How to... get to sleep.

[yaspis]

Since the mid of January I've been sleeping badly. Or worse, not sleeping. I've tried every resource I could imagine; excercise, meds, herbs, relaxing music, hot and cold showers, hot drinks, cold drinks... The list goes on but nothing helps.

I know that there must be some fellow insomniacs here on Lit, since about one third of Earth's human population suffers from some sort of sleep disorders (according to a documentary that I recently saw). I'd like to hear your suggestions, stories and ways of coping. How do you fall asleep? How do you stay awake the next day? How does your physique respond to the constant restlessness?

Thank you in advance.

 

[Different Guy]

Trouble Sleeping

Hey yaspis

I suffer from lack of sleep too and it's very annoying. However, after visiting the docter he said I could have insomnia but also may not.

I can go for a few days without sleep, just not feeling tired to go to sleep, and it won't affect me whatsoever. I can lie in bed till 5am trying to sleep and it just won't happen so I end up going for a jog at around 6am and then come back refreshed for another day.

HOWEVER

Some days I may only get a few hours sleep, or perhaps not sleep at all and it will be impossible to carry out the day and end up crashing out at around 5pm.

I can't go to sleep in a dark quiet room. I find it easier to sleep with my TV on. People say that's bad because your brain is still working on focussing on what's happening on the TV but I stick it on a channel with something un-interesting, set the time for half an hour to shut off and sometimes it works I'll just nod off with the TV on in the background.

I don't know if it's noise, light or the thought of company but I find it easier to sleep with the TV on, a light on, and in the car/bus or train. For most people, calm and quietness are the ideal elements for sleep. Personally, I can relax when there's noise and lights happening around me.

Perhaps it's the un-nerving feel of silence? I can quiet easily snooze on long bus-rides, or train journeys.

Anyway, I've said more about me but one theory I may have for you is, noise, are you comfortable with it? Try drifting away from a busy environment e.g. a TV...

 

[midwestyankee]

Several weeks ago Noor began a thread here on this same subject. As I recall, she received a wealth of good advice.

Here is the link to that thread which, as I recall, had a title that had little to do with sleep.

https://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=223033

 

[cyberangel69]

I know where you're coming from. Some weeks I survive on 4 or 5 hours a night with no adverse effects and then the next week I can't keep my eyes open.

One piece of great advice is keep a consistent schedule. Go to bed at the same time every night and wake up at the same time the next morning. I find that if I let my self sleep in then it's impossible go to bed the next night.

I find warm milk really does help.

My SO said he heard somewhere that if you can't sleep you shouldn't lay in bed for an extended period of time, get up and watch TV, read a book (organic chemistry is good for that )

What NOT to do:

last semester during finals i couldn't sleep at all because I was so worried about my grades and if I had studied enough. So I took nyquil becuase nyquil always puts me to sleep. Then in the morning I would be exhausted so I'd drink lots of diet coke.

Pretty soon my body lost its internal clock, it only went to sleep with nyquil and only woke up with caffeine. It was bad. When I stopped taking the nyquil i didn't get to bed for like a week straight. So don't resort to drugs to put you to sleep unless you've talked to your doctor first.

Good luck!

 

[SIC]

i havent been sleeping good for a couple of years now. Now i have a job where i do night shifts and when i was still in university(its done till sept) I would work 10pm till 7 am then leave work and drive straight too school for 8 i did this almost ever day. I can go to soild days with out sleep and if i try to get a couple hours sleep the next morning i am super grumpy my mom doesnt talk to me. I would also like to know how to get to bed sonner cause i just never feel tired

 

[SlvrTongueDevil]

What ususally fuels my insomnia is thinking about the day that passed or what's going to happen the next day. I've only found one (well, maybe two if you include hot sex) things that help me sleep. Reading some good fiction - something to totally occupy my mind and put me in a relaxed state before trying to fall asleep.

I find that if I haven't been reading, I have a real problem.

 

[bobsgirl]

This may be way off base, but if you've been told you snore, you might consider seeing a doctor about sleep apnea. Before mine was diagnosed, I was only sleeping two or three hours a night because my continuous lack of oxygen kept waking me up. And I felt like hell during the day.

