Struggling with Sleep

[scruboak]

quit the naps lower the lights a half hour before bedtime a glass of water and a handful of almonds if that dont work something else needs to be checked.

[Sleepy]

Sounds like anxiety to me. Im no doctor, but sounds like issues I had and an Ativan will do the trick. Anxiety comes in all shapes and sizes, and a lot of things people wouldn't normally relate to anxiety until they tell their doctor about it, and the doctor confirms its an anxiety issue.

[fishanhunt]

I struggle with insomnia too. My brain won't shut down and will stray from one topic to another to another. It doesn't help that I work shift work. There's no routine in my life. I was lucky to get 2 to 3 hours of sleep a day. My doctor diagnosed it as anxiety and prescribed an anti depressant. It worked great for a while. The first few months I slept great and even had dreams for the first time that I can ever remember. Now I'm back to sleep problems. Not as bad as before but getting there. I'm getting 4 to 5 hours a night sometimes more but I wake up about 10 times a night or more. I get a little sleep but never rested.

[thomason]

Well, I have been in IT for 25 years and on call, and hardly ever get to sleep all night without getting an alert to deal with or called. So now that I have set this up. I will share something I learned this week.

Wednesday of this week I had my 5th sleep study, I do not have sleep apnea so I am good there but I am a walking dead person.

So I am at my sleep study and I wake up at 2:08am as I lay there in bed I tell the monitor person - I am wide awake and feel fully rested and ready to get up. The lady tells me ok, please do not get up, please lay there and attempt to clear your mind of anything the best you can and make an attempt to go back to sleep. I lay there and about 45 min or so I fall back asleep. The lady wakes me back up at 5am so I can prepare to leave for work and I feel more rested.

So I have done this now for 2 days in a row and I have to tell you that I do feel much better and don't feel like a dead man near as bad. Give it a try. I have been waking up around 2 or 3 am for many years - getting up working or surf the “Green Screen” for maybe an hour or two then going back to sleep only to wake up 1.5 hours later and feeling like a dead man - no more will I do that.

Tonight I woke up at 2:30am stayed in bed and I just woke up here it is at 4:45am which about 15 min before my normal wake up time and I feel pretty good.

Hope this will help you----- the dead walking IT guy!

[thomason]

When I asked the lady why she wanted me to go back to sleep she said something I have never heard before. She says to me when you wake up at 2 or 3 I am waking up in Rem sleep and my body says I am charged up, however when this happens and you get up and do not go back to sleep during that session you have an open disturbed session which is why you feel dead. Never heard this before -- but I have to say I tryed it and so far I feel better ---- never knew anything about closing out my Rem sleep session and have not looked that up but plan to.

[thomason]

I finally took time to read all the post on this thread and found it surprising how many people have sleep issues.