Insomniacs anonymous
 

Unite! We have nothing to lose but our ... sleep. Never mind.

Isn't anyone else on this board an insomniac??

Or even up in the night with babies etc. ... ?

Can. Not. Sleep.

Not funny. Thank you, tamoxifen. You supposedly inhibit the regrowth of my cancer but you keep me up all night when I work all day.

After rearing four children who never slept, I should be used to this ...

Sorry, revelling in Baclofen.
Thank goodness I work the early shift. It gives me an excuse to sleep when and where I can, and also the possibility to do so.

Sorry to rub in in, but the 'rents are out and I'm going to go have a kip.
If I wake up soon enough I'll go feed the squirrels in the park. If not, at least I've slept and missed lunch.

My sympathy though.
I've had trouble sleeping since I was a child. This is a period of bliss for me, although I do wish I cuold turn it on and off (ie go see squirlies now ...)

I can usually fall asleep within 5 minutes. But I'm not taking any weird drugs. Sorry doc. Have you tried vodka?

Drunk sleep not good sleep says my Consultant.
With detalied scenarios that made sense.

But vivid dreams are good symptoms of refreshing sleep.
Always have those. Maybe that's why I got away with things so long. Turns out I am asymptomatic in many respects. Of course I am, I am special.

Dr R said having seen my medical notes he is surprised to see me looking so well.
I sustained serious damage in a very short space of time.
That hit home.

You bastard.

[/jk]

Member in good standing of the insomniac union, thank you very much. Since childhood. Diphenhydramine works sometimes for me, but, sometimes gets me a little jittery, and has the opposite effect.

A small sticky-weed joint will help, sometimes, and hey, if it doesn't, at least you're high.

Falling asleep is easy for me. It's staying asleep that's the challenge. If something wakes me up, it can be an hour or two before I can fall back asleep. As I age, it's easier and easier to wake me up. Until the alarm goes off. Then it's hard to wake up. ;)

Usually I can fall asleep but then wake an hour later and I'm up for the duration. Last night I was wide awake until 5:00; I remember thinking I might as well get up, and then I woke up at 9:44. Yikes. Good thing I'm on furlough.

I regularly get 6 hours, usually interrupted, but I'm working on improving it.

Without trazodone, I wouldn't sleep at all. I would like to get off of it, but I cant afford to not get any sleep since I work 10 hour days. Now, though, it seems I can barely scrape 4 solid hours asleep in a row. I wake and fall back to sleep at at least 4 times a night. That's age.

Last week whilst battling a cold/flu I'd wake up every night coughing with that little tickle at the back of my throat and it I pisses me off. So I bought some no-name Nyquil, took a good chug and fell asleep within 8 minutes.

I hate to break it to you, limegreenie, but that was all in your haid.

The only thing that would work in eight minutes is a blow to the head with a hammer.:bonk::p:

Oh yeah...try it smarty!:)

Surprised you have to ask. Aren't all bulletin boards chock full of insomniacs?

I'm not, I do sleep, but I find it very hard to get there. I just didn't know that until I had the stroke. I thought it was normal to stay up until you started falling asleep at the computer/in front of the tv/whatever. And then I'd get up and do it all again 4 hours later. I need to make sure I get enough sleep now because the visual thing is exacerbated and more stressful when I'm tired. So I'm learning to take myself to bed before I'm falling asleep. Steep Curve, my friends.

(not made any easier by the fact that I wake up pretty easily in those first few hours and am married to someone who goes to bed after me and could win gold in all Olympic sleeping events -sprint, endurance and creative)

Being woken by a spouse who comes to bed later ... :mad2:
Any spouse who comes to bed later is honor-bound to slip in as silently as a shadow, having brushed teeth etc. in a bathroom whose light does NOT shine directly on the bed.

But I sympathize; in years past, I would wake up no matter what. Now I sleep heavily for that first short period of time and then all bets are off. Unless I have a night like most of the nights this week, where I didn't get woken up because I never went to sleep.

Still. Not. Sleeping.

I have a six-hour drive tomorrow morning. Damn. I depend on otc sleeping meds, which don't really work for me. But my onc doesn't 'do' sleep meds.

Still, by noon tomorrow I'll be back on my property; I'll walk my woods (wearing plenty of Blaze Orange); I'll pull the spent tomato plants and wrap the trunks of my fruit trees; I'll hope to see deer in the yard at dusk. Maybe some turkeys on the back slope. I'll sip hot coffee in the morning, watch the mists swirl through the valley and toast my feet by the woodstove.

I'll think about these things and hope to slide into good dreams tonight.

