Insomnia -- Let's Have a Discussion That's Exciting Enough to Keep Us Awake -- Or So Boring That It Puts Us to Sleep! :)

Hey Everyone,

I've noticed several people on the forum have mentioned sleeping problems, so I thought it might be helpful to talk about.

I've been an insomniac for years. It seemed to have been triggered by my divorce. I came home from a typical day at work to find the house empty -- he had moved out to be with his girlfriend without telling me. I would stay awake for days at a time, hoping he would call to say he'd changed his mind, but he never did. And so, I started working all the time, both to pay the bills and to keep myself from constantly dwelling on a now half-empty house.

I also started working every shift there is -- early mornings, late nights, and finally overnights (10 PM to 6 AM), as well as in different time zones. But no matter where I am, my natural body clock always wants to sleep early, just for an hour or two at most, then wakes up in the middle of the night, staying up and wanting to sleep again -- usually about 2 hours before I have to get up anyway. I might sleep through the night 3 times a week, but even then, I'm constantly waking up.

I've worked with several different doctors and have tried a few prescription remedies like allergy pills -- and one that literally made me feel like the words were melting off the pages when I tried to read -- so I stopped taking that after a few days.

Right now, under doctor's supervision, I use Unisom Sleep Tabs (for some reason, they have to be the tabs, not the gels, and it has to be Unisom -- the generic and store brands don't work for me) and a small dose of melatonin. It's definitely not a perfect solution but it's been enough to help me get by.

A while back, I also came across a video about a woman who talked about having a Non-24-Hour Circadian Rhythm, and this made a lot of sense. Her system doesn't work on a 24-hour wake/sleep cycle like most people are assumed to be. I started watching videos about people who have shorter and longer cycles than "normal" -- for instance, someone with a 40-hour circadian rhythm -- and they all talked about how hard it is to live in a 9 to 5 world.

I haven't done as much research about it as I'd like, and I don't know yet if there are effective treatments -- but I wanted to mention it in case it might help anyone else. It does sound like something I could have, as my system seems to only want to sleep a full night once every 3 or 4 days.

What about you?

* Do you have problems sleeping? Was there anything in particular that seems to have brought it on?

* What have you done in order to try to diagnose, treat, and cope with your lack of sleep? How long have you been struggling?

* Does living with/around other people make a big difference? Do you think you'd sleep better if you lived alone? Do you have a spouse with sleeping problems that literally keep you awake?

* What things have you tried that both have and haven't worked? Were there any times when you felt God intervened to change or heal your sleeping?

I would really be interested in hearing how this affects other people, and how they've found ways to deal with it.

I'm happy if I manage to go into a deep enough sleep that a dream occurs, whether it is good or bad or that I even remember exactly what it was. Typically, this occurs at not very long before the time of awaking, which is probably why people are said to 'awake from a dream' and not so much that the dream wakens you. I use this as my gauge for whether I procured an adequate amount of sleep, as I don't recall ever having any sort of reliable pattern to go by, and I consider comparing myself to others' sleep pattern as comparing apples to tomatoes (which aren't exactly clear on whether they are a fruit or a vegetable). So, I recommend the one solution that solves just about any problem anyone might have. Get a cat.

I've struggled with insomnia recently, but my case isn't a regular case, as it's partly "self-inflicted".

I have read about it in a college (brain) textbook, and heard experts on NPR many times.

Sleep for most:

1 Exercise 5-7 times a week (especially cardio 20-30 min)
2 Don't do anything other than sleep in your bed... don't read, do work.
3 Keep to a consistent sleep schedule.
4 Use blackout shades if you have to sleep when there's still light out.
5 Sleep at night, not during the day.
6 Don't do anything that excites your mind before bed... thinking about trauma, stressful things.
7 For some, writing in a journal and giving your troubles over to God in prayer before bed can calm the mind.
8 Take an epson salt warm bath.

To kickstart a new sleep schedule... (temporary)
Stay up for 24 hours.
Valarian Root
Benadryl
Melatonin
Of course, you don't want to continue taking a substance for a long period.

If none of these things work for you, see a medical specialist. May have sleep apnea.

I would love to get a full night's sleep, but my bladder wakes me every two hours. It even keeps my afternoon nap to under two hours. If you have a solution that works, I'd like to hear it.

I don't even know where to start on this subject lol. I've always had sleep issues as far back as I can remember. I got some bad sleep last night and my mind is still a bit jumbled up from that. Maybe specific questions could rouse up some coherent thoughts from me but apparently the topic is too broad for my current mind to figure out how to answer.

I apologize for asking such an obvious question, but just cause you didn't mention it... did you already do the sleep apnea test?

Yep, I remember in a college course I read about a test done with a subject who went deep underground with no contact or sunlight with the outside world and his sleep pattern went off "normal". Sleeping various amounts of hours and at different times in the day.

It's interesting. Hard to tell a lot from one subject, and when isolated from sunlight... but I think it's really interesting. Individuals can certainly have different sleep rhythms. But as you said, if embraced, it's hard to do with a 9-to-5, etc.