But here are some simple tips that help me get a better night's sleep.

Don't take long naps, especially late in the day. This is a big one for me. Post at Lit instead.

No caffeine in the evening. I used to drink Pepsi at night while I watched TV. Bad idea.

Good idea to try to keep as regular a schedule as you can.


Hope you can get some relief soon!




Edited to remove disobedient smilies...

 

[DirkPryde]

.

 

[frustratedpoodle]

Sleep

I am an insomnia sufferer myself, and I relate well to your plight. I have tried it all.

Melatonin: This should be taken only if you are 30+ years old, because it supplies you with the melatonin you lose naturally, which get you to sleep, as you age. Taking it at any age younger than that is strongly discouraged because in younger people, it can have adverse effects. I don't recommend it. I tried it right aroung the time I turned thirty thinking that all my prayers for a good night's sleep were answered, and it worked for a week. Then, I would take it and be up until dawn, restless as all get out. Another warning if you take this... only take it at night. It works with your body's natural response to darkness:rest.

Sominex: It's actually the same thing as Benadryl, just packaged differently. An antihistamine, it helps me when I have my bad nights, but read the package warnings to see if it is right for you.

Sleepy-Time Tea: I have found that if I am already tired, but not quite sleepy, a mug of this stuff will push me over the edge and into sleep. Don't count on sleeping through the night if you aren't used to, but you'll at least fall asleep.

I used to avoid sleep aids because I wanted to do things naturally, and not depend on a pill to help me sleep. To an extent, I still feel that way, but reality is, when you have things to do and you can't afford to be up all night, a mild sleep aid usually does the trick. I would try these things before having a doctor prescribe something potentially addicting, even if is stronger.

I have also found that keeping to a schedule helps, as does getting out of bed when you aren't tired. I take my crotcheting to bed if I am not going to engage in sexual activity (duh, I know), but the point is that doing something sort of mind numbing like that helps. Reading goes along that line too.

Good luck and sweet dreams...

The Poodle

 

[frustratedpoodle]

I used to have trouble sleeping, you know what I did ?
I turned off and packed away the clock radio that was on my bed side table, it worked a treat. It has something to do with the amount of Electromagnectic Radiation it outputs.

The same can be said if your power metre is on the other side of the wall, even the power packs used to charge mobile phones etc etc can output a quite a bit ...

That's my experience it only took 3 nights for me to notice the difference! Hope it helps

That's interesting as hell. I'm gonna experiment now...

 

[zhukov1943]

Hmmm - the best thing I know is to take a few "tokes". After the "ooh, cool" feeling goes away - instant nappy-time!

 

[frustratedpoodle]

Hmmm - the best thing I know is to take a few "tokes". After the "ooh, cool" feeling goes away - instant nappy-time!

Hee hee. I wasn't going to say that, but yeah, you're right! Though at the worst of times, that hasn't helped either, just made the insomnia more tolerable.

The Poodle

 

[DirkPryde]

.

 

[frustratedpoodle]

It is, I mean a Doctor gave me sleeping pills and they didn't work, my mind was still as active as anything. If you can get any electric equipment away from your head do it.

Let us know how go with it

Will do. I am actually looking forward to trying to sleep to see how that works.

 

[dollface007]

I too find that the tv works wonders. I had an old tv and vcr lying around so i put them in my bedroom. Now every night, i put on a movie i've seen a million times, or watch a really boring late night rerun, turn on the timer, and i'm usually asleep w/in 15-20 minutes. If i don't do this, my mind tends to race about what i did that day, what i'm doing the next day, the guy i happen to have a crush on that night, etc , etc. The tv takes my focus away from all that and i tend to just drift off.

 

[yaspis]

Thank you all for your kind responses. This truly has given me different views and a few new options. Melantonin could be the answer, however I am not quite old enough. Plus, even if I were, I'd highly consider it, as your body easily builds up resistance against it, in effect making coping on your own melantonin produced by the pineal gland quite hard. My friend is on melantonin right now, and he says it's quite costly and the side effects (drowsiness during the day) are noticeable.

