Insomnia

The price I pay for thinking I could take a night off from working until midnight and let myself fall asleep at 8:00.

I don’t really know how this site works yet. Still figuring it out.

Yeah, I stopped “early” tonight, still awake 2.5 hours later :neutral_face: If my brain would stfu, that would help. Instead, it’s being “helpful” and reminding me of all the things I can’t forget to do tomorrow, but I will be exhausted again tomorrow and not remember any of it. I can only send myself so many emails before I get sick of myself telling me what to do.

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Have you tried taking GABA? It’s a natural product of the body that’s supposed to tell your brain to “shut up” (those are my doctor’s words, BTW).

I’ve found that listening to an audiobook with a 15 minute sleep timer helps when I am in that situation. The book pulls my thoughts out of the racetrack they were stuck in, and after 15 minutes, if I’m not already asleep, it’s changed my focus enough that I can fall asleep normally.

I think that’s what alcohol does. (not joking)

Alcohol causes insomnia for me.

Not quite. Alcohol tends to remove inhibitions . . . one’s thinking will still proceed (albeit more slowly) and only your willingness to “care” about it may drop away.

And while one might “pass out” if enough is consumed in rapid measure, the “rest” obtained isn’t often beneficial . . . not to mention the aftereffects.

Also if I do manage to “pass out” from alcohol, it is guaranteed that I wake up in the middle of the night with insomnia.

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Was speaking more to GABA, which alcohol pretty directly increases.

Does this require you to sleep with headphones in, potentially? My ears are too small for buds so I have to use over the ear headphones and I never could figure out a way to sleep with those on.

I think a blue-tooth speaker could work; but might require your SO/spouse to be on board with the idea.

Thanks for the info, I’ll look into it

The last time I listened to an audiobook, it was on I don’t know how many tapes and we were driving 8.5 hours to Disneyland. I generally fall asleep within 30 minutes of starting a road trip, and I stayed awake the whole time, the question of whether it was the prospect of Disney, or paying attention to the audiobook (a murder mystery, though I don’t remember the name) is unknown.

I did figure out the sleep timer on spotify recently, and fell asleep listening to Hamilton, so maybe that’s similar, because the songs tell the story. I assume there are other audiobook sources than Audible, they just have the best marketing?

Might look into some of the podcasts that are available on Spotify . . .

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Does this require you to sleep with headphones in, potentially? My ears are too small for buds so I have to use over the ear headphones and I never could figure out a way to sleep with those on.

I use airpods and lay on my back while I am listening, even though I am primarily a side sleeper. When it snoozes (or I fell asleep and wake back up to silence), I take them out of my ears and sleep normally. I’m not actually trying to fall asleep with them on, it’s derailing that thought-train that won’t stop.

I am so fortunate that I can fall asleep anywhere, anytime, almost immediately. I just relax everything physically and start thinking of something nice. Asleep in minutes.

The only time I’ve had difficulty sleeping is if my SO isn’t home. Probably because they’re very routine driven. I don’t have any difficulty if I’m away at a conference by myself, it’s just at home. I might have to watch a movie or something for an hour before I go to sleep, and then I’ll be awake at 4:30-5 and ready for the day.

Insomnia sounds like hell to me.

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Please welcome - me! - to this thread.

My first world problems have not been allowing me restful sleep for the past couple of weeks. I wouldn’t say it’s a - I can’t fall asleep problem, it’s more of a - I can’t stay asleep problem. It’s perhaps a testament to my former therapist’s teachings that I’m falling asleep without much issue now - but I’m doubtful that there’s much that could have been done to combat the aggressive dreaming.

That’s a pretty good adjective to use to describe them, “aggressive”. My dreams have medically-induced vividness, are highly reactive to the current state of events going on in my life, and at times are a bit… unsettling. If I don’t like a dream or where it is currently going, (ex. something just rammed it’s face, into my face, and bit off a chunk of my face), then I have a habit of rudely awakening myself to get the hell out of the situation.

There are also the stress headaches - ones that no amount of personal training, massages, elbows to the back, or Tylenol seem to remedy. So when you wake up in the middle of the night mildly annoyed and in various amounts of neck pain, it can be hard to get back into a deep enough sleep to really be “rested” in the morning.

There’s not much that can be done about my current chain of life events. My cat has been missing since two Friday’s ago (hurray for yesterday’s “Black Cat Appreciation Day”), and at-bat major-work/life-decision’s are just coming to a head. In the meantime, I’m just staying thankful for all the blessings that I do have - and especially the one’s that are starting to step up in terms of dream-power (to punch that face biter right in it’s stupid-ugly-bitey face).

Marijuana my friend. I’ve seen it be a life changer with stress induced headaches.

Well that’s illegal in this country. Also I have a panic disorder - marijuana is not my friend.

They make something called CBD oil as well. They remove the high component I guess. It’s being used quite a bit for anxiety type things. No idea if that’d be legal where you are or not - it’s very popular here.

i found that xanax was sorta similar to how marijuana edibles made me feel. both made me want to go to sleep. xanax is for anxiety. some people like it. i’m not really a fan other than as a sleep aid. it puts my mind in a fog, so yeah, i have less anxiety because i can barely think.