who_needs_sleep | Recent Entries

I wanted to post a quick blurb here to mention that my psychiatrist put me on prazosin for PTSD-nightmares.

I went from waking up every [attempt at sleep] after sleeping for less than two hours to being able to get my normal 9-12 hours again. I highly encourage checking it out and considering bringing this up with your doctor if nightmares are a problem for you, especially ones related to PTSD.

I haven't had any problems with hangovers, which I think can be attributed to the fact that prazosin has a very short halflife. It does kick in REALLY QUICKLY so my psychiatrist recommended taking the first dose while already literally in bed, but it's been such a relief!

untonuggan

For the past few weeks, I've been waking up at 3 am like clockwork with restless leg syndrome. It's not great for my mental health, either. I've tried a variety of strategies ranging from tossing and turning to getting up and knitting to cleaning all the things. (Note: cleaning all the things wakes you up even more.)

Last night I tried something new. For one thing, just getting up once can help sort of "reset" the restlessness of my legs. So I got up and sort of "reset" my bed as well. I used some pillows to prop myself into a yogic relaxation pose (this one also works); dabbed some lavendar essential oil over my temples to help with relaxation; put an eye pillow over my eyes because I find that soothing; covered myself with a blanket; and tried to focus on taking deep breaths. I find that when I'm stressed (like with the wiggly leg syndrome) I tend to take shallow breaths.

I fell asleep and stayed that way for another six hours. Huzzah! I'm going to try this first thing tonight, because obviously the Ambien isn't working.

party_of1

i go on Yahoo!Shine alot, and when i was over there today, i saw this article talking about sleep, so i copy-pasted the link in case anyone else wanted to check it out

shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/long-without-sleep-011600252.html

grammarwoman

I came across an interesting article from BBC News Magazine. It states that "[a] growing body of evidence from both science and history suggests that the eight-hour sleep may be unnatural."

According to this article, before it became cheap and easy to have light during the night, it was common for people to have "a first sleep which began about two hours after dusk, followed by waking period of one or two hours and then a second sleep."

Something to ponder for those with sleep issues...

Current Mood: thoughtful

party_of1

has anyone had any success with those?
i got a few off of itunes once for my ipod, but my mother, being herself, was all "what if theres a fire or something and you cant hear anything cause you have those earbuds in". and i DONT want to use the cd player/clock, cause that would mean plugging in that nasty bright blue LED light that ive read about being the natural enemy of sleep.
co, i guess i just wanna know if its worked for anyone. ive read its good for babies. and my mom says when i was a baby we lived near enough to a expressway that she would take me out on the porch and i would go to sleep because i could hear all the cars go by.

party_of1

hi. im ariel. its 12:59am. ive got quite the vicious cycle here: i take an insane amount of time to fall asleep, then i cant STAY asleep, which gets made up for by "sleeping late" in the morning. the quotes are there cause its not really sleeping late cause i didnt really fall asleep until maybe 4 or 5am. so then i get my sleep, but then that night, once again, i cant get to sleep.
my mom turned me onto these tablets called MidNights, theyre self-dissolving and non habit forming. only one is supposed to be enough; i took two last night and still managed to see 4-something am on my clock. and i had things i NEEDED to do today (college open house, anyone?) which started early, so i couldnt really stay in bed and catch up, but when i did get back i crashed from 3 something til around 7. now, as per usual, im WIDE awake.
i have been diagnosed and medicated for depression (actually thats how i got here, someone on a depression comm linked me here.), and i take welbutrin. it was suggested that i take it at the same time every morning so i could 'get a move on' so i wouldnt be up late. mom and dad and i chose 8:30am for med time. so, in addition to my evil sleep cycle, i also wake up at various times thinking i missed my window but it winds up only being like, 4am. but i hate the way alarms pretty much SCARE me awake, so no alarms. so i dont really think it was ONLY the meds keeping me up, before. its gotta be something else. but i have no idea what. i dont know about a sleep cycle/circadian rhythm or whatever. i did keep a sleep journal for about 2 weeks, but when i did the math, it said i wasnt losing any sleep (probaly cause i make up for what i lost by sleeping in).

TL,DR:
1)cant go to sleep
2)when i go, i cant stay asleep (whatever non med reason)
3)cant stay asleep (med reason)
4)finally fall and stay asleep early morning
5)make up for lost night time sleep w/ daytime sleep
6)because of #5, we're back at #1

blueraccoon

Insomnia struck big-time last night - I was awake from about 1am to 2am, fell back asleep until about 3:30, 4am, and have been awake since. I finally dragged myself out of bed shortly before 7am and got to work an hour early (which is not a problem; I have flex time, somewhat).

