Dr. S, you really kill me!! I too have been plauged by a poor sleep patern. I avaerage 5 hours a night. I envy my girlfriend because she can fall asleep in five minutes and sleep for eight hours. Since I smoke, I know this is a factor that keeps me awake longer. When I took Clonadine for smoking, I was tired at bedtime but had terrible dreams. I tried sleeping pills, but only felt groggy in the AM. Scotch works to get to sleep, but I need to drink a lot to stay asleep!..That ones out! I'm not sure what the answer is. On the brighter side, look at who the most Famous Insomniacs were! Napoleon Bonaparte Catherine The Great Winston Churchill Charles Dickens Thomas Edison Benjamin Franklin Dr. Strangelove Carey Grant Marilyn Monroe Marcel Proust Vincent Van Gogh
Hi, I give myself a panic attack by thinking back to the time that I first had one, which was the scariest, most intense one, caused by Ephedra based diet pills, I concentrate on the situation and how I felt, and as I get scared I make myself more scared of the fear I'm feeling (kind of hard to verbalize) and I go into a panic attack... the treatmet is working well though, now in my worst panic attack I still have some control and sense of reality and I'm starting to have less anxiety, and once I 'm completely comfortable with panic attacks and don't fear them, I'll be rid of my panic disorder, which is the fear fo panic attacks.
I have the insomnia problem also. Big time. If you ever mention a sleep problem to someone routinely able to sleep well, they seem to find the situation utterly ridiculous. They say, "just close your eyes and sleep." DUH! It seems that my brain keeps working overtime and I do not know how to shut it off. I have been told that anyone in the same room can hear the brain gears engaging and the wheels turning. It is an awful thing to watch the wee hours click by when you know that you have plenty to accomplish in the morning. I guess at least now I have proof that I am not the only one. Janet
Hey how did I get in there??!?!?!?! Well, give me an excuse to wake the girlfriend....again!!!! (hehehe,. and I can blaim it on Peter now!!!!)
jimmy, he said his problem was that he couldn't sleep, not that he was sleeping too much! Uhh, peters, I don't think you want to have the mental health of Vincent Van Gogh, though.
Recently I've had occassional insomnia. I used Unisom, but I felt like I had a hangover the next day. Now I use melatonin, which seems to work better. Are there any side effects or downside to melatonin?
there's nothing i can think of that doesn't require effort and maintenance. have you had a situation whereby you were able to stay up all night and sleep during the day... for a long period of time, say months? i ask this as i am the same, but that's because i have a 9-5 job at the moment. right now it's 3:15am and i'm looking at getting some shut-eye in an hour or two, then getting up, going to werk, having 2 energy drinks (V or red bull) for breakfast, and getting on with it. before energy drinks, i used to be sleeping on my keyboard by 11am, and it just turns out i can't sleep at night, but during the day there's no problem. my prime times for sleep are between 7-10am and 6-8pm, during these times i am able to nod off within a few minutes, and my sleep is supremely dense, meaning an hour of uninterrupted sleep during these times is equal to around 4-5 hours of 'regular' sleep. my girlfriend is in bed on average at 9:30-10pm each night, and gets around 10 hours a day. i average 4am, and get about 4 hours of what i'd call unconsciousness. i've been like this as long as i remember, made school really hard sometimes as there's no excuses and i didn't know my own patterns so well back then. the way i see it, it means for every year i'm living an extra 2 months due to not wasting time asleep, and at 27 years old i've lived as much life as your average 35 year old or something. just to try and please people, i HAVE tried stuff, and things like sleeping tablets and whatnot SUCK. i'd end up body-tired, kind of pass out, but then have a massive anxiety feeling in my arm or something, which would just frustrate the hell out of me because all i wanted to do was sleep. nope. not for me. and yes, i've tried the other things you mention, including brain-wave pattern inducing sound waves, meditation, physical exhaustion... blah blah. it all comes down to applying effort, every night for the rest of your life. instead, get a hobby you enjoy and can do while relaxing within 2 minutes of your bed if you get an attack of the snoozies. the only thing i do is promise myself not to go to bed until i'm well and truly tired enough to sleep, be it reading a book or watching teevee. this means i have to pull all-nighters and go without sleep for 35-40 hours on end (things get weird after 45) every now and then (coz by the time i got tired it was time to go to werk again ), but the sleep at the end of that is the sweetest.
Jeez, I am surprised there are many people who has sleeping problem. I have this problem, too, but nobody around me has this problem. I use melatonine & ambien on weekdays. I noticed prior posts warns of drugs. I haven't heard of any side effects on these pills. My physician didn't say anything when he prescribed Ambien. Could you let me know what is possible side effects? Several of my friends in Japan uses Halucion (sp?) for over 10 years everyday as they work nightshift. I think this must not be healthy, but I am basically doing the samething now. I also noticed my body puffed up since started taking these pills, and I thought it was due to my bad sleeping habit.
I suffer through 5 hours of very light sleep a night--a squirl running over the roof will wake me. Then just before dawnI get in 1 to 1.5 hours of seriously deep sleep that is characterized by an atomic bomb going off 10 feet away cannot wake me. I have noticed as I age (I'm 51) that I require less and less sleep and function normally (if you can call it that) on 3-4 hours per night for long periods of time (weeks).
