Sleep? Please? Pretty Please?!?

[TigaHawk]

Sooooooo..


This has started aprox two weeks ago.


I've been having serious issues sleeping. I dont understand why, i feel tired! I'm going to bed at a regular time... relaxed, happy, no big issues or anything on my mind thats taking my attention.... but sleep eludes me.


This started at the end of my last block of shift work, I just couldent sleep during the day in prep for work - and even during my shift - when i have the oportunity to sleep for 3 hours, and felt like a zombie, just would not come.


Here's where i did something stupid, and im still paying for it now.

I got home in the morning after work, even more tired... and tried to sleep. 3hours later? still laying there but extreamly frustrated that im still awake. So i decided to slug it out for the day with the idea that a few glasses of Wine will solve my problems. I had 3 glasses, did not feel that drunk, but enough to ensure that when my head hits the pillow i'd be assleep shortly after.


Up in the morning, Feeling all pleased with myself as i knew i'd just slept from 9pm till 8am. 10 minutes later... stomoch is a washing machine and off to the bathroom i go, no shakes or headache that normaly accompany being hung over, just the stomoch and boy was it mad. Was not untill 5pm that i was able to get out of bed and do stuff without feeling the wrath of my stomoch.


From then on my days off, sleep was easier to get, tho it was still a struggle. I put it down to perhaps tis the weather, is just going from winter to summer, some days you need the doona, others you need a fan.



Last night, i knew i had work today, so made plans to be in bed by 9:30pm to ensure i'd be ok for work today.


I got absolutely no sleep at all. Tried sleeping on the bed, the couch, the floor, moving about between there, thought maybe it was the temperature so i got the spare fan, plugged that in out in the main room (my partner was assleep so i was trying not to wake him) and turned it on - only for it to blow up two second later which made me upset (no sleep, and a broken fan, yay)


Stranger still, today, i dont exactly feel tired like i should be either, considering soon i'll have been awake for 48 hours.


Two strange things ive noticed during my attempts to sleep:


My brain seems to forget its normal "filters". Like say you live next to a buisy road, you're used to the traffic thus filter it out. My brain was going OOH! A CAR! ooh another car! a truck! and i'd even open my eyes to some of it as it seems i was focusing on it?


And randomly, it seems 1 per night, i'll have an old song play back in my head at allmost record quality. My posts in the off topic music thread have been two examples of whats popped into my head. I had one more which i was going to put up as well, but the name and artist have dissapeard and so have the tune, so im at a loss to what it was, but i know it was a good song.



Anyone have any ideas as to what's going on with me/my head in relation to sleeping?

Why am i not strugglign right now to keep my eyes open like every other time in teh past ive tried to stay up for 2 days straight?


No sympathy for me plz re the alcohol, even tho its not what i was intending with the tummy, its in a way self inflicted. Tho i'd have thought that 5 days would be ample time for my tummy to recover - it still seems to be sore/upset, one mouthfull of milk and it voiced its opinion, so my meals are pretty basic at the moment to help it recover, tho would the extreamly long recovery for 3 glasses of wine and no aparent dehydration issues be linked to my lack of sleep?


Once again, thankyou all for you're help and advice. The thing i'm not looking forward to is trying to sleep again tonight and not gettign it, i realy need the break you get when you fall assleep, as i feel like ive been awake nonstop for days, but strangely dont have the falling assleep at desk/sleepy eyes to show for it?

[shadowstalker]

I have had the same issues my whole life
Meditations don't work..

Only sleeping pills but they are really bad for the system. shoot at one point I was on serquil, really bad, bad, bad..... felt my heart pounding thru my jaw and my chest, and much freaky pain.
felt like a forced spiritual taking not fun not fun at all.

I have tried everything, from meditations to pills to booze to staying up for days at a clip, ya i would get some sleep , but then it would start all over gain.

I have no answers for you. just an understanding

[Heyoka_11]

Hi Tiga,

You poor thing! Life can become pretty miserable when we don't get our "regulation eight" as I call it, each night (or day when on nightshift).

Can I ask how long you have been doing shift work, and what is the nature of your work, i.e. high stress / low stress?

I really don't see three glasses of wine as having an effect after five days. They wouldn't have really helped at the time, but the body should quickly recover.

[Rahkyt]

I have had lifelong insomnia too but what is going on now is a whole 'nother level. To put it simply, I catch sleep when I can. I'm thinking it has a lot to do with the energies coming in now.

