Saturday, September 20, 2008

Insomnia

Insomniac Sheep by Rob Scotton

I've been having the worst time sleeping for the last couple of months. It's really starting to drive me crazy. My life has become a series of short naps. I can't recall the last time I went to bed and slept straight through until morning. Usually, if I fall asleep at a decent hour, I'll wake up around 3:00 a.m. and that's it. No more sleep. OR- I'll be awake until 3:00 or 4:00, staring anxiously at the clock thinking, "Even if I fall asleep right this second, I'll only get 3 hours before it's time to get up." It's not unusual for me to be up for 24 hours straight- waking up at 3:00 one morning, then staying awake until 3:00 the next. And the time I do spend sleeping only lasts for an hour or two at a time. Last night, I got to bed early and when I woke up from my first "nap," I looked at the clock and saw it was only eleven-flippin'-o'clock! Most people haven't even gone to bed by that time and I was already up. Sometimes, I can turn over and go right back to sleep. Sometimes, there are hours in between the naps. In the afternoon and early evening, I'm always so freakin' exhausted that I'm thinking, "Oh, man- I bet I'm going to lay down and just die tonight. Surely, I'll get some good sleep. I just have to." ...Ummm, no.

I don't like taking any of those OTC sleep aids, or PM pain relievers because, even though they may help me fall asleep, I think they make me feel foggy and fuzzy in the morning. I don't feel rested and awake, so what's the point? And I'm not interested in those prescription sleep meds that have all the hilarious side effects- like, "Some individuals may get up and drive while sleeping." No, thank you.

Does this happen to any of you? What do you do about it? Somebody help me, please.

This post was pretty boring, so thank you for sticking with it (if you did). Now, you're probably feeling sleepy! Hey, maybe that's my answer. I just need to read my own posts at night to put myself to sleep, ya think?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes! I've posted about it too. I don't go to bed at a good time though. I was "redecorating" my other blog at 1:30 this morning. Went to bed at about 2:00 got up at 5:30 and I've been up ever since. If I go to bed about 10, I only sleep until 1 or 2, then I'm up. I'm exhausted during the day but I hate naps because I wake up in a terrible mood (if I can even dose of!), then I can't sleep that night. It's horrible. I don't do sleep aids either. I hate feeling groggy. The only thing I used to do was take Benedril but I took it so much that it now has zero effect on me. I feel your pain sister!

Kelly said...

I have a really really hard time with sleep. Mine got so out of control that I had to start medicine. I actually felt like I was going nuts from lack of sleep. I was getting about 2 hours a day for many days. The medicine definitely helps, but I still don't sleep through the night and if I go to bed early, I am up at about 3 am for the day. Ridiculous. Sleep problems are the worst. I hope it gets better soon.

Anonymous said...

Have you tried Melatonin? It's an "herbal" thing and while I don't usually use that stuff, I've read a lot of good things about it and we're trying it with R~ (in 1/2 mg. doses, which is very very low) because she has the worst time going to sleep at night - and it's working really well. Where normally she'll toss and turn until 11pm, now she's asleep by 9. Might be worth a try...

S. said...

i am so sorry. that sounds awful. I read some guys long story about he handled this and it worked...let me see if I can find it somehow.

Anonymous said...

I was going to suggest melatonin, and saw that Christina already did. I know for some people it works wonders, and for others it does nothing. It's worth a shot, though. Not terribly expensive and you can find it at any health food store and probably even major grocery chains. Just look in the vitamin/supplement section. I got it a few years back to help with my sleep issues, but then realized my sleep issues were children waking me up, so melatonin really couldn't help. But that's how sleep deprived I was -- I started taking the stuff anyway.

Anonymous said...

I only had this problem once for a short period. I finally figured out (no thanks to my doctor) my allergy medication was the cuprit. It made me unable to sleep and when I did I had really weird dreams. Now I take it first thing in the morning and I don't drink caffeine after about 5:00.
I hope you get some much needed rest soon!

The Traveling Turtle said...

OH MY! I posted something on this a while back! How annoying is it? It is even worse when you know everyone else is sleeping like a log and you are tryin your best to join in the fun!

The Traveling Turtle said...

OH MY! I posted something on this a while back! How annoying is it? It is even worse when you know everyone else is sleeping like a log and you are tryin your best to join in the fun!