I've been having trouble getting to stay on a normal sleep cycle for the past 3 weeks now. Last night I woke up 3 times in the middle of the night before waking up at 6 am for good. I ended up working 12 hours today, stayed up for about an hour after I got home, ate dinner and went to go take a nap. My one hour nap turned into a 6 hour nap, and now here I am wide awake in the middle of the night. Makes me want to consider Ambien... Although I heard that can do some really odd things to you also..
Don't take a nap, avoid anything with caffeine, and get fully ready for bed and go to bed at a reasonable hour. Keep the same bedtime/waketime every day. When you get home from work, no matter how tired you are - no nap. I'd also avoid exercise in the evenings and work out in the mornings instead. I'd try that before drugs.
Do you have any type of exercise routine at all? I've heard that insomnia can often be caused by a lack of exercise, because the body is craving movement. I've found this to be true in my case, at least.
I read an article recently stating that food is also linked to sleep cycle. The reference was for travelers but I don't see why can't work in this case as well. The trick - I guess - would be to force yourself to do things at the time you normally would if you were maintaining a regular sleep pattern. Eat breakfast at the "normal" time, and lunch and dinner. No snacking between meals. As for caffeine, ranchogirl is right. Except I would encourage it in the morning keeping in mind that it can take up to nine hours to be wear off. Therefore, in your case right now it's a morning-only thing since afternoon cups can make your situation worse. Read this: Skip the pretzels: starving may fend off jet lag | U.S. | Reuters
I have been a terrible sleeper for years. I've found relief in a few different ways. Try and substitute water for anything with caffeine. Regular exercise will help as well as eating healthy foods. I eat about 6 times a day, small meals each time. Don't take naps, of you get sleepy during the day find something to keep your interest until the you perk back up. It works for me. Even with all of that I still couldn't get more than an hour of sleep at a time so I went to the doctor. You should get some kind of sleep test to verify you don't have any issues like sleep apnea. Once they ruled that out the prescribed Lunesta. Taking a 3 mg dose gives me about 3-4 hours of sleep a night. I added melatonin (which you can find in the vitamin aisle) and that helps a little more. So now I'd say I can get about 5 effective hours of sleep each night. My doctor asked me if I wanted to try Ambien but I've heard some wild stories about that, so I'll just keep this routine for now. Good luck, being able to get a decent night's sleep really has an impact on your health and overall quality of life.
After knee surgery, I found that sleep was difficult & even with Ambien I would wake in the night & not be able to get back to sleep. Ambien CR, however, would let me get back to sleep. Unfortunately it is not usually in health insurance formulary and, if you can get approved, is still very expensive. But getting past that hurdle, I found that it worked extremely well. After 6 months or so, I "cut back" to generic Ambien & now I only take one if I know my sleep will be disturbed. I can fall asleep very quickly without drugs, but occasionally will wake after 2 hours & find I cannot get back to sleep. This, of course, produces anxiety which adds to the sleeplessness. I have never had any of the issues you hear about with Ambien (I'm sure my neighbors would let me know if they saw Fiona cruising around with me asleep at the wheel). Now I take one about every 2 weeks or so. Don't be afraid to give it a try if all else fails.
I have had insomnia for 8+ years now and rarely get over 6 hours rest on a good night. Ambien, try to get the CR (Controlled Released?) formulary, is OK if you have a full 8 hours of time for sleep. However, if you're waking in the middle of the night with only a few hours rest left, Sonata is the best. It will put you to sleep and you can wake up a few hours later refreshed with very little if any sleepiness, drugged feeling or downiness. These are all my experiences and you should consult a doctor before taking any prescription drugs. Wildkow p.s. there are reports of odd events while taking Ambien. Sleep walking, driving, eating and sleep sex. My personal experience with this phenomenon was this. . . My wife and I were at a motel and I had taken an Ambien DCR 10mg for sleep. Between 3 and 4 am my wife woke up and saw me standing in the doorway of the room, with the door wide open. She asked me what I was doing and I replied that I was going to the bathroom; I then closed the door and got back into bed. The next morning I had absolutely no recall of these events.
