Insomnia

[Talk2BigSteve]

Is this everyone's regular time to be awake or is it insomnia.

I have insomnia.
I can lay in bed and not fall asleep for hours at a time.
I get maybe 1-3 hours of sleep a night.
Then when I have a few days off in a row I just crash and sleep 12+ hours in a row regardless of the time of day.

Should I go to a sleep clinic for this?

It does not effect me at work.
I have no loss in speed and productivity or mental awareness.
I just don't fall asleep like normal people do.

Is anyone else like this?

Steve

[toss]

You risk heart disease, diabetes, and worse. Go see a doctor.

[mason55]

Have a cigarette....

[fluxrad]

I have trouble getting to sleep from time to time, not on the order of magnitude you aparently have, but I probably realistically get 5-6 hours a night. More often than not I fall asleep too late and get up too late because of it.

I've got a couple of techniques that I try when I'm looking to get to sleep, lying there with my eyes closed but perfectly awake. They all involve visualization.

1. Vizualize the color black. Think about how it looks, feels, and sounds. Think about every aspect of black that you can. Wrap your mind around the color black. If you're doing it right, it'll take quite a while and you'll be asleep before you know it.

But the better one (the one I use most often):

2. Take a trip. You're on a spaceship with a gigantic viewing window. Your trip starts in the center of the Sun. You slowly move to the outside and then to the surface of the Sun. You look all around you and see the Sun from every angle because it's so big. You look up and see nothing but space. Now the spaceship takes off at a few thousand miles per hour towards Mercury. Feel the non-existent gravity on your trip to the tiny planet. Think about the hum of the ships engines, etc. Make it real. When you get to Mercury...orbit for a while. Study the planet. Look at its surface, its gravitational features, etc. This should take some time. Make it real. Then it's on to Venus...and beyond.

I have never got past Mars.

[Talk2BigSteve]

Monday morning I will make an appointment with my doctor for wednesday, that will be 1 week since I quit smoking and I want to get my check up as well. I will bring this up to him. I know stress has something to do with it as well, and I have been under a ton of it lately. This Insomnia, however, has been going on since about Feb or Mar.

Steve

[Skipbidder]

[ QUOTE ]
Should I go to a sleep clinic for this?

[/ QUOTE ]

Not yet. Your primary care doc (if you have one) would likely be able to help you.
The doc is likely to ask you about your caffeine intake.
Bringing a sleep diary in would be very helpful. Record the time when you start to go to sleep. If you wake up during the night, record that time on the paper as well. Record how well-refreshed you feel in the morning. Record any naps taken as well. The doc is likely to ask you about snoring or waking up gasping for breath. (Sleep apnea is a concern...being overweight is a big risk factor.)
Advice commonly given is to avoid doing anything else in your bed apart from sleeping and sex. Don't read or watch TV in bed. (I don't know if this has been validated or not.)

You are probably getting more sleep than you think. People who have trouble sleeping tend to underestimate the amount of sleep they get. (I did when I was having problems.)

If you are having spells where you aren't breathing at night, then make your appointment sooner rather than later.
Hell, make the appointment anyway. You can make it a twofer--smoking cessation and sleeping concerns.

[chesspain]

[ QUOTE ]
Advice commonly given is to avoid doing anything else in your bed apart from sleeping and sex. Don't read or watch TV in bed. (I don't know if this has been validated or not.)

[/ QUOTE ]

This is excellent behavioral advice. In addition, do not remain in bed for more than twenty minutes if you have not yet fallen asleep (or fallen back asleep). Moreover, do not go to bed unless you are sleepy, regardless of how much sleep you think you need to receive. Finally, try to not alter you sleep schedule to catch-up on sleep or to fall asleep earlier.

I realize that some of these suggestions may seem counterintuitive and/or difficult to follow. In addition, as others have suggested, it might be wise for you to first talk to your primary care physician, especially given your acknowledgement that you are overweight and smoked until very recently. Once you and your physician have rule-out possible medical causes for your sleep disorder it would then be appropriate for you to ask for a referal to a psychologist who specializes in behavioral medicine.

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Advice commonly given is to avoid doing anything else in your bed apart from sleeping and sex. Don't read or watch TV in bed. (I don't know if this has been validated or not.)

[/ QUOTE ]

This is excellent behavioral advice. In addition, do not remain in bed for more than twenty minutes if you have not yet fallen asleep (or fallen back asleep). Moreover, do not go to bed unless you are sleepy, regardless of how much sleep you think you need to receive. Finally, try to not alter you sleep schedule to catch-up on sleep or to fall asleep earlier.

I realize that some of these suggestions may seem counterintuitive and/or difficult to follow. In addition, as others have suggested, it might be wise for you to first talk to your primary care physician, especially given your acknowledgement that you are overweight and smoked until very recently. Once you and your physician have rule-out possible medical causes for your sleep disorder it would then be appropriate for you to ask for a referal to a psychologist who specializes in behavioral medicine.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've heard this given as advice before and found it to be very sound. What you want is to instinctively find your bed a place with strong associations of tiredness and sleep to it that in themselves help you fall asleep as soon as you get into it, kind of like dogs salivating for food at the sound of a bell. You want an automatic response and association. It sounds very peculiar, but that automatic response can be built up and work for you.

If you keep bed as a place where you watch t.v. and movies and eat and have a big ole evening of it, it's just a comfortable place in the house with any deep association with sleep, and you miss out on having that sleep association help to trigger sleep all by itself.

I'd also suggest staying far away from caffeine after lunchtime. Even small amounts can mess with you. I say this as a lifelong soda fan who has subjected himself to just about every form and timing of caffeine bombardment possible; even if you get very used to caffeine so that it doesn't feel like it's affecting you much, it still is working its job, and it only needs a very minor affect on you to trigger insomnia. Sleep is a tricky ledge to push yourself over.

You might also try melatonin half an hour to an hour before bedtime. It is known to reset the body's clock on the one hand and subtly help tiredness on the other. However, it will reset your clock in a bad way if you take it at the wrong time, leaving you feeling jet lagged all day. So, use it when your sleeping schedule is not off by a lot or is relatively normal, not at 4:00 a.m..

You can also try valerian root, a natural herb that's easy to find in drugstores. It can have a notable sleepiness-inducing effect. You tend to build resistance up to it after a few days, but that resistance drops away again in a few more days. So it can get the ball rolling, which is good enough.

Also try not to eat sugar of any sort(honey included) before sleeping. That can mess up your sugar cycle, calling out insulin and interfering wth your protein synthesis after sleep, impairing your ability to rebuild your body and normalize hormone levels. Most of these chemicals are released within a couple of hours of initially falling asleep, but a raised insulin level can interfere with that. So a cup of tea with honey may make you feel sleepier and more relaxed before bedtime, but the insulin the honey or sugar calls out is counter-productive overall.

[-Skeme-]

I can't ever keep a schedule and routinely pulled all nighters all throughout HS. This caused me to end up sleeping through class and missing lots of school, which led to me dropping out.

I think excercise would help get me tired. I should've went running lots before bed.

[Macdaddy Warsaw]

...is a pretty good movie.