Anyone else here have insomnia?

On average, there are two nights a month that no matter what I do I just can't sleep. Tonight is one of those nights. I'm here on the computer because I'd rather not stay in bed tossing and turning and keeping my g/f awake. I've never slept well, getting to sleep has always been a problem, but some nights it just isn't gonna happen. I've tried all the usual remedies short of medication, and none of them do a darn bit of good. Thinking of seeing a psychologist. This being such a knowledgeable group, anyone have any off-the-wall ideas?


Cheers. :buddies:

Well... have you tried warm milk? I know it sounds childish but there's an actual thing in the milk that when it's warm, really makes you sleepy.

Warm milk contains tryptophan, which is supposed to make you sleepy. I used to have trouble sleeping. Melatonin and Valerian root didn't help. I found the sometimes making a glass of fresh carrot juice helped me to sleep. Another thing that seemed to help many times were oxygen capsules (the hydrogen peroxide ones) from Dr. Donsbach (you can find them online). I've been sleeping pretty good for a long time now, but for some reason, last night, I wasn't able to sleep right away. I think I turned off the lights, TV, and computer around 1:40, but I was still awake at 3:40 (am). I just took an "Airborne" type effervescent multivitamin (it was actually the Sav-on brand, "Air Protector" (or "Air Protection")) and, luckily, I fell right to sleep. A bowl of cereal even used to help me, sometimes.

i read that exercising in late afternoons help you have a better sleep. perhaps you can try exercising, and i mean something w/ a fair amount of exertion so you'd be tired by bedtime.

i used to have insomnias, but not anymore. i get so busy in the day and by the end of the day, i'm tired. so, by beddtime, all i have to do is count sheep and i'd fall asleep.

well, diesel, good luck with your insomnia. perhaps you can try exercising. if it doesnt help you fall asleep, at least it would help you lose weight! hehe....

Carrot juice, eh? Never heard of this remedy... is there a scientific explanation for why it might work?

This and last week I've found myself up very late into the night (it's 0400 here) because of procrastination from doing time-critical work. :shrug: Don't really feel tired, either.

After 3:00 AM here so what the heck would I know
Topper

hihi....it's late for me too. someone called me a vampire once it's my bad habit to go to bed late. but as soon as my head hits the pillow, i would be in la la land. oh well...i guess i should be going. do y'all know staying up late give you wrinkles? and the dark circles make a person looks old too ...LOLZ

Crack a window. Some people have trouble sleeping because the room is low on oxygen.

Diesel_Bomber said:

On average, there are two nights a month that no matter what I do I just can't sleep...
This being such a knowledgeable group, anyone have any off-the-wall ideas?

Click to expand...

Hi Diesel,

i feel with you. Been there. So let me tell you my reasons what i've found to work.

1. My life/work projects often are too complicated. I just don't stop thinking about them. While I'm thinking I can't sleep.
2. Sometimes I work late at night or 36 hours w/o sleeping. This breaks my sleeping rythm, and I have trouble sleeping the following nights.

I have found three solutions. None of them is the holy grail.

1. Keep stern discipline. Get up at 0630. Stop doing anything at 2200. Be in bed at 2230. Stop thinking about sh!t!
2. Just sleep when you become tired. While I worked on my diploma thesis I went to bed when I was tired, be it mid-day. Unplug the phone beforehand.
3. Benzodiazepines. Diazepam in it's smallest dose works fine for me. I took only four (4) of them during my whole life. You want to be very careful with these, unless an addiction doesn't bother you. They put you to sleep (you still have to stop thinking about sh!t), but won't be tired when you wake up. They do not help you to STAY asleep.

HTH

+1 for the warm milk.

I suffered from terrible insomnia until I was 48. It still bothers me occasionally -- but nowhere near the way it used to. It was so bad for so long that it had a terrible impact on my health. Here are a few things that may help:

1. Don't watch TV or listen to the radio in bed
2. Don't read in bed
3. Don't lie awake for more than 45 minutes or an hour or so. If you lie awake any longer you should get up for a break and do some quiet activity (TV, book, computer). Then go back to bed a little later and try again. Sometimes if I'm lying in bed wide awake I go out to the computer and the change makes me feel sleepy in just a few minutes.

These things may be important because the last thing an insomniac wants is to train himself so that his bed becomes a place where he's used to lying awake. I'm very strict with myself on this and it has helped me quite a bit.

I also use melatonin. It's produced in the pineal gland in the brain which shrinks a bit and produces less each year as we get older. Dosages are based on age. I usually take half my dose at bedtime so that I may take the other half if I wake up early. I usually only need the second half once or twice a week.

• Keep your bedroom as dark as possible.
• If you routinely get out of bed to go to the bathroom or anywhere else after bedtime, be sure that your route(s) and all of your destinations are kept as dark as possible.
• This includes street/security lights shining in through windows.
• If you need a light to navigate at night it should be very dim. Ideally dimmer than the old Infinity. (Not the Infinity Ultra)
• Don't allow yourself to be exposed to any bright lights for a few hours before bedtime.

These things will help you conserve whatever melatonin is in your blood whether it came from a pill or your own pineal gland. Light hitting your eyes will drive the melatonin out of your blood in short order no matter where the melatonin came from. This is one of the reasons that people who work nights have such a hard time sleeping.

