Insomnia? ....

[danthegeek]

I counted the amount of hours I have slept in the past week and it came out to only 15 hours in 7 days. I only slept about 3 hours a few of those nights. I dont feel tired and when I go to sleep I just wake-up shortly after. Its been getting worse and i didnt sleep at all last night or the night before. Its like im getting naps lol. Anyone have any advice? I took a sleeping pill and it didnt work. I guess Im just weird.

-dan

[IndyRacer27]

I get like that sometimes. It's usually because I have a lot on my mind (stress from work). Have you talked to a doctor?

[danthegeek]

Not yet. Im going to wait it out a few more days and see what happens. Maybe i just need a vacation. That and my brain needs to slow down so I can think .

-dan

[jdbnsn]

I have had marked insomnia for the last week, averaging 2 hrs per day for ~7 days now but mine is almost certainly from stress. Depression is another biggie, given the recent events you may be having an emotionally driven insomnia. Drugs are okay for very short periods of time to get you through a spell, but if it becomes ongoing you should work on behavioral conditioning to help. Some examples are going to bed and getting at the same everyday, don't get out of bed even if you cannot sleep. Don't do anything in the bed but sleep or sex, no TV or reading (and it pains me to say, not even modding). Meditation can help, hot bath about an hour before bed, don't eat for an hour or two before bed, no alcohol, if you smoke then don't smoke for 2 hrs before bed (stimulant). Glass of milk seems to help but I don't know if it's science or wives tale. No TV an hour before bed, try to read instead. For short term relief or while you are building habits to sleep better, OTC drugs that are helpful are Benadryl and unisom (although it gives me vertigo). Rx drug like ambien are stronger, but you need a script. Natural remedies are a bit less effective but have shown promise are melatonin and Valerian root.
If your sleep doesn't improve in a couple of weeks you should see a doc and maybe he/she will consider putting you on a temporary course of antidepressants (some of which like trazadone are very helpful for insomnia). Good luck bud.

Jon

[danthegeek]

Thanks Jon. Ill give it a try and see how it goes. But things should all be down hill from here on, I hope.

thanks
-dan

[b4i7]

lately ive had trouble sleeping as well, some nights i dont even go to bed

to help myself sleep ive been taking benedryl and melatonin and then i start sleeping, and i can get a full night sleep

[Luke122]

I have a solution for insomnia, but the first rule is that I'm not supposed to talk about it.

In truth, I agree that it's probably stress.. plus, the more you worry about sleeping, the more stressed you get. Maybe try some meditation? www.audiodharma.org has some really good guided meditations.. try to get anything by Gil Fronsdale. Super relaxing voice, and he makes things really easy to understand.

Aside from that, try not to have anything to eat for at least 3 hrs before sleep, and no caffeine at all for at least 6hrs before bed.

umm.. Maybe get some exercise? Even a walk is a good idea.. a bit of fresh air can help you relax/sleep more easily, just dont exercise right before bed, because then you'll be too wired to sleep, and end up right back where you started.

[Needsleep]

I think, given my username, I have to post in this thread right?

For 14+ years sleep has been a friend and enemy to me.

All the advice given above is worth looking into. I hope that this is a passing bout of disturbed sleep and that you find the trick/combination of tricks that works for you.

It is hard and took me a loooooong time to not worry if I was not getting 'enough' sleep, but now i'm happy when i've gotten a couple hrs nap in and try to look on it in a positive way ("wewt recharged my bateries a lil - better than no sleep eh?") style hehe, getting stressed about getting no sleep is only gonna perpetuate things.

I've always avoided takin pills (for anything), just not brought up a pill popper but I do make sure I only associate my sleeping area with sleep and enjoying my gf's company, makes a big difference. I did however have a longish phase where I had to have noise when I fell asleep, the trick I found there was to listen to something that I could fool my brain into thinking didnt matter if I missed the end. (complete series of Family Guy I had seen so much that my brain didn't mind missing the ends of the episodes but was distracted from over thinking stuff by the show seemed to work for me)

The main point I would like to make to compliment the great advice already dispensed is to let those around you know that you're having trouble. You don't need the added pressure now of trying to conceal your tiredness/strange sleeping habits. As you'll no doubt see from this thread, a lotta people have trouble sleeping at some point, bosses will understand if you explain to them especially if you have scheduled a doctors appointment. Knowing you have the support of people around you is one less weight on your mind - and i'm very much of the opinion that we could all do with less of those eh?

Good luck with getting your sleep, hopefully you'll get to crash out for a good 10 hrs this coming weekend and sleep like you're dead!

anyway that's more than enough blabbering from me

[XcOM]

i have suffed what some would call insomnia fo years (Last 12 years) but i saw my doc and he said that as the only way i get a full night sleep is if i take tablets for it, and the fact i show no signs of lack of sleep and my body functions fine then im ok with it.

In short its not the length of sleep you have its the quality of the sleep, my doc said my quality of sleep is of such quality i don't need vast quantities of sleep, i adverage between 3 and 5 hours a night on a good week, some would say im crazy for having such little sleep for the last 12 years but i haven't felt the effects of it yet.

In short, if you feel fine then don't worry, if you do (Now i know this sounds softy girly) but have a relaxing bath and reed a book and try to have a calm stress free evening/day

[xRyokenx]

I used to be much worse where I was living before (abusive hellhole of a home, do the world a favor and don't beat your kids, use some Psychology and don't be lazy ) and I've still got a little problem falling asleep, but that's just from getting used to a new job (which is going great by the way), new home, etc.

Daylight-Weirding's-Time isn't helping me either.