Insomnia.

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

> Don't know how you insomniacs can function with so little when I go to pieces on 5 hrs + mild hangover

I can't either, even without a hangover. That's the problem......

Hi-5 la lech! I got about 7 good hrs, too!

J told me stories and petted me and rubbed lavender sleep balm into my forehead, for about an hour after we got in bed. It helped!

how's it workin out for y'all

i'm getting a steady +/-7 hrs nightly, myself.

my night's sleep last night was from, uh, 2pm till 6pm. \o/.

4 hours on a good night these last few weeks, unless I get drunk in which case I pass out for 10 hours but wake up feeling tired.

i'd feel better about being awake if it were snowing

http://cdn.svcs.c2.uclick.com/c2/6dd319d00fd6012f2fc600163e41dd5b?width=900.0

Went to sleep at 01:30, woke up at 05:15, zombie mode, meeting with boss in half an hour. Damn my doctor and her anti-Ambien stance! Amytrip does fuck all.

http://images.ucomics.com/comics/ga/1989/ga890806.gif

oh no!
ambien is no longer my friend, but it did help me get over the nerves insomnia brought.

I'm exhausted. I'm bored. I've been lying in bed for an hour, while some part of my brain I refuse to identify with goes mnep mnep mnep deconstructing the reasons for the failure of every relationship I ever was in, right down to the three-night stands. STFU, brane. SLEEP TIME.

mnep mnep mnep

got to sleep around 8 this morning. in honor of rev. mlk jr. i got to work from home today, which involved me putting my laptop and phone next to my bed on their highest volume and sleeping until 2.

no way a beeping laptop would have awakened me, so it's just as well that nothing happened.

how do i shot ambien

have you tried otc sleep aids? try that first.

i'll use otc sleep aids or, more often, nyquil if i *know* i'm going to have a problem. also melatonin more regularly.

but sometimes when it gets to be 3am and things don't look promising, that stuff (as well as ambien, most likely) will make my next day at least as zombie-ific as if i'd just stayed awake. although at least i wouldn't lay there thinking about how much the day is going to suck, i guess.

ime ambien is more of a failsafe -- you take it at 9pm when you have a big day ahead of you tomorrow and you KNOW you might have trouble sleeping, so you need a little extra push
you can't take it at 3am
well, you can, but it's def not advisable

I'm avoiding going to bed. I've been consistently avoiding trying to sleep for the past 2 months, and it has to stop but I don't know HOW to stop aragghghghahahahhh. I'm so fucking TIRED but the whole idea of going to bed is anathema.

how come?

maybe you need flannel sheets

Years and years of insomnia (can't fall asleep, can't stay asleep, night terrors in between) and lately too much time spent in bed with the laptop in the daytime, because it's the only place in the house I can get warm enough to work.

Bed doesn't seem like a great place to be and I've no faith in my ability to fall asleep. I've been listening to these sleep hypnosis podcasts lately and they're really nice, and help me relax no end, but I can get through 5 20 minute podcasts before I drift off. The series I've been using this week, the guy keeps going on about how you should "remember a time when you fell deeply asleep, quickly and easily" and I think I'm a freak because for as long as I can remember this has never, ever happened. According to my parents I have never slept. The only reason I haven't given in to this avoidance thing before is I had someone to go to bed with, someone who would turn the light out whether I liked it or not, and I could snuggle them and listen to them breathing, and that way I had to stick to a routine, which helps, and I only got stressed enough to skip a *whole* night's sleep maybe once every couple of weeks. Since I've been single it's just gotten waaaay out of hand.

i am unskilled at falling asleep and sometimes stupid about knowing when to try, but basically once i'm asleep i will sleep forever. if it weren't for my alarm clock, i might starve to death whilst asleep.

Has anyone had experience with Zopiclone?

I have tried it. I hated it tbh; it left me groggy for a good 24 hours after taking it, I never felt rested on it and it leaves a horrible taste in your mouth.

That said, these things are personal and unpredictable. As I've said before, I had a fantastic time on Ambien, but my doctor says Ambien and Zopiclone are almost the same thing and will not now prescribe me either.

this benzodiazepine analogue works: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etizolam

it's currently legal in U.K. and can be bought pretty cheaply from many 'research chemical' sites on the internet

emil.y, I had exactly the same experience with zopiclone described by Surfing at Work. Dreadful drug.

Well, my first night on Zopiclone bought me sleep from 2am to 7am, and I feel relatively perky. Seeing as I suffer from depression-related lethargy as well, hopefully that's a sign that it won't make me too wonky on it.

Okay, so I have a question that is only sort of tangtially related to insomnia, but this seemed like a thread full of people that might be able to help. Do you have any tips or tricks for falling back asleep once awoken? This has always and forever been a big issue for me, at least as far back as grade school. I'm fine to wake up briefly, even to go to the batroom or w/e, but if I'm up much longer than 10 minutes my brain kicks in to overdrive and it takes me forever to fall back asleep.

Normally I've just kind of dealt with this because it happened so rarely, but now this issue has kind of come to a head. Now that we are slowly weaning our 4 month old son off breast milk and he is not needing to eat throughout the night anymore, my wife and I have decided to take turns each night getting up with him and soothing him back to sleep. Seems fair for at least one of us to get a decent night's sleep each night. Anyway, its going pretty well as far as me soothing him, but I simply cannot fall asleep again after waking up with him. Last night, for instance, I went to sleep about 11:00 and woke up when he did at 1:45 to sooth him. He fell asleep again about 15 minutes later and I tried to go back to sleep, but was wide awake, mind racing, when he woke up again at 3:45. Got him soothed again and finally fell asleep myself at about 5:45 before my alarm went off at 6:15.

Any ideas on how to slow down my racing mind to fall asleep more quickly? This is hard and I end up being a lot more grumpy than I want to be on so little sleep. Obviously drugs aren't really going to work because I still need to be aware enough to wake up with our son.

Sorry if this is tl;dr but I'm exhausted and frustrated with myself.

Hai. I don't know if this is the right place to ask actually, this thread being full of people who fail at sleeping.

Things people recommend that have not worked for me, ymmv:

- hot milk (contains tryptophan which is meant to help you sleep)
- putting the bare minimum of lights on when you get up in the night
- breathing exercises to help relax
- tensing and releasing each muscle group in the body
- counting backwards from 500
- sleep hypnosis tapes
- lavender essential oils

I hope you find something that works for you.

UGH! It is 6am and I am still awake! I never had a bout with insomnia until December...since then it is just about every night.

counting backwards from 500 may not work, but have you tried "99 bottles of beer on the wall"? when i do that, i'm usually out by 70 bottles.

signed,
awake at 4:26

I have tried that but notice they only bring on feverish and frustrating feelings that lead to more awake time. Tried a warm shower before bed, soothing music on low, pleasant thoughts. I try not to freak out or get anxious about the time and instead focus on just relaxing but it isn't working.

I remember ages ago receiving a sample of a valerian sleeping pill and trying it out even though I never had trouble sleeping. I was out at 6pm and did not wake up until 9am the next day and felt great. Can't have that now though due to pregnancy. Feel my insomnia is related to pregnancy. Oh but I would love that pill and to have that every night. I use to be able to sleep through anything as well. Earlier in my pregnancy I even had trouble staying awake during the day.

Now 9am aggravating!

Discovered the Baby First channel, just esoteric images with something that reminds me of hospitality Muzak playing. I started yawning right away! This could work but I can't get it on our room television set.