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For the love of God I cannot get to sleep
Furu
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Okay, here's the thing: Due to a weird sleeping pattern shift for the last few days I've been waking up at night and staying up through the day, trying to get myself closer to a normal 9 AM to 1 AM awake cycle.
Tonight however my sleep was interrupted an hour in by some pretty fucking terrible storms. The thunder wouldn't let me sleep.
Now that it's calmed down and I can actually hit the hay....I can't. I close my eyes and drift off, but I see my dreams without actually being asleep. My stomach feels weird, my temprature keeps changing, I get waves of saddness and paranoia, and I just can't seem to actually make the leap to lalaland.
What do I do, guys?
Tonight however my sleep was interrupted an hour in by some pretty fucking terrible storms. The thunder wouldn't let me sleep.
Now that it's calmed down and I can actually hit the hay....I can't. I close my eyes and drift off, but I see my dreams without actually being asleep. My stomach feels weird, my temprature keeps changing, I get waves of saddness and paranoia, and I just can't seem to actually make the leap to lalaland.
What do I do, guys?
Furu on
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Do you exercise?
Do you take any medications or sleep aids?
When you do sleep, do you tend to oversleep (more than 8 hours) or undersleep (less than 8 hours)?
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
No medications or sleep aids.
And I am a bit of an oversleeper.
I'm an oversleeper, too, and when I need to reset, I usually find it easier to pull an all-nighter and crash in the afternoon.
30 minutes before bedtime, turn off the computer and TV. Do something that doesn't involve you staring into a light - like, maybe, read a book.
If those don't help, try a sleep aid. Melatonin seems to work well for displaced sleep schedules and is what I would use in your shoes. Benadryl is the same stuff that's in Tylenol PM, but about 1/2 the price. Remember that any sleep aid can induce dependency if taken too frequently, so don't take it more than three nights in a row.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
I sometimes get similar issues with sleep, especially when I'm trying to 'force' it.
I'll keep this in mind for longterm plans, but right now tonight I'm probably going to have to do what devoir suggests.
Hopefully it works and you won't have to hear from me again tonight.
Feral's advice about shutting down really stimulating things before bed is a good idea to, if posssible try to limit the uses of your bed to sleep and sex, so that you won't associate laying in bed with watching TV or playing games/some other stimulating idea. Its supposed to help put you in the mood...or mode for sleep.
Could you consider some sleeping pill of an appropriate type?
I had a buddy who, for some unknown reason, just couldn't sleep at all for several days, and understandably that freaked him out too. So he got a prescription for some mild sleeping pills of the muscle-relaxing kind to use a couple of nights, and that helped.
1) Change the position I normally sleep in (I'm usually a sprawled out stomach sleeper, but I'll lay on my back with my knees up if I simply can't fall asleep)
2) Try my best to clear my mind, sometimes I have a racing mind, I just concentrate on the color black--it's about as equal to blank as you can get.
I don't think it helps my sleep. Maybe if I tried running a whole 5 miles a few hours before bedtime I might
zonk out. But moderate running before bedtime ~3 mile runs, just didn't help. (not noticeably anyways).
Basically I'm trying to say running at night could have the opposite effect and make you hyper for hours. So plan your running 5 hours (give or take) before bedtime.
I'm in favor of the heavy duty drugs. Xanax (a benzodiazepine) WILL take you out. Especially your first time taking it. Your body will develop a tolerance after a few weeks or months though.
Then there's the stimulants that keep you awake. Provigil really packs a punch. Take it in the morning even if you're drowsy. after 30min you'll feel wide awake (without the caffeine side-effects).
If you keep this Xanax/Provigl routine down after a week your sleep cycle will be back to normal.
they are expensive though...
You could also try the hypnotic drugs lunesta soma.... they are all prescription too.
Thanks, guys.
One, physical exercise. Not loads and loads - you're not trying to tire yourself out, just get rid of the tension which is preventing you from sleeping. This is difficult if you live with others, but not impossible - you could go to another part of the house and lift weights, for example. Also, a lack of exer
Two, trying to stay awake. Maybe lie in bed but open your eyes, maybe get out of bed and read a book.
Three, just stop worrying about it. This was the biggest kicker for me. I used to think that if I didn't sleep enough I'd be terribly tired and maybe get sick, and the stress of that would keep me awake. After innumerable sleepless nights throughout my life, I've realised that one sleepless night is no biggie. I feel rough the next day, fairly miserable, but that's all.
Realising this has stopped me from stressing about it, and stopped 'not being able to sleep for an hour' from turning into 'can't sleep all night oh jesus christ why why why'.
Often one of my friends falls asleep within 30 seconds of getting into a car. I don't know how he does it, but I'll be talking to him and suddenly (expectedly?) he'll stop responding.
To make things more strange, he'll wake up just before we pull into our destination.
I often abuse this as a get to sleep relatively quick measure.
Also, don't eat too much/drink much else besides water before bed time.
ALSO:
Posh has a point with excercise.
Doabout 20-30 fast situps on your bed with the lights off and then just slump.
I can almost fall asleep on-demand, and the way I do it is completely clearing my thoughts. It a mental exercise I learned in high school where you essentially focus intensely on extraordinarily boring things, like the word "blank" or a green-colored wall, etc. Despite the intense focus, within a few moment the brain gets bored and starts to drift off. Once you feel yourself drifting off, let go of the intense focus and let yourself drift away.
I will admit that this occasionally fails under times of heavy stress, because then it becomes extremely difficult to keep your focus on the boring stuff and you keep shifting to whatever is bothering you, but at least give it a try.
There's also some OCD drugs you can find that aren't too expensive that you could try at lower doses, just to give it a shot. Now, this is something I was prescribed once, asking my doctr some time ago about my sleeping problems, he suggested I try some prescription anti-depressants at low dosage since it helps the mind relax even though I've never been diagnosed with depression.*
*Please see your doctor about any options other than OCD medications and even then, you might just give them or a nurse line a call about it first. I'm not a doctor, nor do I know your medical background, so I cannot recommend these at all to you.
Also, sleep does come in waves. I think it's a 40 minute cycle? So if you go to bed and feel yourself drifting off but then don't go all the way under, get the fuck out of bed and read or something. I've found turning on a light and reading a difficult book are excellent ways of lulling myself to sleep.
Also, I invert my sleeping position on my bed so my head is at the foot of the bed; this sometimes helps too!
1. actively listening to it to relax
2. background noise to drown out my thoughts while falling asleep
for #2 what I do is put it on my mp3 player and set the mp3 player on sleep mode (30 min) so it turns off when I fall asleep. I do follow the directions but not with as much attention as #1