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Yet another FUCKING INSOMNIA thread

Started by Cerys, May 12, 2020, 10:04:56 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Cerys

Fucksakes.  Fucking fucking fucksticks.  Argh.  Etc.

I bamlem lockdown.  Just not getting enough exercise.  How are you lot doing?

bgmnts

I'm getting more exercise than I used to get. Half hour to an hour walk every day.

Sleeping around 6/7 hours a night at least. Lovely.

Cerys

I'm picturing your avatar saying that, and I'm happy that something is finally going right for Eeyore.

Although I've just looked at the avatar while rereading it, and now it's being said by a very sarcastic Eeyore.  Happy Eeyore ... sarky Eeyore ... which is true?

alan nagsworth

Funnily enough today I've been awake since 4:30am, completely unable to switch my brain back down. I ended up lying with my head under the covers on my phone, playing Scrabble and writing lyrics for an anniversary love song for my girlfriend (I'm not as thoughtful as you might think; she did have to remind me it was at the end of the month).

I'm fucking wide awake now but feeling very fuzzy. I think it's the subconscious anxiety I'm feeling about my work situation after Sunday's gov announcement. Pretty annoying really as we just had a mattress topper delivered yesterday which has made a crap mattress massively more comfortable, and I've spent most of the first night on it feeling totally restless.

Fr.Bigley

Simply get the highest amount of alcohol by volume in your body as fast as possible an hour before bed.

I find 8 cans of tenents super to be adequate.

Cerys

I feel your pain, nagsworth. I've been awake since about this time yesterday, but on the upside I don't think I actually have anything that I have to do today, so I can just coast on a gentle drift of peripheral hallucination, large fluffy moggy and perhaps, later, vodka.

Edit - heh :)

Buelligan

My thoughts are boring but work. 

No caffeine of any sort, coffee, tea or soft drinks of that kind, after 4pm.  No alcohol at all.  No eating after 6pm.  Warm shower or bath during late evening.  Drink camomile tea or camomile and mint or something.  No doing anything like gaming or arguing or thinking about worrying things that makes you feel anxious and raises your adrenaline in the hours before you go to bed.  Go to bed when you feel tired, the first time, don't keep yourself awake because you're doing something, even though you know you're tired.  Have a little bedtime routine, teethbrushing, a wee, get a glass of water, always the same, so you're reinforcing the idea that it's time to shut down now.  Go to fucking bed, a clean, orderly, bed.  Think gently about something nice, a pleasant plan or thing you did once.  Don't think about sleeping or not sleeping or being worried.

Oh, and don't go to bed before to watch a film or something.  Go to bed when it's bedtime and time to sleep.

This is boring but it does work.  Amen.

Twit 2

Quote from: Buelligan on May 12, 2020, 11:05:08 AM
My thoughts are boring but work. 

No caffeine of any sort, coffee, tea or soft drinks of that kind, after 4pm.  No alcohol at all.  No eating after 6pm.  Warm shower or bath during late evening.  Drink camomile tea or camomile and mint or something.  No doing anything like gaming or arguing or thinking about worrying things that makes you feel anxious and raises your adrenaline in the hours before you go to bed.  Go to bed when you feel tired, the first time, don't keep yourself awake because you're doing something, even though you know you're tired.  Have a little bedtime routine, teethbrushing, a wee, get a glass of water, always the same, so you're reinforcing the idea that it's time to shut down now.  Go to fucking bed, a clean, orderly, bed.  Think gently about something nice, a pleasant plan or thing you did once.  Don't think about sleeping or not sleeping or being worried.

This is boring but it does work.  Amen.

Where does WANKING go?

My body clock is fucked right now. And I'm going for long walks and zooting before bed. About 4 hours' sleep last two nights. Weirdly, I feel more awake today than yesterday.

Cerys

Quote from: Buelligan on May 12, 2020, 11:05:08 AM
This is boring but it does work.  Amen.

I've finally worked it out.  You're a nun.  A solitary nun on a motorbike.

Buelligan

You know I sometimes think I am.  A nun or a ghost.

Quote from: Twit 2 on May 12, 2020, 11:06:06 AM
Where does WANKING go?

Oh yes.  I was going to put the wanking in but didn't want to upset anyone.  Wanking is fine as long as it's not a hate wank or a fear wank or something.  Orgasm is a little death after all and what is sleep if not that?  Very closely related.  I hope that doesn't insult anyone.

mr. logic

Quote from: Buelligan on May 12, 2020, 11:05:08 AM
My thoughts are boring but work. 