[cheez_2806]

when you have started searching for the truth...then all this information, then all the stuff that happens in your life and the things you are doing in life - you reivew it and then it makes you think...I used to be a early sleeper...compared to my collegues. I have to sleep when it gets to about 1..that's the latest, even if I had assignments due or what ever I just can't stay up like some of friends can.
But now, my sleeping patterns have changed so much. I don't need that much sleep to be energetic and efficient during the day. I can sleep for only 2 - 3 hours and be productive.
however I have the same problem is my stomach. Having short time sleeps or no sleep, in the morning or the night before eating and drinking to help me sleep~ WHOP BAM~ toilet trip for me~

the main thing that keeps me up - I think alot about different things when I am alone. mainly about life. Do you have anything that you are constantly thinking about when your awake?? or when you say to yourself I want to sleep, let me sleep then these thoughts pop up preventing you from it, do you know what they are? I don't think anyone here knows what you are thinking except to realise it yourself.
I fall asleep because I think I was practicing meditation lying on the bed...then when my eyes open again its like the next day already...hum...

For the sake of my stomach I try to sleep without disturbing it - have you tried listening to soft music? or even guided meditation mp3?? They could help.

[Anchor]

Im going to just sprout off what comes into my mind. I know I tried this before with something you posted and I was wide of the mark then, but who knows

Posted by TigaHawk (here)
I got home in the morning after work, even more tired... and tried to sleep. 3hours later? still laying there but extreamly frustrated that im still awake. So i decided to slug it out for the day with the idea that a few glasses of Wine will solve my problems. I had 3 glasses, did not feel that drunk, but enough to ensure that when my head hits the pillow i'd be assleep shortly after.

Up in the morning, Feeling all pleased with myself as i knew i'd just slept from 9pm till 8am. 10 minutes later... stomoch is a washing machine and off to the bathroom i go, no shakes or headache that normaly accompany being hung over, just the stomoch and boy was it mad. Was not untill 5pm that i was able to get out of bed and do stuff without feeling the wrath of my stomoch.

Your working nonrhythmic shifts.

Your diet is all over the place and lacks rhythm.

The light is changing. Less nighttime more daytime. Adjustment required.

You are not drinking enough water

There is something bubbling up from deep inside the conscious - the songs are abstract clues. My wife and I get this all the time - usually in the morning while waking up though, not at the expense of sleep. If you can remember the song Google the lyrics and have a read. You might find yourself singing it before you remember it.

From then on my days off, sleep was easier to get, tho it was still a struggle. I put it down to perhaps tis the weather, is just going from winter to summer, some days you need the doona, others you need a fan.

Will make it worse, but not cause.

I think you also got a bug of some kind that your body is dealing with.

There is always the option of asking for healing. You can do this yourself (can't hurt to give MASH a try - that is, the Mobile Astral Surgical Hospital!) sounds whacked, but has worked for me. Just mentally ask for service. The catch is they work with you when you are asleep. So you'll need to ask for some assistance with that too. If this doesn't sound right, you can ask for actual healing here.

If you ask, you'll get it.

[TigaHawk]

The shift work is easy.. .the hardest part is keeping amused for the 12 hour dayshift. There's literaly nothign to do but surf the web as the only real work i do is when someone knocks on the door and asks for a key, and the 1ce a day trip downstairs to swap tapes. on nightshift its even moreso quiet, but with the benefit of TV and me being able to bring my laptop in, and a 3 hour nap.




Last night.. My partner and I rented a few movies from the local store and had just finished watching one, "The King of Kong" - nerdy documentry about an arcade game champion. So that finished around 9, in bed by 9:30, we normaly just lay there chatting about random stuff (what he's going to do with his pc, if i can get a shift swap to go somewhere with him on a certain weekend.. basic not realy brain-using stuff) so was about 10pm before i'd actualy started to close my eyes and try to sleep.



I'll agree with the diet and water, all of which is a continual thing to improve. Tho with the shifts, i have allways been, and still am confident that i should be ok with it. I've done shift work on-off for about 5 years, if im tired sleepign in the day is no problem normaly. The last day of shift work (two days dayshift, 6am-6pm then the oposite for two days nightshift) i setup the day/night to reset my sleeping pattern. Taking the 3am-6am nap, once home i stay wake all day, leaving me tired at night so i normaly get a solid night sleep that night, just this time around.. no go!


