[AliDeal]

Hi, my name is Alli,

I am from South Africa, and at the grand age of 51 decided it was time for a new adventure, so I re-located to the UK, us insomniacs tend to have a lot of thinking time on our hands, usually between 11:00p.m. and 5:00a.m., when we eventually fall asleep, only to be woken up by the alarm, so my decision to move across the ocean was probably made anytime time between these hours. Anyway, I digress, I am a media strategist by profession, publisher, writer and fund-raising specialist (in my opinion anyway), I have a bit of a quirky sense of humour, which probably has more of an American influence than English, in South Africa we are brought up on American television, so my humour sometimes goes straight over the heads of the British humour, I also had a Scottish grandmother so it can get a little wicked from time to time.

I have been an insomniac for nearly 30 years, so for the first 21 years I slept like a baby, then things went a bit crazy. I have used sleeping tablets for all of these years, except for a brief period around 10 years ago, to add to this little problem, I also suffer from temporaral lobe elipsey and addding the creative mind, well, who is surprised I don't sleep.

Most of the time, I manage my own medication, in consultation with doctors, I then research them and combine to reach maximum benefit – if one can call it that – but as time has gone by my body has become use to the drugs and now I am at a stage that I need to take some more serious action.

Why have I joined this site, because i am tired of people – who sleep like babies – telling me how bad medication is to sleep – I know this!!Many have recommended a few glasses of wine before bed, well alcohol stimulates my brain – and I do enjoy a glass of wine. So I now come to the authorities, others like me, we don't sleep much, do we? In South Africa our sleeping tablets are branded or generics, but the generics are also branded, so we can find what works and not, but in the UK the generics are just that, each time you get new meds, they are different, and I react with headaches and hangovers in the morning, not a good thing for someone who needs the mind to create. So, after two nights of using different meds, one of which gave me a bad headache and the other, nausea, headaches and nightmares, I am now here, so any help would be appreciated.

I received this morning from a homeopath a remedy called Coffea, based on the coffee bean, let me see if that works tonight, must confess I am feeling a little ragged today, I think I accidently overdosed on the one set of meds last night, I took my usual two, but, big but, they were of a high milligram. Thrown those out this morning.

So, that is a little (I am a writer) introduction. Looking forward to meeting all.

Alli

[1949Molly]

'AliDeal' wrote on '31:

Hi, my name is Alli,

I am from South Africa, and at the grand age of 51 decided it was time for a new adventure, so I re-located to the UK, us insomniacs tend to have a lot of thinking time on our hands, usually between 11:00p.m. and 5:00a.m., when we eventually fall asleep, only to be woken up by the alarm, so my decision to move across the ocean was probably made anytime time between these hours. Anyway, I digress, I am a media strategist by profession, publisher, writer and fund-raising specialist (in my opinion anyway), I have a bit of a quirky sense of humour, which probably has more of an American influence than English, in South Africa we are brought up on American television, so my humour sometimes goes straight over the heads of the British humour, I also had a Scottish grandmother so it can get a little wicked from time to time.

I have been an insomniac for nearly 30 years, so for the first 21 years I slept like a baby, then things went a bit crazy. I have used sleeping tablets for all of these years, except for a brief period around 10 years ago, to add to this little problem, I also suffer from temporaral lobe elipsey and addding the creative mind, well, who is surprised I don't sleep.

Most of the time, I manage my own medication, in consultation with doctors, I then research them and combine to reach maximum benefit – if one can call it that – but as time has gone by my body has become use to the drugs and now I am at a stage that I need to take some more serious action.

Why have I joined this site, because i am tired of people – who sleep like babies – telling me how bad medication is to sleep – I know this!!Many have recommended a few glasses of wine before bed, well alcohol stimulates my brain – and I do enjoy a glass of wine. So I now come to the authorities, others like me, we don't sleep much, do we? In South Africa our sleeping tablets are branded or generics, but the generics are also branded, so we can find what works and not, but in the UK the generics are just that, each time you get new meds, they are different, and I react with headaches and hangovers in the morning, not a good thing for someone who needs the mind to create. So, after two nights of using different meds, one of which gave me a bad headache and the other, nausea, headaches and nightmares, I am now here, so any help would be appreciated.

I received this morning from a homeopath a remedy called Coffea, based on the coffee bean, let me see if that works tonight, must confess I am feeling a little ragged today, I think I accidently overdosed on the one set of meds last night, I took my usual two, but, big but, they were of a high milligram. Thrown those out this morning.

So, that is a little (I am a writer) introduction. Looking forward to meeting all.

