After several weeks, Insomnia hit me!!!!!

banslug

Cathlete
Well, I find myself wide awake at 1:15am. I've been up for over an hour. Maybe it's actually LATE instead of EARLY, but I'm up and at em! :) I went to bed around 9:45pm, which is just a bit earlier than normal since school's been out, but you'd think I'd at least sleep till 2 or 3 before getting up. Some haven't even gone to bed yet!

How have all my other insomniacs been lately???

Gayle
 
Hey, Gayle! I have gone through bad cycles of insomnia, but I think I have finally found my cure: essential oils. I use Lavendar and this one called Peace & Calming (I put some on my pillow and on my temples), and man, what a difference it makes!
 
Can someone tell me why does this happen? I'm 35 and lately I've been having some serious insomnia. I usually go to bed around 9-930pm. I go to bed early because I have to get up between 430-500am to go to work depending how many times I hit the snooze button. I wake up around 1230am-100am and it takes me forever to go back to sleep. Sometimes 2-3 hours. Then Im exhausted when the alarm clock goes off. I cant remember the last time I had a full nights rest. What's happening to me?
 
Essential Oils, hugh? I hadn't heard that suggestion before, and I may have to try that. I prefer something like this to taking any kind of med (which I haven't done yet).

MessyJess, sorry, but if I knew the cause of this insomnia I would have slept well last night. ;) Fortunately this only happens once every few weeks.

I ended up staying wide awake till 3:30 and I just got up at 6:30. In the meantime, I watched Urban Cowboy with John Travolta (LOVE that movie) and I saw Denise from STS on an infomercial for some kind of memory-loss supplement. And a WHOLE lot of channel surfing! :D

Early to bed tonight!

Gayle
 
I'm also struggling with insomnia. I fall asleep okay, but also wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep for 2-3 hours. It's miserable! Maybe some sort of hormonal change? I'm 37. I love to sleep! It makes me very sad that I can't do it well. :(
 
I would love to hear more about these essential oils. I have Lavendar and have used it on occasion, but I'm curious as to the other one that was mentioned - Peace & Calming.

I get horrific insomnia due to perimenopause (never had a problem prior to this!) - to the point where it can go on for weeks and I'm basically in tears because I'm so exhausted!

I have an arsenal of stuff I use - passionflower, bach's rescue remedy, melatonin, you name it! I've even debated whether to start HRT to try and remedy this....

I'm one of those who does their workouts at 4:30 a.m. before work....so if I have insomnia, that workout just is NOT happening!

Terri
 
Hi Gayle -- I have trouble sleeping all the time myself. My OB/GYN (who I've been going to for almost 25 years!) says that the older you get, the more problems you will have sleeping (just what we need, huh, one more problem with getting older!). This past year I've really had problems (I'm 44 and know I'm showing symptoms of menopause - so that might be some of my problems). I have an appointment with my doctor August 4th for my annual checkup (right after the RT) and I plan on asking him what to do about these problems. I'll let you know what I find out. I did try Valerian Root (someone suggested this) -- it's an herbal supplement. It helped, but I still wake up in the middle of the night and have a hard time going back to sleep. I had the same thing with Melatonin. It would help me get to sleep, but I still woke up around 2 a.m. or so and couldn't go back to sleep.

Anyhow -- If you find anything to help, please let me know! After I go to my doctor in August, I'll let you know what he says.

Hope you get some sleep soon! See you at the end of this month!

Julie
 
I would love to hear more about these essential oils. I have Lavendar and have used it on occasion, but I'm curious as to the other one that was mentioned - Peace & Calming.

I use Young Living oils.

http://youngliving.com/en_US/index.html

A friend at work introduced me to them. She would use them, and I thought they smelled really nice, but I was hesistant to purchase because of the price. Well, after she gave me some peppermint to try on a headache and it worked wonderfully, I decided to bite the bullet and try a few of the others. I will say, I did have to get past a sort of New Age-y, out-there pitch with some of the oil blends, but so far, I've been pleased with everything I've bought. I'm definitely a believer.
 
I use old movies to fall asleep...

Gayle and others on this thread,
I used to have moderate-to-severe insomnia, when I was between 25 to 33 years old. Then I was working in a tense, unfriendly research think tank. At that time I used to take over-the-counter sleeping pills, and some perscribed pills, much to my regret. I would never advise anyone to take sleeping pills.

