[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Insomnia (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 4/29/2011 1:41:48 PM EDT
| I have it, how to fight it and stop it? I know that I am not the only one here that has sleep problems. |
| Honestly....wait for it to end...stop thinking about sleep...I go through bouts of it...it can ruin your life, what you can do though is run a white noise source, eat ice cream or drink milk before going to bed, sleep alone, read for a bit before turning off the light. |
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THAT's the problem...your sleep cycle can never get settled...I REFUSE to work at any job that requires this type of schedule and yes, I make around 4.00 an hour less than I could be because of it. Quoted:
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-Exercise -Be organize -Have a daily routine that you stick to I am a very organized person I exercise as much as I can based on my schedule I work rotating 12 hour job.  |
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I suffered from it when I was a kid.
Bad sleeping habits mainly. No smoking or caffeine four hours before sleeping. I can get away with two hours on caffeine now but when training and went longer. There are two things to do in bed - have sex or sleep. If you're reading or watching TV in bed don't. If you're laying in bed thinking about he day - don't. I have a routine where if I want to think before sleeping I lay one way, when I want to turn off my mind I change to my resting position and stop thinking. I am able to hypothesize myself - put myself into a meditative state - very quickly now. Two very deep breaths, slow my breathing and go into my calming thoughts. It took months and months of training but I sleep like a baby now - when my cell phone isn't going off a midnight and the neighbor isn't setting his car alarm off (like he does every workday at 4:45 AM). |
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Had to learn to quit watching tv in bed
wife "needs" it on to fall asleep but as others said treat the bedroom as if its used for two things one of those is sleeping 
also as Im getting older caffiene bothers me more and more...now I rarely ever have it if I do it makes me crazy thirsty? once I figured these two out I can almost start snoring before I ever even get in the bed lol if my mind is still firing on all cylinders and im not tired yet I sit down on the couch in the dark and watch something on tv usually get sleepy in 30 minutes or less versus going to bed and laying there for hours |
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For you guys that surf ARFCOM in the evenings, there is a program called F.lux (F dot LUX) that changes the color on your monitor as the sun goes down. You enter a zip code to let it know where you are. The resultant color won't act like sun light and keep you awake. It's available for Windows XP, Vista, Macs and a Linux distribution. The program can be set back to normal if you are doing photo work or the like. Helps me a lot. HTH
Best, Rob |
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Melatonin... some say it works.
L-Triptophan... some say it works. Warm milk... some say it works. Tylenol PM... some say it works. Jack Daniels... some say it works. White noise... some say it works. Try lowering the temperature in your bedroom... I sleep better when the room is cool but not cold or hot. |
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What is the cause of your insomnia ? If your brain doesn't want to stop thinking about everything and that's what keeps you awake , you need lunesta !
I had a scrip for years but my problem was sleep apnea , got a cpap machine and sleep 8 or 9 hours a night......
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I have it, how to fight it and stop it? I know that I am not the only one here that has sleep problems. I've never known a soldier to have insomnia. just think about that for a minute. I know a shit ton of soldiers with insomnia. If you want to avoid meds, look into biofeedback training. It's like a polygraph and it measures your heartrate, galvanic reaction (sweat), muscle activation, and you go through guided steps to learn how to stop stress reactions while watching the immediate effect on a screen. Alpha stim is another one that's cool, it electronically stimulates the alpha waves in your brain to reach a relaxed state. Good sleep hygiene like only laying in bed when your ready to sleep, no reading or tv watching an hour before bedtime. If your a clock watcher move it out of view. I play a looped 1 hour recording of a gentle rainstorm. I have tried a whole lots of meds, and lunesta works the best for me. Ambien walrus started fucking me up after a week. If you have nightmares minipress helps alot. I'd stay away from tehmazapam, and Valium, didn't work well and can be highly addictive. Low dose seroqil knocked me out but made me grouchy/ angry all the time. My wife called it male PMS. Alcohol can seem to help fall asleep but will make it harder to stay asleep. A sleep study can help too because you may have sleep apnea or a movement disorder. A lot of docs will reccomend seeing a counselor, could anxiety issues. |
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I made the original post about five days ago, in the last 5 days I have had less than 15 hours of sleep. Some of the things that I have noticed:
Taking me longer to get ready in the morning, I can't seem to find things as easy as before. I spent at least 15 minutes looking for a belt that I had put on and forgot. Seeing things, not like demons and dragons and shit like that, but things out of the corner of my eye. A spider or a bug on the wall, when I look is gone. A clot of dirt on the floor that is not there. Can not seem to focus on things or projects, takes me longer to do mundane details, tying of boots for example, zipping up my coat now takes longer. Twitching of muscles, not bad....but a finger or thumb. Usually in my hands. Things seem to move in fast motion around me while I am moving in slow motion (that maybe the coffee, not sure). I am finally seeing a doctor about this tomorrow. Mrs_Fury is starting to worry. Note: I am not driving, or operating any heavy machinery, nor doing anything that will endanger anyone else. |
