Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
No, my mind is clear and fine at night.I just think about my day and not in a panicky way. And no doctor I have ever been suggested CBT-I. The closest they have ever said is to do yoga. And I don’t like yoga. I found CBT-I on my own through books I read and I tried it but it really didn’t work for me. I just think all of take different paths that lead us to having insomnia so it can’t be a one path fits all to solve insomnia. And if doctors don’t take the time to at least try to get at the root of why you can’t sleep and they just prescribe a sedative pill then the problem doesn’t get solved and most likely more problems develop. I am just trying to go back to basics. Constant sunlight triggered my inability to sleep which should indicate a circadian problem and so try nature to see if that can be resolved.
Oh and after my time in the Arctic my body did readjust after two years and I could just suddenly sleep. That lasted about eight months. Then I moved to Korea from North America and my insomnia was back the very next day and this time it never left. That was 6 years ago.
I have seen a sleep specialist and they said I had insomnia, prescribed more medication and left it at that. That is how every doctor treats it. Every time I see a new doctor I specifically explain how my insomnia started from my time in the arctic and that seems to not trigger anything. They just decide whether they want to put me in the depressive category or the anxious category and then prescribe accordingly. And the reason I go back to whether it is circadian rhythms is because of this random camping experience and I also spoke with a girl who said she had heard of people who would spend a month watching the sunrise or sunset and that would help them.
My sleep right now is completely medically controlled. I am terribly busy and exhausted always so I just take my pills, fall asleep relatively easily and sometimes wake up in the night hungry and so I eat or I sleep through the night. My problem has always been falling asleep. With technology and artificial lighting, etc. I am quite curious more deeply how circadian rhythms work and if they could actually stay off balance. I think because I lived in the arctic for on year, I experienced 24 hour sunlight followed by 24 hour darkness so my body had a year to keep being confused and then that mixed with medication didn’t help. I wish there was more research on circadian rhythm disorders. Because I have tried melatonin and 5HTP and magnesium and every combination of “sleep right” vitamin complexes they put together and nothing worked over long periods of time. If all it took was a month long camping trip of just complete exposure to nature’s clock- I’d do it in a heart beat so I can get my life back and stop wasting my money on drugs or supplements…I am sure you understand.
Right now, I live where there is snow on the ground so going tenting in my backyard isn’t an option, but if traveling somewhere and sleeping outdoors for a few weeks would solve the problem over sleep restriction etc… I’d do that in a heart beat.
Between chasing after my old year old and working a full time job, I am tired enough to go to bed at 5 when we get home, but I wait until 9:30. When I go to bed that early and fall asleep relatively quickly, I feel I am capable of my work and I have more patience and love to give to my child. When I have gotten less sleep on meds because of a middle of the night wake up- I am falling apart at work and at home. I don’t feel like I can cut my hours right now and do any form of sleep restriction without sacrificing something important in my life. If I could have someone watch my child even for a few weeks while I did some of the initial difficult weeks of sleep restriction that would help, but that is not an option.
