It’s kinda complicated.
ETA: as an American, you realize I think of comical ferret-like creatures when I read Ottawa, right?
I wish I had some good advice re: getting up in the morning.
My sister had a car like this once. She’d get up early and attach a Sears Battery Charger to two connections & let it slow charge while she made coffee.
When she was ready to go, she’d flip a switch to higher voltage, stomp on the pedal, twist the key hard, and it would start right up.
)Almost 4:00 AM. I slept tonight from about 10:30 to 1:30 and have been up since. I need to leave for work in just over 2 hours.
I was off on Tuesday because I was awake in the middle of the night Monday. Last night (Tuesday) I didn’t sleep a wink but absolutely had to make it to work.
Should be a fun day at work today, on 3 hours sleep in a 48 hour period.
Sounds to me like you can’t sleep because you’ve got so much shit running round in the back of your head.
Alcohol works for me, a few drinks before bed and I go to sleep easy. Problem is when I wake up after 4 hours cos my brain won’t shut off.
My suggestion is to try looking up some tips or techniques to make your mind shut up. Relaxation, meditation, just make yourself stop worrying and being stressed. Train your brain to STFU and you’ll sleep the sleep of the angels.
Couple of things;
Firstly, your circumstances do sound a tad depressing, and having your life in a stall pattern is always exhausting. One easy fix, that will help, is add a extra titch of exercise into your daily mix. Like get off the elevator 2 floors early and walk up, park your car in the far corner of the lot, etc. small tiny things that can make all the difference, believe it or not. Not hard, not too structured, pretty easy, and really worth a try.
Next, take some damn vitamins. Stress, such as divorce, screws with your body in ways that taking a daily vitamin can kind of offset. Again, really easy with multiple benefits.
You need to shake up your sleep habits. To include strictly going to bed at the same time every evening, keeping interesting reading material next to the bed, stop all tv, computer usage, loud music, 60-90 mins before retiring, making sure where you sleep is somewhat tidy and neat, not some chaotic mess. Develop a routine and adhere to it strictly for a few weeks.
You’re in Canada, go see your doctor, for goodness sake. See if she’ll give you something like 5mg lorazepam. Very low dose, not a true sleep aid so much as a mind calmer. I use it occasionally and it really works for me. When I went through a bad stretch of not sleeping it really, very simply and easily, in very short order, helped me to ‘reset’ back to a much healthier pattern.
I regret all the time I spent trying to power through it, when assistance was available all along. But I didn’t like the idea of taking a pill, of needing to be medicated to sleep, etc. so I powered on, and it got worse, I was near my breaking point when I finally saw a Dr. Her reaction was, 'You should have come to see me sooner. It’s no big thing. Most people, at some point in life, go through such an episode. I can give you something quite mild but effective."
That first night I took a pill, slept wonderfully, and awoke the next day to a new world! it was a thing of beauty! I encourage you to just see your Dr, and let him do his job.
I wish you nothing but the best of luck, it so, SO, sucks to not be getting good sleep!
Add a nap after work and see if that brings up your daily total of sleep. That way you can stay up late (by the clock) without robbing yourself of sleep. A 2 hour nap and 5 hours of sleep is better than 5 hours of sleep.
Some good suggestions in here. Thank you.
Boy, it’s been a loooong day so far.
I think a couple of beers tonight might help do the trick.
If I may suggest…Founders has a new Mango/Habanero Ale. It’s ten percent ABV, but the alcohol is hidden by the sweet/spice bite.
If all else fails… think of this as just a season in your life. It won’t always be this way. You will sell the house and then things will get easier and you will feel better. Until then, grit your teeth and wait.
How long has this been going on Leaffan ?
If you drink every night, and it doesn’t have to be a lot. Just a couple of drinks that will prevent you from getting a real good nights rest. Source : My cardiologist just recently told me that. I sleep about the same amount of time as you 5-6 hours a night, we need 8. I’m sure you already knew that. It may be depression as well, there’s different degrees of depression being tired all of the time, not really feeling like doing anything, no interest in hobbies are all symptoms. Still dealing with the divorce can’t help either.