You may also benefit from keeping a small sleep log. It may be really simple. You could use a small spiral notebook. Each morning just note a few of these things:

• Supplements taken (warm milk, melatonin)
• How you felt at bedtime
• Approx how long it took to fall asleep
• What you were thinking about when you fell asleep
• How long you slept
• Whether or not your sleep was disturbed

I'm not really saying you should log all of those things. We're all different and some may be more helpful to you than others. Let me give you a personal example.

Eight years ago I became interested in the famous Dutch forger, Han Van Meegeren. I was and still am fascinated by his story. I started researching his life. I found the details so interesting that I would tick through them as I lay in bed at night. After three our four days I began to realize that what ever had been keeping me awake my whole life was being suppressed by the details of Van Meegeren's life rolling through my brain as I tried to go to sleep.

I not only still go over some of this material in my head when I try to sleep, but I've actually found a couple more subjects that seem to work for me to a certain degree. The point is that if you keep a simple log you may be able to look back on the good nights and find something that will make the bad nights less frequent. You have nothing to lose.

I think that with insomnia it's also important to note that humans vary so widely that just because something works for one person does not at all mean that it will work for another. You need to try to keep your attitude up and just keep plugging away at it, keep looking for information and essentially become your own expert on your insomnia.

Rather than seeing a psychologist, you might want to consult your physician. If need be, your GP can refer you to a psychiatrist for any medication that might be necessary and a psychologist (or counselor) for therapy. A constant irregular sleep pattern (along with other symptoms) can be indicative of clinical depression. And don't get bothered by any stigmas that are often attached to mental health issues, it's my understanding that depression can often be the attributed to chemical imbalances more than psychological issues.

Diesel_Bomber said:

I've never slept well, getting to sleep has always been a problem, but some nights it just isn't gonna happen.

Thinking of seeing a psychologist. This being such a knowledgeable group, anyone have any off-the-wall ideas?

Click to expand...

Whoa, thanks for the replies, everyone! After I posted I went and took a walk. Decided to come back home when I found I was in town ~8 miles away. Oops.

I'll go down the list.

Chocolab- You're not the first person to suggest melatonin. I might give that a shot, especially with what Sub Umbra mentions.

Alin- Afraid that was one of the first things I tried. Thanks anyway.

Trashman- I'll give Carrot juice a try. Have to take a trip to NY and get a bigger juicer. Who wants his A2?

Verbie- I exercise almost religiously, in the early evening, just before dinner. During the winter that means walking or bike riding. During the summer it's the hottest part of the day, so I use an exercise bike in the air conditioned bedroom. Sometimes I'll hang a punching bag in the garage.

Lightmeup- I've cracked a window during the winter, it's made no difference. During the summer it's too effing hot to defeat the air conditioner like that.

Chrwe- You may have something here with the stop thinking part. Usually I can will myself to quit thinking and it works just fine, sometimes my g/f has to help. She's very good at being distracting. :devil: Sometimes it doesn't matter, I quit thinking and I'm still wide awake. I keep a fairly regular schedule, but sometimes it's just flat impossible.

Sub_Umbra- That's all good advice, and all things that I've done before. They certainly do help. I'm out of town and there's no street lights or anything out this way. The master bathroom is right off the master bedroom, and I get there in perfect darkness. There's a small EL nightlight in the bathroom; I don't turn on the main lights. I prefer to keep the house dark and have always done so, even though my g/f complains. I've been keeping a sleep log for a couple years now, so far neither I nor my doctor can come up with any kind of pattern, but I keep at it in hopes that it will help. It certainly won't hurt!

Brighteyez- I've already seen my GP. Several times. I do indeed have clinical depression, among several other health issues. She suggested I see a psychologist, it wasn't my idea.

I think that's it. Again, thank you all. After I posted, I thought about all the other people who have such drastic problems and felt like a damned idiot posting about not sleeping, but thank you all for the advice. I'm definitely going to try a few new things tonight.

Cheers. :buddies:

Edit: I also completely cut caffeine out of my life for about three months, made absolutely no difference. Amazing just how much stuff has caffeine in it.

Almost forgot! On my walk I took an EverLED modded 3D Mag running 11,000 mah D cell nimh batteries and my standard EDC's; an SL PP Lux AA and a Photon knockoff. The Mag is the only thing that got used.

Cheers. :buddies:

One more I forgot: I've been advised by an exercize physiologist to never exercise hard enough to get into 'the aerobic zone' less than four hours before I know I'm going to want to go to sleep.

I follow that advice but like so many other things, I have no idea of it's impact. Just something else to keep in mind.

awww...poor Diesel Bomber. i hope you find a solution soon. it's a real bummer when a person can't sleep.

I find buying lights helps, It's much better than counting sheep, every night I fall asleep thinking of the lights in their little packages winging their way to my door. Works like a charm.

:buddies:

Diesel_Bomber said:

Trashman- I'll give Carrot juice a try. Have to take a trip to NY and get a bigger juicer. Who wants his A2?

Click to expand...

LOL

Diesel_Bomber said:

I'll give Carrot juice a try. Have to take a trip to NY and get a bigger juicer. Who wants his A2?

Click to expand...

:nana: carrot