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'Martin' wrote on '28:
No, I'm originally from the UK – we drive on the left over there. Went up to visit Iceland for about a week a few years ago – it's an amazing place. My first three cars in England all had manual chokes; I bet most kids now wouldn't even know the meaning of the word!
Your name didn't seem Icelandic, but that doesn't always mean anything–one's parents might have emmigrated there. Any geologist/geophysicist/tectonic scientist would find it fascinating, at the very least.
My two VWs and first Honda were manual, and I'd rather my van was as well. I think any car enthusiast who worked with cars made before the 1960's (in the US, that is–later for other countries) would know about chokes.
'Martin' wrote on '27:I miss stick shifts too since moving to the US. We had to get another auto as I wasn't quite ready to try teaching my wife how to use a stick! I love it when I visit the UK though and get a 'real' rental car!
When I rented a car in Iceland it took a few bangs of my arm to remember the gearstick was on my right, not my left!
Are you originally from Iceland? My late advisor from college did her doctoral thesis in linguistics on a topic in Icelandic linguistics. She enjoyed her time there.
My father was nuts on the subject of real driving vs just steering! He also had a couple of cars, in the 60s &70s which had chokes, so I sort of remembered how to use those when in Brittany.
All the theoretical stuff behind the driving didn't help me at all. Finally, one time when we were both unemployed for a bit, a male not a boyfriend/lover/husband/father, sat me in my newly-purchased clunker on a shallow hill and let me *feel* what was going on when I needed to shift. That was my last learner's permit. I'd had several over the years, but never got enough practice to be confident about passing the practical driving test. My mother, sister and I all ended up owning a car before we got our licenses. It's much esier to get practice in with that setup!
'Bobbie' wrote on '03:Most of us can tailor our days to accomodate our sleepless nights, but when daily activities become dangerous, it might be time to regroup and rethink the situation. I'm actually talking about falling asleep behind the wheel, which to me is about as dangerous as it gets.
Thankfully this has never happened to me but I would be interested to know if others have had similar experiences and what, if anything you have done about it. 😕
The first time this happened to me, I was newly on insulin (gestational diabetes), and returning from San Francisco to Santa Cruz. My eyes kept trying to close, so I stopped at Cupertino at the Apple campus, and told my husband what was happening, and that I had to leave my car and let him take me home when convenient. Of course I drove with him the next day and picked up my car, returning safely. Autumn, 1993. Slept the night before as well as I could in pregnancy in that neighborhood.
The next time I remember it happening, I was headed to San Diego, I think (2008?), on Hwy 5, down the center of CA. My eyes kept trying to close because I was squinting–the glare and the fog were getting to me. I pulled over, got my sunshine readers out of the holder in the car, and put them on, taking my usual glasses off. Suddenly, I wasn't squinting anymore, and I wasn't falling asleep.
It's happened a couple of times this year–one only last week–where my eyes just want to close. I have to concentrate hard to keep it from happening, and I go straight home, and take a nap. I can't remember if I'd had a short night, or not.
It IS scary.
'Bobbie' wrote on '04:If you read the first section of this article, you can get the gist of the technique –
First, that is the cutest animation I've seen in ages.
Witches and other pagans & heathens do visualization exercises all the time in ritual.
I've used visualization to attain an end, such as a dog who took off in a dangerous situation, to be found healthy later that day, before sundown. She was found pretty much as I envisioned.
I've also used it to help someone heal faster or successfully.
I never think to do it for myself! I've got heel surgery coming up, and I want to be on the fast curve of healing in order to walk and dance again, free of pain, by May 2011. I think I'll work on that.
'astradaemon' wrote on '04:If I wasn't living with people who fall asleep when their heads hit their pillows, I would handle my insomnia much better. I actually get very jealous at night. LOL
Yes, yes, YES!
'littlespy' wrote on '11:There's a really interesting short article on h2g2 today about insomnia in general and famous sufferers. BBC article – the history of insomniaKind of fascinating to know famous sufferers have done great things with their 'extra' time.
Gah! 500 kids? He certainly needed to use a “French letter”!
Van Gogh was likely manic when insomniac–many BP1's are like that. The famous BP1 scientists, artists & composers certainly were!
