Intermittent insomnia

Anyone else deal with this? More often than not, I can fall asleep, but when my stress levels are through the roof, this is what happens. Fell asleep at 11:00 p.m., woke up at 2:00 a.m. and have been up ever since.

My body is tired but my mind is racing. At this point, screw it. I'm up for good.

I feel for you.

I fell asleep around 9pm because I didn't get a lot of sleep the night before, and then I got up at 11 something. The time is now 6:17am and I am still up.

Like you, I too have been stressed. I'm also trying to quit smoking. I will go back to sleep eventually, but the sun will have already come up and I'll probably wake up when it's about to get dark. I am looking up bakeries that will be open soon. Did I mention that I am a stress eater?

nmartin, I'm not a heavy smoker. I've been an on-again-off-again smoker since high school so it's not as difficult for me, but like I mentioned in my previous post, I've been quite stressed the past year or so and of course the cigarettes help.

I got a pretty bad cold last week so I couldn't smoke, so I figured that this would be the best time for me to quit (for now, anyway). It's going to take a bit of determination. I'll let you know if I succeed. I threw out the remainder of my pack and it was practically full.

I hope you do decide to quit. It's going to be hard after 31 years, but most people don't have to smoke at all so why do you? Get through the first part and hopefully the rest will work itself out. Hypnosis might work.

Hi, my name is ______ and I've been an insomniac for over 4 years. (Mostly due to stress).

I've been on several different prescribed sleeping meds and a combination of Ambien (5mg) and Ambien CR (6.25) has sorta worked. I still only get 5 hours a sleep at night, at most!

As for the smoking- I've never smoked but someone I know has smoked for 20+ years of their life. They've tried different patches and medicine which didn't work. They were recently put on a new med (which I don't know the name) and she said it was helping A LITTLE, at best. She went to the doctors for a check-up and was diagnosed with COPD. The doctor asked her if she wanted to see her daughter graduate, get married, have kids, etc.
Within a week, she didn't have another cigarette. It's been 2 years.

Maybe you could TRY having some type of mindset like that??

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NYCurious and Lights, thanks for the support on the cig thing. I know I have to quit.
Good Luck to everyone on the sleep thing.

I've been an insomniac for 30 years. I've never tried any pills or anything like that. Benedryl and NyQuil kick my butt to the extent that I'm tired for more than a day. So I'm afraid of what an actual sleeping pill will do.

A big tip I have is if you find yourself tossing and turning then get up. You want to associate your bed with sleep and not with tossing and turning. So if you find that you're tossing and turning after 15 minutes get up. Do something low key like read a book or watch something kinda boring on tv. If you find that you're hungry have something light like applesauce. I find if I'm even a little hungry I won't get a bit of sleep. Applesauce is perfect because it takes care of that hungry feeling without making me feel "full" which will keep me awake.

If I find that I can't sleep because my mind won't slow down I find a book to read. Read a chapter or two and then try again.

On nights where it's really bad I find that some soothing music can help. I have a pretty decent collection of film scores, celtic music cds and such. The key is to have the volume on a level where you don't have to strain to hear it but not loud enough that you'll concentrate more on the music than sleep.

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I have taken Ambien, Ambien CR, Rozerum, and countless other things. Many at the same time...

Nothing really works.

I sleep for about three solid hours, and then I'm up and down all night long.

But after finding a dead tenant this last year who took Ambien, fell asleep and then sleep walked right into the bathroom and took the rest of the bottle, I don't really want to take anything any more.

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Absolutely have the same problem. I sometimes go to sleep but wake up awhile later with my mind racing and can't get back to sleep. When that's not happening I fall asleep and then wake up several times throughout the night. Often, there are night terrors and delusions involved.

I haven't slept through the night in YEARS...I can fall asleep right away, but always wake up between 2 and 4 and am just in and out of sleep for the rest of the night. I don't want to take medication, but I would kill to get 8 hours sleep.

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I'm very sensitive to medications, so I was surprised that the time I took Excedrin PM, two of them, I fell right to sleep and felt no after effects when I woke up.

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Anyone awake?

I'm bored out of my mind and way over tired. I've been going to the hospital for the last couple days to visit my 90 year old grandmother who fell and hit her head while going to the bathroom in the middle of the night. She hit the scale when she fell and she has 2 horribly swollen black and blue eyes. On March 20th, we are having a 90th bday for her with 50 people...family and friends. Hopefully the swelling will go down quite a bit.
And, this relates to insomnia because she has A LOT of trouble sleeping and took a new sleeping pill the night she fell. Of course, they aren't sure that's the cause of the fall and now want to put a pacemaker in for safety sake...granted, her heart has been perfectly fine on the monitor while in the hospital and she's had no heart problems in the past. I suppose they just want to err on the side of caution because of the way she looks with her eyes and the bumps on her head. I'm just thinking: Why have surgery for something that you probably don't need and probably wasn't the cause of the fall to begin with.

I'm tired. I wish I could sleep.

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DJ- your move seems like a great new start. I'm really happy for you.

Thanks about my grandmother. I hope things get resolved soon. Hospitals are absolutely insane. All the doctors have different opinions and nobody can agree on one thing. Can we have some consistency here? They are keeping her in the hospital now for no reason....well, yea, for the doctors to fight it out whether she should get a pacemaker or not. A great reason for her to be stuck in a hospital, eh? Oh, and one of her heart things came off and the screen was showing a flat line....FINALLY (after 10 minutes) one of the nurses came in and said "We see your screen is showing a flat line...just want to make sure you're ok." Well, what a great way to check...10 minutes later! Idiots.
And if sleeping isn't difficult enough...they wake her up at 3am to ask her her weight; they don't have it written in the chart. 3am wake up to find out weight? I don't think so....
I was in the hospital a few months ago. It wasn't until a day later when they took me down for an MRI and realized I didn't have a name bracelet on. I had already had a CAT scan without the name bracelet on. wtf? seriously?

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" I will also put BAD tv on to lull me back to sleep."

That's easily done.