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Thread: Sleeping through the night?

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    Default Sleeping through the night?

    It sounds really weird, but my whole life I have never been able to sleep through the night. I can't take sleep aids because they give me such a bad "hangover" the next day or they work TOO well (25mg diphenhydramine puts me out at LEAST 16 hours). I've tried warm showers before bed (I can't take baths), having a little snack etc etc.

    Nothing fucking works. It's gotten worse since I switched to day shift.

    Typical sleep pattern:

    Go to bed 10:30 - 11pm: Fall asleep fairly quickly- usually in 15 mins.

    1:30-ish : Wake up suddenly and feel fully awake. Get up, use bathroom, drink glass of water. I never turn any lights on.

    Usually toss and turn and fuss for around an hour, so say 2:30 - 3am I fall back asleep.

    6am: WIDE FUCKING AWAKE AGAIN. Hyper sensitive to noise. Everything seems so loud. I try wrapping a shirt around my face to make it super dark. This inevitably gets too hot so I take it off. I stick my head under the pillow to drown out the outside city noise. Apparently people here wake up mad early and the noise starts around 5:30am- trucks, cars, honking etc (obviously I live downtown).

    I usually fuss around until 7am when I can fall back asleep.

    9am: WAKE UP FOR WORK. So tired. Takes my husband around thirty minutes to pry me out of bed. I bitch and moan the whole time. I feel like I haven't slept at all.

    I drink large iced coffee at work, which makes me sky high wired until around 4pm when I crash and get really, really wretchedly bitchy and bored.

    7pm I am off, go meet up with my husband at his club. We usually get home around 9pm.


    How can I make this stop? Please no aromatherapy or whatever- I've already tried that. I'm at my wits' end- I'm off today but I woke up today at 6am and haven't been able to get back to sleep. It is now 10:00am. I feel like my day is totally fucked off and ruined.

    Suggestions? I need around 10 hours of sleep, so I'm trying to sleep from 10:30 - 11pm until 8am.

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    Default Re: Sleeping through the night?

    girl im the same way. i dont even do sleep schedules at this point.

    one thing that helps a bit is sobriety. also 5-htp mellows me out on all accounts... i mostly take it to keep me in a positive mood for work and it eases up the bad mood that dancing sometimes puts me in, but i do notice it also helps me sleep a bit better. 5htp is a precursor to seratonin... similar to an SSRI (prozac, zoloft) but over the counter and "all natural" (so the label says).

    they also sell over the counter melatonin supplements... no idea how well this works. melatonin is a hormone involved in sleep cycles as i am sure you already know. if i were trying to get on a sleep schedule, i would research into this or test it out.

    other suggestions: only use your bed for sleeping (and sex). if you do other activities in it such as eating and reading and sitting on teh computer then your brain wont associate it as much with sleep. if you brain learns to associate the bed with sleeping that will help a bit.
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    Default Re: Sleeping through the night?

    I'm the same way and it gets SO OLD. My counselor told me to google "sleep hygiene." There are lots of things you can do, and I would start with a gentle noisemaker you like and darkening your apartment. My counselor also raved about melatonin, it's fairly inexpensive so I'd say give it a try. Google sleep hygiene though. Knowledge is power, and i'm starting to implement some stuff as I can manage it. I found out warm milk makes me sick blecghcvh. I haven't tried the melatonin yet though. Is your bed comfy? The temp in your apartment under 76°? There are lots of things to check. I'm diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, so I have to contend with that as well...can you say racing thoughts? Good luck!

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    Default Re: Sleeping through the night?

    Quote Originally Posted by ShelleyPaige View Post
    I'm the same way and it gets SO OLD. My counselor told me to google "sleep hygiene." There are lots of things you can do, and I would start with a gentle noisemaker you like and darkening your apartment. My counselor also raved about melatonin, it's fairly inexpensive so I'd say give it a try. Google sleep hygiene though. Knowledge is power, and i'm starting to implement some stuff as I can manage it. I found out warm milk makes me sick blecghcvh. I haven't tried the melatonin yet though. Is your bed comfy? The temp in your apartment under 76°? There are lots of things to check. I'm diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, so I have to contend with that as well...can you say racing thoughts? Good luck!
    I have a killer tempur-pedic mattress and a big snuggly dude. Definitely under 76F. I like my house pretty cool and often sleep with my windows open for the breeze.

    I do need to invest in some black out curtains or something I think.

    Athena, G had me taking 5-htp and L-tyrosine for awhile and it did seem to help. Maybe I'll get back on that wagon. I'm unbelievably paranoid about taking things like melatonin or other hormone stuff- I've been off hormone stuff since I got my copper IUD in 2001.

    Upon Googling this may be related to my ADD and major life changes. Awesome.

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    Default Re: Sleeping through the night?

