I’m catching a flight to Chicago this afternoon to meet some fellow Dopers. So why is it that it is now 8 a.m. and I have only gotten 1.5 hours of sleep? I have had problems with insomnia for a couple of years now, but I usually manage at least four hours a night. Last night, however, I just could not relax enough to fall asleep. Now I’m absolutely dead tired, but I have to take a shower and pack before leaving for the airport in four hours. I don’t think I’m going to be very good company tonight, but I’ve already paid for the plane tickets and the hotel room, so I might as well go. Please excuse me, fellow Chidopers, if I act cranky or fall asleep in the middle of conversations. I tried really hard to sleep tonight, but it just wasn’t in the cards.
Have a good time tonight. Sorry I can’t help you with your sleep issues. I can fall asleep on command.
Have fun!!
It’s because you know you have to get up early for an extremely important meeting with persons of unusual intellectual capacities.
I can’t sleep either. I’ve struggled with insomnia off and on for years- usually a couple of times a year I have about a ten day bout where I get an hour of shuteye a night, if I’m lucky. I’ve actually called in sick to work on a couple of occasions because I was basically incapacitated from lack of sleep. But once I call in, I go lie down to try to take a nap, and ping wide awake. It really pisses me off.
Count me in; I’m in the insomnia club also. I’ve been like this ever since I could remember. We’d have sleep-overs, and I’d be the last one to fall asleep. Just the other day, I saw a news flash that said those who work graveyard shifts (like myself) are more likely to suffer a heart attack. Well, that’s encouraging!
I’m an insomniac as well, and I had a moderate case last night, too. And I’m going to ChiDope today, too. Strange coincidence or… uh, never mind. 
The plane will make you sleepy, you’ll take a good nap, and voila! See you guys tonight!
Can I be a member of insomnia club?
At the moment I sleep quite well, but I often cant sleep right for months…
Once I slept 3 hours or so per night - for 2 months… at the end of it I was near being commited… LOL
I feel for you
Try to have a nap while the flight…
Hang in there Shadowfox, you’ve just got a case of jitters/anxiety/apprehension about meeting new people and all that. It just proves that you’re normal. Try to rest on the flight. Check in early and try for a nap if that will help. If all else fails, go for the strongest coffee you can get and grin and bear it. Good luck and have fun with the Chi-Town gang!
…and actually has a useful suggestion.
In the past year or two, the FDA approved a new sleeping pill, which is so much better than the old ones that it’s no contest.
It’s called Sonata, and it’s good for roughly four hours’ sleep, with very little residual drowsiness. I’ve been taking them occasionally for about six months now, to break the cycle of insomnia when things get really bad. Or when it’s 2am, I’m wide awake, and I really need to be well-rested and raring to go, the next day.
It’s a prescription medicine, so if your insomnia is enough of a problem to get in the way of your life periodically (like Thea, for example), ask your doctor about it. And good luck.
The reason for not sleeping can be too much coffee, tea, chocolate or not enough exercise or too many naps, etc.
that you consult a pharmacy or a Nutritional supplement store for a product called Melatonin. This is a hormone that is released when you are exposed to darkness that alerts your body to go to sleep, as is my understanding.
It could be that you are no longer producing melatonin natrually as well as you once did, and that is affecting your sleep patterns.
It doesn’t work for everyone, but I suyggest that you research it furthur and see if you think it is worth trying. Remember: Testimonials are not evidence of a products effectiveness. See if you can find any control studies that prove it to be effective or not.
Also, over the counter sleep aids, like Nytol work sometimes. It may interest you to know that certain allergy remedies contain the same ingredient and dosage as Nytol, which is dyphenhydramine Hydrochloride, usually in 25 or 50 mg doses. CHeck it out. There might be a generic allergy medicine that is cheaper than Nytol in your area, but is actually the same thing.
Yeah, melatonin works, and works well. For me, at least.
You can buy it at the health food store.
Up to 7mg is supposed to be safe, but I find that 2mg works well for me.
Scotti
You can’t sleep because you have not seen the light and joined the Church of Waterj2. Thus your soul is restless. For a small donation, I can lead you on the path to true happiness.
An easier way would be to do a search on some loser named “DRY” and read all of his posts. I’ve been told that works wonders.
Inspired by this thread I swollowed a xanax yesterday night… bad idea… I slept till midday and had tons of wierd dreams…
Doctors who prescribe that stuff should be beaten up regularly…
b dodgy
A little update:
I tried taking a nap on the flight, but I have this problem. I cannot fall asleep in cars because I get really car sick if I do. Well, I found out that the same applies in airplanes. I fell asleep for about five minutes and then woke up and damn near upchucked. It was only a 50 minute flight, but I felt so dizzy the whole time. Really weird because I’ve been on planes before and have never felt bad like that. I attributed it to my state of exhaustion at that particular time. I got to the hotel at about 4 p.m. and decided to lay down for a couple of hours. After tossing and turning for an hour and a half, I gave up on the sleeping idea, got up and took a couple of No-Doz tablets I had in my purse. I stayed up with the rest of the gang until about 3 a.m., then decided that I had better go to bed because I had to catch a 9 a.m. flight. Went back to my room, laid down, and tossed and turned until 5:30 before finally falling asleep. The alarm went off at 6:50. I caught my flight at 9 a.m. and again attempted to take a nap, but the same queasiness effect occurred after about ten minutes of semi-consciousness. I spent the rest of the flight fighting the waves of nausea and dizziness. I never actually threw up, but I really wanted to for a few minutes there. I got home at about 12:30, ate some lunch, and then passed out on the couch for about four hours.
Anyway, there is a General Nutrition Center just a couple of miles down the road from my house. I was thinking about buying some of those melantonin pills and seeing if that helped. I really would rather not get sleeping pills from a doctor because my mother told me that she takes those occasionally and says she always wakes up the next day feeling extremely icky and hungover.
I actually really wasn’t looking for advice per say, although it is appreciated. It was more of a “piss and moan” kind of posting.
Here’s an old thread on insomnia that’s an interesting read.
Shadowfox,
Sorry you’re feeling crappy, kiddo. I had problems sleeping last night, too. And again tonight which is why I’m posting at midnight when by all rights I should be asleep because I got 4 hours last night, a short nap late this morning, and I’m on decongestants and muscle relaxants right now. What the hell is wrong with me (other than a penchant for run-on stream-of-consciousness sentences when overtired)? (This is meant rhetorically, guys.)