Franklin's behavior around bed temperature is not that far off mine.
'IvanAleisterMesniaa' wrote on '22:Know what made it worse my friend Sean had his girlfriend there, she's a stuck up snob who thinks she's so beautiful and great, she is a *insert the B word for female dog here* I flat out told her you really are closed minded, you think all men need to be strong and never cry, that women have kids and clean, don't you want more for yourself, you're such a sad little girl no wonder Seans dating you, he can go to work and you'll have supper cooked and the house clean.
She told me well that's what women are only good for, sex, cooking and cleaning. I was so irritated I flat out told her, you're not as pretty as you think you are, learn to put make up on, you honestly look like a clown, wear pants and a shirt that fit you as well. No one wants to see a 15 year old showing off their body, have respect for yourself.
One of those. Ick. I'd have done the slapping of her.
Anyway back to the insomnia. We walked mostly all day due to Sean and his gf, me using my cane and needing a break didn't matter
The one time I was in Vegas with my husband and a couple-friends, the tram was down, the busses were too few and far between, and lines for the taxis were an hour or more long! Of course, my friend's birthday was 6 January, right in the middle of CES, one of the most crowded times in Vegas. There were two other adult-material conferences as well that weekend.
I'm the short one, with short legs and shoes that never fit quite right (I have hard feet to fit). They're all striding away with their long legs and I'm running to keep up. I tended to get left out of talk between them, as they'd all been there before, and I hadn't: they were employed techies, and I'm not employed nor an engineer. I didn't really get to do anything *I* really wanted to that weekend, either.
The sheets were rough, the bed uncomfortable, my husband annoyed at me because I wasn't enough fun. I got contact dermatitis from the detergent in the linens, and big blisters from my shoes. Didn't sleep well, and wasn't surprised.
To me, who can't understand the why of gambling, it was like being an atheist at the Vatican. One of these days, I'd like to go back with a friend who's more my leg length, when all the transportation systems are working.
To end this, my insomnia is leaving me in a state where I just look dead.
When I've had the acute periods, It's been like that for me, too. Wish I could help.
'yamerias' wrote on '24:Meds and weight gain seems to be an issue for a lot I see…what's even more frustrating is when they(specialists.docs etc)say that it is nothing to do with the medication and it is what you eat…but if you hardly eat anything how does that figure?
Even more annoying when you show a doctor in thier own books on medications that it can cause weight gain and they still say it isn't the tablets…grrrr… 😡
*If* you starve yourself, you *can* gain weight, or at least store up fat, because your body thinks you're starving and it's a self-defense mechanism.
However, the bit about “don't confuse me with the facts” experts has happened to me–mostly past-middle-age, male doctors who trained in the era when doctors were close to gods and you *didn't* contradict them or show you knew what you were talking about. I've had more male doctors fix a gimlet stare on me and ask if my father was a doctor, that I thought I knew so much. *Thought*! It's my body, and I've lived in it more years than the minutes you've spent with me.
'tjkinkead' wrote on '22:I have had a few meds that have caused me to gain. The most recent is the blood sugar meds I am on for the recently diagnosed diabetes. Totally sucks.
Wow–that's a stupid thing to give patients. I'd say that sucks! I hope you get moved off that soon.
I was on metformin, but it caused me to have diarrhea so badly that I was very dehydrated, and couldn't put enough liquid in to counteract/compensate for what was leaving me.
Marint asked:
I thought it would be a good idea for us to share our sleep study experience. So, if you've been to a sleep clinic please share how it went. Was it even more difficult to sleep? Was it expensive? Were the findings helpful?
By the time I was greenlighted for the study, my acute insomnia bout had finished. The “sleep specialist” was a pulmonologist, who had sleep apnea on the brain, since that was his hammer. I don't think he believed a word I said. OF COURSE the study showed nothing!
But as others have said, the wires superglued to you all over, the insistence on sleeping on your back, the canuale up your nose, the bloodox clip on your finger, the awareness that there's a camera on you all night (thus no real privacy, and I loathe the idea that someone strange is watching me sleep–too creepy), the discomfort of clothing and bad sheets, the unfamiliar bed, for me, the excess heat–and yes, it would have been nice to have a cooler room and a nice heavy cover (I too am a weight-activated sleeper, one of the reasons my “sleep snake” (the spa heatwrap), which I did not have yet, works to settle me down) to wrap around me. They didn't want me reading past 9 pm, and they woke me up at 6 am, hustling me out of there!
