Insomnia...

My wife too hates that I can knock out in 3 minutes or less and can sleep through thunderstorms, dogs barking, babies crying etc.

Here's my secret to going to sleep fast, however. I won't go to bed unless I'm sleepy and can fall asleep. If I lay down at 10 not sleepy I will be awake til midnight or later. If I just watch TV I'm tired by 11 and will knock right out.

I have noticed the correlation to stress though. Selling/buying houses and a pregnant wife with crazy toddlers at home has pushed me to a new level of stressed. Needless to say, I've been staying up late too much lately.

Ian F wrote: It's strange. The cause seems to be alcohol. I've noticed a pattern where if I have a beer or two during the afternoon or evening, if Berks up my sleep. In the case of Sat, the last beer was at 6pm. On nights when I don't drink anything, I sleep fine. This really sucks as I really like a good craft beer now and then.

3 am give or take half an hour is the magic wake up hour for drinkers. Got something to do with blood sugar level. As I got older it happens with lower levels of drinking.

When it happens to me I swear off ever having another drink around 4:30 am realizing that I wont get back to sleep. Usually get over it by 7 pm that same night

sesto elemento wrote: Ambien.

I've taken a lot of drugs in my life, prescription and recreational. NOTHING has berkeleyed me up and flat out scared me as much as Ambien did. I'd been awake for 3 days when my doctor gave me a sample. The hallucinations, paranoia, what felt like random surges of adrenaline, that E36 M3 is evil incarnate. I have tried it again, when I was on a "normal" sleep schedule to try to sleep better while the sun was out, and had the same result.

I get into cycles every few months, I just won't be able to sleep for 3 to 4 days at a time. It lasts about 2 weeks, then goes away for a few months. Been happening since I was a teenager.

What's weirding me out these days, I can't sleep when the baby isn't here. She sleeps through the night, so it's not like I'm used to waking up and tending to her, I just can't sleep. Those are also the days I get the most work done, barely climb the stares with my eyes open, but as soon as I lay down, I'm wired.

I’ve been on a health kick for about a month now, and I’m sleeping much better. The following all probably help a little, and culminate into helping a great deal, into reducing my insomnia:

• I used to have at least 1 beer a night. Now I have about 4 drinks a week, and mostly on weekends. Even when I have 1 or 2 drinks on a weeknight, I sleep way better than I used to back when I was having 1-2 every night.
• I’m more active during the day. I try to get at least 250 steps every hour, 10,000 a day, and at least 1 30 minute walk during the day. That isn’t including playing hockey or 1-3 runs or 3-4 days with pushups.
• I’ve lost weight due to the above. My wife says that I’m snoring less.
• I’ve significantly cut back on my coffee—I used to have 2 cups a day; now I’m down to around 3 or 4 a week (this was due to the money factor, not health)

Additionally, putting the phone down and reading a real paper book has helped a lot too. The only “screen” that I look at anymore 1 hour before bed is the TV, and there is at least 30 minutes of book time with the tv off before lights go out. This has been going on for about a year.

EDIT: One thing that I still do (has happened once since my health kick) is that when the insomnia comes, I don't fight it. I'll fold laundry, read a book, do some work, do some pushups, clean the bathroom, whatever--either I'll get tired and go to bed, or I won't, and I'll pull an all nighter. Next day is brutal, but I force myself to stay up until 9PM--then I read my book and can't even stay awake for a chapter.

pinchvalve wrote: Long time sufferer. Currently, I am doing pretty well after a visit to a Neurologist. He diagnosed the root of the problem (divorce 15 years ago) and prescribed 1mg Melatonin a few hours before bed (not a handful at bedtime) and Trazadone. It's technically an anti-depressant, but also prescribed for insomnia as it has the side effect of making you drowsy. It doesn't knock you out like Ambien, but you don't walk naked to Starbucks at 3am either. Plus, it has the added benefit of making me less depressed about my lack of Challenge participation. :(

Trazadone isn't habit forming either.

it's 430, why am i still up?

Went to bed at 9. Fell asleep at about 9:30. Woken up at 10:30 by a pointless phone call from my dad about our plans this weekend. Struggled to get back to sleep until about 11, then woke up at 1:30 to get my wife to the airport. Ate at steak and shake and have been trying to fall asleep in the car at the hockey rink before I play at 6. Looking like I'll be running on about 3 hours of sleep today.

