Well, since I’m currently waiting for my medical insurance to kick in, I’ve gotta ask my medical questions here. Once again, I have not been able to find any kind of documentation on the particular aspects of my affliction, thereby reinforcing my belief that I’m a freakish medical curiosity. To wit: I suffer from insomnia. Have since I was a kid. I saw a doctor about it once, and his advice was to take sleeping pills (“they’re not addictive”). I do, in fact, take sleeping pills to get to sleep, but they don’t always work. Reason: once the effects have kicked in and I lie down to doze off, I start itching. All over my body. Every crevasse, every square inch. It’s not the pills - I itch whether I’ve taken them or not. It’s not the bedsheets/laundry detergent, either - I can lie in bed all day reading without any ill effects. It’s not until I’m actually ready to fall asleep that I start itching. It often bothers me so much and gets me so frustrated that I become wide awake again. WTF? Has anybody ever heard of anything like this? It’s been going on for years, and there’s gotta be something that can be done. DOn’t know if it’s related, but I’m also often very tired (not sleepy) and/or unmotivated during the day, and my thinking is somewhat muddled (unclear, foggy, whatever). It appears to some people I know that I am absent-minded, or not paying attention. I’m actually a fairly intelligent guy, and I’ll have occasional bursts of clear-headedness, motivation, etc. I just wish I could have that energy and sense of purpose more often. And I’ve suffered in the past from depression, so I know it’s not that - if anything, I’m happier and more well-adjusted than I’ve ever been. I know this is a lot, and somewhat esoteric, but any insight would be greatly appreciated.
This probably isn’t what you want to hear, but I think this is really a question for professionals. My non-professional wild guesses question whether insomnia is really the root of the problem some thoughts:
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Allergies. They can certainly cause skin itching. Perhaps before you’re trying to sleep you just don’t notice. them. Perhaps your skin is reacting to dust mite waste, which will collect in mattresses and bother you in spite of nice clean sheets.
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Dry skin. I get the itchies all the time because of my guilty long-hot-bath pleasure. It washes all the nice skin oils off. I sometimes bathe in olive oil (about one part olive oil to a thousand parts water!) which feels nice but eventually makes me smell a little like weak salad dressing.
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Other skin problems. Some dermatological conditions are invisible. I don’t know why they would act up at night in specific, but skin problems are kind of sneaky. Lots of people with such-and-such skin problem think they just need such-and-such simple cure, and they’re wrong. I was convinced that I just had dry scalp (see above), until the dermatologist told me I had sebbhoreic dermatitis (spelled wrong, I bet). So basically, I was fooled by a simple, easily-treated skin conditions which caused small snowstorms when I shook my head.
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Psychological problems. Itching can be mostly mental. It can be related to vague anxiety. Know what I mean? Well, I don’t either exactly, but if you’re feeling anxious it might make you both sleepless and itchy.
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Those sleeping pills. Oooh, sleeping pills scare me. Are they really not addictive any more? I hope not. I just don’t think they are a good long-term solution. Maybe something like Melatonin is, if used properly, since Melatonin isn’t a narcotic. You’ve said you get the itchies even when you don’t take the pills, but I wonder if there is some sort of problem that long-term use may cause.
I shouldn’t have to include the standard disclaimer. I’m just an untrained web-surfer, and I’m telling you my instincts because I think it will be better than nothing, and I’m hoping it may point you in the right direction to learn more. Real doctors (allergists, dermatologists, GPs, and maybe even psychiatrists) are your best bet, so let’s keep our fingers crossed for better answers when the insurance comes around.
Boris covered the itching pretty well, but I’ll give you my standard insomnia advice:
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Don’t take the sleeping pills. Although they are not addictive in the way we tend to think (you won’t jones for them if you miss taking them) they are addictive in the sense that once you have taken them for a while, you will have to take them to get to sleep, but they won’t have the same effect they used too. This is because you tend to not get the necessary REM sleep you need to be rested. If you must take a sleeping pill, take it well before you go to sleep. For instance, I prefer to take sleeping pills 2 hours before I go to sleep, so that the pill can get into my system and make me drowsy before I get into bed, then get out of my system (hopefully) early enough that I get some normal sleep.
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Try to go to bed at about the same time every night. You have some wiggle room on this, but if you stay out on Saturday night till 3, it’ll be harder to go to sleep at 10PM Sunday.
(Which somewhat contradicts)
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If possible, don’t go to bed if you’re not sleepy. Note - one thing I have read and found to be true is that you have to be awake for 12 hours before you can go back to sleep. So if you sleep till noon, again, you won’t be sleepy at 10PM.
