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Insomnia blues


Big Al

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Hi Al.

Can I ask, and I don't want to come across as prying here, but do you feel sleepy, get into bed and then lie awake?

Or is it a case of not feeling sleepy?

I frequently, about 5 nights out of 7, get into bed tired, then about 1 or 2 hours later wake up and then spend the next few hours awake or roaming the house.

My body feels tired but my mind is racing. Ideal time to play my sax but I think I'd get arrested at these small hours.

Any solutions that help you, or can you suggest any that may help me.

cheers, tonym

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Have a nice time Al.

Listening to anything at the moment?

Just listening to some Cal Tjader clips while awaiting the arrival of Cuban Fantasy from BMG. I'm staring at a sealed Underground that I got from BMG in error, debating if I should open it or wait and see if they're gonna want me to send it back.

Y'know, the more I stay here, the more awake I get. Come to think of it, I didn't eat dinner tonight (too busy actually preparing it at church tonight to actually sit down and eat, then when I did get the chance, we were all cleaned out). Fridge, here I come!!!!!

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I frequently, about 5 nights out of 7, get into bed tired, then about 1 or 2 hours later wake up and then spend the next few hours awake or roaming the house.

My body feels tired but my mind is racing.

That's precisely what it is, and that happens more often than not. Then I get to work, and I'm absolutely zonked!

And the silly thing is, I'm taking tomorrow (or is it today now?) off from work so my wife and I can spend the day Christmas shopping together. AAAUUGGGHH!!!!

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I hear ya brother(s)! I can set my own hours of work, since I work out of my house(For the time being I can do this at least) Which seems like a dream come true, except....I don't HAVE to go to bed! So, why go to bed? :wacko: My brain seems to fire on all cylinders after midnight as well. I find that just as I start to think about going to bed, some idea jumps into my head, or I decide 4 am is just the right time to check out this board.....Next thing I know, the sun is coming up, and it is hard to get to sleep, or stay asleep with the sun poring in around your blinds. And all sorts of thoughts go thru my noggin as I am laying there trying to sleep. Tylenol PM works for a few nights if I haven't taken it in a while, but then I might as well not be taking anything, and that is what I do....sleep for 4-5 hours, wake up MUCH more tired than I ever was before going to bed, and try to work in front of a computer with blurry eyes and it seems tryptophan is pouring into my bloodstream. Now, time to take a power nap! ^_^ No problem shutting my brain off in the afternoon. Light is no longer a problem either! Wake up groggy, and now that I have a nap, who needs to go to bed in the early A.M.? :rolleyes:

That, and the fact that great minds like we all possess cannot be shut off easily like others can. I imagine Jessica Simpson is asleep before her head hits the pillow......

Edited by BERIGAN
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And all sorts of thoughts go thru my noggin as I am laying there trying to sleep.

[snip]

That, and the fact that great minds like we all possess cannot be shut off easily like others can. I imagine Jessica Simpson is asleep before her head hits the pillow......

WORD! :tup

Okay, I feel properly sleepy again. I'm going back to bed. Nighty-night, all. Thanks for the early morning cheer!

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I'm staring at a sealed Underground that I got from BMG in error, debating if I should open it or wait and see if they're gonna want me to send it back.

Open it by all means! It's great music to put you through the night.

Did they send you one disk too many or did this one come instead of one you ordered? I have received packages with disks that must have slipped in by mistake two or three times and never really bothered to send them back; probably it would cost the company more to have it sent back and reimburse postage costs than the disk is worth. Particularly when talking about cheap-o CDs with a low margin on them.

Edited by couw
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And all sorts of thoughts go thru my noggin as I am laying there trying to sleep.

[snip]

That, and the fact that great minds like we all possess cannot be shut off easily like others can. I imagine Jessica Simpson is asleep before her head hits the pillow......

WORD! :tup

Okay, I feel properly sleepy again. I'm going back to bed. Nighty-night, all. Thanks for the early morning cheer!

