Insomnia sucks

[CJFusco]

I don't get it.

Most of the time I sleep fine. I am comparatively young (25), thin, in good shape (run 6+ miles 3-5 times per week), don't watch a lot of TV in bed, my room is comfortable, my bed is comfortable, Icut off my caffeine intake at about 5PM... and sometimes, for about 3 or 4 days in a row every month or so, I have a hard time just falling asleep. Tonight, as a matter of fact, I slept about 1.5 hours - 1AM to about 2:30AM. Couldn't get back to sleep. Gave up around 5:15ish.

Any thoughts?

[jeffgrant]

Heavy drinking. Works for me.

[CJFusco]

Seems a temporary fix... unless I yearn for a drinking problem. Which I don't.

[LeRoux Strydom]

Welcome to the club. If you have eliminated physical reasons for not sleeping, are there perhaps any underlying, subconscious issues like work stress, g/f or spousal problems?

I use melatonin when it gets really old lying awake at night. It is commonly used for jetlag, and supplements natural melatonin which can be suppressed by sleeping in a room that is not dark enough, for instance.

Good luck.

[SD Porsche Fan]

Consider cutting off caffeine consuption earlier.

Here is a web site with sleep tips - http://www.shuteye.com/

[Oh Haha]

Try eating some cheese before nighty-night time. Heard this very problem on Dr. Zorba Pastor yesterday.

[IROC]

I have suffered from the same sort of insomnia off and on for years. I'll sleep great for months at a time and then, out of the blue I won't sleep at all one night. Very frustrating.

After putting *alot* of thought into this (heck, I'm just laying there for hours), I have come to realization that it is stress-related. Whether you realize it or not, there is probably something bothering you that just won't let your mind relax.

I sometimes get up, go into another room (to not bother the wife who is always sleeping peacefully) and read or watch TV for awhile. Get my mind off of whatever is bothering me.

Good luck. There's nothing worse than trying to function at work on little or no sleep...

Mike

[mudman]

I too am young and healthy yet have problems sleeping. Usually it is a problem falling asleep, and I've gotten in the habit of wking up at 2-5 am and not fallign back asleep. I've been using marijuana almost every night and that has helped more than anything a doctor has rx-ed me, and cheaper too. When I wake up in the early am and need to go back to bed, I find myself eating some weird foods and then laying back down.
-Jeremy

[CJFusco]

Thanks for the responses, guys.

Sometimes the way I deal with this is to tack a few miles onto my run, that way I tire myself out so much that I can barely keep my eyes open at night. The unfortunate drawback to this is that my body has become used to getting a LOT of exercise, so if I DON'T run at least 3+ miles, sleep becomes uncertain.

The worst it ever got was about 2 months ago. Over a four-day period, I had only slept about 6 hours. The way I finally got back into the swing of things was simply setting my alarm clock for the same time every morning, regardless of what time I needed to be up. Eventually my sleep pattern straightened itself out. Either that or whatever had been stressing me out went away.

[mudman]

The sleeping schedule had a lot more to do with my issues than I would have thought. Going to bed at roughly the same time every night and getting up at the same time made me feel much better in the am. I also try to get up earlier than I have to. Right now the first thing I have to do in the day is take my son to school at 12:00, but if I sleep past 6:00 or so I feel like crap and feel like I'm turning into one of my loser friends who can't get out of bed before 11:00.

Exercise out side of my normal routine feels like too much coffee. Activities that really make me tired and sleepy are the things that need to be done in the garden that I can't do during the day anyway, like hauling manure/compost (Wheel barrow to move 5 cuyds in an hour at 10:00 pm) or sorting boulders/ stone (by hand, avg 300# stone)for the following day.

I can't wait for spring weather!

[Joeaksa]

Can go to sleep anywhere, anytime. Rarely wake up unless I have had too much to drink (water, booze, anything) before going to sleep and have to get up and pee...

That said, is anyone taking Ginko? I have found that if I take more than 60-90 mg of ginko before going to sleep (take vitamins etc at night before hitting the sack) that I wake up either very early or in the middle of the night. If you are taking Ginko might try less of it...

[BlueSkyJaunte]

No caffeine after 1200 noon.

Don't "just lie there"...if after 15 minutes you can't fall asleep, get up and read. Preferably something engrossing but not heartpounding.

[TerryBPP]

Get laid or rub one out. Sleep like a baby.

Sleeping alone sucks. James Bond never did.

[legion]

I've had the same problem for years. I took the following steps:

1) I eliminated caffeine. This was very hard, as I was having trouble falling asleep at night and then even more trouble getting up in the morning, but taking caffeine helped to feed a vicious cycle.

2) I cut back on exercise. I discovered that my body was wanting 10-14 hours of sleep after my ultra-intense workouts (that I would do to make me tired enough to fall asleep). I was giving it 4-6 hours a night. This put me in a high-stress mode. I think I was physically addicted to exercise, and it took a lot to go from 1000-2000 calories of cardio a day to 100-500.

Since then I've lost weight, I have more energy, I can wakeup in the morning without caffeine, I get drowsy by 9:00 and am in bed by 10:00. (Before I would go to bed at 12:00 and not fall asleep until 1:00-2:00.) I think more clearly. I can handle more work.

I did the Mary Jane route in college, and it worked very well. I think it's a bandaid for a larger problem though.

[bryanthompson]

I had the same problem for a long time. Try self hypnosis or meditation to relax and put yourself to sleep, it works for me now. I usually fall asleep within about 5 minutes of hitting the pillow, because I can instantly relax everything and let go.

[CJFusco]

Thanks again for the tips guys... Since this only occurs a small fraction of the time, I don't consider it a huge problem. But it is a problem.

And Terry - the GF is away at school... but when she is in town, I sleep much better................

[wludavid]

I'm young and healthy too, and I (very) occasionally have bouts of insomnia. It's usually stress-linked. Last year I was finishing a big project that involved lots of physical labor. Trying to work outside lifting heavy things in August SUCKS when you've only slept 2 hours the night before.

As hard as it is, just cut out caffiene entirely in this circumstance. Drink lots of water to make up for it. Caffiene stimulates the production of the stress hormnone cortisol, which can stay in your system for 18 hours after drinking coffee. So if you're already stressed you're just overtaxing your body even further.

Legion, it sounds like you were overtraining. A very common problem, but I doubt it would happen to someone running 18-30 miles per week.

[TerryBPP]

Originally posted by CJFusco
Thanks again for the tips guys... Since this only occurs a small fraction of the time, I don't consider it a huge problem. But it is a problem.

And Terry - the GF is away at school... but when she is in town, I sleep much better................

Have you ever considered 2 girlfriends? Thats what I would do.


....Or party so hard every night that you pass out in the street. I have been know to do that too.


You're only young once homey.

[CJFusco]

Actually, my housemates party almost every night... but I really don't want their lifestyle. Once or twice a week is okay by me - I like to be able to exercise during the day and actually wake up before noon.

It's weird, when you think of it, how when I was a kid I used to sleep every night like a log and wake up feeling refreshed and great in the morning... of course, at that time I was getting up every morning at 6AM during the school year and then spending all day out in the sun playing baseball and swimming during the summer. Maybe that's why.

[TerryBPP]

Working out and staying healthy = boring.



Coke and whores, coke and whores.



Of course I'm engaged now and mildly sober (well, maybe not mildly, more like vaguely). I just hate to see a young man throw his life away.