The problem is that the inevitable sleep-deprivation headache has hit me and I feel like I have an ice pick through my right eye and into my skull. I'm drinking tea and I've taken Excedrin and it's just not helping, but I'm kind of out of other options.

Do any of you suffer from sleep deprivation headaches? How do you cope? Tips, strategies, etc all welcome.

wanderingscribe

Hi, w_n_s. My name is wanderingscribe and my official diagnosis is Narcolepsy without cataplexy, Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder, and REM Behavioral Disorder. As you can imagine, my nights aren't exactly fun to begin with.

(If my diagnosis confuses you, please read the entry I posted at

disability about my disorder.)

That said, the night before was the worst night of sleep I've had in a while. You know that saying "Don't go to bed angry"? Yeah, well, I should have taken that advice.

When I went to sleep, I was still upset because of an argument I had with someone an hour earlier. Even though my emotions didn't keep me from falling asleep, they certainly interfered with how much sleep I got and how long I slept. Before I got up for good, I woke up at least three times (that I can remember).

The first and second times were short and I fell back asleep right away. The third time, however, was the worst. After I got up, I looked at the clock and realized two things. One, that I'd only slept for two hours and two, as if that wasn't bad enough, I wasn't going to be sleeping again any time soon.

And I was right. Four hours passed before I fell asleep again.

I woke up at eight that morning and felt like I'd come down with the flu. Everything ached, my vision kept blurring and doubling, my head hurt, and my stomach wouldn't settle. I was miserable, tired, and in a cognitive fog for the rest of the day. Even a shower didn't help much.

So, to recap:

Total hours of sleep that night: 6
Normal hours of sleep: 9-10
Total awakenings: 3 (Kicked myself awake, got dehydrated, couldn't sleep)
Energy level the next day: 0
Still tired?: Yes.

(Can I get a diagnosis: narcolepsy tag please?)

Current Mood: tired

untonuggan

Hi all! Just found this community tonight. I was wondering if anyone here has had experience with (1) hypomania and sleep; (2) migraine medication and sleep.

I have bipolar II (formerly known as manic-depressive syndrome), which means that when my mood fluctuates it's usually towards the "depressed" end of the spectrum. When I do have "mania", it's a slightly-less-high form known as hypomania. So if I were to go on a hypomanic spending spree, it would be more like $100 rather than a manic $1,000. I haven't had a hypomanic episode for years, but I'm getting the royal treatment now. Working with doctor on it, but of course it is that lovely vicious cycle: the more hypomanic you are, the harder it is to sleep; the less you sleep, the more hypomanic you get. So I get in bed and my mind starts going-going-going with a "flight of ideas." I normally use a mood light in the mornings, but I can't while hypomanic (as it can make the hypomania worse). Does anyone else have experience with hypomania/mania and sleep?

Second comes the lovely paradox of my migraine medication. The only thing I've had much luck with is Midrin, which is a compound of a variety of substances...including caffeine. (Caffeine causes your blood vessels to constrict, reducing headache pain.) Problem: if I get a migraine in the evening, then I will most likely be awake because of the Midrin. Of course, I could try to sleep off the headache, but I usually like to nip it in the bud...

Hap.

breezeshadow

So when I went to the psychiatrist today I ended up mentioning my observations about sleep, since I was supposed to look into a sleep study and had forgotten. Ultimately I told her about how I seem to want to go to bed at 3AM and wake up at 11AM -- and how I have so much trouble getting to bed "on time" because I concentrate best around 1-2AM, when I just suddenly wake up and am like "Yeah! Homework! Let's do this! All right!" even though I may even feel physically fatigued. I try to do this during the day and my brain cannot focus for more than five to ten minutes.

So she informally mentioned it sounded like a circadian rhythm disorder, which I think sounds about right. My guess it is DSPS or some nature of that.

She recommended light therapy as the best non-chemical option for me, since my body really, truly despises medication (as you would notice any time I popped by

fucking_meds ). I need to look into it myself and see if my insurance would cover it, but I figured I'd pop by here first.

Anyone have DSPS and have some success in treating it? I tend to sleep through alarms and my doctor wants me to get people to wake me up, but I don't want to inconvenience anyone. Anyone have any luck with light therapy? Or anything else they may recommend to get my body to cooperate and let me wake up when society wants me to?

Any comments or suggestions are greatly appreciated. :)

Current Mood: blah

vass

...I would like to tell you my life story, as I think you are the only man who would understand.

Hi, w_n_s! It's now 11:26am. I got up at 6pm yesterday. I have to be at therapy at 2:30pm. If I take a nap, I will not be able to get back up in time.

The latest time I could have gone to bed and been reasonably confident I could get up at or before I needed to leave: 6am. I knew this, and yet I did not go to bed then. Not least because I would have only been awake for 12 hours.