I think there is something to be said about conditioning to a certain amount of sleep... (of course after reading all these posts - I am pretty sure I have some disorder of some sort). But I sleep 4 to 4.5 hours per night - every night (including weekends). I am a very light sleeper - I awake to any noise, etc. I remember my mother when I was young getting EEG's done - thinking as a young person I should be sleeping more, etc. Nothing out of the ordinary... And to this day - unless I am sick - 4 - 4.5 hours per night. The odd thing is - if I go to bed before I am ready to fall asleep - this is the worst - I will lie there for hours until I am tired enough to fall asleep - my wife can lie down and in 7 minutes - out like a light... I thought that was more on the odd side. 2 interesting facts - I can go a long stretch without sleep - makes me a killer on deadlines, all nighters (now that I am in my mid 30's doesn't happen much), etc. The second - my little boy of 2 years old - sleeps only about 6 -7 hours in total Nap + plus night sleeping - so could be something genetic... (our other friends kids sleep 10+ hours or so. It is so cool to get to spend 5am - 7am before work with him.. My wife likes it too - she can sleep until 7am I read a study that showed that those who sleep 8 hours - on average live 4 more years... Of course take the 4 hours I don't sleep and awake - and I win from the "living and know it" theory... Rich
Halcion (Trazolam) is a short-acting benzodiazepine (in the valium family) while Ambien (Zolpidem) is a short-acting non-benzodiazepine sedative. Ambien is structurally unrelated but has similar brain chemistry effects without some of the side effects (ask your doc about side effects) seen with benzodiazepines. Any sedative sleep-aids should generally be used for less than 10-days at a time. There is a laundry list of side effects, one of which is edema (puffiness). You should ask your doc about this next time. Good luck. Shan
I usually go for 1-2 hour walks evertynight down past newport autosport sometimes i walk to fashion island, then to triangle square and back, gone sometimes for 4 hours When i was in military school, i was always on firewatch, and i was also 'hand picked' by my c.o. for long range recon stuff because of it, and in med school, i never had an excuse for not reading the materials, so i passed everything i took, but i still never found a cure i would suppose you are like me, and don't even get that tired, and when you do you either are up and dopwn or out for 10 hours or more.
Thanks ShanB. This is what I wanted. So my puffiness may be due to Ambien & Melatonine. I have been taking these for almost 3-4 years now, and feel stupid not knowing what could do to me.
want to cure insomnia, take a class with my Constitutional Law Prof, he puts me to sleep twice a week Seriously, 1 trick is to just concentrate on your heartbeat when you are laying down, its good if you just want to relax or get away from stress for a while This place has some Very effective CDs, I like SLEEPING THROUGH THE RAIN http://www.monroeinstitute.org/ They have CDs to help with other conditions as well, diet, stress, memory, concentration etc
Since this thread is full of useful information, I'm wondering if anyone could answer some concerns I have (on topic)... I snore a lot, and have some strange sleeping habits. Sometimes, I'll go through periods when I can't sleep or go through periods when I'm constantly exhausted. My fiancee noticed that a lot of times, I stop breathing in my sleep. It used to freak her out a lot, but she's gotten used to it. I told my Mom, and she mentioned that I had sleep apnia when I was a baby. So, I'm guessing that's the problem. I just don't really want to go to the doctor - it's one of those, if I can't see it, it's not there type things. I don't want him to tell me something I don't want to know. I never take that approach to my health; I'm generally very proactive. It sounds dumb, but I'm really freaked out about the possibility of having to wear a mask when I sleep. I guess the questions I'm hoping someone could answer for me are: - How long does a sleep study take? Do you go there more than once? Is it an out of pocket cost? - Assuming they find I have SA, is there any option besides some crazy mask? - I read somewhere that SA affects blood pressure. With a history of heart disease in my family (my Grandmother just died of heart failure and Mom's going into the hospital Thurs because her one artery is almost completely blocked), does this spell a recipe for disaster, or am I totally off base. Thanks in advance. Good luck to all those with sleep problems.
Tillman, Do they know what is causing your sleep apnea? For my dad, it was a deviated spetum. As soon as they fixed it, he slept much better. I also have a deviatyed septum and plan on getting it fixed before the end of the year. Sleep is sometimes s problem for me to. If I can't sleep at night, I usually try to read for a little bit and this makes me fall asleep. However, it wont do anything to improve the quality of sleep that you are getting.
Mike, sounds like you could have a deviated septum. Same symptoms as me and my dad and thats what caused my dad's problem. I am planning to have mine fixed by the end of the year.
They told me, but I can't recall right now. The CPAP machine has it controlled, so that's all good. I don't like knives wielded upon me. The insomnia showed up after the SA was controlled, so I suspect I just got used to operating on very little sleep. Dr.S and Hubert, while I appreciate the suggestion, my wife is not an insomniac. Trust me, waking her at 3 AM would not be conducive to getting back to sleep ShanB, I'll try to find the records, but I'm not sure I got that info from the sleep lab. They just basically called in a prescription for the CPAP machine after telling me that I was rarely in REM sleep Thanks everyone for the feedback. I'm surprised to see so many people similarly affected by this.
I noticed some of the posts with concerns about getting addicted to Ambien or whatever... reminded me of the old Richard Pryor routine when he talked about cocaine: I STARTED OFF SNORTING LITTLE TINY PINCHES. I SAID, "I KNOW I AIN'T GONNA GET HOOKED. NOT ON NO COKE! YOU CAN'T GET HOOKED." MY FRIENDS, THEY'VE BEEN SNORTING FOR 15 YEARS. THEY'RE NOT HOOKED. I used to laugh so hard at that guy, I'd cry. I have my occaisional bouts of insomia but it's always centered around work... my mind starts racing in the middle of the night about all the things I need to do the next day. Believe it or not, when this happens, I start leaving myself voice mail messages (in the middle of the night) so I can get the thoughts off my mind. Weird, but it works for me.
