Insomnia

[Nina_too]

Does anyone else have insomnia?  I hate HATE HATE it!  This latest bout started with a head cold, causing me to wake up a lot during the night.  Now that I'm actually starting to feel a bit better, I still wake up in the middle of the night.

Going on 5-6 days now with about 3 hours' sleep a night, and I am really starting to lose it!  The only advantage I can see to it is that most US-based computer apps run really fast at 3am.  I was able to do a LOT of online shopping in a short amount of time this past week.

Arrrrgh!

[jgoo]

Take some Niquill and see if that helps any. Feel better soon, Nina!

[chickering9]

... The only advantage I can see to it is that most US-based computer apps run really fast at 3am...

I consider that to be one of the biggest pluses to being one of the few up at that hour.

Actually, I was wondering about both of you and your hours tonight.  It's not at all unusual for me to be up all night or even all night and day for even several in a row.  I try to not do that, but when I know I simply will not sleep, I don't fight it and try to use the time for something productive.  My record is 6 days and nights in a row once.  Three is not at all uncommon.  And two is very frequent. 

A lot of my problem, if I actually considered it that, is that I simply lose track of time.  The day I quit that 22-year job, I threw all the watches in a drawer and stopped all the windup pendulum clocks and threw away the calendars.  I sometimes have to think really hard about what day it is because I rarely reference a calendar or clock and don't watch any regular programming or anything that provides a clue. 

Sometimes I have no idea if it's night or day and have to go look outside.  Twilight can be so confusing.  Sometimes I fool myself when it's twilight and cloudy.  It gets light when I think it's getting dark, or the other way around.   

Back when I did work outside of home, insomnia truly *was* a significant problem, though, so I do know how it can be for those who have to keep a regular schedule.  My worst days were going in and just trying to hang on all day till time to go home.

All through college, I worked midnight to 8 a.m. weeknights, then switched to being awake every weekend.  Four years of that left me in a Twilight Zone.

[Floristan]

Nina,

If you have a cold and are feeling lousy anyway, take a couple of generic benedryl (antihistimine with a heavy-duty drowsiness side effect) at bedtime.  Walgreen's calls theirs WalDryl, I believe.  You'll have a benedryl hang-over, but you'll get some sleep.  BTW, benedryl (or another antihistimine) is the ingredient in "nighttime" cold preparations that puts you to sleep.  Better to buy it separate and medicate yourself appropriately.

You might also consider calling your doctor and briefly using a prescription sleep aid like Sonata or Ambien.  The advantage to these is they don't stay in the system like benedryl, so no hangover.  Sonata lasts for about 4 hours, so is designed just to nudge you to sleep.  Ambien lasts 7-8 hours, but no hangover the next day.  Temporary use of prescription sleep medications is sometimes a good thing, as Martha says.

[Cindysphinx]

Ambien is a Miracle Drug.

Shhhhh!  Don't tell anyone.  More for us.

Cindy -- who has only taken Ambien about three times over the course of a year because she's afraid of becoming addicted

[teachum]

Playing piano right before I go to bed really helps me sleep!  Truly!  I really noticed it when I got back into playing.  But I do hate the occasional bout of insomnia.  Usually I toss and turn when something stressful is coming up - like school starting again.  THen I have class-management nightmares which keep waking me up.

[m1469]

I occasionally get insomnia.  Most bouts are only a few days here and there, but sometimes it can last much longer than that.  Weeks in a row where I get only 3 or 4 hours of wrestless sleep each night.  I have noticed that times like the latter seem to be times of great inspiration for me.  When I am going through great change and something big is happening in my life. 

As ChickGrandpa mentioned, I like to try to use this time to my advantage.  Catch up on some project which needs catching up on.  Reading etc.  I have never taken any drugs for it though, so I cannot recommend this like others.  I think that it has to do with a clear mind, and getting consistent exercise helps me acheive this.  I tend to lose sleep more easily when I am not exercising as much.

I have noticed just the opposite of what teachum has said, if I play the piano right before bed, I am often too thoughtful to then go to sleep.

Yes, overall it is not a fun thing.  I discover that many people experience it at one point or another. 

I hope you get it all sorted out and that you can get back on the train that sleeps very soon  .


Good luck,

JK Finn

[Jack Appleseed]

Nina,

For me, insomnia has always been related to a particular stressor, never too difficult to identify in my life.  If things are reasonably ok, I have no trouble falling asleep, though I do tend to wake up too early.

I have tried a couple of over the counter herbs and supplements--Valerian and Melatonin--but I think Benedryl is the best.  Almost always works for me.

A hot bath is also nice......

ja

[Bob]

This might be a little off the main topic, but...

I heard 'leptin' is a chemical or something that the body produces.  Less sleep means less Leptin.  I was wondering if you could buy that in the store and you might need less sleep.  Yeah, sounds a little far-fetched, but it might be worth a try.  Does anyone know where to get Leptin?

[Nina_too]

Thanks for all the tips, everyone!  I've used Ambien only once (technically twice), on flights between LA and Sydney.  I am not a relaxed flyer and the idea of sitting there trying to think about my "happy place" for 14 hours seemed pretty daunting.  The Ambien worked like a charm!  I think I slept for about 7 hours straight, woke up to fill out my little entrance card, dozed a bit more and woke again as we were circling Sydney to land.  It was heaven!