And then there's the medication debate: when I'm going to bed late and have to get up at a fixed time, do I or do I not take the medication which is actually prescribed to me as an anxiolytic, but which has drowsiness as an intended side-effect? If I don't take it, I'll take longer to fall asleep, and therefore spend less time asleep, and I'll sleep lighter. If I do take it, I'll go to sleep sooner but find waking up more difficult. It's a med I should be taking every day, but skipping one day every now and then won't hurt me. Moot in this case because I didn't take it and didn't sleep, but it's part of the internal debate that contributes to my before bed procrastination.

Someone on another forum recommended this sleep game, and I've been playing it while winding down. They say most people fall asleep after five pairs. I find this mordantly amusing: I always lose count somewhere around twenty. It probably didn't help that I immediately figured out how to game the system: the first pair you think of will probably connected, but if you find a third item connected to the second in a different way, it will probably be unconnected to the first item. For instance, I start with apple tree. Mandarin orange is no good: it and apple are both fruits. Mandarin orange is connected to Mandarin Emperor. Apple tree and emperor are an unconnected pair. Next, emperor is connected to penguin, so they don't make a pair. Penguin is connected to buzzard. Emperor and buzzard are the next unconnected pair. And so on. I guess I could make it harder by requiring unconnected pairs to be an extra degree of separation apart, and to remember every preceding pair, but it just seems like a lot of work.

Current Mood: so very screwed

erika

( swearing )

Mod: Can we get a tag for "sleep study"?

Current Mood: awake
Current Music: Death Cab For Cutie - The Sound of Settling

blueraccoon

It's 4:23 in the morning where I am and I can't sleep. I've tried, several times, and it's so far resulted in my tossing and turning and giving up so I move out to the couch so my long-suffering husband can get some sleep. Then I toss and turn there until I think I"m sleepy, then I go back to bed, rinse, repeat, etc.

I've tried warm milk, I've tried chamomile tea, I've taken Seroquel (which is a very sedating drug), listening to music...nada. Zip. Zilch.

What do you all do on nights like these? I had hoped to lull myself to sleep with the background of Law & Order (whatever variation), but sadly on Saturday night it's not that easy. Thoughts? Suggestions? I had a hallucination of walking into my local urgent care and begging them to knock me out...sigh.

Current Mood: awake

blueraccoon

Hi! Welcome to everyone that's joined us in the last, um, week? Or however long it's been.

There are a couple things I could use some feedback on, so here we go:

1. Tags: My thought for this is that we have different categories of tags. Such as:

diagnosis: insomnia, diagnosis: sleep apnea, diagnosis: delayed sleep phase syndrome - these will indicate what's wrong.

treatment: cpap, treatment: meds - or whatever else you're doing.

meds: rozerem, meds: ambien - kinda self-explanatory.

Does this make sense to people? Do you have other ideas? Please let me know.

ALSO - if you'd like to be one of the people on this comm responsible for tag-wrangling, please speak up! I will be happy to share that fun task.

2/3. Icons/layout: I am not artistically inclined. At all. If anyone out there would like to design a layout or icons for this community, please feel free. The only thing I request is that we have something readable (i.e. no gray on gray tones and font larger than 9pt) for those of us with crap eyesight.

Any takers?

4. Any other general feedback, thoughts, etc?

breezeshadow

I saw this community linked and figured that it is pretty appropriate for me...

So I have insomnia. That's the easier way to put it. My body has no idea how to sleep, what the concept is, what's enough, etc. My psychiatrist keeps telling me to wake up at the same time every day and go to bed at the same time.

As if, you know, that's possible.

I have set alarms and turned them off in my sleep, even if it may require getting up. Once when on Remeron I got up, walked across the room over to my computer, typed in my password, and clicked off of Firefox that was playing an alarm. Then walked back to bed, without ever remembering any of this.

Right now I'm going off of Cymbalta, which makes it even worse. My body thinks that its bed time is 3-3:30AM. I don't know when it wants to get up, but I wake up tired no matter what.

It doesn't how matter hours of sleep I get, I usually wake up exhausted. Five, ten... Makes no difference. But when I get insomnia and get four or less hours of sleep? I usually feel more awake. It makes no sense whatsoever.

The other day I had bad anxiety and got an uncommon but aggravating side-effect: I was too terrified to sleep. I was afraid to even step toward the bed because I was afraid I would wake up to something bad having happened. So I just stayed up until 8AM, when I felt stupid and went to bed. Woke up at 11:54AM, naturally, with no alarms. Because that's enough sleep, brain.

I usually toss and turn for at least 15 minutes before falling asleep, sometimes up to an hour. I call it "insomnia" when I'm tossing for more than two hours. Once I went to bed around 2AM in the horrible heat and humidity, and woke up at 4AM, fully awake. That was a fun day.