I certainly notice, if left to my own devices, vacation, etc, I tend to nap early evening; and stay up later and later into the post-midnight hours.

No worries Sculpt! Glad to see you here.

I'm probably going to sound like a bit of a hypocrite for this but no, I've never been tested for sleep apnea. I've actually never been tested for a lot of things I often wonder if I'm struggling with (ADHD, etc.) But the reason is because I've known other people -- family and friends -- who did go through the testing and it became a huge hassle and expense. In some cases, they wound up just having to deal with it in their own ways even after spending small fortunes.

I have a relative who went through the whole spiel, got a CPAP machine and everything -- but it was so cumbersome that he couldn't stand to use it for very long and gave up.

I don't think I could ever sleep with some piece of equipment covering my face or a band wrapped around my head, so I've never even asked about testing. I can't remember if my doctors have ever suggested it.

I'm one of those people who will encourage everyone else to get testing and treatments, but will often fight doing so myself.

I just tend to zig when everyone else zags and I've found that a lot of things that are recommended don't work for me. So rather than (as I see it) wasting more time and money, I try to find something as simple as possible that will hopefully work, and just keep scraping on by.

A recent example is that eye doctors have been telling me I should get bifocals for the past 10 years. But I keep telling them, I have severe motion sickness and it keeps getting worse. My parents tried to show me a walk-through of a place they're looking at and I couldn't even watch it -- the camera was swerving to and fro.

My eye doctor says the technology has really improved, but so far I've refused. I can't wear contacts (dry eyes,) so I have my regular glasses for distance and just carry an old pair with a past prescription that works well for reading -- and I intend to do so for as long as I can get away with it.

I was recommended a sleep apnea test by my psychiatrist after realizing many of the prescribed sleep meds didn't work. but I chose not to do it. The thought of being in a room waiting to sleep for possibly 40+ hours while some random person watches me on a camera didn't sound worth it to me.

For some reason when I scanned this thread my brain played a clip from an old animated Batman show. Specifically the Scarecrow character: "What terrors keep the Batman awake at night?"

I imagine paying taxes. I'm pretty sure the person of Batman never filed his taxes and the IRS definitely wouldn't appreciate that.

I love having you around this forum. Please don't leave any time soon.

That's a lot to ask of me but I'll try my best.

I can relate to this.

I have to drink a lot of water or else I get headaches...

The best times I've slept are when I get so busy that I forget/am too distracted to drink very much.

But when I'm too dehydrated, I wind up feeling nauseous for long periods of time... So it's always a catch 22.

I’m an old soldier so I can manage to fall asleep in any situation where sleep is possible. Maybe my brain is too dumb to worry?

Nothing dumb about you.

Only thing questionable is how much you put up with my bad jokes in other threads.

“Bad” jokes make the world go round. I’m pretty bad at jokes myself. I laugh myself but often I have crossed some lines that I didn’t think of lol.

Hello @seoulsearch, IMHO, there's nothing like a history textbook (loaded with plenty of dry, historical facts that need to be memorized) to help cure insomnia The following book always helped me fall asleep in college.
Interestingly, Grout's Short History of Opera is actually quite a page-turner. Whodathunk

God bless you!!

~Deuteronomy (David)

Lol!!

I loved this, @Deuteronomy! Thank you so much for sharing!

When I was in school, I had this exact same print -- except on a yellow sweatshirt.




"Education: The Strongest Tranquilizer You Can Buy Without a Prescription!"

Sadly, a majority of the history textbooks that I've read as real snoozers instead of page-turners. I've already mentioned one history book that is not (a snoozer) above, but I would be remiss if I also failed to mention the following 8-volume History of the Christian Church by Philip Schaff, not as a snoozer, but as a dangerous page-turner (dangerous because it's 8 volumes long and QUITE the page-turner from start to finish, so you stay up night after night reading it .. well, I did anyway ).
So, I HIGHLY recommend it as a GREAT and important read for Christians (it's the history of the church from the 1st Century to the time just following the Reformation), but it is simply a horrible choice to make for an insomniac.

Got ya. I feel the same about the CPAP. I heard they're coming up with other less cumbersome options, including surgery.

Of course, I asked about the apnea because my understanding is that can wake one up during the night.

Just for the purpose of unraveling the insomnia, when you wake up, you could put a home Pulse oximeter on your finger and see if you're lacking O2. I was concerned about this issue and did that, and found I wasn't lacking O2 in my blood, so it checked some boxes for me.

One thing I didn't put in my list of sleep helps that I do is use a sleep machine. That's a white noise machine, I use the rain setting. I had to do it because my current house is not sound insulated enough and I realized outside sounds sometimes wake me.

You probably have tried those things I put in the list, or as many as you're willing to... but in case you don't do this already, I'd emphasis doing the journal and giving any issues to God in prayer before bed. Obviously thats meant to help if the insomnia may be stress or thinking issues. But if you fall asleep ok, it's not likely your issue.