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Don’t spend more than 15-30 minutes trying to get to sleep. If you notice that you’ve been in bed more than 15 minutes, get out of bed and do something for a while. Make sure what you do isn’t going to make you more hyper; e.g. no exercising or energetic music or writing posts to Great Debates (or reading GD for that matter
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When you go to bed, choose a chore or some other task that you do not want to do and tell yourself that if you are still awake in thirty minutes you will do that task. Then, if you are still awake, get up and do your chosen task. This is my favorite suggestion, as it has worked nearly every time I’ve used it. And if the itching is psychological, this should stop it.
Those are the most useful suggestions I have. Other things you can try:
Before you start getting ready for sleep, turn off high energy music and turn the lights down. I love R&R music, but I went through a period where I had to turn the radio off every night about an hour before I went to bed, or I would be to wired to sleep. And our bodies react to reduced light by producing melatonin which puts us to sleep.
Get plenty of exercise, but not right before bed. (Unless you’re weird like me - exercise right before bed just puts me to sleep)
Sex 
by yourself or with an SO, it produces a nice soporific chemical, which does a nice job of putting you to sleep.
Wait, how old are you? :eek:
No wonder I have no problem sleeping.
Seriously, Woodstock, the reason you’re so tired during the day and unable to concentrate at tasks should be obvious to you. You’re not getting enough sleep! Or enough sex!
Have you tried benadryl? It is an over-the-counter med that is used for both itching and sleep, thereby solving both your problems at once with a relatively safe medication. (It is the active ingredient in Tylenol PM, BTW, so buy whichever is cheaper if Tylenol is not a problem for you.)
My guess is that you have some combo of allergies, dry skin, and, most importantly, an expectancy effect: you expect to itch, so you do. If I just think about itching, I itch in this one spot I have. ::stops typing to scratch::
Good luck with this; insomnia is hell.
It’s OK, Zyada, I’m 30. Which means I’m old enough for the advice and I’ve still got a few more years before TV becomes more interesting than sex.
Thanks, Barbitu8, I think I’ll try that tactic with my girlfriend tonight. “But honey, don’t you want to advance the frontiers of medicine?” It sure beats begging. Then again, I may have already used that one. Anyway, thanks to all of you who offered advice. I guess I’ll have to go see an M.D. soon.
Maybe you’re allergic to your body’s own sleep chemical produced when you’re ready to sleep.
Deb
Actually, Brynda, Benedryl could be causing the itching. Woody, is that what you are taking, over the counter diphenhydramine hcl?
That could explain why you itch, and itching is associated with sleep for you, so now you itch whenever you try to fall asleep.
Dust mites would do it, too.
jb
[Dr. Nick Riviera]
Holy smokes, you need a nap!
[/Dr. Nick Riviera]
You may want to investigate as to whether naps improve your daytime performance.
Regular hours of rest and activity are essential to “set” your biological clock.
Read a book until you get drowsy. This is one of the best ways I know to nod off.
A mug of warm milk is famous for its soporific qualites.
Your itching may be much less complicated than you think. When you begin to fall asleep, one of the principal things that is occuring is you shutting out all external sensory input. This will lower the “noise floor” of your brain so that it becomes more sensitive to signals that it would normally ignore. Suddenly the sensations from your skin’s surface receptors are much more noticible. I have experienced this exact same effect.
You may wish to eliminate fabric softener if you are using it on your bed linens. I can annoy the skin.
jb_farley, I have only heard of benedryl as a cure for itching, not a cause, although one can be allergic to anything, I suppose. Even if he is taking it, it is unlikely to be the cause of the itching, however, because in the OP he said he itches whether or not he takes the sleeping med.
Zenster, I love your “noise floor” theory. Good one!
All the same, if this is a problem you have had for some time it would be worth doing liver function tests and a complete blood count. Liver problems can cause all of the problems you describe. That being said, it probably is not anything that serious. Benadryl and calamine lotion may help your itching; the advice for insomnia already written is pretty good. Try doing an Internet search for “sleep hygiene” for more advice.
I too am an insomniac. I haven’t slept normal (without drugs) for two years. WHoever told you sleeping pills are “not” addicticing is INCORRECT. Infact I just stopped taking AMbien because my body has acclimated itself to the results and they no longer work. I have tried many on the market and finally I’m on Halcion. It seems to be working.
When I lie down to sleep at night I hear dripping sounds. There is no need for me to hear this, but I do. I think its a nervous condition - my brain just doesn;'t shut down from the days activities.
I would go see a pschytrist who can give you moral therapy as well as sleeping pills.
Your cloudy head or lack of paying attention is from sleep deprevation.
Good Luck! Missing sleep is no easy matter
Another possibility is heat, which for an atopic-type skin (associated with suffering from eczema, hayfever,asthma?) with strong histamine reactions may result in an itchy sensation and a transient sort of urticarial rash. Feather quilts, whether you call them doonas or duvets are fine in freezing weather but for those of us in warmer climates or with central heating they are probably far too hot. Overheating at night is a frequently neglected cuase of poor sleep patterns. Try reducing the bedclothes/pyjamas.