Anybody else have insomnia?

Oh GAWD Effexor is WEIRD!!! I have sleeping issues too. I take Restoril (Temazepam, generic) and I can sleep most nights if I take it by 7 pm. If I take it later, I can't really wake up and still sleep weird. Even taking it, I am not ready for bed much before 11 pm. Being female, certain times of the month make it impossible for me to get a good nights sleep no matter what I take.

I tried Ambien, and I slept like a freakin rock - for 18 hours. HAHAHAHA!!! That won't work for a working person. LOL!

 

I'm 53 & have always needed less sleep than most, especially my DW. I go to bed about midnight & wake up between 4 & 5. By the time the suns up, I'm ready to get started on the day, DW is crawling out about 7 & has to pump the coffee down till about 9.

 

Jetblack - You sound EXACTLY like me - except my insomnia started when i was about 12ish.

Usually I get 4-5 hrs sleep. Like today - I've been up since 6am and its 12:30am - I am not tired AT ALL - I couldn't sleep right now if I wanted to even though my body is tired my brain isn't.

I have those wierd dreams like that but they are not the effects of a medication - lol. I hate them - I have these 'deja vu' feelings cause I dreamed I did something I was thinking about when I went to sleep say tomorrow I have to wash dishes and clean out the coop - so I dream about it tonight when I go to sleep - actually doing it. And then tomorrow comes and I have to seriously think hard if I did it or not - or go just look and see to make sure one way or the other. Every night too - though they can be past conversations or ones I want to have - random etc...it doesn't matter.

I hate not being able to take a nap - I want to so bad sometimes when I get tired and actually sleepy in the middle of the day - but I know if I lay down I'm screwing myself over because 1. it isn't going to help much if not make it worse and 2. it'll be less likely that I will sleep that night. TODAY I fell asleep while rubbing my daughter's back on the bed - she wasn't feeling good so I was playing with her hair and rubbing her back trying to get HER to take a nap - instead I blame the heat - we both fell out for an hour. Ugh - you want to talk about the walking dead? Thats how I felt from 1pm-nearly 3 when I finally went out and took a walk around the yard and re-freshed everyone's water.

I gave up long ago trying to fix my sleeping pattern - I know 4-5 hrs works well for me - I function great and its MY norm - while if I do somehow manage to sleep 8 hrs (usually with the assistance of benedryl or something) - then I am useless all day long practically - its like too much sleep for me is like too little sleep for the 'average' person. - I am weak, tired, achy, miserable, headache, prone to zoning out, etc.


Heres to us insomniacs

 

I find it odd the insomniacs are not posting....

 

I'm Here!!!!!!

 

Sup Yo? I mean, besides us chickens?

I tried very low dosage Zanex once... out within 15 minutes, slept like a baby for 8 hours, woke up refreshed and thought DANGIT, no way would I not get addicted to that. *sigh* I really have a hangup about drugs, so I just deal with the weird hours.

 

On good nights I get 3-4 hours sleep, but that is broken up with waking up. Also I get up at sunrise to feed the birds and open the coops. Then I lay back down and wait an hour or 2 before I decide to get up finally.

Bad nights, like when the brain won't shut up, I get 0-2 hours of sleep. 2-3 days without sleep is fairly common, but the longest I went without sleep was 5 days. The headache kicks in at 60 hours. At about 84 hours the sounds start, another 12-24 hours and you start seeing things(the talking clock ticked me off). At 5 days(120 hours) they stuck a needle in my butt. I woke up 2 days later.

I do not take sleeping pills. I have a very addictive personality and will not do down that path.

Matt

 

Quote:Precisely my problem too. Once I'm out I'm out, but it takes forever.

Also, doesn't help that the 'dropping' off usually jolts me awake. Anyone else have that?

Same on the pills... too many additions in the family. It's just not worth it.

 

I had BAD insomnia for about 2 years. It started shortly after I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism, which was caused by working myself into the ground.

We worked at the store that we currently own, and I also worked at Fred Meyer (Kroger to some of you) and I was the price changer. I went in a 2-3am and worked 5-7 hours depending on how much needed to be done. So I was needing to get to bed at 6-8pm to get up 1.5 hours before work. Needless to say, when you HAVE to sleep, you don't. Or when you DO, something decides to be VERY loud and wake you.

Ambien worked sometimes. If I wasn't careful to take it 20-30 minutes before getting into bed and making SURE I got into bed in that time frame... I was up for the next 24 hours. Do that in the winter at 2 am for a 40 minute drive a couple times a week Then I tried lorezapam to calm me enough to make the Ambien let me sleep. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. For two years I did the roller coaster of sleeping 4-6 hours or being up 24+. When I got home from Fred Meyer I needed to either tend the store to let hubby do other things, or I needed to do the other things... critter chores, house chores, etc etc... just things that were part of life.

Once I quit Fred Meyer and didn't HAVE to go to sleep, it got better, but I still don't make it through a night without waking at least once. I can, however, get at least 6-8 hours in a night now and that helps with the HT. The HT already makes a person feel fat, fuzzy and frazzled, add insomnia on top of it and it's a train wreck.

So, all that being said, how's your lifestyle otherwise? Do you work TOO much and then try and MAKE yourself sleep?