Insomnia

[Letum]

I have damm awful insomnia.
Given a holiday from work my sleep patterns become wildly erratic through day and
night.

It's not the sort of insomnia produced by stress, gloom or anxiety either.

I just cant turn off my mind.
For example, it is 5:26am in the UK now, I went to bed at roughly 2:40am and have
not slept.
In the time between I have thought about the following:

• Posting this forum topic
• The project I am working on
• The book I am reading and the book I read before that one
• My replies to a forum topic
• My recent connection problems
• Insomnia (oh the irony!)
• Skin care (cracked lips this winter)
• Chemistry (trying to remember why nitroglycerin is explosive and what the difference between sugars/starches and oil-hydrocarbons is)
• The lass I might be entertaining tomorrow *edit* Gah! today!
• Sentence structure (I suspect I use commas and clauses incorrectly)

That's just tonight, another night it could be any other set of conundrums.

So, now i have a full day tomorrow and a bus to catch early, my mind does not
even remotely feel like turning off, but no doubt it will as soon as I get into town
and I need to stay awake.

I get plenty of exercise, am in good physical health and don't general drink caffeine
in the afternoon or night.
It's not that I'm not relaxed, it's just that when I am relaxed, I think.

Occasionally I meditate (not half as often as I would like, must make more time for
it). And I can empty my thoughts then, but it requires concentration that prohibits
sleep.

Any help guys? Whats the trick?
I envy people who can sleep anywhere, anytime. You chaps are very lucky!


Oh, by the way, don't let me fool you into thinking I am a great thinker. Great thinkers have great
thoughts. I just have lots of thoughts; no great ones.

[mcf1]

You really have a problem.
I just checked http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insomni...t_for_Insomnia
it has details about what insomnia is, some treatment ways.

[Torplexed]

Hmmm. I have the opposite problem. I can fall asleep in front of a blaring television with a show on I wanna watch with all the lights on.

Damn annoying to snap awake at 2:00 am just to have to go back to bed.

Don't have an answer. You need to clear your busy mind somehow. My mind is fulla fuzzy cobwebs. That helps. :p

[Letum]

I somewhat get the feeling that most of the treatments are for insomnia caused by
stress, gloom or anxiety. Perhaps I am wrong.
Apart from sleeping pills, but I dont really want to have to rely on them.

Im not sure it's really the sort of thing to see a shrink about, but I assume my GP
would either give me sleeping pills, or if I didn't want that, send me to a shrink anyway.

[Foxtrot]

1. A boring lecture can help you to sleep.
2. A senseless female nagging can definately help you to sleep

[Letum]

Originally Posted by Foxtrot

1. A boring lecture can help you to sleep.

:rotfl:
A lecture usualy keeps me up for hours thinking about it.

At least my insomnia isn't fatal.

[Torplexed]

Get one of those inflight magazines. Duller than dishwater. They'll put you out like a light. (I saw it work in Red Dwarf).

Or we could hire Al Gore to come over to your place and do a Powerpoint presentation...zzzzzzz.

[Letum]

:rotfl::rotfl:

I think perhaps you under estimate how dull I am.
Or at least how easy I am to engage and entertain.

For me counting sheep is entertainment and food for thought.

From the wiki link I have come across this article.
I think it fits me rather well. Left to my own devices and without duties to perform
I settle into a regular sleep pattern, sleeping between 7am and about 4pm.

I suppose that the closest thing to being naturally "nocturnal".

[Skybird]

Only when lack of sleep causes deficits in your daytime activity and gives you mental handicaps, it is considered to be insomnia, Letum, and maybe is worth to have a look at. I usually shut down the lights at 0230 or 0330, and raise a 0830. It is not insomnia, but a shifted sleep cycle. That can have psychological causes, too, but it must not be like that.

If you can arrange your life accordingly, I see no reason why you should think of it as a problem, practically or physically. The real disease is living to artificial rathms dictated by your clock. Eating when you are not hungry, but it is that and that time. Not being able to have a nap in the early afternoon, which normally most people's organism and physiology would demand, from a ceertain age on at the latest, and espcially if having had a noontime lunch.

Cats and dogs are much brighter than humans, concerning their living styles.

around 15% of the wetsern population is known to be so-called "owls", and another 15% are "larks". scientists doing research on sleep say that these people have "normally chnaged" day-and-night rythms, which cannot be chnaged and are not a question of habits, but predisposition.

P.S. Maybe you simply do not have enough work and exercise to become tired in the evening!

[Letum]

I would very much love to live to the dictates of my clock.
My employer less so.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Letum

I would very much love to live to the dictates of my clock.
My employer less so.

As I indicated, mothern life rythms are often unhealthy.

[FIREWALL]

Letum I'm going to read a gazillion posts after I post this but....

Take 1 tylenon pm an you will get rest you need with out the ???

It's safe and mellow.

I never recomend drugs over the counter or otherwise but' when your body's beat but your mind is wide awake. Take 1 not 2 as it says on the bottle will let you snooze safely if you don't have reactions to it,

I feel weird recomending this but I know how it feels when your tired and need the rest and can't sleep.

Wish you the best.

[Letum]

Doesn't look like thats avaliable over the counter in the UK.

I might try diphenhydramine hydrochloride (Benadryl/Dimedrol/Nytol/Unisom) instead,
that is over the counter and I have had a similar drug before so I know what it is like.

S' a shame to need something like that, but perhaps I will be able to figure out a
solution before too long.

[Chock]

Read the Adobe Photoshop manual chapter on color rendering engine selection. That's enough to put anyone to sleep.

More seriously, here's a good one to try: get some background music CDs, i.e new age/ambient type stuff, whale calls whatever, that will probably get you relaxed enough to go, failing that, get hold of a recording of a single tone, that usually works like the drone of an engine at a steady RPM does when it puts you to sleep, like it does on long aeroplane/train journeys and (somewhat dangerously) a car engine note when cruising on a motorway. You could also try altering the temperature in your house, I always find warmer temperature make people drowsy, which is why I knock the heating down a bit in training rooms when I am teaching people!

You are getting sleepy....

Chock

[Kapitan_Phillips]

Thats interesting, Letum. Reminds me a little of Sherlock Holmes, actually.

Anyway, I have been experiencing a major shift in my sleep patterns, and I dont think my body knows what to do with all the extra time its gotten. I used to have to get up somedays at 6:30 to be in to work on time, and the days were very busy.

Now my contract is up, I'm unemployed again and obviously have more time for sleep (pain in the ass trying to get work here if you dont drive) and over these couple of days I've been dozing off at 10pm and waking at 4am and I'm unable to get back to sleep. I did it again this morning, I woke at half 3 even after I had a great many beers the previous night

Give it some time, your bio-clock needs to adjust to what you're giving it. I wouldnt think serious medication is the answer just yet, maybe just dunk a sleeping pill When you REALLY cant stop your mind working. Things should fix themselves in time.