I also got a sleep pill perscription from my doctor around mid-February, a pill called Tenoxin, which consist of lactose monohydrate and temazepam. Being a lactose intolerant, that put me through hellish stomach cramps and also gave me a nasty baby migraine. It definately did not get me to sleep.

I'm fairly interested in chemistry, particularly with pharmacetics and psychoactives (surprise surprise), and stumbled across codeine when I had my annual spring flu. It came evident that codeine and I would be friends - it got me rid of all cramps and pain I had and got me sleeping like a baby, not to mention the pleasant woozines. Later I found out that codeine is classified as an opiate.

I'd love to have a choice in my daily rhythm, as I'm a very nocturnal person. I hate to sleep during the night, and early mornings..? Don't get me started on the absolute wrongness in that. It's quite hard to force my body to shut down when I'd still love to stay up until 3 am doing all sorts of things, but the horrid recollection of the morning before is enough to scare you to bed. Sex would be a wonderful relaxant, but I live far away from my SO, who happens to be the very best sleep aid I know.

Its 10.15 am here. I'm going to bed with my stuffed animals to try to get some sleep before morning comes. Wish me luck, I do to you. G'night.

 

[brioche]

A few more tips:

Before anyone asks me to substantiate this, I have a sleep disorder, diagnosed insomnia, chronic iron-deficiency anemia, and both depression and general anxiety disorder, all of which interfere with sleep. After a decade I know a fair bit about the subject. I only delurk when I have something to contribute.

If you are willing to stick with it, the "No More Sleepless Nights" kit can help you. It contains a book, workbook, CD, where you can print out sleep logs, and a sleep timer. This is something you put around your wrist and touch, and when you go to sleep your hand relaxes and it starts to time. Once you have trained yourself to hold it at night, grab it if you wake up in the middle of the night, and stop it in the morning you get a really good idea of how long you are actually sleeping. (It sounds hard but it's really not). I believe the website is sleepplace.com. As doctors specializing in sleep disorders, they have a wealth of advice.

Go to a sleep lab and have yourself evaluated. Now. If your sleep patterns have changed there is usually a reason. I not only had insomnia but have PLMS - Periodic Limb Movements in Sleep. My legs jerk about every 30 seconds and every once in a while they jerk enough to wake me up. When I filled out the after-lab form, they asked me, "How many times did you wake up in the night?" I wrote 2. Not quite - in 5 hours? 72 times. Unmedicated I was getting less than 76% efficiency from my sleep. In the words of the doctor? "You must be a VERY tired girl." He wasn't being patronizing either.

Cut out caffeine if you can. I did it and feel much better as far as falling asleep, though now if I have it it affects me more. Also, never have anything with guarana in it - it is something like 100 times more potent than caffeine, and is in a lot of sports drinks. Alcohol may make you fall alseep but it won't be restful sleep and it will wake you later, even if you don't remember it.

You will not ever fall asleep while worrying about not sleeping. It's nearly impossible. Try to think about other things. The No More Sleepless... has scripts of relaxation exercises you can tape and listen to at times like this. If you are and you can't stop, get up and do something else.

Accept that you eventually may have to take medication for it and move on. this of course is only after you have been seen by a doctor.

Your doctor should know about this and do tests to rule out things.
Some of the things that can cause fatigue and/or insomnia:
high blood sugar, emerging diabetes, hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism, depression, anorexia, bulimia, iron deficiency anemia, generalized anxiety disorder, clinical depression, B12 deficiency, vitamin deficiency, heart problems, melatonin imbalance/deficiency, fibromyalgia, mononucleosis, chronic fatigue syndrome...there are so many things. This is why you need to work WITH a doctor. It can also be a little of several things that only interact sometimes, such as times of high stress or certain seasons.
I got quite a bit better when I was placed in a situation where I could only be in bed for 9 hours max. I had to make the most of the sleep I could get. Only do it as a last resort though - the first 2 months were hell.

It's also really easy to fall into a rigid schedule and be afraid to try anything different. Tonight I will not sleep well because I got a craving for Coke Classic and indulged it, but I won't regret it. I got over it and won't have it again for months if not years.

Hope something in this blathering on helps.
Hang in there.