I have no idea what my natural sleep rhythm is. I'm pretty sure I don't actually have one.

It doesn't help that I'm at a school where I swear it's considered awesome and tough and bragging to NOT sleep, so during the semester when I could have tried to sleep enough, I didn't because I felt like I "didn't deserve it" or would otherwise be looked down upon (social phobia and depression combo go!).

To top it all off, I have weird dreams. Really weird. I've died in dreams at least three times before (became a ghost in one), had a friend die in one once, and as an example once I had a dream I was kayaking through an aqueduct without the kayak after being kidnapped by supervillians. When I dream? I never wake up feeling like I slept well. The rare moments I have nightmares, they are horrifying.

I also have a number of severe anxiety disorders, which don't help me fall asleep when I'm too busy worrying or catastrophizing.

So yeah. I have absolutely no idea what is wrong with my sleep schedule, or my brain, which is determined to not have one. I just know I kind of look like I've been punched in the eyes with how dark the streaks under my eyes are. And I'm sick of doctors implying I somehow do this to myself when no, sorry, when school isn't forcing me to stay up to do work, my brain screws itself up anyway.

For those who are curious, I just graduated with an engineering degree at a competitive university, and am going to be starting grad studies there soon. Just to shed some context into the "It's cool to not sleep" deal here.

So yeah... If anyone can relate, or has any idea what is wrong, I'm all ears. Happy to be here. :)

Current Mood: sick

blueraccoon

The very abbreviated sleep history of becc, age 31:

April '08 - diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea. given CPAP and told if I lost weight, the apnea would probably go away.

July '08 - had bariatric surgery.

somewhere in fall of '08 - stopped using CPAP as apnea had in fact gone away.

July '11 - went to doctor because sleep was becoming even more problematic than usual (I'm a crappy sleeper, always have been; I have anxiety so falling asleep is an issue and waking up several times a night also happens) and got referred to sleep doctor.

--Sleep doc did one study, and confirmed I have complex sleep apnea--so now in addition to my throat getting closed off, my brain keeps forgetting to tell my body to breathe*.

August '11--given BiPAP machine.

The BiPAP? Sucks donkey balls. Sorry for the language. It has a 20-min warmup to the stated pressure, which is great, and at about 25 minutes I can't breathe with it and I'm ripping the headgear off my head. It's trying to force me to breathe in rhythm with it, only if I breathed with the biPAP I'd be hyperventilating. I can't stand the changing pressure and it makes me feel claustrophobic and...gah.

Does anyone out here use a BiPAP and have suggestions for breathing with it? Because I'm about to go Office Space on this thing.

sorchar

Hi, all. I've had a CPAP for about 5 years now, but I stopped using it for a long time. I'm trying to get back into the habit of using it every night, but it's very rare I can keep it on all night - most of the time I end up either taking it off in my sleep, or not putting it back on after I've gotten up to go to the bathroom.

The mask isn't the problem - I like it just fine, as far as having something plastic strapped to your face all night goes.

Has anyone else managed to overcome this problem? I'd really like to solve it - I feel much better when I've managed to keep it on all night, and a coworker of mine recently had a friend die in his sleep at age 30 from a heart attack brought on by his apnea, so needless to say I'm motivated.

blueraccoon

Hi all! Welcome to

who_needs_sleep, a community to commiserate, discuss, bond over sleep troubles, and possibly keep each other company in those wee hours (it's always wee hours somewhere).

General community rules are in the community profile; the really short version is below:

Be polite, be respectful of others. Be careful about offering advice: if it's not asked for, or if it's specifically requested that advice not be given, don't try to help. Sometimes all we need is someone who'll listen, not someone who will try and fix things.

If you have a question or a concern, you can get hold of me by email, or leave a comment on an admin post, or message me. Carrier pigeons might be going a bit far, though :)

A couple logistical things:

1. The community has no icon or pretty layout because I'm no good at that sort of thing, so if you want to design an icon and/or a layout for this community, by all means, have at it!

2. Tags right now are set so only an administrator can create them, so right now that means me. If you have suggestions for how we should tag entries, let me know. Odds are good I will be throwing myself on the mercy of subscribers to keep up with the tagging.

Again, welcome! And have a good night.

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Who Needs Sleep?

Recent Entries

prazosin for nightmares

Sleep strategies

interesting article

"The myth of the eight-hour sleep"

those white noise cd things

intro post

ow. and also, ow.

Narcolepsy + emotions

Hypomania and sleep + medfail

DSPS

But before I kill you, Mister Bond...

-tears hair out-

HALP.

Admin post: Tags, Icons, Layout

Greetings

BiPAP help!

CPAP help

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February 2013

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