The Joys and Horrors of Insomnia

[Félix]

Freaky.

[Phil]

Sally wrote: "...there is a person in my house, spying on me, peeking on me from around the doorframe and I'm effing pissed."

Don't worry about him -- that's just your neighbor again, looking around the house to see what's new.

[Félix]

You'll have to get up pretty early in the morning to catch me ... oh wait. I already said that.

[RandomAnthony]

Ok, Kelly's got me way beat on the insomnia front. And Jim spends too much time around farm animals.

:)

[Félix]

While I confess to a few sleepless nights here and there, I'm grateful that I don't have a severe problem with this. A little bit of insomnia goes a very long way.

[Kelly (Maybedog)]

Oh Sally, that was me, sorry I disturbed you. I just wanted to see your house.

Random, no matter what level you have, it's horrible and difficult and it sucks.

Misha, you made me laugh with that CPAP line. I think yours is worse. For my sleep study I woke up 42 times an hour. I need a new sleep study as it's been 6 or 7 years and I think it's gotten worse. I used to be able to sleep with out the device. It makes a HUGE difference.

My grandpa used to snore loud enough you could hear it throughout the house. I don't know how he functioned in the morning.

[janine]

i had all of my wisdom teeth removed when i was 21. not because there was anything wrong with them, just because i knew they were going to bother me one day. the removal was actually quite painless. i'll let a dentist stick a needle anywhere in my mouth just so i don't have to feel a thing. a couple of days of painkillers and i was done. the money is a pain though, but anything to be able to sleep again i'd say.

[Zen]

channel your sleepless nights into a career in infomercials!

[[deleted user]]

I only had one wisdom tooth - that probably says a lot about me.

[Phil]

Jim wrote: "I only had one wisdom tooth - that probably says a lot about me."

Same here, Jim. Know what it says? It says we were wise enough to avoid all that pain.

[[deleted user]]

I'll go along with that Phil.

[Sally, la reina]

I'm sorry, Misha. Neither tooth pain, nor insomnia is very fun atall.

[Sally, la reina]

Here is a joy of insomnia: spending hours with my daughter.
Leah says a joy of my insomnia is getting to spend time sleeping on her belly. She hates the pediatrician rule of back sleep only.

[Phil]

My son would never sleep on his back. We tried, and tried, but it never worked. Once we rolled him over, though, he fell asleep almost instantly every time.

Pediatrician, schmediatrician. I say do what works for each individual baby.

[Sally, la reina]

Indeed.

[Heidi]

I think there's GOT to be some benefit to the baby resting on your heart and feeling your heartbeat. Surely, it's soothing/relaxing.

[Kelly (Maybedog)]

I saw this foam thing that allows a baby to sleep on his or her side. The reason against the stomach thing is the higher incidence of SIDS.

[Sally, la reina]

Yah. i kno, and we actually have those foam things all over - in the crib, the bassinet, at grandmas.

The good news is that Leah can now pick up her head and move it to the side so I feel safe with her tummy down.

[RandomAnthony]

Up since 2AM. At least the air outside is breezy and cool and kind of magical.

[Sally, la reina]

:)

[Kelly (Maybedog)]

Nice.

[Sally, la reina]

I did all this bragging about Leah's sleep habits last week, and now I'm paying for it. Baby is back on a growth spurt, needing food every two hours. So in the process that it takes us to get up, nurse, change diaper, sometimes clothes because of spitup situations, get settled back down, rocked to sleep, get mom to read a few pages and fall asleep, those two hours are completely full.

I'm a zombie.

[[deleted user]]

Sally wrote: "I did all this bragging about Leah's sleep habits last week, and now I'm paying for it. Baby is back on a growth spurt, needing food every two hours. So in the process that it takes us to get up,..."

Hopefully you're young enough (I won't ask) that your sleep patterns may return to something that passes for normal. After the twins were born in 2000, mine never did.

[RandomAnthony]

I was up around 2:45 and at the office by 4:45. Quiet here. Not bad.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

Clark wrote: "As for channel surfing at that time? Between Tom Vu surrounded by bikini girls on his yacht explaining how you can get rich quick from real estate and supermodels peddling girdles that cut off your breath while compressing your back fat, it feels like you're in the middle of an opium dream anyway. And not a good one.
"

Lol. Back fat.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

I assume everyone here with insomnia not caused by actual medical conditions has ruled out caffeine and/or alcohol as the cause, yes?

