insomnia, anyone???

So it's about 10 minutes to 5 am and I'm wide awake.  Haven't slept a wink tonight/last night, whatever.

I usually take an over the counter sleep aid, but thought, hey, let's see how I do without it tonight.  Duh.  NO SLEEP!!!!!

Anyone out there?  I'm bored.

I work midnight because of my sleeping patterns. 

Do you suffer from insomnia often?

when I'm active in my ed, yes.  Somehow the lack of food and abuse of certain medications cause this.  I could kick myself for thinking I could get by without a sleep aid last night.

Did you eat enough yesterday?

When I first started here I would wake up in the middle of the night and eat and not remember eating.  I upped my proteins and that problem stoppped.

I stay away from sleep aides because of sleep walking.

What time is it where you are?
It is 7:30 here.
Have something light that includes a protein.  Don't worry about the time, just eat again at 7:30.

ergh... It's 5:30 am now.  You must be on the east coast.  I'm in the rockies.  

It would be nice if I was productive all night, but alas, I was not.  I have so much stuff to sort through and can't bring myself to do it!

Maybe I'll heat up a packet of cream of wheat with soy milk.....  I hate being hungry.

That sounds good.  I had a spinach salad for breakfast.

How cold is it where you are?  Do you live on one of the mountains?

I'm in denver.  It's not cold at all.  It'll go up to about 55 degrees today. 

It is (-24) degrees Celsius which is -11.2 degrees Fahrenheit.

The weather report is saying not to go outside unless you have to.

that's like, painful cold.  How do you live with that? 

I'm in a city that gets 300 days of sunshine - yay! 

 

 

We are having a cold snap right now.  January is usually mild around here.

Where I live is surrounded by water, almost like an island.  We have a lot of humidity.  So if there is wind you can drop the temps another 10 degrees.

have you tried taking melatonin? i used to work odd shifts and had trouble sleeping. A pharmacist recommended it.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll try anything!  I finally drifted off around 6 am and had to wake up an hour and a half later. 

I have sleeping problems. I'll FEEL tired, but my brain wont shut off. I'm wide awake in the head. I'm taking an over the counter medicine too. I've tried the meletonin with valerian root, but didn't find that to work for me. It relaxes you, yes, but my brain didn't "shut down". I need to talk to a doc about this. Sorry your brain wont shut off either :) I don't have much advice.

Personally I've tried: Cutting down caffeine drastically. Upping exercise. Nothing is workin for me. Suck :)

I take ambien but sometimes on the weekend i try no to take it. I end up tossing and turning for 3-4 hours then when I do fall asleep I have really weird dreams. Like 17star my body feels tired and my eyes want to close...but that sleepiness that causes you to fall asleep never comes...so i just lay there with my eyes closed.

Busy mind. I can't sleep when stuff is rolling through my brain either. I do a thing where I try to concentrate on one thing. Like thinking of the work black. It's way easier than trying to think of nothing which i find impossible. Kind of like the old counting sheep thing. I've had decent success, though a 6 pack of beer does it for me every time. LOL.

joe

I was taught that technique in high school....but then i get obsessive about the word and drive myself nuts. Like "star star star *random stress thought* no no, dont think that thought...you are still thinking it...you should be thinking about star...omg this isnt working....this is hopeless....what was my word again?"

You get the picture

Original Post by puritychild:

I take ambien

I did some pretty crazy things when on ambien some years ago - nearly set the house on fire!  So anything in that family is out.  I've taken trazadone before - which works pretty well.  I'm supposed to be admitted to an eating disorders program on monday and will def. talk to the doc there about my sleep!

Last night was definitely a case of not being able to shut my mind down.  I was too anxious about the ed assessment this morning and some other things.

I feel like **** today - nauseous, kinda loopy, as if I smoked some funny pot (and I'm not a pot smoker!).

Original Post by eroth412:

Original Post by puritychild:

I take ambien

I did some pretty crazy things when on ambien some years ago - nearly set the house on fire!  So anything in that family is out.  I've taken trazadone before - which works pretty well.  I'm supposed to be admitted to an eating disorders program on monday and will def. talk to the doc there about my sleep!

Last night was definitely a case of not being able to shut my mind down.  I was too anxious about the ed assessment this morning and some other things.

I feel like **** today - nauseous, kinda loopy, as if I smoked some funny pot (and I'm not a pot smoker!).

 Ambien has never done anything like that for me, the crazies with the mind thing were before ambien. Now it just makes me kind of tired...it's losing it's effectiveness though..which makes me worried.

Original Post by eroth412:

when I'm active in my ed, yes.  Somehow the lack of food and abuse of certain medications cause this.  I could kick myself for thinking I could get by without a sleep aid last night.

So are you saying you have an ed and therefore you can't sleep? I think if you were eating more you'd be sleeping better and you wouldnt be under so much stress. It's a simple equation as you are already aware of by what you've posted.

You need to be eating at least 1200 calories simply to survive, let alone function. There are resources here to help you recover from eating disorders that I highly recommend. However from what you're saying it doesnt sound like you want to get better either. If this is the case please do not post things about only eating 700 calories a day with no intention to change, while millions of others come on here seeking to become healthier.

I couldn't sleep because I my brain wouldn't turn off, I'm sure the low calories contributed, but I don't think it was the cause. 

I did edit the post, so as not be triggering to anyone or in any way promote the wrong thing.  I apologize for writing that out.  I wasn't exactly lucid at the time.  I do not under any circumstances advocate anyone do as I do.  I get that I have an illness and do so desperately want to recover from it, but there is, admittedly, a bit of ambivalence about that.

I did manage to sleep last night - I went over to my boyfriend's place and somehow having someone there beside me was a great comfort and enabled me to quiet down and drift off at a decent hour.