Up at 1:30 to go to airport?
What time was her flight?

JohnRW1621 wrote: Up at 1:30 to go to airport? What time was her flight?

Up at 1:30 to get her into the shower and for me to get the car loaded so we could leave at 2:20 (I had a 30 minute "nap" from 1:50 to 2:20). Pick up her friend 10 minutes out of the way so that we could get them to the airport at 3:00 for the 5:55am flight. With the tsa in Chicago right now the airport is recommending that people get there 3 hours ahead for a domestic and 4 for international too. Lucky she did get there in that time because she had a little issue where she had changed her name between purchasing the ticket and today.

Ian F wrote: ...is annoying.

Yes it was.

And while I usually loved Robin Williams in a dark role, this movie just left me exhausted at the end. I'm not sure if it was on purpose or not.

Wow, guess that every few months cycle is back around again. 7 hours of sleep since Sunday, at least I'm not seeing things yet.

I woke up at 2:17 this morning, but I did it on purpose to catch a 5am flight home. I don't have much problems falling asleep lately. Physical activity seems to help me.

I finally broke down and bought a real bed. Last night was a bit better. We'll see how it goes. Still bugs me to spend $600 on something that may get tossed into the trash come Feb...

Exercise helps me!

I'm had issues with it periodically, occasionally pretty severe. I don't drink, so that's never been an issue. Most of the issues have already been mentioned: electronics, stress, lack of exercise, stress, trying to force sleep, stress, sleep interruptions (about 30/40 minutes into sleep is a killer for me, I'll be up for hours), stress. Oh, and there's stress.

90% of my issues resolved themselves when I switched to a lower stress job. Other things that helped: No late heavy meals. Limit late night snacks. (Food/digestion has a huge effect, on me at least) No naps. When I'm in multi-day episodes, napping typically only extends the cycle. If the insomnia is work/stress related, get up, get out a notepad and write down everything that needs to be done regarding the problem. If anything CAN be done about any items on the list, do them. 99% of the time, there's nothing that can be done until the next day. Feeling organized and realizing some things have to wait seems to help me settle down and go to sleep.

My move has changed up my sleep habits. Going from the woods to in town has been unpleasant with street lights and traffic. But about half the time I go to sleep easier, but staying asleep is a challenge.

Unfortunately, the new bed isn't as good as I should have bought. Two nights and woke up with a sore back both mornings. I did sleep through the night, which is good since I used to never have a problem with that (once asleep, I'd stay asleep).

Got home to PA late last night. Felt nice to sleep in my own (much better) bed. It still took awhile to get to sleep, but that seems typical after a 6 hr drive from NH to PA, ending with an adrenaline pumping banzai run down the NJ Turnpike... tonight "should" be better...

Same here.

Job is crazy stressful. I drink more now ( never to get drunk. I just like good beers and bourbon).

I wake up at 3am every night and think about every berkeleyup I have ever commited in my life. Remember that girl in middle school that was ugly any you called her out because she pissed you off? Yea, I think about her. And how I could have handled every situation and conversation minisculy better throughout the past month.

For example, I start an email with good afternoon. I realize later that I should have said good day. People on 3rd shift might not read it til morning.

Yep, these are the berkeleyed up thoughts that are alcohol and stressed induced that help me to stay awake.

Then the 6 month old starts crying.

I'm tired. Maybe I will have a maker's mark 46 instead of a nap.

berkeley.

At least my insomnia is productive this time. I've managed to get the entire workbench emptied, scraped, simple greened, and put back sorta organized. And found out that it's not flat either. berkeley.

But I'm at least getting things done without that precious sleep.

In reply to revrico:

what were you doing 10 minutes ago?

Is this thread to blame for the tra_ado*L canoe? In before the lock.

no, I brought this one back. Figured we had a place to complain about insomnia, might as well use it.

Amazon having a massive collection of 80s horror movies is doing nothing to help either.

Insomnia is a form of torture. When the rest of the world is fast asleep, you are wide awake with a million thoughts. And when those thoughts finally quiet, the silence is deafening because at that moment you realize that you are alone.

In reply to Ian F :

Amen.

Have totally given up red wine because of this. Probably a blessing because my taste in red wine exceeds the available budget.  Seems to be a medically predictable thing.

Pete

Sleepytime canoe.