What I did to cure insomnia, permanently, are two things:
1. I cut back on coffee. Now I split in half "half-and-half Maxwell house coffee" with decafeinated coffee (these are instant coffees) and have two or three cups of these in the morning, all before 8:30am. From 8:30am on, I drink decaf coffee. For dinner and in the evenings I only drink decaf, no-calorie Coke (one of few vices I allow myself). Ideally, I recommend no caffeinated coffee at all, but I need a bit of caffeine to get started.

In my 20's had this old flame, a naturalist and environmentalist (we're still close firends). But when I was twisting and turning in bed, she would turn around to me, shake her head, and say "Look at you, all that caffeine in your body! You need to clean all that out of you!". That wisdom I still hold dear.

2. I go to bed early, around 8:00pm-8:30pm -- and I put on a dull, generally non-violent movie (DVD or VHS), a movie that can get me to sleep. Over the years I have built up a large box of movies I know and trust will put me to sleep. These are usually epic movies (e.g. "The Ten Commandments"); boring sci-fi movies ("Star Trek -- the Movie"); or old black-and-white crime mysteries ("The Big Sleep"; "The Maltese Falcon", "The Naked City"). I also fall asleep to the "Ocean 11, 12, 13" movies -- since they are non-violent and harmless. Here thrillers are no good -- only movies that dull one's mind.

My favorites to get to sleep are the old Colombo TV movies, now on DVD. I just press the "play all" button, and after 5 or 10 minutes I am knocked out. I have to get up in the middle of the night for a constitutional, but I just replay the same DVD from the start, and off to sleep I go. Nobody can take a Columbo TV movie seriously. I also find that "DVD commentaries", the background commentaries by movie directors and producers, often put me to sleep.

Every since I have been doing this, when I was 36 years old, I have never had any problems. Note however I have a pleasant work environment and a very active church life. There are shortcomings to falling asleep to movies. First, one must have the ability to fall asleep with movies, like I can (and some I take it don't). Second, one's significant other must be able to tolerate the movies, and fall to sleep with them (a daunting challenge). But having said that, this approach is drug free, and works for me.

I also find that an hour's exercize session before supper helps a lot. During my eight-month teaching period, I unfortunately cut my session back from six a week to three a week -- and I find that I am slightly restless at night. Now, in the spring and summer, I exercize about an hour a day and walk briskly for about 4 miles a day (I don't drive). I am completing my first week of STS, and I am out like a light. Since people on Cathe's forum are exercize fanatics, I take it this suggestion is already being followed.

Finally, I realize that for some people, the reason for insomnia has to do with overwork, a tense work environment, or some other problem --whereby worries can keep people up. For this type of insomnia, I recommend finding ways of improving one's spiritual outlook and improving one's work or social environment -- though I realize that these days this may be difficult to do.

As for me, I generally sleep from 8:30pm-4:30am with no problems. I feel for the insomniacs out there, and pray for you.
-- David
 
Well, I slept 11 hours last night! LOL The previous night's 3 hours hit me last night at around 7 when my kids and I finally settled into the house! LOL Weent to bed at 9:30 and woke this AM at 8:30. But now I feel like I wasted 3 hours, since I'm usually up at 5am! LO You just can't win, can you? ;)

David-thank you for that input. I don't drink any coffee, so that's not my problem. I don't have a problem GETTING to sleep, it's STAYING asleep, and the movie would just pull me right in! LOL I do agree, though, that what's going on around me and in my life directly effects (or is it Affects) my sleep. All is well in my life, with the exception of one thing and of course it involves the opposite sex, wouldn't that figure too. lol ANYWAY, thanks for your input.

I'm going to check out those essential oils when we get home from vacation this week. I'll let you know what I decide, but I KNOW I will not be taking any meds, scrip or OTC. I just can't bring myself to do that.

Julie, I'll see you in a few short weeks, and we should exchange cell #s so that if we wake up at the hotel at 2am and can't get to sleep, we can keep each other company! LOL

Terri, the thing with ME and MY 5am workouts.....I'm not letting ANYTHING get in the way of that! LOL But that's just me, and it actually helps me power thru the day.

OK......I'm hoping for a good night's sleep TONIGHT, because we have an 8 hour drive tomorrow to N Carolina for vacation and I'm the sole driver, unless I give the wheel to my 11 or 8 year old kids! LOL NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gayle
 

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