamp. I did but I just had the most insane nightmare so I'm up again.

Was on an enormous plane flying to Australia but have no idea why. The plane was like a cruise ship in terms of size, layout and facilities but very sort of dated looking and 70s in design. We spent a while just marveling at the cool weirdness of everything until the flight attendants came around with machines filled with Twizzler flavored juice and then showed me to the shower room so that I could shower. On the way we passed living room like set ups where puppies were playing. After the shower (in a communal style shower room with a whirlpool floor) it was time for take-off. A couple minutes after we were airborne the engines cut and we started sliding backwards and eventually wound up plunging into a body of water and started sinking. Suddenly the plane turned into a ship or something because it had outdoor top decks and I raced crying and frantic Titanic style to reach one. I finally made it to the top deck and found my friends I was traveling with. We were very close to shore but it was the dead of winter and the water was frozen so we couldn't just jump. We were all trying to figure out what to do next as the ship/plane was sinking rapidly when I noticed this guy I knew as a kid (but haven't seen or thought of in like 15+ years) walking by. "Justin!" I called out to him but he didn't hear me. I tried again and again but to no avail. The weird thing was he was looking directly at us and it was then that I realized we were on an invisible vessel (duh!). A ghostshipplane! After some discussion we decided we had to jump because there was no other option. We did so one by one and swam to the shore. It was then that we first spotted some people who seemed friendly enough until they started tying us up. We bolted and were chased while they screamed and shot at us. Somehow we realized these people had orchestrated the whole disaster and were living as some bizarre rebel society in floating tents with lots of rabbits.

I woke up.

W.T.F.

it sounds like a cross between lost and watership down.

I have made a commitment to myself to get back onto a normal sleep schedule (more than 5.5 hrs nightly) but now that the moment has come to do this, it's not happening. As usual, it's 10pm and I am AWAKE.

Normally, 10pm would be a perfectly wonderful time to be awake, but I have to get up at 6.

- late hockey game last night
- worked today on short sleep
- so tired this evening i could have gone to bed at 8:30
- made myself eat, do dishes, take a shower
- now it's 2:30 and i can't fall asleep
- wtf

-watchin breaking bad
-finishing these beers
-work in 6ish hours

Up and at em, slept well. If only I could do this every night, then I would be well rested (but also possibly extremely bored).

2 hours Monday night. One hour Tuesday. A nap of 3 hours Wednesday 11am.1 hour sleep Wednesday night,thus far.have work in 2 and a quarter hours. Guuuh.

I can't believe that as little as a week ago, I said that I slept well. Was I lying?! I wish I could sleep well every night.
Jim in Glasgow, that sounds miserable. I'm sorry. What have you tried to help with the sleeping?

Absolutely nothing. In my experience this never lasts more than 5 days for me.just being a moany dufus really.if it happened regularly I would be doped out my eyeballs.

yeah its nice that i always manage to sneak a few nights sometimes even weeks of solid sleep in cuz it means not dying but its also really frustrating that i have almost no control over it and the specter is always looming

after months of fitful and minimal sleep and feeling/looking extremely bleary, i have decided that this is the week things will change. last night i slept from 10:30pm until 8:30am today -- although my face looked like it had been smashed into an unnatural shape for an hour after i got up, i feel FANTASTIC. like, electrically alive. sleep is so wonderful!

http://i.imgur.com/U9x7H.jpg

how many hours are you getting on average per night?

All over the map. I had a bout where I'd go to bed early and sleep for 11 or 12 hours, and still not want to get out of bed. But lately I'm waking up in the very early morning after 4 or 5 hours and can't fall back asleep.

do you have trouble falling asleep or just wake up too soon?

LL, are you doing better? Did the other night of sleepful bliss really herald a sea change??

my sleep was sort of back on track but now i've started talking and making awful noises in my sleep. gf says i "sound like a woman in pain". (!!) so now i get elbowed awake every night and then don't get back to sleep afterward.

pretty deadly.

xxxpost yeah pretty often my sleep is like that, i get to sleep fine but my body finds reasons to wake me at 3:00am and i'm up until my alarm goes off at 6. functioning on those 4 hours is so much better when you get them the second half of the night.

it's my biggest problem tbh

That was my big problem too. Well, now I just don't get tired, so I sleep from 1:30-6 or so, which is causing cumulative damage to my ability to function and the whites of my poor eyes.

On Saturday I slept a ton and I just want like 7-7.5 hrs a night rather than 4-5.

I used to laugh in my sleep a lot, but not anymore :(

In other words Laurel, no. But I am working on it. Tomorrow I can try to sleep in a little, til 7:30 maybe?

going to bed and getting to sleep, i struggle with. Too many distractions.

This has been bad for me the last few weeks. It started with a heat wave - I really have trouble sleeping if I can't be swaddled in a blanket or two. My body gets really achey, too.

The weather has cooled but makes no difference: it takes me a couple hours to fall asleep, I have disturbing dreams, I wake up constantly, no position is comfortable. Then the alarm goes off and I think about how I'd rather be dead than have to get up.

i have been spent years lobbying for a longer terrestrial day -- wouldn't it be great if you could stay up, say, 19 hours and sleep for 8 but still be on schedule? -- but to no avail.

i got four hours last night. i am the 99% bleary

Yeah I mean on one hand, why force it? If my brain wants to be up let it be up. On the other hand, soooo bleary :(

>> All over the map. I had a bout where I'd go to bed early and sleep for 11 or 12 hours, and still not want to get out of bed. But lately I'm waking up in the very early morning after 4 or 5 hours and can't fall back asleep.

> do you have trouble falling asleep or just wake up too soon?

Until recently I just had trouble falling asleep - since I was a child it's always taken 1-2 hours, and sometimes longer, but once I was asleep I'd get a good 7 or 8 hours in. The waking up early thing started only recently.

For some reason I've been falling asleep on the couch several times in the last few weeks, maybe just want to try a different place or feel than the bedroom. Sometimes I'll sleep for a few hours on the sofa, then move to the bed for a change.

I too can't sleep well unless it's cool.

8 hrs last night, no headache, no eye ache, feelin like $1 million
if i get one more good night, that means i can stay up late on wednesday night, right?

rightrightright?

So so so so so glad! Love to hear it. Don't know how you insomniacs can function with so little when I go to pieces on 5 hrs + mild hangover. You guys are some tough cookies.

NO

xpost

:( why not

because you're always going to deal with insomnia until you get into a healthier sleep routine!

i am a petulant child and i don't want to have a sleep routine! being an adult is so boring.
(i know you're right though)

i still feel like one 6 hour night isn't going to be the end of the world if every other night is a 7-8 hour night
i'm not talking about staying up ALL NIGHT or anything

can you put a price on feeling like $1 million?

:-/

that will cost me 7-8 hours of life, i'm afraid