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'Mike wrote on '05:
I complained about it to my doctor a couple of years ago. He had it X-rayed, but found nothing. One day last year I tried on a pair of cowboy boots. When I slid my left foot in that tight leather, I nearly screamed. I'm not a western-wear kind of person, but I do like cowboy boots. But now I can't even wear them.
And just think…without insomnia I wouldn't have all of this “fun” stuff to write about. What would I do without my insomnia?
As to that last, sleep? Be more productive?
I finally saw a podiatrist. I thought I had plantar fasciitus, as I had had several years before. This time none of the exercises were helping. He Xrayed my feet. Underneath my inflamed Achilles tendon, I have a bone spur on my right foot, which will get scraped off on NYE–doing it in 2011 would have a greater financial impact on us. I will be unable to put weight on that foot for 4-6 weeks–no driving for how much longer, I do not know. My MiL would help schlep me places, but she and I both have vans, and no way will I be able to get into one without using both feet. I suppose I'll be taking taxis when I have appoiontments.
I wish I'd seen a podiatrist when it felt like my right foot was reassembling itself, or my arch, normally quite high, was falling–dunno what was happening, and I *should* have gone to one.
You may want to visit one, yourself. A visit might result in pain relief, if not correction of the underlying cause. Would you believe mine was recommended to me by a complete stranger at a garden center? I thought she had PF, but it was her knees. She had foot surgery 16 years ago, but still had the guy's card in her wallet! I called the next weekday.
'Kik' wrote on '15:Yeah, I get that. In my case, I'm too tired to do anything productive at night but I can't sleep so the whole process feels like one big waste of time that I should be spending doing anything else.
Hate that. I feel the same way when that happens.
IvanAleisterMesniaa wrote in February:
Though there are several different degrees of insomnia, three types of insomnia have been clearly identified: transient, acute, and chronic.
1. Transient insomnia lasts from days to weeks. It can be caused by another disorder, by changes in the sleep environment, by the timing of sleep, severe depression, or by stress. Its consequences – sleepiness and impaired psychomotor performance – are similar to those of sleep deprivation.
Serzone did that to me. It was severe sleep deprivation. Idiot pdoc.
2. Acute insomnia is the inability to consistently sleep well for a period of between three weeks to six months.
Used to have that every few years. I'd fall asleep at 4, have to get up at 6, and get through the day in a zombielike fashion, for 3-4 months at a time. I hope I'm done with that.
3. Chronic insomnia lasts for years at a time. It can be caused by another disorder, or it can be a primary disorder. Its effects can vary according to its causes. They might include sleepiness, muscular fatigue, hallucinations, and/or mental fatigue; but people with chronic insomnia often show increased alertness. Some people that live with this disorder see things as if they are happening in slow motion, wherein moving objects seem to blend together. Can cause double vision.
I think mine stopped at mental fatigue, constant sleepiness, and occasionally muscle fatigue.
Patterns of insomnia
1. Onset insomnia – difficulty falling asleep at the beginning of the night, often associated with anxiety disorders.
You. Used to–we'll see how well my sleep initiator machine works in the coming months. Also, when I have to get up earlier than usual, or have something important the next day, my body/brain will keep me awake as if to torture me!
2. Middle-of-the-Night Insomnia – Insomnia characterized by difficulty returning to sleep after awakening in the middle of the night or waking too early in the morning. Also referred to as nocturnal awakenings. Encompasses middle and terminal insomnia.
Happens especially when I can't breathe well or am coughing without letup. Darned hard to fall asleep when *you* are making the noise, and it's making you move.
3. Middle insomnia – waking during the middle of the night, difficulty maintaining sleep. Often associated with pain disorders or medical illness.
That has been my usual pattern, right after onset insomnia.
4. Terminal (or late) insomnia – early morning waking. Often a characteristic of clinical depression.
If something disturbs me aurally (by sound) or movement, I'll wake early and not be able to get back to sleep.
I'm such fun!
'IvanAleisterMesniaa' wrote on '01:Yeah I can understand that, my insomnia has gotten to the point where I do sleep but the sleep doesn't do anything, it's like I never slept, then I have days where I just don't sleep.
I've been there, a lot of my life, but especially in my deeper depressions, before & after the bipolar dx.
You have my sympathy–I do know that cycle.
'IvanAleisterMesniaa' wrote on '08:So the other day I slept for 3 hours. Then I woke up spoke to Matt, then laid down and woke up and was like ahhh what time is it? looked at my clock and I was like wait what…I slept for 16 hours.
Anything odd like this ever happen to anyone else?
It's odd, but since we moved to this house near San Jose CA, I have slept a great deal more. This summer I had more days than not where I finally fell asleep, and stayed that way for 9+ hours. I'd get up for a few hours, go to take a nap that lasted 2-3 hours, get up for dinner, and then go to bed between 10 and midnight, and start over again. We said that the dogs were generating “sleepyons”: the elemental particle of sleep.
