HALP.

[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.

Comments

[amadi]

- Chat on IM with someone else who's up (other time zones, other non-sleepers).
- Watch uninteresting TV. Really uninteresting, like infomercials for stuff I'd never dream of wanting/needing.
- Conversely, try to watch something I'm deeply interested in. My sleep-deprived brain will give up and go into sleep mode shortly into it, typically, because it's overload.
- Guided meditation

[blueraccoon]

I'm not very good at meditation, but maybe I should try to learn some more. Annoying TV (like infomercials) keeps me awake due to the pebble in my shoe idea, but the problem is that interesting TV keeps me awake because I want to know how it turns out. :)

[malnpudl]

The whole L&O franchise is GOLD for insomnia, isn't it? Also for watching while ill with whatever virus may be going around.

I feel bereft now that it's not on 24/7, which it always seemed to be, on any one of umpteen different channels.

I don't have magic answers; I wish I did.

My latest strategy has been listening to the audiobook of Mark Twain's autobiography (Vol. 1). I'm interested in it, but it's scarcely riveting. A good mix for nodding off; certainly better than suspenseful novels or porny podfic. Also, I can listen in the dark with my eyes closed, which helps me ease gently down into sleep without disruption to turn the light off or whatever.

[blueraccoon]

Dude, we so need a L&O cable channel. I"m just saying :)

[llaras]

Cool comm!

My two best strategies currently:

1. Read something mind-numbing/yet mildly interesting. Like the Trader Joe's catalog. I do this in bed with a mini flashlight and think up recipes for each entry. Or other cookbooks. This engages my brain enough so I don't get out of bed, but not enough to keep my brain firing firing firing and eventually I will start to nod off. My anthropology and mythology textbooks are good for this too, the denser the better, because I'll start to think of worldbuilding ideas and then Zzzzzzzz.

2. I do a meditation-type thingy where I close my eyes and focus on the color blobby things. Do you see those floaty things. It won't work if you don't see those. I change their colors. It's very relaxing. And then when I start getting sleepy I make it all go black and then find the stars, like pinpricks of light beyond the black. It's very soothing and I usually drop right off after I find the stars.

[blueraccoon]

Hm. I will have to give the mind-numbing but vaguely interesting reading material a try. Thank you!

[llaras]

Welcome! Hope it helps!

[sorchar]

I don't know if this would be enough for you, but when I can't sleep I take a valerian/melatonin combo and it never lets me down. Of course, valerian smells like dirty feet wrapped in unwashed ass, but I just hold my breath.

[blueraccoon]

So I hvae these herbal capsules with valerian and other stuff in them, but the two times I took them I got horrible nightmares. I'm kind of off herbal sleep remedies at this point :(

[sorchar]

Oh, ouch, yeah. Don't blame you. The same thing happened to me when I had a sleep study the first time - they gave me Ambien, and man, it was awful.

[synecdochic]

Do you knit? If not, have you thought about learning? *g*

(I find knitting v. meditative and soothing on the nights when I can't sleep at all. I put on some nice mellow relaxing ambient/trance music, without words, and knit mindfully until my brain and body calm down.)

[blueraccoon]

I do not knit. I had a friend attempt to teach me how to crochet, disastrously (it didn't help that she's right-handed and i'm left-handed), and I used to cross-stitch, but I never finished anything. Maybe I should try cross-stitching again on insomniac nights...

[synecdochic]

That would also work! Anything repetitive and meditative could be something you could use as a focus on the bad insomnia nights.

(My wife's a lefty, too, and she taught herself crochet from a pamphlet from one of the Big Box Stores that had left-handed pictures/instructions. She also knits, and she knits Continental, which is apparently much better for lefties. Check out http://www.knittinghelp.com for videos and instructions; it might be easier to teach yourself from video! There might be left-handed crochet (which I always type as 'crotchet' the first time) instruction videos on YouTube, too; there's pretty much got to be, as you can find instructional video on anything craft-related on YouTube.)

[blueraccoon]

So, based on your suggestions here I went out tonight and bought a cross-stitch project, which I hope to work on while I can't sleep and while I'm spending endless hours visiting with my mom and dad next week. If this fails to do the trick I may attempt to teach myself how to knit or crochet...:)

[synecdochic]

Hee! Good luck <3