Alli

Alli,

I have a similar insomnia pattern. I slept like a baby (actually slept soundly in Grand Central Station in NY when I was 18). My Insomnia started in my 30ies and has gotten progressively worse. I depend on mediations for sleep. I know that there are so many people out there who say how terrible that is, but is that worse than having no sleep at all? I've decided that having no sleep at all is MUCH WORSE. So for now sleep meds it is. Working definitely is a factor. I can't take the medications (4 in all) that give me a good rest the night before work so I can only take 3 of the 4. I also am anxious about going to work the next day and this makes my already bad sleep worse. I plan to cut my work from 3 days/week to 2 days per week in the new year. I'm 68 and deserve to improve my life if I can.

[AliDeal]

Hi Molly,

I agree, sleeping tablets are better than no sleep, I have tired to quite many times over the years, and sometimes manage to get down to half-a-tablet, but I think many people who have difficulties sleeping are usually of above average intelligence and often have some form of trauma in their life, this tends to come out and play at night, feeling safe, in our personal and work life is a very important component and congratulations that you are still work at 68, I believe that my life is taking a new beginning at 50 – would like to say I am smarter and wiser, but not so sure about that, still a kid inside, a bit of a Peter Pan – I like it that way.

[Martin Reed]

Welcome to Insomnia Land, Alli – and thank you for introducing yourself. Please keep us updated on your experiment with Coffea – perhaps you could even start a new discussion topic on this in the insomnia forum. I have to admit, it's something I've not heard of before.

In my research for the Insomnia Land blog, and from getting involved in the community here I have to say that insomnia does seem to be particularly prevalent amongst creative types. I haven't decided whether it's a curse or if it helps us come up with original ideas (could insomnia be what makes us creative, or does creativity cause insomnia?).

Anyway, that's a discussion for another day! Welcome aboard – I look forward to getting to know you better 🙂

—

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[AliDeal]

Thanks Martin, I will keep an update of Coffea, I started last night, but not a good night, that might have had something to do with the fireworks going off until 3a.m. this morning, but must confess I was feeling like a bit of a scrooge, I wanted to sleep and others were having fun – how inconsiderate – anyway, will try again tonight and see how it goes.

Creativity vs insomnia, well that most certainly could be a very interesting discussion, I am thinking that creative people tend to push a little more into the 10% average brain usage, in fact they probably push to 11 and 12%, this is where the creative though comes from – problem with this is that the brainwaves become more sensitive and when we are younger we can “spark” the brain, but as we get older this sparking tends to create too much “electricity” going through the brain so we start to burnout – well the first few times we burn out, we recover quite well, but then the recovery time takes longer and of course, the lack of sleep eventually catches up – a vicious circle – so in a nutshell, we need the spark to create, but eventually the spark – well sparks and then we are in trouble. But this is definitely a discussion for another day, I think we should title it – “Moving in the fourth dimension” – the necessary curse of the creative mind.

Take care

Alli

[annie t]

Hello Alli, welcome! From one insomniac to another I must commend you on your very lovely introduction. When I am not sleeping “normal”, I can barely finish a sentence when I am typing or texting. So I was impressed with your words! I am 48, female and have had this problem on and off for a few years. And I couldn't agree more with you regarding people who dont have this problem but give you useless tips. You will find many at the webiste who care and you will find comfort knowing you are not alone. Nice to meet you and here is wishing you better nights soon.

[caz]

Hi Alli,

I enjoyed reading your post. I too don't sleep well and I live in Scotland…yes we

Scottish lassies can be wicked! LOL!

Reading the replies there does seem to be a correlation building between the stories doesn't there. From what I can gleam everyone here seems to be an active creative person, with a

decent intellect. The second thing i've noticed is that everyone seems to have a more stressful existence than what might be deemed “normal”!

My husband is Canadian. He moved here 20 years ago (we met at uni) and he tells me all the time that “The British are not a logical people…and how on earth did you guys ever win a war!”. It's funny to hear from other people about our mad methods and ways! I know what you mean about our NHS service. There's no continuity of medicine brands being dished out.

I hope you have a great day today!

Caz x

[AliDeal]

'annie wrote on '04:

Hello Alli, welcome! From one insomniac to another I must commend you on your very lovely introduction. When I am not sleeping “normal”, I can barely finish a sentence when I am typing or texting. So I was impressed with your words! I am 48, female and have had this problem on and off for a few years. And I couldn't agree more with you regarding people who dont have this problem but give you useless tips. You will find many at the webiste who care and you will find comfort knowing you are not alone. Nice to meet you and here is wishing you better nights soon.