In my case, it may have been 1) poor blood sugar control 2) medication interactions 3) a bit of depression 4) not wanting to do what needed to get done 6) the sheer joy of being able to sleep, or a little of all of them.
'Caers' wrote on '18:Also, I have a playlist composed of music that has a certain tone and pitch to it that acts like a switch to stop m brain racing. It's weird. It doesn't put me to sleep, but it calms my brain enough to where I can at least try to sleep without a million things going through my head.
That's great! Finding a way to switch the brain activity to off is the key to me getting to sleep, too. Mere exhaustion won't do it.
'IvanAleisterMesniaa' wrote on '14:This is a song I used to listen to to help me sleep, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr_MJAOyOeU
What a beautiful melody! What a sweet video! I must listen to more of this artist.
I can't listen to music to get me to sleep, but if I try to reproduce an instrumental piece, or a tune to a restful song in a language I can't understand (can't engage the active brain!), then I have a chance of dropping off.
Kik writes:
For me, my insomnia comes from the fact my brain just won't switch off at night. I've recently learned to change focus and concentrate on getting rest rather then getting sleep.
Have you tried concentrating on something about which you have no words? Going through a piece of instrumental music (I am no musician) in my head, trying to hear it in my mind; drawing, playing a Tetris-like game (for me, it's Bejeweled2 on my iPhone, but I have to be all snuggled down, lying on my side (it's how I sleep) for it to work), where pretty colors make pretty patterns–all non-verbal activities that can shut off my brain, YMMV. Sometimes beading, when I'm not being a fumble fingers, gets me concentrating non-verbally, and can tire me out and get the active brain turned off.
'tschopm' wrote on '24:Well, the title says it all, but I think it's an interesting question. I have Bipolar II, and while I mostly have spells of depression, I'll occasionally have a hypomanic period during which I can't sleep for more than a few hours every night. I also have periods of time during which I feel normal and still can't sleep, usually for a few weeks. It's pretty cyclical and predictable, but I'm just wondering if anyone else wants to chime in? Anyone else on here have a Bipolar diagnosis?
When I've been hypomanic for more than a couple of hours, I am not one who is awake, with more energy and doesn't feel the need for sleep. It doesn't matter what part of the cycle I'm in, if I'm not getting sleep, I'm not getting rest, and I'm NOT happy about it. In youth to young adulthood, if I had a project I wanted to finish, I might be able to stay up until 4 am working on it, getting blurrier and blurrier, then crashing and feeling miserable on 2-3 hours sleep when I had to get ready to leave in the light of day.
I'm much more likely to be awake all hours when depressed. Right now, my sleep cycle is out of whack…
'AuraTodd' wrote on '16:I have been using foam earplugs while asleep which seem to help. The wax one's are a bit hard for the ears.
It doesn't matter to my body whether the earplugs are made of wax, foam, or some other substance. They don't block the sound enough, and I can also *feel* the plugs (high skin sensitivity) as well as the sound bouncing off the plugs, which drives me battier. I don't like them under any circumstance, actually.
You have my sympathy about your living area. I can't imagine living on a main road, behind a grocery store with its after midnight unloading, or in a city centre. I live a block behind a main street, about 3 blocks from a freeway, yet for some reason, we seldom hear those sounds in weather where the windows are open.
The first night of my trip to Greater and Lesser Britains in 1987 was spent above a pub in Woking, not too far from the rail station. I woke around 4 am UK Summer Time, and went for a walk. I was surprised by how utterly quiet it was, even in town. Little did I know that it was pretty much my last peaceful night on that trip, due to my travel partner's snoring.
Now, living by non-flooding water or by a rail line have never bothered me: I find them soothing. I love water sounds–rain tends to help me sleep deeper. Then again, I'm also not sleeping under a metal roof!
'Martin' wrote on '17:Is the spa heatwrap available online, Marina? It would be great if you could post a link to it. Would you be interested in writing up a review of the product for the blog?
I just finished writing up a list of URLs with some impressions I have of the heatwrap, which I have seldom heated, and never chilled, even though you can do both with the insert.
Feel free to use the content as you see fit!
I can't use the standard lie-on-your-back eye pillow for that, as I prefer to lie on my side, with the hurting side buried in the pillow. I won't use the contoured eye pillow that comes with an elastic band, because any binding pressure on my head can trigger a headache. Just imagine what it will do when I already have a throbbing headache!
I first found this at the San Francisco Flower & Garden show one year, 8-10 years back. Sonoma Lavender had a booth there. I explained my headache needs, and this long tube of lavender with a crushed velvety cover was handed to me.
