INSOMNIA BITES

[Alyth]

Why is it that I can't sleep on the one night before an early class? Any other night I may toss and turn, but I do fall asleep...except Tuesday nights!!

:mad:

[Finity]

why is it that my room is 80 degrees 24/7 AND I NEVER GET SLEEP! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[Alyth]

I know that feeling. my room is ALWAYS hot. I can't sleep in hot temperatures. My heater works WAY too well in the winter, and the air conditioner installers screwed up and put the vents next to each other, so it's STILL hot in the summer even when the air conditioner is on high!!!!

------------------

[lowmazda]

Well you can be like me. Get a nice nights sleep. Get up and ready for the new day. After 2 hrs i feel like i can sleep all day again. I AM ALWAYS TIRED. uggggggg
someone just shoot me :(

[mpeg]

Anyone know what are some good over the counter pills that will help you get some sleep?

------------------
help me jebus!!!

[Alyth]

Melatonin is supposed to be really good. it slows you down but after a week of taking it it is supposed to make you feel awake in the morning yet still get you to sleep at night. I took it a few times and it conked me out. felt pretty ok in the morning but I didnt' take it for a whole week

------------------
Don't play leap frog with a unicorn

[Edited by Lysithea @ April 27, 2000 (edited 1 time)]

[bilgepump]

I've taken melatonin for a couple years and haven't really noticed if I wake up more refreshed.

I've been trying kava kava for the past couple weeks. It's effect is a little subtler than melatonin but seems to do the trick. I *have* noticed that I've had some strange dreams while taking kava kava. Don't know if it's related though.


-bp http://www.aliensoup.com/ubb/smilies/zzz.gif

[avatar-dw]

Hey,try counting sheep!It's too boring to resist!

[GINA]

i had insomnia a couple summers ago for a week. it was terrible! i couldn't sleep all night, i only dozed off a couple times. eventually i got so exhausted, i just got knocked out for about a day. i dont know how it started, or how i even ended it...but it was definitely interesting. my dad uses melatonin, apparently it works pretty well because i remember hearing him snore all the way from my room ;)

[SwissSmiss]

one word: tetris. Til you get the tetris eyes or fall asleep on the keyboard.

[Alien]

...must...sleep...

...going...mad...

[Nuphoria]

I sincerely hope you are actually asleep by now Alien!

Here are some thoughts from an insomniac :nod:

I have suffered from insomnia all my life, literally since childhood when I'd stay up doing things instead of lying there. I have found that it's still a good policy to occupy yourself when you can't sleep but not with things which stimulate you too much - so, go easy on the computer games and the porn *wink*
I think TV is a bad plan - too much input, so reading is usually a lot better, or perhaps some gentle non-vocal music.
There are also tricks I have when I am awake due to pain such as counting things down backwards.. months, prime numbers etc. Also doing some maths in your head can work because it gets tough. Try working out the cubes or squares of numbers... one of my favourites is adding up the internal angels of polygons (yeah, I'm sicker than even I thought!). This can all work because we are often awake due to stress or anxiety and can't empty our heads of it easily.

As for things to take, in the UK we have a couple of options such as Nytol or Calms, both of which are herbal and contain things like valerian or kava kava. (by the way, yes kava can give you peculiar dreams as can anything which is a CNS depressant). Cammomile tea is good, come people claim warm milk does the trick.

It is important to avoid stimulants such as alcohol, caffiene and nicotiene before you go to bed. Sadly this includes recreational drugs people! Dope does NOT make you sleep contrary to popular belief, and will add to the problem long term. Many prescribed meds can cause the same effect so look up the side effects of anything you are taking to evaluate if you can change the time of dose etc. As for the use of sleeping pills etc, they should be only taken as the very last resort - it's not a good thing to become dependant on, trust me!

As a general rule, getting regular hours going helps as does regular exercise. Doing a couple of late nights whacks your body clock all over the shop and it can take days to get it settled again. This is why melatonin can work, as it is also very useful for jetlag. In effect, keeping irregular hours (as I did do for years as a musician) will make you permanently jetlagged in a way, and not likely to feel rested even when you do sleep. Sleep is important for our physical and mental well being. Lack of it has been proven to cause many clinical problems, including exaserbating the anxiety which may have been the cause in the first place - there's your catch 22!

I hope this is of use to someone and I wish you all the sweetest of dreams :)

[MO]

LowMazda-
Take vitamin B to help your energy, or eat a piece of fruit after a couple of hrs.

[cosmichotspur]

I often don't get to sleep until between 3 and 4.30 in the morning, usually hearing the birds get up before I drop off - I'm convinced we have individual body clocks and that we're conditioned into night sleeping for 6-8 hours as babies, which isn't our natural rhythm at all. I've given up trying to sleep any earlier as it just doesn't happen!

I've accepted that I'm a night person: I work evenings so it works for me to sleep late and wake late morning to midday.

On a similar theme, talking of natural rhythms, when I went to Australia a few years back my sense of direction was spot on. In London/Northern Hemisphere I have hardly sense of direction at all and everything seems to be in the wrong place! And, of course, day and night are reversed in Oz ...

Reincarnation?? Magnetic body orientation?? Anyone got any theories??

[Panache87]

I have the same problem... on school nights, I try to get to bed around 9 pm at the latest, since I am not a morning person, and cannot be tired for school.
Sometimes it takes me up to an hour to fall asleep!! :mad:
I am a night owl, so early bedtimes and 5 am waking times are not easy. Bah! I'd rather stay up 'till 2 in the morning and get up at 10:30-11:00.
I can't fall asleep soon when I want and have too!! Also, I'm always groggy upon waking (it's 5 in the morning!)

[GINA]

panache, who wouldn't be groggy at 5am! :lol:

i know what it's like to have my body clock out of whack. i work different hours every day, my sleeping patters are horrible. some nights i work until 3:30am, sometimes for different jobs, and other nights i conk out at 10pm. it's not healthy :no: