Yeah, all my stimuli was internal too. I can identify with that and getting up often to pee, HaHaHa!
There’s OCD in my family. They think it has something to do with that. But I have never done well on OCD meds. Luvox helps a little, but the side effects I get are terrible. It’s not worth taking.
But no, not ADD. In fact, I perseverate on things, and am highly UNdistractable. If I were distractable, things like quiet music would probably help more than they do. But I obsess over trying to analyze the music.
I had restless legs as a side effect as a medication one. Oh, my GAWD was that hell.
I have a heavy coverlet called a perina that my great grandmother brought over from Slovakia. It’s been always kept in two covers because I’m allergic to down, which is why we still have it. But it does feel good in the winter-- and it’s very heavy. I always thought I just slept better cold, though. I have a wall unit in the bedroom in spite if the central air, so I can keep the bedroom colder than the rest of the house.
DH and I have been discussing separate bedrooms so I can do what I need to deal with the insomnia, and leave him out of it.
We can rent a large closet in our building for $3/month, and put a lot of our stuff in it that is now in the back room where the pins are. If we do some moving around that room, which is actually the master bedroom (it’s a 3-bedroom apartment), we can free up about 1/3 of the space there-- enough for a queen-sized bed, albeit, there is already a double-extra-long futon in there he could sleep on. He’ll still keep his clothes and stuff in our room.
I’m not particularly worried about the effect of not sharing a bed on our marriage, because the effect of my insomnia on our marriage is very stressful now.
And we’ve always kinda been morning people anyway. The boychik gets on the bus at 7am, and he is working from home two full days and 3 half days a week, and I’m going in only when I get called. All my Hebrew teaching is over zoom or Skype, and it’s all after 3pm. Plus, he has no problem falling asleep, and i have a standing invitation to wake him up in the middle of the night.
Well, it is 8:30. I am going to bed. Took all my other meds 30 minutes ago (except the one I take at 5pm, and the one I take in the morning). Time to take 1/2 a zolpidem, and hit the pillow. Not asleep in 45 minutes, get the other half. Still awake in 90? Klonapin. That doesn’t work, I’m emailing my doctor.
Not too bad. This is my second wake-up, but I did manage to sleep from 8:45 to until about 1am. Woke up hungry, which happens sometimes (my blood sugar gets really low). Wasn’t thinking clearly, and ate something that was just “too much,” and threw most of it up. This happens. If I’d taken my blood sugar first, it probably would have been below 60, and I would have had a Glucerna or a Premier Protein-- Boost/Ensure type drinks, but without refined sugar.
So I was up while I got my sugar straightened out, and made a Kahoot for my religious school class.
Got back to sleep until about 1/2 hr. ago. There’s a delivery coming between 5-7. Don’t want to take anything because I want to be able to get up when the dog barks.
The two things that work for me are (boring) audio books and ZzzQuil. Getting some exercise during the day sometimes helps as well.
Yeah, insomnia is awful. Do you get it when you have nothing scheduled for the next day?
I truly envy people who can go to sleep in 5 minutes and stay asleep all night.
Trying something that has not been a smashing success in the past, but giving it one more shot, with modifications.
Ended up with less than 7 hours last night, which actually wasn’t that bad a night for me, but didn’t go that far to make up for all the 3 & 4 hr nights of late.
Had made the loft with fresh sheets, talked DH into sleeping on the futon in the pin room, and set up some white noise. Ate my last meal of the day-- very light, but with protein at 5pm. Have the perfect white noise. The fish lights are going out early, the boychik is going to bed early, albeit, he is allowed to watch videos in bed.
I will be in bed by six, on the loft, with a heavy blanket, a body pillow, white noise, and separate climate control. I’m seeing colors out of my ears tonight.
I have been exhausted today, but have forced myself to get out and exercise just a little. I walked two miles with the dog, and biked four. Did work around the house, and brain exercise working on a project for the religious school class. I have made PP cards for flashcards-- or, am making. We’ll see if it reinforced that the kids retained anything they learned last year.
So, like everything, it worked for a while, and it failed. Went to bed at 6pm, woke up feeling tired at 9, and it was hazy outside. Unsure if it was still the drag of daylight savings, or a foggy morning. Checked my phone. 9pm.
Took half a dose of something, and went back to sleep until about 45 minutes ago, then decided to watch TV for a while. Watched as episode of Xena, and now, feeling pretty crappy (nothing to do with Xena), and am getting ready to go back to sleep. Nothing to do tomorrow until 11:30. Unless I get called into work, but highly unlikely given it’s still the first week.
I’ve only ever had short-term insomnia, but I’ve always had an issue with taking hours to fall asleep due the brain not shutting up issue. My One Weird Trick for overcoming this, which has worked astonishingly well for me so far (and which I wish I knew about decades ago) is this:
Give a talk (in your head) about something you know well. My recent “lecture series” is on number systems in math, but previously I’ve done ones on Calculus, rocket engines, and various programming topics.
I never get very far in the lectures before conking out, but if it takes time I can talk on the subject indefinitely. For some reason, the thought required to give a talk does not activate my brain the way my usual daily stressors do. It does provide a great distraction to those stressors, and I only rarely find my thoughts drifting back to them. It fixes the classic “don’t think about an elephant” problem when just trying to think about nothing.
I doubt the topic matters very much as long as it’s reasonably uncontroversial (no talking about politics, etc.) and you can go on and on forever.
I get it whether I have anything scheduled the next day or not.
That’s happening in my head most of the time when there’s no external stimuli to hold my attention.
The difference for me is between the random daily thoughts which arise if there’s nothing else to do vs. ordered, directed thoughts. The former make it hard to fall asleep. The latter do not (for me). External stimuli block the random thoughts, but so do internal stimuli. The point of the “lecture series” is to keep my focus on the ordered thoughts. And to keep those ordered thoughts on low-key subjects; ones that don’t cause stress.
Yeah…I don’t really have that distinction. My brain is often like that guy at a party who follows you around expounding on some pet theory you want to hear less about than you want to hear about Donald Trump’s regularity.
My brain and I don’t really like each other very much.
To riff a bit on the good Dr, try counting sheep. I’ve never had any significant insomnia, but my brain will occasionally just start to spiral while I’m in bed and it does make it impossible to sleep.
I find it helps to just start counting slowly. And if my brain insists on replaying something else, I politely tell it to STFU and continue counting. Much as we like to think we can multi-task, we can’t.
This probably won’t help.
Similarly to many post-menopausal females, I’ve had pretty persistent insomnia for the past couple of decades, though not nearly as severe as yours Rivkah. I can’t stay asleep at night, and I can’t stay awake through the afternoon.
You mention that watching old TV series helps. I’ve found that a better option for me is turning on one of the home shopping shows, particularly the jewelry ones, with the sound turned low. They have the advantage of no plot to follow, no commercials with increased volume & flashy graphics, and hypnotic turntables going around and around and around. I can turn it on and giggle for a while at the god-awful crap they are peddling, and drift off without even noticing. My kids are appalled, but I told them to institutionalize me if they ever caught me actually ordering anything.
Wait…this could get worse?
I know you’d think I must be because I’m 53, but I’m not yet post-menopausal. Not even close. Periods are a regular as a German train. Every once in a while, I’ll have what I hope is a hot flash, but then it turns out all the young women felt it too.
Well this thread is making me hate being a woman just a little bit.
I’m going to assume you’ve tried everything already and not offer advice. You know your brain best. I will, however, offer sympathy. I had some insomnia in high school when I was dealing with the stress of school and of having a mother addicted to vicodin. The only thing that helped was dealing with the stress. Now I sleep too much. I’d gladly offer you some of my extra sleep if it worked that way.
I realized after I posted that that I pretty much was just suggesting to count sheep. That said, counting never worked for me (with or without the sheep, or other visuals)–somehow my brain would always find its way back to whatever random thoughts were bothering me. Maybe not engaging enough, or maybe engaging the wrong parts of my brain. In any case, I don’t have that problem with the lecture series. I’d guess it’s worth trying a few different approaches since there seems to be some variety in what works for people
Not everyone gets hot flashes during menopause. Women in my family tend not to. My meno has been paused three years now, never had a hot flash. YMMV.
But yes, insomnia and sleep disruption is also a common symptom/feature of menopause, as common as hot flashes apparently but not as well know or talked about.
So… it could get worse. Or maybe not. No way to tell until it happens (or doesn’t).
Ugh. Well maybe you’ll be lucky and menopause will cure the insomnia? (Grasping at straws here --)
Paradoxical reaction to menopause. I can only hope.
I deserve menopause. I have had a period for 42 freaking years. 42 years. I have supplies delivered, because I find it embarrassing buying them anymore-- I guess people could assume they’re for my daughter-- or, fuck, my granddaughter. No; they probably assume I pee when I laugh, but I just don’t want to buy the stuff marketed especially for that.
I work with someone who said she got her first period at 14, then had a hysterectomy at 34. I want to punch her every time the subject comes up.
I don’t know anyone as old as me who still has a regular period, and lots of women significantly younger who are safely on the other side of menopause.
This might help just a little…I used to get horrible migraines in my younger years. Haven’t had a single one since I went post menopause. I do get mild ocular migrains, but those are a walk in the park compared to what used to happen. I know other women who had migraines stop or lessen and one other woman who no longer has RLS.
Menopause wasn’t a whole lot of fun, the but there are advantages.