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Insomnia

banshee01

banshee01

Well-known member
Joined
May 2, 2007
Location
South Bay, the Deep South
Moto(s)
21 690smr
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22 140RL
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04 klx110
Name
George
I've been having trouble sleeping lately. This is new to me. Any one here suffer from insomnia? Any tips to cope?

@Kurosaki
 
Weed and self inflicted exhaustion combine for the only pathway to sleep that works for me.
 
I've dealt with it since my earliest memories.

Here are the things that can help:
1. consistent sleep hours
2. no caffeine within 5 hours of sleeping
3. hard exercise later in the day
4. reading a book before going to sleep to take your mind off things
5. reduce liquid intake within 4 hours of sleeping
6. 1/5 dose of Nyquil to stop mind spooling up, when trying to get to sleep, needed every couple weeks

Some people use melatonin, I don't like it's side effect of making me feel drowsy for days after using.
 
I recently quit all caffeine and that is when my sleep started to go downhill. Im gonna get back on the morning and afternoon caffeine and see if that helps.

Also I see Santa Cruz has Cognitive Behavior Therapy im gonna give them a try
 
Climber said:
I've dealt with it since my earliest memories.

Here are the things that can help:
1. consistent sleep hours
2. no caffeine within 5 hours of sleeping
3. hard exercise later in the day
4. reading a book before going to sleep to take your mind off things
5. reduce liquid intake within 4 hours of sleeping
6. 1/5 dose of Nyquil to stop mind spooling up, when trying to get to sleep, needed every couple weeks

Some people use melatonin, I don't like it's side effect of making me feel drowsy for days after using.
Click to expand...
I mostly agree with this list but I don't do #6. I regularly use 5mg of melatonin half an hour before I want to fall asleep. I have no side effects from it. Taking 600mg of ibuprofin helps me stay asleep longer.

Because of the consistent sleep hours - I head for bed at 9:00 and am generally asleep by 9:30 - most nights work the same for me as to falling asleep. One item not on the list is to not do anything active, mentally or physically, within an hour of bedtime. Settling down for an hour is a big part of being able to fall asleep for me.

But my other issue is that I'm wide awake three to five hours after falling asleep. It takes me an hour or two to get back to sleep, but I eventually get enough sleep overall. What I initially did more than ten years ago when this started for me was to get out of bed, lay down on the couch, and watch some sort of documentary. Originally, out of about 200 channels, the "military channel" was the only one I could count on to not have some stupid infomercials at night. The big problem with that was that I was learning way to much about Hitler. :laughing

I have since gathered approximately 500 episodes of Modern Marvels from the History Channel and have those going for the rest of the night, with the volume low enough that I can barely make out what they're saying. There are dozens of episodes available on YouTube, commercial free. It makes a difference that the person speaking has a steady voice, no exciting parts, and very few other sound effects. When traveling, sometimes I'll have my phone read the Bible to me, which works similarly, for a few of the books in there.

What doesn't work is getting up and reading or doing anything on a computer. There might be some audio books that would work, but I haven't searched for any of those.
 
banshee01 said:
I've been having trouble sleeping lately. This is new to me. Any one here suffer from insomnia? Any tips to cope?

@Kurosaki
Click to expand...
I wish I had an answer for you because insomnia still plagues me. Weed helps but I don't think that's a really good solution to a problem of having natural sleep. It's not a real solution.

The best solution I know is to talk to someone you trust because after those thoughts swimming around in my head are purged, I can sleep easier. Or those kind of conversations make stir up more thoughts which sometimes keeps me up later than expected. Me and 3AM are good friends... The witching hour...

Or you can just cheat and take a few drams of whiskey which is not a good option because that is not a good night's sleep the way it should be.

@banshee01
 
One route to NOT GO is down the ambien rout, it burns out of your system in 5 hours and you'll be waking up 5 hours after going to sleep. Also, trying to sleep after stopping ambien is even worse, it takes a couple months of 2-3 hours sleep a night to get your body to remember how to go to sleep.

Sometimes I take Benadryl to make myself drowsy, but I can only do that once every couple weeks.
 
I do get a better night of sleep after sex. Too bad the wife doesn't like it nearly as often as I do.
 
Climber said:
One route to NOT GO is down the ambien rout
Click to expand...
Ambien is some frightening stuff.
I briefly dated a woman who used it.
I ended up having to put all the car keys in the ice cube tray in the freezer before we went to bed.
She'd fucken sleep drive. She'd call me at 3:00am wondering why and how she was in Petaluma.
Creepy, creepy stuff.
 
  • Wow
Reactions: GAJ
Thankfully I generally have zero issue sleeping.

Especially since I retired 17 years ago.

During a particularly stressful period at our company I went through a period of Tourette's Sleep Swearing!

Loudly.

Thankfully I was swearing at my friends, who had nothing to do with it, rather than at my wife.

This was especially embarrassing one day camping at Hendy Woods!:laughing
 
banshee01 said:
Also I see Santa Cruz has Cognitive Behavior Therapy im gonna give them a try
Click to expand...
This interests me.
I use CBT in my work with homeless vets, particularly when helping them address their addiction concerns.
This is a tremendous under-explanation but CBT can essentially be summed up with this statement: "Change the way you think in order to change the way you behave."
I find myself curios about how CBT could be effective here. I'm not challenging you, just want to learn more with the hope of being better at what I do and perhaps provide yet another resource for my guys.
It's the word "cognitive" that has me struggling to understand here. I just don't see much opportunity for cognitive change while one is asleep. Are they suggesting applying CBT throughout the day with the hope of redirecting your thoughts in preparation for sleep?
Like I said.....I have questions....
 
What I DON'T do, is if I can't sleep, I don't just stay in bed. I'll get up and Do Something (TV, computer, read, something).

If I'm not out in 15m, I'm back up.
 
gixxerjeff said:
This interests me.
I use CBT in my work with homeless vets, particularly when helping them address their addiction concerns.
This is a tremendous under-explanation but CBT can essentially be summed up with this statement: "Change the way you think in order to change the way you behave."
I find myself curios about how CBT could be effective here. I'm not challenging you, just want to learn more with the hope of being better at what I do and perhaps provide yet another resource for my guys.
It's the word "cognitive" that has me struggling to understand here. I just don't see much opportunity for cognitive change while one is asleep. Are they suggesting applying CBT throughout the day with the hope of redirecting your thoughts in preparation for sleep?
Like I said.....I have questions....
Click to expand...

I gave her a call. Probably hear back tomorrow
yoursleeptherapist.com

Kathy Beckerman Sleep Therapy Treatment

Specializing in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I)
yoursleeptherapist.com yoursleeptherapist.com
 
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