Has Anyone Conquered Insomnia? page 8

[JoanieL]

I haven't been able to conquer the inability to get 7+ hours of sleep in one stretch. I now take naps to compensate. In fact that sounds great right about now.

[Kate Ruckman]

Nope, haven't conquered it here, either. I take Melatonin, drink Sleepytime Extra tea, and valerian, as does my husband. I often wake up MULTIPLE times with a dry mouth (nope, don't have diabetes) and he normally gets up in the wee hours, reads for a while, then goes back to bed, sometimes for a decent amount of time, sometimes not. I get off the computer by 7 or so, and don't watch TV (unless we pop in a DVD), so it's not that.

Some nights are a lot better than others, but I haven't really figured out why! One thing that helps but that I HATE doing, is taking a Benadryl. Phooey...

[Euphoric]

OP: Have you searched for a doctor's opinion on this? I know some of us here dislike doctors, but perhaps seeing one may be worth the extra sleep.

If that's not an option, take what free time you have without working, and plan a nap accordingly. A biphasic sleep pattern may help if you can pull it off. I believe Mark did a post on it in his self experimentation series.

Grizz thinks iodine (last month it was vitamin D) is the cure for everything. He has an established pattern of grabbing hold of one panacea and relentlessly hyping it for weeks or months before he moves on to the next "miracle".

Not saying he's wrong--just be aware of the pattern, and take his advice with a pinch of salt. Iodized or regular is up to you of course.

Ha...

[Kate Ruckman]

OP: Have you searched for a doctor's opinion on this? I know some of us here dislike doctors, but perhaps seeing one may be worth the extra sleep.

If that's not an option, take what free time you have without working, and plan a nap accordingly. A biphasic sleep pattern may help if you can pull it off. I believe Mark did a post on it in his self experimentation series.


Ha...

Yep, I did indeed ask my doctor...he gave me sleeping pills for emergency use only--but they didn't work either! Weird, eh? We do try to tell ourselves that this is our break and soon the Second Sleep will be underway (or in my case sometimes the 14th...). I don't seem to be able to nap in the daytime unless I am REALLY SICK. My husband can and does, though.

Good darn thing I'm the Energizer Bunny!

[simpstr]

Just get up when you wake up. Sometimes your body just doesn't need more sleep. When I went paleo, I was up earlier but felt refreshed.

[Euphoric]

Yep, I did indeed ask my doctor...he gave me sleeping pills for emergency use only--but they didn't work either! Weird, eh? We do try to tell ourselves that this is our break and soon the Second Sleep will be underway (or in my case sometimes the 14th...). I don't seem to be able to nap in the daytime unless I am REALLY SICK. My husband can and does, though.

Good darn thing I'm the Energizer Bunny!

That stinks. It is a curious situation, shame I can't help.
Have you tried different sleeping materials? Different bed? Sheets / blankets? Pillow, perhaps?

Just get up when you wake up. Sometimes your body just doesn't need more sleep. When I went paleo, I was up earlier but felt refreshed.

The OP isn't feeling so great from this, as noted below. (I cropped a few things out of the first post, but these are there.)

Most nights I never fall back asleep. I'm miserable, feeling sick every day from being so tired.

Is there anyone out there who has beat this problem of waking up early? I am NOT doing well on just 5-6.5 hours of sleep per night. This stinks!

[Kate Ruckman]

Just get up when you wake up. Sometimes your body just doesn't need more sleep. When I went paleo, I was up earlier but felt refreshed.

I'm fine with 5 or 6 o'clock, but I HATE it when I wake up at midnight and can't go back to sleep! I'm all groggy and cranky. :-(

[Kate Ruckman]

That stinks. It is a curious situation, shame I can't help.
Have you tried different sleeping materials? Different bed? Sheets / blankets? Pillow, perhaps?

Yep, different beds make sleeping more difficult--you know, the whole strange bed thing. REALLY slept poorly last time we traveled. We've got lovely cotton sheets...I did buy a softer pillow last year and that helped. And of course if I just got up when I woke up, some times that would be 10 or 12 times. Not great...

[Euphoric]

Ouch. Well, the only thing left that comes to mind at the moment... I recall reading about a group of Taoists who made it a habit to go to bed when they weren't tired, often napping throughout the day. Surely they used some kind of relaxation and / or meditation methods to get down to that, but perhaps you could try? The idea behind it, supposedly, was that they were priming themselves to go to bed when they felt like it, so they never had to go to bed when they were tired, because they never were.

[BestBetter]

In our search to figure out what the heck is going on with my husband (and occasionally me), one of the things that's been on the radar is histamine intolerance. One of the symptoms (among many others, especially low blood pressure) is sleep disturbance. If you've got trouble sleeping AND you have some of the other symptoms, this could be something to check out.

Histamine intolerance