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-Exercise -Be organize -Have a daily routine that you stick to I am a very organized person I exercise as much as I can based on my schedule I work rotating 12 hour job. This is most likely the source of the issue. If you work a swing-shift that say rotates weekly, your body's internal clock never gets a true chance to synch with your changing work schedule. Read this, then go speak with your local sleep specialist: Light therapy article from SleepEducation.com How to find a local sleep specialist... |
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Bourbon. Yes, I know I say "Bourbon" to every question, but it really is the universal answer.  I see that you never sleep either. I average 4 to 5 hours a day. Been that way for twenty years. Last night, no sleep, the night before only about three hours. I am starting to get a little desperate for sleep, I am tired but sleep does not come. It seems that there is no end for this. I hate being a daywalker, more than anything. That is part of my problem, a rotating schedule. I exercise as much as I can, and eat pretty healthy. So I am not sure of the problem. Like I said before...we'll see what the doctore says tomorrow. |
| Honestly, get a sleep study done, I sleep maybe 4 hours a night on and off, I drank a pot of coffee a day jus to stay awake, I now have health problems associated with lack of sleep. I had a sleep study done and i am now on some medications to make me sleep, i was not sleeping with ambian or lunesta we tried 4 other drugs until we found one that helped, get to the root of the problem and treat it. |
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I had it for many years and was diagnosed with sleep apnea.
Started using a CPAP machine and life has been good for the past 5 years. Lately, not so much. Have tried the benadryl, tylenol PM thing but am not much for pills. Ambien didnt do anything. What makes it even more frustrating is that I wont sleep at all for 2 or 3 nights, then I'll crash like a dead cow for 9 hours straight. No real rhyme or reason for the sleeplessness or good nights sleep. I cant attribute it to stress or "wild thoughts" or coffee or anything. My biggest problem is swing shifting/schedules that can happen every other week. 3 4-12 tours then a day off then 2 weeks of 7am-4pm. Terribly frustrating but the CPAP thing was a Godsend. Compared to what I was like before that I consider myself a very lucky man...... |
| It may not be your body, but your mind, I am on a drug that puts your mind to rest so you can sleep. I thought they were full of shit at first but now I know I take one small pill about 7:30pm and by 10:00pm its lights out, i have an extremely stressfull job I bring it home with me and my mind was constantly racing as a result no sleep. |
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You most probably have shift work disorder or something named like that. Get a prescription for valium Add copious amounts of bourbon Sleep like a baby I find this strange, because I have been on this schedule for quite some time (years) and have never had a problem until just recently. I am not sure what changed. But this sucks. The worst part about it is the boredom of sitting in the bed staring at the ceiling. |
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Quoted: Quoted: You most probably have shift work disorder or something named like that. Get a prescription for valium Add copious amounts of bourbon Sleep like a baby I find this strange, because I have been on this schedule for quite some time (years) and have never had a problem until just recently. I am not sure what changed. But this sucks. The worst part about it is the boredom of sitting in the bed staring at the ceiling. On nights I just can't fall asleep, reading a book usually helps. |
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You most probably have shift work disorder or something named like that. Get a prescription for valium Add copious amounts of bourbon Sleep like a baby I find this strange, because I have been on this schedule for quite some time (years) and have never had a problem until just recently. I am not sure what changed. But this sucks. The worst part about it is the boredom of sitting in the bed staring at the ceiling. On nights I just can't fall asleep, reading a book usually helps. I finish a lot of books that way.
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: You most probably have shift work disorder or something named like that. Get a prescription for valium Add copious amounts of bourbon Sleep like a baby I find this strange, because I have been on this schedule for quite some time (years) and have never had a problem until just recently. I am not sure what changed. But this sucks. The worst part about it is the boredom of sitting in the bed staring at the ceiling. On nights I just can't fall asleep, reading a book usually helps. I finish a lot of books that way. So do I. |
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You most probably have shift work disorder or something named like that. Get a prescription for valium Add copious amounts of bourbon Sleep like a baby I find this strange, because I have been on this schedule for quite some time (years) and have never had a problem until just recently. I am not sure what changed. But this sucks. The worst part about it is the boredom of sitting in the bed staring at the ceiling. On nights I just can't fall asleep, reading a book usually helps. I finish a lot of books that way. So do I.
You and I seem to be cut from the same cloth. 
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If you really need to fall asleep, ask Keith a very technical question. His answers put me right out.  I am facinated by some of the stuff that he knows...he is smart, almost a little too smart.   Keith is really the Beta Test for Skynet. I thought that we passed the skynet scare? |