I wasn't at all pleased with the experience, and annoyed I'd been put through it at the wrong time, and for the wrong diagnostic expectation. I think an EEG would have given more useful info.
Upside is definitely this group! If I get to take part in clinical trials, it'll be another upside.
Downside/worst times: those episodes of 3-4 months of little to no sleep and having to drive to work, work, and drive home in spite of it.
The time I was on Serzone and I was actively kept from sleeping by the medication incorrectly prescribed for me.
Almost 3 weeks in Greater and Lesser Britains where my travelling companion snored, and had booked us single rooms with two beds for most of the trip. He'd never slept with anyone, and apparently didn't know, or failed to tell me, that he snored very loudly. There was one night I was stressed tight as an elastic band, tired as all get out, and having to get to a town too much of a drive for that time of night. I drove–a) “I haven't driven stick in 6 years” 😎 “I don't know about that driving on the wrong side of the road bit”–as I was driving stick at the time (I miss it, but they don't put it in vans in the US), and am lefthanded, and therefore able to deal with switching things. The road south down the west coast of Scotland from Oban to our destination that night was very curvy and not lit, as well as shaded by many trees. At one point, a car came out of the blue-black, and I zigged when I should have zigged. I did not zag, or I wouldn't be typing this. Pretty good for the condition I was in!
'MedusaRantz' wrote on '12:After he took my family history, and when he learned that almost everyone of my family had insomnia, medications were of little or no use. I use Remeron now, but I don't like to wake up groggy. I have a teen son with C-PTSD, who requires round the clock care. He is diagnosed with Acute Insomnia. So, my sleep schedule revolves around Ioshua. He developed C-PTSD after surviving a Home Invasion Robbery w/c occurred on May 25, 2005. He was 9 years old at the time. As he has grown, he has become more symptomatic. He cannot go to sleep unless I sleep in the same room with him. So, I bought a day bed and put it in his room. He will be 15 this April, and it shocks and amazes and saddens me that I still must put him to bed. I do not begrudge him this. In fact, I'm enrolled in Phoenix University going for my 3rd and final degree. I'll be specializing in C-PTSD, working with traumatized children from age 9 to 25.
Wow. I feel for you and for your son! For me, as I keep saying from post to post, I have a contrary reaction to sleep meds: they keep me more awake. I know a lot of people who change careers do so to serve a particular need of someone they care for. Good for you, and may it be rewarding work. May those you counsel or treat find peace and relief.
All of my careers have been people intensive: The Law; nursing, psych-tech. And to boot my father is diagnosed with BP3 and has never been treated for it. He refuses. We haven't spoken in almost 16 years.
Same with my father, only he was never dx'd, save by me in retrospect. For about the last decade of his life, I didn't communicate at all with him, because of the abuse of my sister, my mother, and me. At that point, I was the only one still in communication with him. I just had enough one day, and told him what-for.
You must forgive me: Law School ruined my mind. I am just utterly incapable of giving short, concise answers. Uh, oh…deja vu! 😮
I haven't got that excuse! I just read, talk, and think a lot, about a lot of different subjects.
Notwoodyallen wrote:
2.35am – what better time to post on the Insomnia Land forums?
Indeed!
As I mentioned in my introduction post, I've been an insomniac or late bird in one form or other since the age of around 11. 20+ years of sleepless nights and much research and reading have made me a reluctant expert in this field.
I've had insomnia most of my life, from childhood on. Yes to the reluctant expert!
1) Am I comfortable? I sleep on a king-sized Tempur-pedic bed. I've tried a variety of spring and regular foam mattresses, and even the Sleep Number (ugh), and nothing comes close. One bed I've slept in has exceeded the comfort levels of my Tempur-pedic, and that's a Duxiana.
The Tempur-pedic is supposed to keep you warm, and I need coolth. It's also a memory foam, and I'd rather not. I do want more of a pillowtop on my next bed–or even this one if I can figure out how to keep it on in the face of my tossy-turny heavier husband, who eventually pulls the (bottom) sheet and mattress pad to his side of the bed.