[[deleted user]]

Lobstergirl wrote: "I assume everyone here with insomnia not caused by actual medical conditions has ruled out caffeine and/or alcohol as the cause, yes?"

Yes, after a lot of experimentation.

[RandomAnthony]

Ok, this is probably very much against medical advice, but I've discovered that combining a beer with a sleeping pill is awesome. Have I mentioned this yet? First off, the sleeping pill warning says the pill "may intensify the effects of alcohol". How is that a problem? I drink one beer and I feel like I drank more? Whoo-hoo! Everyone wins! And I sleep great, too.

Note...do not try this at home...

[[deleted user]]

RandomAnthony wrote: "First off, the sleeping pill warning says the pill "may intensify the effects of alcohol". "

This is where the drug companies are missing out on a great opportunity. They should be using this as a selling point, not a warning.

[[deleted user]]

Good sleeping pills, RA...or over the counter stuff?

If I mix Tylenol PM with my allergy meds I have anxiety attacks all night and feel like I'm going to die of heart attack. You know, for fun.

Whenever I can't sleep I just lie in bed making up stories in my head. This is good and bad. It entertains me, but often makes it take longer to get to sleep, because I'm working on those pesky details.

[Stacia (the 2010 club)]

I take Melatonin these days if I'm really having trouble with the insomnia. It works about 50% of the time, which are actually good odds for me.

A few weeks ago I had a night where I couldn't sleep at all and was up all night, so the next night I decided to take a dose of sleeping pills about an hour after taking a melatonin (since neither of them are guaranteed to work on me every time). I crashed for almost 24 hours straight. Luckily my husband was off the day from work and took the toddler for me. Doubling up was a bad idea.

[Heidi]

RA, you DO know that alcohol acts as both a depressant AND a stimulant, yes?

[Heidi]

Back when I used to watch television, I'd watch the Home Shopping Network when I couldn't fall asleep. :) Always worked like a charm... especially when used along with melatonin or chamomile tea.

[[deleted user]]

'Specially if you mix it with Red Bull, Heids!

[Heidi]

Amelia wrote: "'Specially if you mix it with Red Bull, Heids!"

UGH! That stuff tastes like cough syrup. I do NOT drink that shit.

[[deleted user]]

Me either, but only because that much caffine would kill me...literally.

[Heidi]

Yeah, the amount of caffeine in that would probably make me sick. Tea in the morning... that's as much caffeine as I get.

[janine]

Clark wrote: "RandomAnthony wrote: "First off, the sleeping pill warning says the pill "may intensify the effects of alcohol". "

This is where the drug companies are missing out on a great opportunity. They ..."

that's what i've been saying for years.

[Joanne]

When I was working, and couldn't sleep at night, I gave myself 15 minutes. If I was still awake, I had to get up and iron. I hate ironing, it was very effective.
Now I'm retired, I don't care if I can't sleep, and I don't iron anymore. I like waking up at 3 am and making coffee and going back to bed with a book.

[Sally, la reina]

I didn't sleep at all last night. I just rolled around and thought through my lesson plan over and over and over again. Blech.

[Sally, la reina]

Can't sleep at all.

[[deleted user]]

That is no good Sally. Try doing the ironing it cures my sleeping problems.

[Brittomart]

I can't sleep. Too busy thinking about when I'm gonna start receiving syllabi and whether or not I'm gonna order a moleskine planner that I really want, but I sorta could live without, but...I really want it.

I also feel kinda anxious.

[[deleted user]]

A cup of warm milk with a little honey might help.

[Aynge]

I've tried pretty much everything, and the only thing that really "cured" my insomnia was exercizing every single day. If you really exhaust your body, it doesn't have any choice but to pass out at the end of the day.

If it's just occasional sleeplessness, I've found that keeping my room cold and very dark helps a lot. The Bhuddist Monk Trick works to put me to sleep, but doesn't mean that I will stay asleep.

The one time I went to my doctor for insomnia, he gave me Ativan. It was a tiny white pill, the smallest I'd ever seen. Looked pretty harmless. I took one, then started to get ready for bed. Fourteen hours later I woke up half dressed with my glasses in my mouth. It was like someone shot me with a traquilizer dart. It freaked me out so badly I flushed the rest of the pills.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

Wow. That is kind of scary.

[Carol]

Ativan - the blanket turned into spiders. Never again.

[Sally, la reina]

Ew! I get really eebied out by sleeping pills.

[Brittomart]

I've got to get me some of this Ativan.

[Sally, la reina]

Britt!noooooooo! Glasses in mouth, spider blankets!