Insomniacs

[john doe]

For those of us who aren't taking sleep aids or who take them and still can't sleep. How do you get your night in?

I've posted a bit on my own thread but thought we could be doing with a dedicated thread on the topic.

I personally am just too lazy to do anything. I lie in bed staring into space for most part of the night thinking about life and all sorts of crazy s**t. If I can really be bothered I'll turn the radio on and if I'm really feeling up for it I'll watch come TV.

Do any of you get anything productive done?

[treetops]

Insomniacs

an old trick I used to do was think of category (eg countries/rivers in each country/airline names/cleaning products - make it as boring as possible) and go through the alphabet. Keep strictly to the alphabet and if you start to mind-wander - make yourself go back to the damned beginning. Don't agonise when you get stuck on a letter and can't think of an answer - because I bet by the 10th time you do the same list you will have found an answer.

I don't have much trouble falling asleep these days since giving up AL.

The other way to get to sleep is to be permanently sleep deprived with a baby/young child. Its amazing how much just 3 hours sleep can seem like a treat under those circumstances- but I guess that may not help you.

[Siren136]

Insomniacs

Since I quit drinking my sleep has been pretty good. Well, once I got past the first week, that is. I don't know if I qualify as someone who doesn't take a sleep aid as Antabuse makes me very tired, so I take it at night. I'm looking to stop taking it pretty soon, so we'll see how my sleep goes after that.

I still have a bit of trouble falling asleep, so I make sure to drink a special tea blend before bed (Fidnemed with a pinch of Valerian root) and I read. It usually doesn't take long after that.

[john doe]

Insomniacs

I try my best to have positive thoughts and keep my mind occupied but it does drift off to dark places especially when I've some sort of stress going on. Listening to the radio helps but if and when I do nod off I think this might be wakening me up again to easily

I hear audio books help some people. I could probably go though 2 or 3 in a night

[Cinders]

Insomniacs

JD,

I have always suffered from sleep issues. Even as a young child. My father did, too.

I don't get anything productive done now that I am not working. In the past, I would get up and jump on my computer and do work for my clients.

My husband is the polar opposite of me sleep-wise. He has sleep apnea and once he puts on that cpap machine, he is out. Other than the occasional bathroom trip, he sleeps pretty much 8-10 hours a night.

I sleep about six hours a night, although recently, I have gotten a few nights of 8 hours sleep. I end up with a headache when I do that, though.

My doctor prescribes me Seroquel 25 mg to use prn for sleep, but I seldom take it. I fact, I need to go through my meds and throw out some of the older bottles.

I have found that taking my vitamins early in the day and then taking a 3 mg Melatonin, Magnesium supplement and my Calcium plus D3 just as I go to bed helps me get a restful sleep for the time I do sleep.

I get up when I wake up so I don't bother my husband. I can't do housework because it will bother him.

I log on the computer, read news, then log on to MWO and poke around.

Sometimes I read but if I start the day too early with a book, I can end up wasting the whole day finishing the book.

Cindi

[john doe]

Insomniacs

Thanks for adding Cindi.

With me I actually like going to bed around 10pm. I'm not a night owl at all. With going to bed at such an early time (not even sure it is?) I'm guaranteed to wake at no later than 4-5am. Not an awful lot you can do at that time of the morning (I'm just too lazy anyway). Even when I was drinking heavily, I'd time my season so I'd be near BO drunk by 10ish so I could get a good sleep probably to 7-8am.... Good times (apart from the drinking and hangovers )

[Cinders]

Insomniacs

JD,

Since hubby sleeps so long every night, we retire very early. He is usually in bed around 8:00 and falling asleep by 9:00.

Since I like to be with him at night to chat, etc, I go to bed when he does. That has gotten me into the sleeping by 9:00 or 9:30 and up by 3:00 or 3:30.

I hate the up at 2:00 days, though.

That two plus hours in the a.m. is kind of nice and quiet. Me time, as it were.

I guess I should do something constructive. nah.

Cindi

[john doe]

Insomniacs

I was wide awake at 3 this morning and I mean WIDE awake. It was like something snapped me out of my sleep with an injection of Amphetamine but I still couldn't be arsed getting out of bed

Got a lot of thinking done. I think I've worked out a lot of the worlds problems

[Cinders]

Insomniacs

I can't just lie there, once awake.

Mind pings around too much.

But, I do get to sit and watch the dawn every day.

At first light, the birds start feeding on my feeders and I enjoy their company.