The SleepNumber is better than the other beds in its price range. However, the fact that my husband seems to sleep on the edge has ruined the foam border on his side of the bed, and I think I need to pump mine up, as air seems to have escaped to the point that I can hit bottom with my elbow when I'm getting onto my side to sleep. There is also the problem of the sheets not staying tucked, esp. at the top, where the tubing is.
I keep hearing ads on the radio for a) Duxiana 😎 McKrosky and The European Sleep System (one in Berkeley), which are pricy, but perhaps we will consider those at some point. What I want is good support with a thick pillowtop–and sheets that stay on it!
2) Am I injured?
No, I just have Restless Leg Syndrome, which can attack me during the day if I can't stretch my leg (long car drives/rides), if the dog decides my knees are just dicky for sleeping on when I'm in bed, or if the skirt is brushing me the wrong way when the skin is already sensitive. I have Requip, but I want to see a neurologist to see if something else will work better for me.
3) Have I been exercising regularly?
I belly dance–60-90 minute class on Mondays, and some Sundays I actually manage to get there for the hour class. Other than that, and the stairs at home, I don't get enough exercise, but once I'm cleared for walking after heel surgery, it may be less painful. I am *going* to cooperate with PT, because I want to walk and dance easily again.
Used to do English Country dance, but my husband won't go anymore because he's gained back weight and says he's “out of shape”. Well, he could get *back* in shape by dancing, yaknow…
I don't swim very well. We have an unheated pool, which is delicious in the hot nights of summer–when I will go dip myself just before bed, to get cool enough, and in the middle of the night if I need another cooling-off–but not so good other times. We have a hot tub, but that's not exercise.
4) How's my health? I have a thyroid condition.(snip) A hypothyroid or underactive thyroid will result in easy fatigue and a sufferer may sleep a lot but never feel rested. (snip) work with my doctor to ensure my meds have been adjusted to make sure I stay as much within optimal thyroid levels as possible.
I take 125 mcg of synthroid generic each day. My TSH MUST be below 2.0, or I'm a moody mess, and lethargic. My endocrinologist doesn't hold with the “normal” range being right for everyone, thank goodness.
5) What am I eating? We are an overeating, undernourished culture of sugar and caffeine addicts. And not only is it contributing to rising obesity levels, the trifecta of sugar, caffeine and weight gain are big culprits that keep us up at night.
I too avoid even half-caff lattes after 2-4 pm. I've got some jasmine (green) tea right by me, as it's cold in this room. My husband and MiL, on the other hand drink far more caffeinated diet soda throughout the day–esp. the husband–than I can handle. My husband drinks it up until bedtime. He gets into bed, lies there for a few minutes, and goes to sleep, sometimes snoringly. I hate his guts for sleeping so easily!
I used to try hot cocoa or hot chocolate before bed, naively thinking it helped, till I discovered chocolate has pretty high levels of caffeine in it, too.
Yup. Mormons are allowed to drink that, but not colas, teas, coffees or other drinks with caffeine. Never quite got that. My MiL had some travel-club guests for a few days in September who finally said they were Mormon after we tried to offer them forbidden beverages, to which I responded by offereing them hot chocolate, which they accepted.
But back in the day, I consumed large amounts of meat – ribs, steak, pot roast, wings, feel exhausted after the heavy meal, and then stay up from the indigestion and heartburn.
I don't think I've ever eaten more than an average portion of land animals, but watch out seafood! Shrimp and lobster are my downfalls, but I can't eat as much of those as I once did. I'm more inclined to fill up with vegetables, avoiding heavy fats and simple carbs during a meal, saving room for a dessert in an hour or so. I had gestational diabetes, discovered at the unusually early 8 weeks, instead of 20 or so. I was controlling my diet and walking after dinner, and learned to avoid fat that didn't add to my enjoyment of food (not much fried food agrees with me anymore, and I hate storebought mayo, and use very little salad dressing).
6) Am I stressing? (snip) in short, I should be sleeping blissfully. But I'm also excited – and pressured – about a big project I'm going to begin work on tomorrow, and I just can't switch my brain off. I have one of those “loud brains” – some of you may relate.