It could also be sleep apnea, I was just recently diagnosed with moderate sleep apnea. I have high blood pressure but I’m doing everything right according to the cardiologist did the stress test, heart is fine. It’s when he found out my father sleeps with a CPAP, he sent me for a sleep study. Now I’m just waiting for an appointment with my family doctor to see where to go from here. I snore pretty bad, wake up tired all the time, yawning all day. I chalked it up to minimal sleep but it’s sleep apnea. It can cause being tired all the time, high blood pressure, depression, lack of concentration and oh ya sudden death in your sleep. My numbers where 21/13, meaning I stop breathing 21 times an hour, and wake up 13 times an hour.
I have a friend who has it, he said he didn’t know what a good nights sleep was until he got it taken care of. If you have a family doctor, get your ass in there. If it’s something physical, it will make dealing with other issues easier
Man, those sound so good. I doubt they’re available in Ontario. On the other hand I’m going to be on business in southern Ontario next week and planned on popping over the boarder to Port Huron, MI to pick up a couple of things. I’m going to look for some. Thanks!
Well, not surprisingly, ever since the separation. I’m probably in a better place emotionally since then, but money is really, really tight, and I worry a lot about that.
I don’t have sleep apnea; I don’t snore and when I do sleep it’s wonderful. I just don’t feel like going to bed, and I don’t feel like getting out of bed. On weekends I can sleep like a baby usually, but that might have something to do with additional self-medication. I dunno.
Anyone else always misreading this as “I can’t get it up in the morning?”
I’m still awake again… God…
I feel for you. I’ve suffered bouts of intense insomnia since I was a kid. I absolutely HATE that feeling of being in bed, and getting more and more stressed about how late it’s getting.
Oh, it’s 1am, well not too bad, I can still get 5 and a half hours of sleep. Oh, it’s 2am, well 4 and a half isn’t TOOOOoooo bad. 3am…and so on.
And the next night, you get home practically dragging yourself through the door, but come bedtime? You (or rather your brain) suddenly SNAPS awake, and every trouble and worry for the last 5 years starts reeling through your mind. After the 5th, 6th, 7th night like this, you’d practically kill someone for 8 hours in a row (actually 6 or 7, hell 5, would do!).
And all of the “help” books and articles tell you, if you can’t sleep, to get up and do something. Yeah, that helps…NOT. It’s not my body that’s awake (in fact my body is toast) it’s my stupid brain. And the trouble is, the next morning when you’re trying to survive on 2 hours and 15 minutes of sleep, does your brain want to work? NO! You’re walking around in a complete fog.
I’m sorry, I wish I had something helpful and comforting to say, but I only have stupid cliches. I know it doesn’t seem like it now, but it WILL get better. And I know you can’t really force your brain to not worry, but try not to.
I use self relaxation techniques. I know they’re not going to help me sleep most of the time, but they do help break the cycle of letting things run around and around in your head.
Wow. That’s exactly it. “Hey, if I fall asleep now I’ll still get 4 hours…Well, a two hour nap would suffice…If can just get an hour of sleep in…”
Then, fuck. I may as well get up now because there’s no point in continuing this charade.
I got 5.5 hour’s sleep last night, assisted by a few drinks. I did not want to get up this morning. I could have slept for another 5.5 hours.
It sounds like more of a sleep hygiene problem than apnea(though of course that is also a possibility).
My body is on a schedule that wants me to go to bed at 2 AM and sleep until noon. I get up for the work day, and by mid-afternoon I’m stumbling around practically falling asleep. Then at dinnertime I get my second wind and the brain wants to stay up and read, surf the web, or whatever - anything but sleep. Of course once I do go to bed, I’m out like a light almost immediately (the benefit of a number of sleep issues other than the scheduling issue).
And I hear ya on “back on the treadmill tomorrow”.
Do see the doctor. You should get physical issues addressed if any, as well as working on the behavioral modification, stress relief, etc.