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I used to be on Twitter. I had to give it up, as I was reading/responding/following links upwards of 6 hours a day. Just not healthy, given that I actually like to have time in my day to read *gasp* BOOKS. I also belong to several email lists and LiveJournal. I miss some of the folk I used to read or chat with, but I just can't afford the time.
You can learn way too much about me by reading my LJ profile page: http://saffronrose.livejournal.com/profile. Most of my posts are friends-locked, as I had a troll who may still be out there.
I have had lifelong insomnia, although I have never had an “official” diagnosis. I am usually the one telling the physician that I'm an insomniac.
Often, my active brain will not shut off. Often, 3 or more interruptions to sleep have occured. Sometimes my skin dial is at 11, and I can't shut off awareness. Sometimes I can't breathe well enough (congestion) or cough too much. Sometimes the med for restless leg syndrome isn't enough for the episode. Sometimes I simply cannot get deep enough sleep to be well rested by the morning. NO sleep med (benzodiazepines, etc.) works on me, and OTC/folk methods don't either. I have what they call an idiosyncratic reaction to benzodiazepines: if one works, it works only ONE night. The others don't work at all, or (Serzone) keep me awake, and it's worse when the dose is increased against my objections. I fired that pdoc.
Sleep hygiene practices have little to no effect on my sleeping. Specifically the one that says: Don't read in bed. I read until I'm drowsy and then turn over to sleep/lie awake because of noises like my husband snoring. If I went to another room, where the placement of light and comfy are not easily found in this house, and read until drowsy, I would then have to move to the room where I allegedly sleep, and then I'd have lost the drowsy. I'm contraindicated from following that advice.
It used to be worse–I had to find another room to sleep in, and when we were away from home, tht got tricky. I spent a lot of nights away on the closet or bathroom floor with a blanket under me for padding. It was humiliating. Before I married, I dated one guy whose snoring was even worse, and travelled with one young man who'd never slept with anyone, and didn't know he snored, and loudly (so he couldn't warn me in advance to always get separate rooms). I was miserable the entire trip–having to get up when the B&B was serving breakfast, with maybe 3-4 hours sleep behind me (often on the floor, if there wasn't an accomodating couch), nerves on edge. At least at the WorldCon (Brighton UK, 1987), I could go back up to the room and sleep if there was nothing I wanted to see/hear in a given section.
While we have determined that both of us are allergic to what passes for acacia out here, and ewwwcalyptus pollens, and have since chosen homes as far from those trees as we can manage, he still snores loudly when his sinuses are congested (duh). Well, I snore a bit under that condition, myself, but *he* can sleep through it. He's the kind who gets horizontal, and in less than five minutes is asleep. I hate his guts.
I gave the linguaphile community on LJ a rather longer intro, but they ask you about language experience & the like, and I had quite a bit to cover. I spent at least 90 min. tonight reading various blog entries, and commented on quite a few, with my experience with the material covered.
Hi Marina, from the North Bay. I am the snorer in my household although my partner occasionally snores too. But he also is able to sleep through it easily while anything wakes me up. Why doesn't your husband sleep on the floor in the closet sometimes? 😉
I never thought to ask him–it was *my* problem that I couldn't sleep like a normal person. Since I had the abnormality, I was the one who moved. These days, if the guest room is not in use, I'll go there.
Welcome to Insomnia Land, Marina. It's so good to see you introduce yourself here in the forums after registering back in June! It's also great to see you getting involved in the blog and sharing your experience and thoughts in the comments.
Franky also suffers with restless leg syndrome – I wonder if he can offer you any advice that's a little different to what's been said before. It might be worth sending him a message – he's a very friendly person.
Have you thought about fitting out a room in your home to sleep in where you'll feel comfortable away from your husband's snoring? I doubt the noise is conducive to sleep and being somewhere else isn't comfortable for you as you've mentioned. Maybe creating your own bedroom (even if you didn't use it all the time) would help?
Have you thought about visiting a registered sleep doctor or sleep clinic for more specialized advice than that ( apparently not) offered by your existing physician?
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I had to cut Twitter out of my life–last time we talked, in June, it was taking at least 6 hrs of my day, cutting into my sleep time. I really ought to post a goodbye tweet and kill the account.
About all the comments suddenly? I'm loquacious and opinionated! I will see about contacting Franky. I don't meet RLS folks the way I do bipolars.
We thought, when we bought this house, that all of the adults would have their own private workspace. Ha! I do go to the guest room when he's snoring, but the lighting in the living room is not optimal. Our Santa Cruz house was better situated for comfy reading in more places. We moved to halve his commute & eliminate having to go over a mountain pass daily, as well as to provide a space for his parents. I should have kept looking. Oh well.