How did you know i wasnt getting enough water by the way? o_O


Will make alot more effort to catch the song and write down the name and investigate the lyrics if it happens again.



Will have some collidial silver when i get home to help if i have a bug. Will keep away from the MMS for a bit - with my stomoch this touchy the smell/taste may discomfort it too much, because it seems impossible to find any type of fruit juice that they dont pack vitamin C into. It kills the color and taste of flavored cordial too


Thanks muchly all


oh - p.s - i rarely drink, those 3 glasses of wine, even tho drunk over dinner - was still stumbling down the hallway. I do believe i forgot the drink at least 1L of water before bed rule this time tho - hense why i guess i wasnt too surprised with the stomoch thinking it was a hangover - it was just weird all the other feeligns associated with being hung over wernt there. Was like my stomoch decided to go into a spasm and i had to stay by the toilet untill it was done.

[Anchor]

Just because you have been ok for 5 years, doesn't preclude suddenly not being ok.

Times are a changing.

Our bodies are changing, regardless of you subscription to any of the theories about energetic changes, we ourselves change with the march of time.

Water? A common problem, so its safe for you to assume it was a lucky guess. Or, you may like the theory that my higher-self helped with it on the basis of the implicit permission in the OP for us to give you the best of our commentary by whatever means available. The wiggling-room created by doubt gives a lot of room to maneuver without violating freewill.

[mariposafe]

I feel for you, it's totally bizarre. I have no solid advice, just a couple of suggestions:
First of all, have you tried doing some physical exercise before going to bed ? That often helps.
If that doesn't work, then maybe you just need to go with it for a while, let your system sort itsself out.
Sorry I can't suggest anything more helpful

[DarMar]

atm here is 7:30 AM, didnt sleept this night.
That wouldnt be such weirdness if i had sleep in last two days

Well i never got nerved by it and thinking that i need to do while my body tells me otherwise. Very often i felt tired until i get into bed, than i start staring in night like old owl hehe
Than i would simply get up and do something.

Anyone have any ideas as to what's going on with me/my head in relation to sleeping?

That could be zillion things! do you wish that i start suggesting answers to that question?
Dunno about you, but for myself i quite noticed that i actually dont need to sleep much to got my batteries filled. And most important part i feel the changes on physical and spiritual level as part of awakening.
And that is fine answer and workable for me.

Maybe skipping routine would be first step to learn that creator of your universe is you not some given knowledge or learned routines by other people arround you.
There are people that doesn't eat in this world, still they have strength, also there are ones that doesn't sleep yet still they have strength.. All they did is learned their own power and how to get into control.

And maybe best answer from that i can give you is: Do not force yourself to do what others do just because they do it! And let it float and learn something completely new from it

[humanalien]

Don't exercise before going to bed. This just gets your blood and heart
pumping and wakens up your brain. Exercise is for the morning, not at
night.

I'm currently going through the same problems that you are. I lay in bed
3 hours and still not asleep. I think i'll try the fan trick next. Maybe i'm
just to hot.

Here is a couple of things you shouldn't be doing before going to bed.

1: Do not exercise

2: Do not eat, just before going to bed. Eat around 2 hours before that.
Eating makes your digestive tract work hard and that will keep you awake.

3: Do not play on the computer just before going to bed. It tricks your
brain into thinking it's daytime.

Try to keep the house quite while you are sleeping and if you have to,
make the room dark so that your brain thinks it's night time.

[TigaHawk]

Ahh just the way you put it Anchor, as if you specificly knew which techniclally i gues you do so i guess just a bit weirded out by that. And yes i did give permission, tho i believe in things i cannot see and wish to heck i could ive never had the luck - so my query was based around surprise that you may have had more insight to whats going on because you can see stuff i cannot.


oh dear humanalien, number two gets violated every single day. ITs generaly the last thing i do before i go to bed, but when i go to bed we never try to sleep straight up, Alex and i allways end up talking and loose track of time and look at the clock and its an hour later - so that may be my wind down time from the pc?


I've allways been the kind of person that needs 8hours of sleep a day, changing to requiring less under such short timeframe would be a bit worrying. I did consider just staying up last night and jumping on the PC again, but did not as i consider it my sleepign time, and if i could have slept and i missed out because i gave up and stayed up would have sucked


When i sleep i allways keep the place dark. I can only ever sleep in my bed/home when its quiet and dark. But anywhere else its weird, i can sleep on a buss, and allmost caught some Z's here on my desk when i put my head down for a few. Heard some foodsteps and someone touch the door so sat up with a start - and good thing too - boss saying goodbye for the evening.