Thanks Annie, I had a really good day, but, that word again, but it is now 3:00a.m. and I am not sleeping, took two Coffea, my new wonder hope and 7.5mg zopiclone and dang, I am still awake, so I am thinking it is probably best just to go through the night and start again tomorrow, fortunately I am not working over the next few days so I slightly messed sleeping pattern will not be that bad, but would need to be sorted by the week-end when I start working again – I can even remember what normal sleep is, but the good news, here I am chatting to my fellow warriors (or is that worriers) and we cheer each other up. I will drink a toast to a good nights sleep (oppss, my spelling is down the toilet) – I am yawning away, but no lights out 🙂

[AliDeal]

'caz' wrote on '05:

Hi Alli,

I enjoyed reading your post. I too don't sleep well and I live in Scotland…yes we

Scottish lassies can be wicked! LOL!

Reading the replies there does seem to be a correlation building between the stories doesn't there. From what I can gleam everyone here seems to be an active creative person, with a

decent intellect. The second thing i've noticed is that everyone seems to have a more stressful existence than what might be deemed “normal”!

My husband is Canadian. He moved here 20 years ago (we met at uni) and he tells me all the time that “The British are not a logical people…and how on earth did you guys ever win a war!”. It's funny to hear from other people about our mad methods and ways! I know what you mean about our NHS service. There's no continuity of medicine brands being dished out.

I hope you have a great day today!

Caz x

Hi Caz, NHS scares me, I have taken a sabbatical from the media industry and have been working with the mentally and physically challenged for the past year, all rely on NHS and when I see what has been prescribed to my clients and the amount of conflicting information we have, it amazes me that some of the are still alive and the left hand doctor has absolutely no idea of what the right doctor is doing, let us not had in the DN, or resident nurse, or urologist, well I can go on and on, I have never seen such a blatant waste of money in my life. Mmm…. I am thinking a good complaining session at 3a.m. is not a bad idea :0}

[caz]

Hi Alli…Oh yes! I TOTALLY AGREE! I have been seeing various doctors for an autoimmune problem since I was 17 (i'm 38 now) and there's such a wide variety of care strategies within the NHS. It's quite scary how you can go to one specialist who prescribes drug A then you go to see another doctor about another problem and they prescribe drug B…then drug A and B clash and you end up sicker than a dog! The cut backs in the NHS are becoming more and more obvious. I had to literally fight with my GP for 10 days there to get a steroid ointment I have been using since 2009. They just flat out refused me it. Then I threatened to go and park myself in the emergency room until I got it before they relented. I think you have to fight and battle to get anything done in the NHS. If I ran my private company that way i'd have no business!

I've found a book and meditation CD i've been using for the past 5 days and I've noticed my sleep is much better. I'm probably getting 4-6 hours, albeit broken, but that's a massive improvement on the 2-3 hours I was surviving on. I might do a proper post about it after a few more days just to be sure it's working. I think A LOT of my sleep issues come from a) stress in the extended family (alcoholism) …:cool: stress in my work, running a company, and c) medicine I take to maintain my eyesight (steroids and IV drips). Well, my head is telling me that this new mental approach is working for me, so i'll wait and see how it pans out!

Take care of yourself

Caz x

[AliDeal]

Hi Caz, stress and mixed meds is an absolutely killer, excuse the pun, what I try and do for the stress is have copious To Do Lists!, this only works to a degree if you tick of things on the list, if not, you lie away at night beating yourself up because I did not cross of things, especially when it comes to family and work, my children are still in SA and they worry me always – at the age when they think they know everything, anyway, when I am running on track with my To Do List, my active mind does slow down a little. With meds, I learn as much as possible about them and then tell the doctors what I want – I also have very good doctors in South Africa, so when I need an update, I will contact the doctors or even pharmacists back home (they are not governed by the government, all private so are sometimes more accurate in the prescriptions. Let me see how today goes, I ended up waking up late, which throws my day.

Take care

Alli

xx

[dutchsailor]

Hi Alli,

Our insomnia histories seem to be somewhat similar. I am 61 years old and have been suffering from it over 35 years (see my own intro of this morning).

I have delayed using any drugs for the first 20 years of the insomnia period, but I finally had to give in.

Since last summer, I have also reached the point where medication is no longer effective. Rather nasty, as you will experience as well.

The survival strategies I found in the course of many years:

– adapt working time to sleeping pattern (not recommended for the average community member, really use it only as a last resort)

– use transcedental meditation during the day, when getting too tired (takes 20-25 minutes en helps you through the next 6-10 hours)

– when at home, sit in my whirlpool (putting on gentle air bubbles, not the waterstreams) and have a good rest during the day; some say it is dangerous since it seems you won't notice when moving underwater while asleep, so make sure that is unlikely to happen

I know: survival is not the same as solution. But it is the next-best thing, while keeping on the watch for new insights.

Cheers, Fred

[Author]

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