I also get the preponderance of the coffee pot. :-)

[Sticky]

Insomniacs

Hi John

I think a lot of us alcoholics have trouble sleeping.
I did a sleep course thru a local mental health centre. The main idea is if you can't get back to sleep after 20 mins, get up and go do something else in another room. Bed should be associated with sleep or sex only if you have frequent insomnia. They even said no reading in bed, which I love. During my worst episodes of not sleeping, I used to force myself to stay up til midnight then force myself to get up at 6am. It was in the days when i would go thru phases of sleeping badly for weeks on end. I had insomnia when drinking, but I also had it in times of sobriety. In fact I have suffered from it since I was 15 and I didn't start drinking til I was 18.
But since taking bac, I have had trouble putting this in place as i have felt so tired i can't even force myself to get out of bed. My only claim to fame is that I have avoided the sleeping pills my doc has given me as I am scared of cross-addicting to them.
Try getting up for an hour, read a book or get on this website, have a milky drink and hopefully after that you will feel like going back to bed & sleeping. Be careful what you watch on TV - some of it actually is over-stimulating.
Also, not sure where you are with bac, but Colin suggested that if I wake before 3am to take 20mg of that day's dose. That helps me sleep thru til 6 or 7. It would be later if hubby's alarm didn't go off and I didn't have to get up anyway.

Good luck
Sticky

[john doe]

Insomniacs

Bed being related to sleeping makes total sense to me. I've spent a lot of my years living with parents and when living alone its been basically rooms with a bed in them. So a lot of time where you might usually relax on a settee I'd be sitting or lying on a bed. Its hard not to when your in those situations.

[looking for peace]

Insomniacs

If you have an iPad or smart phone, there are many sleep apps available. Many are free or under $3. I have one that you can customize so you can listen to anything.....the sound of train tracks, the ocean, the inside of a plane, thunderstorms etc. you can mix in binaural beats that are supposed to help you relax. If you don't have a smart phone there are sound machine alarm clocks that might help.

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Insomniacs

Wow, Cindi! I can totally relate to your timeline. I really love the very early morning when the whole world (in my time zone) is asleep.
Bird feeders are such a nice idea. We've never been able to put one up because they attract squirrels which attracts the dog. She might just be blind and deaf enough that I can put one outside of the window of my study. (:upset I might give that a shot.

john doe;1508842 wrote: I try my best to have positive thoughts and keep my mind occupied but it does drift off to dark places especially when I've some sort of stress going on. Listening to the radio helps but if and when I do nod off I think this might be wakening me up again to easily

Oh man. It was a really bad idea for me to lay in bed and think back in the day. My thinking tended to begin with all of the ways that I am not good enough and descend from there to a place where I am simply not good. Bad, bad juju in those predawn pitch-black hours if I didn't use some tools.

Some of the ones that I use (even now) if I wake up and it's not really time to get up are meditation practices. (Very simple ones, like counting my breaths up to 10, and then starting again at 1.) Also, I have a special night light that allows me to read the 6 words or so I need to get back to sleep without waking my husband.

Like Cindi, I usually just get up. I have the extreme luxury of a flexible schedule. Even if I have a day in which I can't nap, though, I just spend the day tired. Which is not to say that it's easy. I received sage advice to "guard my sleep" when I was titrating up. I still do that!

Hope it gets better, JD.

[john doe]

Insomniacs

Thanks Eva. Should do though. If I've cut out the booze which I have done and the Bac SEs hopefully subside over time, I see no reason why my sleep pattern shouldn't improve. I can remember a time (vaguely) when I had no trouble getting to sleep and also staying asleep. That's partly why I was never into Amphetamine when I used drugs a lot. I just cherished my sleep too much.

Most of my problems are self inflicted I try not to feel sorry for myself too much. I feel sorry for those who have serious insomnia.

[RedThread12]

Insomniacs

I attended an intensive, 10-day meditation course in 1987. Even then, I could see the writing on the wall regarding alcohol. I didn't do the course with the expectation that I would stop all intoxicants for more than a decade, but that is what happened.

In the beginning, what I was MOST delighted by was having a specific "something to do" with my thoughts when I woke up in the night. Which was pretty much every night, for much of the night.
It's a simple technique - but not so easy - observe each inhalation and exhalation, with unbroken attention, at some specific, unchanging part of the body. I focus on the area around my nostrils. Some people focus on the lift and fall of their abdomen or chest. Can't find the link just now, but Google "Mindfulness of Breath Meditation" and you can find lots of different resources. Several prominent universities now have departments dedicated to "Mindfulness."

Hey - it IS something to do, you don't have to get out of bed, and maybe you'll get to sleep again. And every moment the mind is not caught up in worry, anxiety or judgment is pretty special!!