I guess if i require less sleep, i'd be ok with that change. Moreso at the moment, im used to haveing 8 hours of sleep, and i still went to bed when i felt tired, it was just upsetting/aggrivating/worrying to me to get nowhere with falling assleep when i know im tired and wanted to sleep.


Hoping i can sleep tonight, but if not i'll still be trying to all thru the night. Tho i dont feel like a complete braindead zombie like i normaly do when im sleep deprived, my top eyelids feel heavy/slow, and going logner than 48hrs without sleep wouldent be the best for my brain, and with another 12hour dayshift tomorrow it will feel liek the day takes two weeks to get thru

[toothpick]

Sorry to hear about your troubles Tigahawk.
I,m afraid all I can do is understand and have sympathy.
I don,t ever remember having a full nights sleep.
When i was a newly wed 36 or so years ago I would have to wait till she went to sleep then get up and do something , anything.
Just lying in bed tryng to get to sleep is absolute torture to me, get up and read a book, go for a walk, anything, but, just laying there staring into the dark is just like suffering to me.
I have come to grips with it over the years, so has my family.
It is very simple for me, don,t fight against mother nature.
For whatever rymn or reason i am nocturnal, always have been, and thats ok.

toothpick

[Corncrake]

Heartfelt sympathy here having suffered from spells of insomnia off and on all my adult life. You have received some valid advice and I don't have much to add but on the subject of exercise while I agree not just before bed an exercise routine during the day (even walking briskly to work and back or getting off the bus/train one stop early) can be helpful. Alcohol certainly sends you off to sleep but has the unfortunate effect of re-stimulating you to wake up a couple of hours later - likewise tea and coffee are stimulants. Meditation/relaxation sometimes works or listening to a 'talking book' - especially if it is quite heavy - can send you off. Sometimes worry, being overly excited (remember Christmas Eve in childhood?) or resentment can cause insomnia and then there is little you can do except wait for exhaustion to set in. Sorry not to be more helpful and good luck!

[Marianne]

Hi Tiga

My sympathies. I think the posters here have given many valid points.

I can offer you distance Reiki, which is very relaxing and often can bring on sleep. Not sure what time it is there ... let me know when you need it and I can take some time, even during the day at work. Only time I can't do it today will be US Central time 11 AM - 2 PM ... have a big stinking meeting then.

Just let me know the time.

Marianne

[ktlight]

This is a list of herbs that assist in sleep.

Valerian (can get a tincture which you squirt into your mouth)
Lime leaves
Passion Flower

These can be mixed, but start with Valerian. If you cannot get the tincture, make a tea out of the herb with boiling water, put a lid on it for 5 minutes then drink. Usually, it works within 20 minutes.

[TheSwede]

Physical training!

Exhaust you're body on a regular basis and you will pass out easy at night =) As in going to the gym or go out jogging/running/walking/swimming(whatever fits you're current conditioning). Just my 2 cents.

[Cjay]

I had a similar problem in 2002 - zero sleep for two weeks. A well-meaning doctor gave me some pills that made me sleep about 16 hours per day for a week, then back to not being able to sleep. The week of sleep was like being locked in a nightmare I couldn't wake from. I ditched the pills and went back to "grandma's remedies". I would exercise long and hard in the morning, to the point of exhaustion. My fitness improved a lot but sleep was still elusive.

The thing that cured me was sex. There's a saying: "Good cu... (I mean orgasm), good sleep."

[truth4me]

I haven't sleep for 6 straight hours in over 20 years. I wake up 2 to 3 times a night on top of that.....

[albativo]

Tigahawk I can completely empathize.

I got back from vacation in mid July and have only had one full night's sleep since then. I used to sleep through the night no problem and still fall asleep pretty easily, but now I wake up anytime from 1:00am-3:00am and my stomach is in knots worrying about EVERYTHING. I did quit my depression medication of years before going on vacation and I am wondering if the medication was suppressing all of these worries allowing me to sleep.

We have also had a lot of issues surrounding water this past year. Our basement flooded, travel trailer flooded, car overheated, sink drains leaking, taps dripping, refrigerator leaking, fish tanks leaking - all after having lived here for 10 years with no issues.