I used to take xanax the night before an actuarial exam. Put me right to sleep. I dislike xanax as an anxiety med as it just puts my head in a fog that i cant think about anything, let alone anixety, but its great as a sleep aid
Back to 6ish hours last night. So tired.
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I made the mistake of taking an ambien last night at 9.
fell asleep super early and woke up at 2 and knew I was in trouble. Got up and took half a melatonin and wished for the best.
Woke up at 6.
Thank goodness.
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Unfortunately I am all too familiar with the cycle of 2-3 nights of bad sleep, followed by a night of good sleep, lather rinse repeat…
Hope it gets better for you. If we are close in age it might be exacerbated by the big M word, but I’ve had this issue off & on since my mid-30s.
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Pretty sure mine goes back at least to 2007. I know for sure my fatigue goes back that far but not sire if it was fatigue due to not sleeping well or if there was another cause.
The big M could be a contributing factor but if so, it’s not an obvious factor and my gyn didn’t seem to think that was it. Could be anxiety/depression but I’m on meds now and actually feeling more like myself in that regard. I’m exercising and eating better than I have in years, but probably need to give those habits a bit more time to make a difference.
Will probably take a sleep aid this weekend bc of the time change. Even “gaining an hour” tends to mess me up.
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Went ahead and took a sleep supplement last night. Slept almost 8 hours. My understanding is these don’t work as well if they are taken every night tho.
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I didn’t see this somehow so I appologize. How’s the transition going?
NerdAlert is right about the zaps - they happen, they’re annoying, but they generally aren’t long lasting or debilitating. I think they happen for me mostly around the hour the medication is wearing off. So my best piece of advice for you is to find a time of day to take them that works best for you and remember that withdrawal symptoms can happen quickly. I can always tell when I’m a little late (or could when I was taking them around the lunch hour) because I would start poking at my gums (my teeth felt funny).
I personally don’t like getting withdrawal symptoms during the workday so I’ve shifted to taking meds at night before bed. Some people don’t like doing that for sleep reasons - I honestly don’t know what’s the better option for sleep as I used to sleep really, really well and I think I fucked that up with Ambien (doc gave me Ambien in response to me telling him that my vivid dreams were getting a little too violent and disturbing). Effexor was also causing the dreams - right now I’m not sure I’m sleeping long enough to get there.
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Can’t say I’ve felt a “zap”.
I have felt slow at times and sometimes a little irritable or fidgety and realized I should have taken my meds earlier.
In aggregate, I’ve been more functional, better able to concentrate, and actually have slept more than 2-4 hours per night - which surely plays into functioning and concentrating. I certainly have been beating myself up less about small mistakes or replaying stupid things I said in my head.
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That is great progress!
Obviously everyone responds differently, but in my particular case I had to continually go back to increase the dosage (I would respond positively for a while and then it would “wear off”). I think it took close to 6 months (and the maximum allowed dosage) to even out so stay patient and I wish you good luck in your journey.
One other thing my nurse told me when I was just starting out was that I shouldn’t expect to notice a big change right away - that it would be more like this: one day I would look back and be able to say, “Huh, look at that… things are better now.”
It’s easy to see why in retrospect - you feel better and think better so you make better choices and it’s just a snowball effect from there. Happy days are ahead for you.
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I’ve been giving into napping the last few weeks. I have narcolepsy and the desire to nap is so strong sometimes, made worse by the insomnia it creates.
I came downstairs and made a snack. Going to try to go back to bed now.
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I don’t nap any better than I sleep at night.
I’ve decided to stop tracking. We’ll see how long that lasts. I think I slept most of 7 hours last night on just 1 mg of melatonin but that was after only 5.5 the night before.
After Christmas I will try stopping caffeine. But the holidays will mess up my schedule and my sleep really does seem better on a schedule.
I wonder if Starbucks has peppermint mochas yet…
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So a woman I work with drinks peppermint mochas year round at Starbucks, apparently they will make them outside of the holiday season. The only difference is that they don’t have the chocolate curls.
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I don’t need that many peppermint mochas. I did get one today tho. 
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Last night’s 9 hours of sleep was awesome while it lasted.
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I was surprised when my sleep app said my 3 day sleep average was 115% of target. Then I saw that it had recorded some hours of driving on Saturday as part of my sleep time. Um, no.
I did get 7.5 hours each of the last 2 nights, which is really good for me.
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FWIW, my dad used to fall asleep while driving. 
I have done that once. I did not do that Saturday.
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Here we are again.
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In terms of my body I’m actually near to an all-time low, my body is a piece of shit that barely functions, but my mind is leveling off at a place where I’m really functional without being manic (or hallucinating, that was very bad.)
I’m in constant pain, but in the best place I’ve been in for years. Holding on to this feeling.
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Muscle relaxers do wonders for consciousness, turns out.
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