I am considering visiting a neurologist about the RLS. The Requip isn't working all the time, and I'd like someone who is more familiar with the interactions with my psych meds & (drat, the words have run away) other meds I take.
At this point, aside from investigating getting deeper sleep, consulting a sleep specialist who's not a pulmonologist is not happening until at least the 2nd half of 2011. I need to deal with heel surgery first, the limitations it's going to impose on me for however long, the PT…yeah. I want to be able to dance and walk without that pain ASAP.
Welcome, Marina. It seems we have some things in common besides bipolar, RLS (never officially diagnosed, mild, but I dated a physician who said I probably had it), and insomnia. Also, I live in the East Bay area, so all things considered we are neighbors. It's too bad you gave up Twitter, I'm on there a lot, but I understand what you mean. You can lose huge chunks of time to it, and worse than that, even with my European friends, Twitter dies down at night. I keep sporadically posting here, instead of regularly, but I really am trying to check in more often. Hope to see you around.
It seems we have some things in common besides bipolar, RLS (never officially diagnosed, mild, but I dated a physician who said I probably had it), and insomnia. Also, I live in the East Bay area, so all things considered we are neighbors.
My RLS was never exactly dx'd, but I know it's not Parkinson's. I don't know how to gauge the intensity of it, but I do have breakthrough attacks. I'm going to see about talking to a neurologist about it, as my internist is not educated about it (she admitted that).
Yes, I suppose we are neighbors, compared to many others' locations on this list. In December, there is a Pegasus Release Celebration being held by Bay Area members of Robin McKinley's forum. We're meeting in Berkeley, because we can't think of a place along the 880 where we'd enjoy the food and be able to talk about the book. I couldn't think of an appropriate place on the Peninsula, and we figured Borderlands Books' cafe in SF wasn't going to work for some reason I forget.
'MarinaFournier' wrote on '28:It seems we have some things in common besides bipolar, RLS (never officially diagnosed, mild, but I dated a physician who said I probably had it), and insomnia. Also, I live in the East Bay area, so all things considered we are neighbors.
My RLS was never exactly dx'd, but I know it's not Parkinson's. I don't know how to gauge the intensity of it, but I do have breakthrough attacks. I'm going to see about talking to a neurologist about it, as my internist is not educated about it (she admitted that).
Yes, I suppose we are neighbors, compared to many others' locations on this list. In December, there is a Pegasus Release Celebration being held by Bay Area members of Robin McKinley's forum. We're meeting in Berkeley, because we can't think of a place along the 880 where we'd enjoy the food and be able to talk about the book. I couldn't think of an appropriate place on the Peninsula, and we figured Borderlands Books' cafe in SF wasn't going to work for some reason I forget.
I'm ashamed to admit I don't know who Robin McKinley is. I am very cine-literate (huge film buff/geek), but not the most book-literate person in the world (though in my youth, I read voraciously.) I hope you have a good time at the Release Celebration.
'seenafterscene' wrote on '05:I'm ashamed to admit I don't know who Robin McKinley is. I am very cine-literate (huge film buff/geek), but not the most book-literate person in the world (though in my youth, I read voraciously.) I hope you have a good time at the Release Celebration.
She writes what is commonly called YA Fantasy. Most of her books have featured strong women/girls, but Dragonhaven centers around a teenaged boy. I read her blog, and she footnotes it like you wouldn't believe! She has retold a number of “fairy tales” including two versions of Beauty and the Beast, written a couple of rather intense-for-YA books, an interesting variation on vampires book–with a cook named Sunshine (name of the book, too) who is the first character in a book I've ever wanted to sit down and chat with. She spent a fair amount of her adult life in Maine, but now lives in Hampshire, England, where she grows “too many roses” and goes wild in her plant orders, and is the second wife of author Peter Dickinson, with whom she has written two anthologies, Water and Fire. Her first two books, The Blue Sword and Hero and the Crown, have long enthralled readers with the world-building, plot and characters. She has had several thousand requests to write more novels in that world, but Damar (the world) isn't ahving any, thus neither is she writing any.
As to your interests, do you follow Roger Ebert's blog or his tweets? He is one prolific writer & correspondent. Though he can no longer eat in the usual way (liquid diet, due to issues surrounding botched operations on his jaw area), he cooks for friends and has a recent cookbook out. He has encouraged a number of amateur film critics to pursue their passion, and is counted very friendly and pleasant to be around. I had to give up Twitter, as it was taking up to 6 hrs a day of my time, some of it cutting into my sleep.
Is there a genre/Are there genres of film you prefer?
'emmaree' wrote on '13:Hey Marina , welcome to Insomnia, looking forward to reading your future post 🙂
Thanks for the welcome!
If you look around the forum, you'll see quite a few of my posts & replies.