I've not heard of Leptin but I'll give it a try.  Ditto with Benadryl, although I personally don't like using antihistamines when I have a head cold... my philosophy is that you want to get all that stuff OUT of your head, not just dry it out.  I have no clue if this is medically sound or just the ravings of my sleep-deprived brain.

I'll post tonight if I'm up.  Hopefully you won't hear from me! 

[realitytest]

No, no, no!  Leptin is realted to fat metabolism!!

And I've taken Ambien almost nightly since it came out six or seven years ago and  haven't built up a tolerance.  There's a new ambien related sleeping med coming out  in Januarry (Zapelcon?? Word that comes to mind,,anyhow). 

Same as a med whch has been available in Euriope for a long time, with the difference being that the "new" one has been testes six months (oh, Wow!) for which we will pay the priviilege of about $3.5 apiece (oh, ow!   )

Go look up Provigil on Google.  The Reader's Dogest wrote an articcle about it.  A true miracle.  Not for sleep - but replaces sleep and acts as a phenomenol antidepessent.

Not related to amphetamines,  No one knows how it works, but it's got a big black market trade already.  Supposed to be for Sleep Apnea and ADD officially.  Maybe Narcolepsy.

OTC (but serious) is 5HTP but needs to be wactched carefully so as not to be combiend with bad ones as for insttance SSRI's which can lead to Serotonin overload (fatal).
 
OK enough of my drug info - gotta run (and sleep!)

realitytest

[chickering9]

...Same as a med whch has been available in Euriope for a long time, with the difference being that the "new" one has been testes six months (oh, Wow!) for which we will pay the priviilege of about $3.5 apiece (oh, ow!   )

Whose were they six months ago?  I certainly value mine at more than $3.50 apiece, but I have a tendency to overvalue things.  "Oh, ow", is right! 

[teachum]

"testes"cell research as opposed to "stem cell"   I know, *bad joke*!  Sorry Nina, didn't mean to turn your question into a joke thread, but someone else started it.  I too have used melatonin, valerian and found that benadryl works best when I occasionally need it.  Keeps the sinuses cleaned out too.

[Nina_too]

Hi, all!

I may live to not sleep again!  The last few nights I've hopefully broken the insomnia cycle for a while... until the next bout.  I've still been waking up, but have been able to fall back asleep again in just a few minutes, without getting up out of bed.  Whoopee! 

I feel like a new person--even my piano playing is improved.  (Of course, there is something called the "floor effect" that was also going on there....   ).

[lucy in the sky]

God, I wish that I could fall asleep!  It is almost seven in the morning and I have not yet slept.  I have a full day (and evening) of patients  ahead of me.   I listen intuitively so tiredness is not the problem that it would be for others.  I think that I need an exorcist.  Can agnostics employ exorcists ?        

Here's what I've tried

1.  Lavender sachets

2.  A hug

3.  Sleepytime tea

4.  Looking at my daughters beautiful face while she is in repose

5.  Petting my cats

6.  Magnesium

7.  Trying to play the Moonlight Sonata although it is far far beyond me

8.  And, last, a glass of wine

When I was younger I used to stay up all night with painters talking about art.  Then in the morning I'd go back to school and study Yeats.  I wish that  I were young again and could feel so well on little or no sleep!

Here is a box:  Suggestions welcomed.

Best, Lucy

[thracozaag]

  Sleep is for wimps.

koji (STSD)

[hodi]

i wish that i never had to sleep
it's just a waste of time
imagine that you don't have a need for sleep
u will earn that hours and u can practice the piano 7 hours more!

[lucy in the sky]

Yikes, I just read what I wrote when I was dead tired!  I'm quite sure that it doesn't belong here but I can't figure out how to remove it.     

[Jack Appleseed]

Yikes, I just read what I wrote when I was dead tired!  I'm quite sure that it doesn't belong here but I can't figure out how to remove it.     

Lucy, there were a lot of good ideas earlier in the thread, but they may have involved more in the way of drugs than you are comfortable with.  A hot bath with The New Yorker is my favorite non-chemical sleep aid.

ja

[Rich D.]

Nina,
I use to have insomnia on occasion a few years back.  I'm a runner and use to get it if I over trained and became overly tired.  I'd go a couple of days sometime without any sleep.  Obvously not over training reduced my bouts with insomina but I'd still get it on occasion.   I have found that for me doing 30-40 minutes of modest excercise daily, but finishing up no closer than three hours before bedtime helps me sleep.

[squinchy]

Bwee. As a hormone-loaded teenager, my circadian rhythms are about as in tune with the rest of the world's 24 hour schedule as my school's piano. I haven't figured out any remedies yet because I'm panaroid of finding not a cause-effect relation between remedy-sleep but just a thishappens-thensleephappens relation. [I think lack of sleep is really bad for sentence forming abilities. Yeah.]

My mom recommends deep breathing, meditation, a daily vitamin with extra zinc/magnesium/calcium, and rubbing the pressure points in the palms of the hands and soles of the feet.

My strings teacher recommends turkey and warm milk. [Triptophan. Trip to the Carribean. Trip to Alaska. Haha.]

A website recommended staring at a light box for half an hour a day at very specific times, but then I noticed that they're a company that makes lightboxes.

[post shall be finished later. I have to go to a piano lesson.]