The Sonoma Lavendar “spa heatwrap” that I use measures 8″x24″. It's very easily draped over my head/eyes&ears, and you can change the weight if you want more or less pressure on different parts of your face. Initially, I bought it for a slight counterpressure on the parts of me that hurt during a headache, and then found that it often eased me to sleep. I very seldom heated it, because I don't happen to like the smell of heated lavender, and the scent would dissipate less if I didn't heat it. SonomaLavender.com itself doesn't sell this item, but let me give you some sites that do. It does come in a number of covers, some plush/microfiber, some a more ordinary cloth, and in a variety of colors/patterns.
First, if you can't stand lavender (and for me it wasn't the lavender, but the gentle weight that worked), you can get an UNSCENTED spa heatwrap in a “camel color” cover: http://sonomalavendershop.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=67_119&products_id=540
The similar products sold in mall kiosks have herbs inside that make me gag, so if you have someone who wants to give you one of these as a gift, AND you are picky about what scented products that come near you, they too have unscented options, I just don't happen to like them as well. There is also a ewwwwcallyptus filling available, but as you can tell, I don't care for it–the scent nauseates me. My husband and I are both allergic to the pollen: I don't know how he reacts to the smell. When we were looking for a house to buy, both times we stipulated that the nearesst eucalyptus had to be at least a block away, and no stands of them within two blocks. He snores less, and therefore I sleep better, far away from them.
On to the sources for lavender spa heatwraps:http://www.aromaessentials.com/p458/Sonoma-Lavender-Body-Wrap/product_info.html?osCsid=d10ecd224e79b158052045f390433544
http://www.patinastores.com/catalog/lavender-heat-wrap.html
http://www.hamptonct.com/index.cgi/keywords=Spa%20Collection gets you about 30 SL items to choose amongst.
http://www.naturalselectionbathandbody.com/specials/sonoma%20lavender/specials_lavender_spa.html Not impressed with the website itself
http://www.fallingwatermi.com/catalog/item/2886663/3950361.htm only one style of cover
Here's the gateway to the Spa Collections from SonomaLavenderShop.com:
http://sonomalavendershop.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=67
Zen Essence has a gateway as well to their Spa products (all SL): http://www.zenessence.net/c/SPB.html
This one is from a different source, and I have no experience with it, but it's smaller and considerably cheaper
http://www.patinastores.com/catalog/lavender-hot-wrap.html 5.5″ x 18.” for $15.95
Many of these are sold from California: CA residents will be taxed.
While YMMV, this has been a wonderful product for me. I can heartily recommend it for migraineurs who seek counterpressure or something to cover their eyes, and you can get it in unscented, lavender and ick! eucalyptus ick! inserts.
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.
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.
In fact I try not to mention it to people because if one more person says “have you tried having a hot milk drink?” or something equally simplistic I may have kill them!
Welcome–I know exactly what you mean, having had the same old folk-cures handed to me any number of times!
I spent all too much time–but useful time–reading a variety of the blog posts, and some of the forum posts, and found one non-medical option that I have found useful and effective much, but not all, of the time.
There's a blog entry about having a light weight on you. In my experience, cats sleeping with you tend to stay in one position, even if you don't. One of our dogs can start at between our feet, move up to my shins or maybe my stomach, and the next thing you know, he's trying to take up as much horizontal space between us as he possibly can, at our heads. This is not a useful thing for either of our sleeping. He's been sleeping with my MiL, downstairs, where he can take up that space and not bother her. The other dog doesn't shift much, but he's usually sleeping with our son.
What I have is called by the folks who make it (Sonoma Lavender) a spa heatwrap. I don't heat it, but I do drape it across my head–I'm a side sleeper and the usual sleep pad/mask won't work for me. It weighs about two pounds, the weight can easily be redistributed, and it often settles me down to sleep to the point that I *must* pack it with me when I travel.
The other thing I do, to shut down my “active” brain (the main cause of my insomnia), that I discovered quite recently, is to snuggle down into bed under my comforter and play Bejeweled2 on my iPhone. Made by Popcap Games, it does come in versions for different platforms. I play it for about 10 minutes, and I'm so drowsy I almost drop the phone while my eyes have a hard time staying open. It doesn't involve ANY words, so it's helping that part of my brain shut down. There's only pretty bits to move around, and I may be going into an alpha state, or a fugue. Without being hooked up to something like an EEG machine (measures brain wave patterns, I think), I can't be sure. I put the phone on the table and then my glasses, turn over and sleep. It's been wonderful. It's not as restful as it could be, and I don't think I'm getting gamma or delta sleep stages, but it's an improvement over drifting in and out of fitful sleep. YMMV, but for the time being, it's working for me–and no sleep med ever helped this well. I have an idiosyncratic reaction to the family of sleep meds, benzodiazepines. They make me stay awake.