Marina–
I'm ashamed to admit I don't read too much, but the books do sound interesting. I enjoy books (or more accurately films, since that is my “world”) that feature strong female protagonists. I haven't written anything creatively in a while, but about 90% of the time my characters are females. I don't know why that is, I've always just found them more interesting to write and read and watch, and in the same way most of my friends are females (very few male friends.)
I haven't been keeping up with Roger Ebert's writings as of late. I've kind of taken a step back from the world of film. I still actively watch, I just don't read as much as commentary and I'm not pursuing it creatively that much…a lot of that was the side-effects of some of my psych meds, but now my creativity is starting to come back so that might change. I've always really enjoyed Roger Ebert's writing and counted him among the film critics whose opinion usually matched mine. I should probably follow him on Twitter, I see people RT his stuff, but I don't think I'm actually following him.
As for the kind of film I enjoy…I pretty much enjoy and watch everything. I watch a lot of the mainstream blockbuster movies, but more often than not I am watching a lot of smaller, indie and non-indie films. I really like perceptive character studies or films with an innovative plot structure, though visuals are something unique to film too, so I enjoy films with good visuals too (not just special-effects, but aesethetically pleasing shots.)
seenafterscene writes:
Quote:I haven't been keeping up with Roger Ebert's writings as of late. I've kind of taken a step back from the world of film. I still actively watch, I just don't read as much as commentary and I'm not pursuing it creatively that much…a lot of that was the side-effects of some of my psych meds, but now my creativity is starting to come back so that might change.I know psych meds mess with many folks' creativity/creative outlets, in order to acheive a particular mental balance. I'm currently noticing the difference between post-menopausal memory-connectivity issues and the way they were slammed on Topomax. No comparison at all! I could feel the Stupid Blanket then, and this, mostly word choice issues, where the word starts coming from storage to usage and the signal drops half way–I can work around that a bit, by thinking of things like the word I'm trying to use, until I get around back of it and catch the word I want. No chance of that on topomax!
Quote:As for the kind of film I enjoy…I pretty much enjoy and watch everything. I watch a lot of the mainstream blockbuster movies, but more often than not I am watching a lot of smaller, indie and non-indie films. I really like perceptive character studies or films with an innovative plot structure, though visuals are something unique to film too, so I enjoy films with good visuals too (not just special-effects, but aesethetically pleasing shots.)Oddly enough, Tangled's visuals were handled pretty well–hair, skin tone, water–but the Disney bit about eyes being (in at least one case) a full half of the character's face, still stinks. I really enjoyed the way Rapunzel was able to fend for herself, either with a cast-iron pan, or with getting baddies (except her “mother”) to act on/with the better parts of themselves. Doesn't always take brawn to save a princess.
We watched the Millenium/Girl Who… movies. I'm told they are very faithful to the books. Those were hard films to watch–to make? I don't want to go there–and I don't think I can bear to read the books. The sex was not supposed to get you aroused sexually, but in anger, in disgust, of what Lisbeth had had to endure at the hands etc of those who should have protected her and taken care of her. I would like to see more films with that actress–she conveys so much with so little.
Hoping to see Narnia and Black Swan this weekend. ANYthing Tilda Swanton does is worth watching, for her work alone, if naught else.
I've always thought computer animated “people” looked a bit creepy, and having half the face be the eyes doesn't help. Lol. That said, it seems like design trends like that aside, it really has progressed over the years. I have not seen any of the Millenium/Girl Who movies…but they are in my Netflix queue. I don't usually like remakes and I still haven't seen the originals or read the books, but I'm kind of curious to see what David Fincher does with the American remake. (He did “Seven,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “The Social Network.”) Also, Trent Reznor of NIN fame is doing the film score.
Black Swan I am dying to see!!! I don't see many movies theatrically, I watch most of them on DVD and BLU. But I might actually make it out of the house for that one.
Sorry to hear the Topamax along with the already present post-menopausal issues were interefering with your creativity and word choice and such. I can only hope it improves for you, but I know all too well, that sometimes it just doesn't. Have you considered or are you able to lower your dose at all??? I did that in one case, and noticed I did suffer some stability, but I was able to “get my creativity” somewhat back.
'seenafterscene' wrote on '09:Sorry to hear the Topamax along with the already present post-menopausal issues were interefering with your creativity and word choice and such. I can only hope it improves for you, but I know all too well, that sometimes it just doesn't. Have you considered or are you able to lower your dose at all??? I did that in one case, and noticed I did suffer some stability, but I was able to “get my creativity” somewhat back.
Ah, The topomax I was on was in the peri-peri-menopausal years. I don't know that it touched my creativity, but intellect, yes. I couldn't even take 75mg, and 62.5 mg was as high as I could go and be able to drive safely, with concentration. The next med, trileptal, simply never worked, and after a year, I went to lamictal, which I'm still on.
Marina
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