Finally finished Doctor Sleep (the Stephen King book, not a self-help guide.)
Time was I would read Stephen King and I had to carry on reading because I was too scared to get out of bed and turn the light off. Actually with The Shining I was too scared to turn the page at times and had to hold the book away from me.

And yet one page of Doctor Sleep and I would wake up to find two hours had passed and I had a crook neck.
Not the fault of the book, which I do rate.
My pretendy-narcolepsy is almost as debilitating as my quasi-insomnia. I spose I had at last 35 years practice at dealing with that.

You'd do better to try not to think of anything. Thinking about the future distracts you from the present. You can only sleep in the present.

Trazadone puts me out in combination with my sleepy head playlist and gabapentin oeeps me out.
My sleep study indicated the longest period of uninterrupted sleep was about 14 minutes or so, the average was about 8 minutes for a grand total of 3 hours.

I'm on the iPhone or I'd share more

I used a fitbit for awhile to track my sleep and it showed similar sorts of things - asleep for a few minutes, then restless/interrupted for a prolonged period, with a total of 2-3 hours' sleep/night. It was so depressing I stopped using it.

OMFG my mother snores SO GODDAMN LOUDLY. We will never, ever share a hotel room again, of that you may be sure.

LOL. People say that about me too

And ... still. Not. Sleeping.

Can I call in sick at work this morning? Is insomnia a thing?

When I was a clinical clerk in Toronto, this would have been seen as an advantage.

Now, it just means that I sample the night and waste the day.

What is your going to sleep routine?

What keeps you awake, your mind or your body?

I've said this before, but it bears repeating.

I had horrible insomnia in my last semester of college. I thought it was stress. But it turned out I was anemic.

I know there can be many reasons for insomnia, but this is an easy one to rule out.

I don't watch movies or exercise within 2 hours of going to bed. I read in bed and usually I fall asleep on my book - my daughter used to laugh at me when she'd come in late to kiss me goodnight and she'd find me 'sleeping while reading', with the book on my face. I used to fall asleep immediately but wake up again fairly soon due to pain in my feet from neuropathy. Just recently I've had trouble falling asleep and that's new. It's my mind. Too much on it, I guess.

Stress hoses my ability to sleep, as you can see ...

Interesting write up in Washington Post this morning about a new study just published in Science.

During sleep, our brain cells shrink, opening gaps in between the cells, which allows extremely efficient circulation of "cerebrospinal fluid throughout the brain tissue and flushing any resulting waste into the bloodstream, which then carries it to the liver for detoxification."

The circulation clears this waste, including "beta-amyloid protein, clumps of which form plaques found in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients."

Doesn't that Trazodone give you an awful headache when you wake up in the morning?

I was reading a thing about keeping light levels low for an hour before sleeping. Rather than having a light on and reading. Same with having no screens on. Maybe rather than reading, you could try listening to an audio book with the lights off.

I'll try anything. Last night was another bad night. I tried all my relaxation techniques, but I seem to have shifted from waking after one sleep cycle to not falling asleep until very late (i.e. 3:00 am or later) and then dreaming intensely, half-waking frequently, and finally watching the clock for the last hour until the alarm goes.

Not at all.

What do you eat and how soon before bed?

Sounds like someone could use a woobie.

I found the solution: spend half the day 1,000 feet underground inhaling dust as a 'shearer' grinds a coal seam into rubble; walk about five miles along tunnels whose walls sag and roofs are crumbly, slipping on wet gravel and mud, praying that your headlamp won't go out; drive several hours and then get lost in Baltimore after dropping a friend off; visit all the neighborhoods you really shouldn't and drive through a red light because getting T-boned is preferable to dealing with the guy who's assaulting your car door; find your away around all the closed roads and finally arrive home in a state of exhaustion; crawl into bed and fall instantly asleep.

Nightmares notwithstanding, by Jove, I slept. I'm still so tired tonight that it's lights-out time for me. No woobie needed.

I've been saying that all along. Stay in the moment! You were in the moment all day because you HAD TO BE in order to survive. Say what you will about being a moving target, but you were not worried about the upcoming tests or the patient that refused vaccines that day were you?

and workout. Physical activity during your day or that's barely different doesn't cut it. Spend at least 30 minutes running, swimming, dancing, brisk walking.... and don't do the same thing each time. Mix it up, it gets tour body and brain truly tired.

Quite so.

Let's not forget the soporific effects of breathing coal dust all day.

Permanently soporific ... but not for 20-30 years. Although, after watching them blow 'rock dust' composed of 4-5% silica mixed with lime all over the place without respiratory protection, I'm developing a theory about the reason for the uptick in aggressive CWP/Progressive Massive Fibrosis in the past 7-8 years. The new, bad pneumoconiosis makes its appearance in 7-10 years rather than 20-30.