Misery does so love company! ;)

Hey!!!!! :huh: I see your name at the bottom of the page! Go to bed young man! :angry:

Edited by BERIGAN
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Sometimes your circadian rhythm can get confused and your body gets mixed up on when it should sleep. The result is no "good" sleep.

Some easy steps to set things right are to try to go to bed at the same time each night to reestablish a rhythm of sleep. You can use a sleep agent to help for awhile but long term they can make matters worse.

Your doctor can prescribe an agent but really, good old Benadryl works pretty well. (That's what is in Tylenol PM and most other over the counter sleep agents so just get the cheap stuff and take 50mg)

Sleep disturbances are also sometimes the result of stress or underlying depression and treating these conditions will help the problem.

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Al,

While you're out Christmas shopping, pick up one of these:

a503-03.jpg

;)

Actually, you'd be surprised how well this works. I had pretty bad insomnia for a while when I lived overseas and then in my last couple of years of college. A girlfriend bought me a teddy bear and I tried sleeping with it one night, and found I slept much better. Weird...

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Wow...thought I was rare. At least two or three nights a week, I'll actually fall asleep, sleep for fifteen minutes to half an hour, and wake up refreshed, ready to go, with no way to get back to sleep. I usually have to stay up for three hours minimum before I can get back to sleep. Then drag all day...

So if you see me here after 10:00 Pacific Time, it's another long night.

I think the main problem is that I've been a night owl all my life. Always worked swing or grave. Even in high school, I'd come home, nap for a couple of hours and stay up most of the night. Now, I have to be at work at 7 AM. I've been doing it for about two years now, and I'm beginning to face the fact that those who said "you'll adjust" just didn't know what the hell they were talking about.

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Sometimes your circadian rhythm can get confused and your body gets mixed up on when it should sleep. The result is no "good" sleep.

This can be quite often the case.

A few years back I had this job where I worked from early evening to around 3 or 4am. By the time i got to bed it would be well after 4.

Some of my shifts were from 11pm to 8am.

This was constant, no rotation with day shifts and I am assuming that this 'pattern' just compounded my sleeping problems.

BTW, a friend told me that the 'sleeping then waking' thing was a sign of depression! The same way too much alcohol (a depressant) can have the same result.

all the best, tonym

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I think the main problem is that I've been a night owl all my life. Always worked swing or grave. Even in high school, I'd come home, nap for a couple of hours and stay up most of the night. Now, I have to be at work at 7 AM. I've been doing it for about two years now, and I'm beginning to face the fact that those who said "you'll adjust" just didn't know what the hell they were talking about.

This is almost my situation, to a "T". The 7 AM thing is starting to get increasingly difficult for me, even after less than a year. But getting to work at 6 AM this past week has made me appreciate what that extra hour of sleep can do for me.

In my early 20's I had depression related insomnia, which went on for about a year. I did a few months of therapy, but I eventually just kind of got over the things that were depressing me, but those long nights were a bitch and a half I will tell ya. I was a real night person up until about 5 years ago, when my ex and I started living together. Now, I am on the verge of cohabing with my current gf and she is REAL light sleeper. As for myself, I toss and turn and try for a while to get comfortable thus If I don't turn off my brain and actually start to get to bed earlier I can toss and turn and then I can't sleep which is a real pain. If I hunker down and read for a bit or do some yoga type stretching excersizes, and then read for a bit I can get to sleep, that has helped me a bit recently. It still doesn't make it any easier to get up at 5 freakin' AM!

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Oh yes. I'm all too familiar w/ the fucked up scenario that is insomnia. I get up at either 3:30 or 5:30 A.M. 3 or 4 times a week. It's either that I wake up to relieve ye' ole bladder or from some weird dream. I've found that the only thing that will effectively slow down the brain is to write 2 or 3 pages of the same shit that my mind is circulating. I wake up feeling less than 100% than if I slept a solid 8, but at least it's a 1/2 hr. episode instead of a 2 or 3. And I agree that (or the generic equivalent of) Benadryl is a good O.T.C. sleeper. :eye:

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