    For noise issues- consider wearing earplugs for sleep. I find that helps on road trips where hallway noise interrupted sleep before switching to earplugs.
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    Angry Re: Sleeping through the night?

    I'm so sorry you are having to put up with this.

    It sounds like you are coming out of your sleep cycles too quickly. That 1:30 am wake-up is about when you would be cycling back up from your first cycle and in your case you are waking up instead of entering the next sleep cycle.

    I am guessing that you are not drinking a glass of wine or other alcohol before bed because it takes you 15 mins to fall asleep -- alcohol is the most common cause of waking up 2 1/2 hours later, as the somnolent effects of the alcohol wear off about then.

    I have a couple of low-tech suggestions.

    The most important wake-up that you need to eliminate is the 6:00 am one, because if you could sleep 2 hours plus the six hours between 3:00 am and 9:00 am you would feel much better and be on your way to a full night's sleep.

    OK, first. Get a pair of industrial-strength earplugs -- different kinds work well for different people. Pure wax earplugs -- the big, thick ones -- that you soften up in advance and then use to seal-off the ear canal can work wonders. Avoid plastic ones, or the cutesy ones like Audrey Hepburn wears in "Breakfast at Tiffany's." An alarm clock will still wake you up, but ambient noise such as street noises just disappear.

    Secondary to the earplugs is an eye mask. You need one that will bind around your eyes without falling off from your natural sleep tossing and turning during the night, so get one that uses velcro on the straps and can be affixed reasonably tightly. This is really critical because the other reason you are waking up in the morning is natural light. I recognize that it's still largely dark at 6 am this time of year in the Northern Hemisphere, but your eyes are exceedingly sensitive to any natural light at all, as the brain is programmed to respond to natural light by waking up to keep the body on a purely diurnal schedule. A really good sleep mask will completely block ALL light, and will help you stay asleep and in-sync with your sleep cycles. Most of your dreaming occurs in the early morning hours and you will notice right away that your dreams just keep on going endlessly (or at least they seem to to you) until your alarm clock goes off.

    If you wake up in the morning with two Mike Tyson tattoo imprints on both sides of your face, you have it on too tight.

    In terms of higher-tech solutions, you might want to consider a sleeping aid like a low-dose benzo or melatonin to get you past that first wake-up at 1:30 am. You could also try an antihistamine that has sedative and anxiolytic effects and has much lower addictive potential -- something like hydroxyzine at 25 or 50 mg. You'll need to try different doses and timing to find out what works for you without making you drowsy. It sounds like the more potent all-night medications are just too powerful for you and will knock you out for too long.

    I'm really sorry that you're having to endure this. Good luck and let us know how it works out!

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    Default Re: Sleeping through the night?

    My good sleep cocktail: 1mg melatonin, 1 pill vitamin D, I pill 5-HTP, California poppy extract. Avoid benedryl or advil/Tylenol pm unless you want to be asleep for two days.

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    Default Re: Sleeping through the night?

    What's your exercise like? I find that an hour of exhausting yoga or cardio knocks me out all night. I need total darkness though noise doesn't wake me.
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    Default Re: Sleeping through the night?

    Quote Originally Posted by Candy Girl View Post
    What's your exercise like? I find that an hour of exhausting yoga or cardio knocks me out all night. I need total darkness though noise doesn't wake me.
    I run around at work all day (up and down stairs a lot), and by the time I get home at 9pm, the last thing I want to do is exercise. Other than work, I never work out or go to the gym. I simply don't have the time.

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    Default Re: Sleeping through the night?

    I have this problem sometimes. I used to live with a girl who is a naturopathic doctor, and she suggested that it might be a blood sugar issue. She had me start eating a small amount of protein before bed, like a bit of chicken or peanut butter toast, and it helped me a lot. Apparently some people process food really fast, and then the drop in blood sugar interrupts the sleep cycle. Maybe worth a try? Do you feel hungry or shaky when you wake up in the middle of the night? Those were my symptoms.

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    Default Re: Sleeping through the night?

    Quote Originally Posted by Annastasi View Post
    I have this problem sometimes. I used to live with a girl who is a naturopathic doctor, and she suggested that it might be a blood sugar issue. She had me start eating a small amount of protein before bed, like a bit of chicken or peanut butter toast, and it helped me a lot. Apparently some people process food really fast, and then the drop in blood sugar interrupts the sleep cycle. Maybe worth a try? Do you feel hungry or shaky when you wake up in the middle of the night? Those were my symptoms.
    This makes some sense to me. Girl, I am ALWAYS hungry. Since I don't have the time to exercise at a gym or whatever, I rely on my diet to keep me thin (under 1200 calories a day always, ideally under 1,000 calories) in addition to walking/running at work. I literally do not have enough hours in the day- I wake up at 9 and have to work from 10am to 9pm.

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    Default Re: Sleeping through the night?