Do I ever relate! I also have “loud” skin–very sensitive, gain at 11! Must have high-threadcount all-cotton sheets & comforter covers about me. Even if my lovers didn't snore, they warmed up, or my ear formed a suction on their shoulders, or I tossed and turned, being more awake. Can't sleep wrapped up in another's arms, but wish I could. It would take me a month or more to get used to someone else in the bed. Husband and I both wrap ourselves in comforters.
I said in another thread that I knew turning my “active” or “loud” brain off was the key to me sleeping. To shut it up, I have to get to a non-verbal part of the brain, and using my iPhone to play Bejeweled2, while snuggled up in bed, ready to drift off when I get there, does that, in 5-15 minutes. Finally I found a mechanism that *works* to flip that switch.
I also have that “special day ahead/get up earlier than usual” can't-get-to-sleep. The first day of school, new job, a trip–you name it, and I couldn't sleep. Next time I have one of these, I'm going to see if the new mechanism will stop that.
A) Roll a joint, pack a bowl, vaporize a bag
Smell nauseates me, and I can't stand the smoking aspect. Eating brownies didn't actually help, either–I'm just not suited to that herb.
😎 Benadryl. An anti-histamine. A former therapist recommended I try it. It works pretty well. However I dislike using it very much because something about the fact that I'm using a drug with a whole other indication just to benefit from a side effect rubs me kind of the wrong way.
Never worked for me. Sometimes, it doesn't even treat the allergy or cold well enough!
C) Sleep medication. Ambien, Sonata, Valium, etc.
I have a contrary reaction to the sleep med family, benzodiazepines: they keep me awake. Serzone, a med for depressed folks who can't sleep because of it, NOT for depressed insomniacs–is very much worse than the benzodiazepines.
D) Other medication.
When used in high doses, Seroquel is a mood stabilizer for bipolar patients (snip). Seroquel is also a powerful sedative.
My son was on it for a few years after I found that Lithium was contraindicated with OTC NSAIDs, and Tylenol no longer worked on his migraines–hadn't since preschool. Also, Lithium messes with thyroid function, and while it is pretty much the women in my mother's family who have low thyroid, I wasn't interested in taking chances. Unfortunately, between out of control portions of starch and fat (esp. if I wasn't there to oversee) and Seroquel, my son has developed diabetes II and gained a lot of weight. Most psych drugs kids have to take will do that.
However, he was very compliant about taking his meds–he counted on Seroquel to get him to sleep, and he didn't like the mood swings or depressions any more than I did. He hasn't quite been zombified by Seroquel, but I'm amazed that the topomax he's on for migraine prevention doesn't do so. I became lala-brained, but well-rested, while I was on it for two years before it stopped working as a mood stabilizer for me. I had the first restful sleep in over two decades Labor Day 2001. I had a hard time believing it when I got up!
I know this has been a long post. By no means have I intended to steal too much of your time.
But is was a very good, very insightful and informative post!
'seenafterscene' wrote on '13:I think part of the problem is people “identify” with the commonplace and exclude the severity of an actual disorder. Insomnia is a perfect example. Same thing happens if I'm “depressed” or in a low state. “Oh gosh, cheer up, everyone gets blue.” I'll let you fill in the blanks as to what I have to say that or what I restrain myself from saying.
Blue? I'll show you blue! The deep blue of space is where you're headed if you don't get out of my face! Well, I'd like to say that…
Before I had my big, deep, long depressions, I had only had two episodes in my senior year. I didn't understand how easy I'd had it at that point. Very few people I've met, aside from bipolars, have had serious bouts of insomnia.
At some point, I just have to say to well meaning morons, I have idiosyncratic reactions to sleep meds and methods. They keep me awake.
'emmaree' wrote on '02:Interesting read Kik, I have tried power naps, usually for 20 minutes in the afternoon I'm just done in by that time and I have found when I take this naps I have a surge of energy till the evening
Power naps are something I've never achieved. I can't sleep that short a period deliberately!
Mostly I found the article full of same old, same old–except for the bit about breakfast first thing. I do that, I get sleepy within an hour and am useless, brain-dead, and don't dare drive.