Sorry, enough shop talk - I'll be putting everyone here to sleep. :blush:

Guess I really did put everyone to sleep. Damn. It's 3:55 am and nobody's around ... :(

Today was great, by the way. The four of us OSHA residents donned bow ties and posed for pics with the permanent staff ... and our Director, who has a great sense of humor and awesome fashion sense, tolerated our little joke. :)

Lunch out with coworkers, dinner with two of my sons ... a great day. I'm still smiling at almost 4 am. If only I could turn off the happiness and go to sleep ... but no harm, no foul. It was a good day.

I wish I could sleep. I've had my meds and half of a fifth of rum. Not the least bit drowsy. Too many intrusive thoughts with Veteran's Day approaching and the anniversaries of the deaths of my troops. God knows it would have been so much better if I had gone with them

it may be selfish of me to say "not better for us", but also not better for your children, Sarge. Hugs xxx

Sent by thought transference

I'm sorry about your troops, Sarge.

Man... I can't agree with you about "God knows....". I am glad you're still around, not dead. So's JBK, and the rest of the cellar. And what about your kids? And what about your lost troops? Would they wish you'd died?

Miss them, mourn them, honor them... I know you do. I know man.

the month of November is very hard on me. I lost 5 troops this month in 2005. sorry, I was sloshed last night

Don't apologise Sarge. But know that there's lots of people who are glad you're still with us. As Big V says: it's ok to mourn your troops and honour their memory here. X

Sent by thought transference

Y'all are sweet

Sending hugs, Sarge. This has to be a hard month, but know that we love you and are glad you're still here. The other life will wait. You still have people here. xx

I know. I hadn't had anything to drink in a long time and I had a little pity party. I will try to do better because I made a promise not to mix my meds and alcohol

You're a good man Sarge. Please take care of yourself.

After revelations this evening, plus the unwelcome, unwanted visits from two of my father's evil step-daughters (no, they're no relation to me and never will be), I suspect tonight will be a nap and not a sleep.

Honestly. Who steals a man's home from him, leaves him destitute, ignores him for four years, and then turns up the night before he departs, offering hugs, kisses, cards, and three-page letters full of bullshit?

Sociopaths, that's who. These women really think they're good people. It's never occurred to them that stealing someone's assets and taking away his home would be a bad thing. How could it be, if they benefit from it?

They've complained to my dad that, with the house empty, insurance will go up. I'm so glad I can take him out of here. I'd have done it before, but he wasn't ready.

Here's a li'l something for you to read. It's about my old boss who retired earlier this year. He was instrumental in my being awarded a Meritorious Service Medal (MSM). I just recently came across this article (more good info and photos). Who says doctors can't be good administrators!

SPOILERS!

"During his time in Vietnam, Rocky worked as a medic on a recon team with 5th SFG(A) and SOG (Studies and Observations Group)—the joint SF-CIA project that always got talked about in hushed tones in all the cool action movies."

"Though he was selected for Master Sergeant, Farr was accepted into the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences for medical school and commissioned as a Second Lieutenant. Because medical school was a walk in the park for 2LT Farr, he earned the distinguished honor graduate of his Army flight surgeons course while attaining his solo qualification in the TH-55 helicopter. That’s right, this guy learned to fly a helicopter during med school and being the top student..."

"Since 1983, Farr has held nearly every medical command position imaginable in the United States Army, from the course director of the special operations medical sergeants course all the way to command surgeon of United States Special Operations Command in Tampa, Florida in 2006—a position he held until his retirement this year."

"The list of citations, awards, and schools Colonel Farr lays claim to is nothing short of astounding. CMB with a star, EIB, Pathfinder, Scuba, Legion of Merit, Army Meritorious Service Medal with five Oak Leaf Clusters, and a Bronze Star with “V” device with one Oak Leaf Cluster are just a few among the many, many accomplishments in this man’s time in uniform."

"Through his development of training and educational methods for both medics and Special Forces doctors, Farr was able to help push the Army medical field—most notably in special operations—forward by always using the latest and greatest technology and adapting with an ever-growing knowledge base in the field of practiced medicine."

"At the time of his retirement, Colonel Farr was one of only 13 still in the Army who had served in Vietnam and the third-longest serving soldier on Active Duty."

how long can you go without sleep?

264 hours, but there's a heavy price to pay.

The longest I went w/o sleep was 75 hours. I was beginning to hallucinate.

Yes, I have heard elsewhere that it's 10 days, and then you're dead.

I've gone 2 days. Maybe, I'll get some tonight

Sleep???