    I hate hearing people advising to take 5-HTP. 5-HTP is NOT good to take in excess ... NOT regularly, NOT daily. I wouldn't suggest taking it more than a couple times a month.
    Once I took it before I went to sleep and I had terrible dreams and was waking up every couple of hours because of the dreams. So I personally would not take it before bed but it might be ok for some people.
    Melatonin is good for sleeping, yes.
    Ever heard of GABA? It relaxes you. I have anxiety and GABA helps my anxiety by relaxing me. Not as much as like benzos but enough that it can help me get to sleep too. I'd say look into it
    InnesX

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    Default Re: Sleeping through the night?

    For some reason, ibuprofen works.

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    Default Re: Sleeping through the night?

    I have my best sleep on tues nights. I usually do a yoga class at 7pm and go to bed around 11. Something about my breathing after that always makes me sleep like a log. Maybe try just doing breathing meditation for 30 mins before even trying to sleep.

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    Default Re: Sleeping through the night?

    Good news and bad news.

    Bad news: Last night was a disaster. Came home wiped out as hell around 9pm. Fell asleep at 10pm. Woke up at midnight, 2am and 4am.... and have been up since. It is 9am. I literally laid in my bed with my eyes closed for FIVE FUCKING HOURS.

    Good news: I had a friend suggest Valerian root to me. I'd totally forgotten about it, and am going to try that again. So I may only have one day of hell left.

    Off for breakfast and two shots of espresso.

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    Default Re: Sleeping through the night?

    Quote Originally Posted by mediocrity View Post
    I literally laid in my bed with my eyes closed for FIVE FUCKING HOURS.
    This happens to me alll the time. I'll wake up around 4-5am usually, and lie there, trying to get back to sleep until 8-9am.... it's really horrible. Personally, when this happens to me, I've stopped trying to fight it. Lying there for hours on end, thinking about how I need to get back to sleep, checking the clock, freaking out at how little time I have left.... it just makes it impossible for me to fall asleep again. So now, when that happens, if I'm still wide awake in half an hour, I get up. I make myself a snack, go online a little bit, play some stupid computer game for a bit... generally, in about an hour, I'm starting to feel sleepy again. If I'm still not ready to just conk out, I put on a movie with the volume really low and lie back down to watch it. I'll usually fall asleep or turn it off to roll over and sleep in the middle of it. I'm still up for about an hour and a half/2 hours before I get back to sleep, but at least it's better than 4-5 hours. Plus, doing something low-key relaxes me much more than lying there thinking "gotta sleep, gotta sleep, gotta sleep!" so I generally sleep better and longer when I finally do get to the point of falling back asleep. Just don't try to do anything too serious, like write important emails or pay bills or something that you would feel like you need to finish even if you start feeling tired again... just something stupid and monotonous, like eating or playing a really easy game (like Papa's Taco Mia on addictingames) - something you don't really have to think about and can stop when you start to feel tired again.

    Don't know if it'll work for you, but it might be something to try.
    Last edited by Aurora_Sunset; 12-05-2011 at 10:57 AM.
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    Default Re: Sleeping through the night?

    Yesterday I finally crashed out. I slept from 8pm to 3am, woke up at 4 when my husband got in, then fell back asleep from 5am to 9am! I admit at 5am I did dose myself with Bendryl- but I only took 12mg instead of 25mg.

    I think a lot of it is stress. My boss is a total turbo cunt (yells at me for being tired and is a total drama queen) and my husband is working 80hrs a week. He did have to "help" me back to sleep at 5am (saying soothing things etc) but that's better than usual.

    I hope tonight I can stay up until 10:30 and start a regular cycle.

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    Default Re: Sleeping through the night?

    Valerian for me only works if I take it every now and then.

    I bought a vaporizer because my skin dries out in the winter
    and I've been mixing essential oils in it. Lavender and Chamomile
    both work for sleep. as does chamomile tea.

    Also, keep in mind magnesium and potassium, both sleep aids
    and needed for a whole slew of other bodily functions.

    As far as breathing exercises, you can breathe deeply in and out
    and counting inhale-1, exhale-2, inhale-3, exhale-4, etcetera.
    imagine the sound of your breaths are ocean waves and do not
    let yourseld think beyond visualizing the ocean and counting.
    You'll have to battle thoughts but eventually you can just focus
    on breathing. When I dthis I only remember getting up to 42, but I don't utilize
    It nearly enough.
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    Default Re: Sleeping through the night?

    I'm the same and It's worse when I travel. I have to have it 70 degrees and no more when I sleep. You have a tempurpedic they will make you hot when you sleep and you may not even know it since memory foam holds in heat( I travel with a memory foam topper) I also need it really dark.....get black out curtains and wear an eye mask. Also invest in a white noise machine it will drown out little noises that wake you. Even with all these things I'm still lucky to get 4 straight hours of sleep but they should help immensely I can't even sleep in the same bed as someone because my sleep pattern is so bad.

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