My solution is to work myself to exhaustion, both mentally and physically. I think it's working too well - if I sit still with no stimulation for more than about five minutes, I fall asleep. :ranger:
latest studies show that irregular sleeping patterns are simply a by-product of a modern lifestyle and although you might not want to sleep 6 hours on a mid afternoon nap, if you do, your body needs it and will benefit from it. your body can go into sleep debt for up to 3 weeks at a time, catching up is a good thing. sure regular sleep is a good thing, but taking a nap when you need it is a better thing. (as long as you are not driving or working at the time) p.s. you being "wide awake" in the middle of the night probably stems from your stressing about not sleeping "like normal people".... i think if you really got down to it, you will find your pattern of sleep (or non-sleep) is actually much closer to normal than you think.
Developing a routine at bedtime can help slow your body down. Say, hot shower, brush your teeth, lay down and read for 20 min. put out the light. Also, don't eat late at night. Not even warm milk or snacks. It's possible you may be experiencing acid reflux and not know it. Try avoiding caffeine, spicy foods for dinner and don't eat after 6 pm.
Pay no attention to all those trucks and cars zipping overhead.:fish2:Just concentrate on the river/stream water slowly moving by.
...and keep one foot on the floor; it keeps the room from spinning. Wait, what were we talking about again??
I work 12 hr rotating shifts and have had trouble with insomnia also for years. I use Ambien CR to go to sleep and coffee for the kick start when I work the 6pm to 6am. Plain Ambien would get me to sleep, but I would wake up in 1 hr or so. The CR keeps me asleep. I cut one in half if I am not exhausted. A friend tried regular Ambien and quit it when he was doing things such as having important conversation on the phone. I would recommend the Ambien CR for a monitored trial.
Careful with the drugs. If you use sleeping aids you can develop what is called "rebound" from taking the drugs for too long. Sleeping aids/drugs are usually not prescribed for longer than 3-5 days although some of the new drugs are supposed to avoid this problem. If you think it's tough with natural insomnia just try sleeping and functioning with "Rebound Insomnia" it's a SOB! Wildkow
To throw my two cents into the mix... Everyone has their own natural sleep cycle, which typically lasts about an hour and a half. Waking up in the middle of a cycle, even if i'd just gotten 7 hours of sleep, tends to make me feel very tired. On the other hand, a short 1.5 hour nap in the afternoon and i'll wake up alert and feeling great. Try to learn your sleep cycle (it does vary for everyone) and set your alarm clock accordingly - that helps with alertness during the day. For getting to sleep, sometimes insomnia can build on itself. You have trouble sleeping for a few nights and start to get stressed about it. Well, the stress builds on itself as you get ready for bed, making it impossible to fall asleep, etc. If thats the case, changing your pre-bed patterns can help. You can trick yourself into not getting anxious by not doing the things you normal do right before bed. For a long while, my mom had horrible insomnia, and couldn't fall asleep in her own bed at all - but she could start snoring at 8PM on the couch and not wake up until morning. All because of the pattern and the anxiety the insomnia had created. Finally, i've found that most of the time i've had trouble sleeping it's been immediately preceded by a day (or more) of poor sleeping habits - Late night party's leading to sleeping in the next day, camping with a really weird sleep schedule, vacations, things like that. The only thing i've found to help combat it in that situation is to forcefully reset my sleep cycle - If i'm falling asleep early in the afternoon, i'll force myself to stay awake through it one day until my "normal" bed time. If i'm laying awake at night not tired at all, i'll actually stay up and active all night and the following day, refusing to go to sleep until the next night (Normally done on the weekends so it won't effect work). Now, this works for me, but i can't say it's a recommended treatment or medically proven to work or anything like that... just an idea. All of that said... I'm not a doctor, have no training in sleeping disorders, and am not qualified to offer medical advice. None of what i said above should be taken as advice - it is simply the musings and personal experiences of a crazed old man :-p
Like Msirach (post 15) i get the luxury of working rotating shifts and have done so for years. At present I'm on a three shift schedule and also have some difficulties with a regular sleep pattern and finding myself awake at the most bizarre times (like 2am when shift starts at 4, not being able to sleep). The thing that I found helps me a lot is to totally blackout the room. Shut those blinds, curtains and shutters, turn the clock radio (with annoyingly bright clock) towards the wall and to help driftoff a bit better put the radio on a very low volume and a timer for 30 minutes. Apparently its the penal gland which regulates sleep (the third eye chakra - between the eyes) and it works best with total darkness/light. If all of this doesn't help then instead of coffee in the afternoon, try a herbal tea. Green tea and mint is quite good.