No caffeine of any sort, coffee, tea or soft drinks of that kind, after 4pm.  No alcohol at all.  No eating after 6pm.  Warm shower or bath during late evening.  Drink camomile tea or camomile and mint or something.  No doing anything like gaming or arguing or thinking about worrying things that makes you feel anxious and raises your adrenaline in the hours before you go to bed.  Go to bed when you feel tired, the first time, don't keep yourself awake because you're doing something, even though you know you're tired.  Have a little bedtime routine, teethbrushing, a wee, get a glass of water, always the same, so you're reinforcing the idea that it's time to shut down now.  Go to fucking bed, a clean, orderly, bed.  Think gently about something nice, a pleasant plan or thing you did once.  Don't think about sleeping or not sleeping or being worried.

Oh, and don't go to bed before to watch a film or something.  Go to bed when it's bedtime and time to sleep.

This is boring but it does work.  Amen.

Good stuff, thank you. My problem is that I fall asleep no bother but wake up far too early. So I do try to keep myself up despite feeling tired, but it frequently doesn't really help anyway (I wake up the same time). Should I stop doing that?

Fr.Bigley

Please refer to my previous post upon waking up.

Pingers

Fucked because of lockdown innit. I was doing fine before, at least since I've been on pills for me nerves, but back to what I used to be. I do the things on Buelligan 's list apart from I can't just go to bed when I'm first tired cos if I go to sleep before 9.30 pm it doesn't matter how tired I am I am still guaranteed to wake up before 11 pm and will then be awake for hours. Weed helps but then no funciano brain in the a.m. and I have to do work.

Twit 2

Insomnia is a great bunch of lads, though!

QuoteLorsque tu vins, Insomnie, secouer ma chair et mon orgueil, toi qui changes la brute juvenile, en nuances les instincts, en attises les reves, toi qui, en une seule nuit, dispenses plus de savoir que les jours conclus dans le repos, et, a des paupieres endolories, te decouvres evenement plus important que les maladies sans nom ou les desastres du temps! Tu me fis entendre le ronflement de la sante, les humains plonges dans l'oubli sonore, tandis que ma solitude englobait le noir d'alentour et devenait plus vaste que lui.

Vous souffrirez de tout, et demesurement: les brises vous paraitront des bourrasques; les attouchements, des poignards; les sourires, des gifles; les bagatelles, des cataclysmes. - C'est que les veilles peuvent cesser; mais leur lumiere survit en vous: on ne voit pas impunement dans les tenebres, on n'en recueille pas sans danger l'enseignement; il y a des yeux qui ne pourront plus rien apprendre du soleil, et des ames malades de nuits don't elles ne gueriront jamais

When you came, Insomnia, to shake my flesh and my pride, you who transform the childish brute, give nuance to the instincts, focus to dreams, you who in a single night grant more knowledge than days spent in repose, and, to reddened eyelids, reveal yourself a more important event than the nameless diseases or the disaster of time! You made me hear the snore of health, human beings plunged into sonorous oblivion, while my solitude engrossed the surrounding dark and became huger than the night.

You will suffer from everything, and to excess: the winds will seem gales; every touch a dagger; smiles, slaps; trifles, cataclysms. Waking may come to an end, but its light survives within you; one does not see in the dark with impunity, one does not gather its lessons without danger; there are eyes which can no longer learn anything from the sun, and souls afflicted by nights from which they will never recover

alan nagsworth

Quote from: Buelligan on May 12, 2020, 11:05:08 AM
No thinking about worrying things that makes you feel anxious and raises your adrenaline in the hours before you go to bed. Don't think about sleeping or not sleeping or being worried.



Cerys


Hand Solo

Gone from having insomnia every night and having to take pills to having the pills by my bedside just in case but actually haven't taken any for months due to... dark chocolate.

Just a few spoons of this in my coffee in the day, maybe a few spoons with milk and hot water at night:



It's raw cocoa, good for you and full of antioxidants and a natural antidepressant, makes you naturally produce seratonin which in turn produces melatonin at night, hence you sleep. I can only find it in Sainsbury's atm, though. Make sure you buy the right stuff, it's CACAO not COCOA, the spelling and tubs look almost exactly the same.

Plus might have a few squares of this during the day or put in my chilli con carne of bolgnese for a touch of sweetness and earthy depth:



A very simple pleasurable way to reduce insomnia, I don't konk out immediately every night but I used to worry I wasn't going to sleep at all and very often didn't, now I don't even think about it and usually get at least 4 - 5 hours sleep every night without having to struggle which is a Godsend.

Buelligan

Quote from: alan nagsworth on May 12, 2020, 11:45:44 AM


Heheh, I love that and yes, that's the worst one.  Learning to manage your own mind calmly, without raising your stress levels.  I think it's important to view yourself like you'd maybe look on a small cute animal or child you were caring for, just be gently amused if they do something silly and set them gently straight, rather than getting upset or losing your rag.  Does that make sense?

IMO, the point is not to get stressed because adrenaline keeps you awake and circular thoughts can do it too, so try to patiently smile at your own silly brain and gently move it back onto the path you want.  It takes practice and a little time and work, but IME, it's doable.

Quote from: mr. logic on May 12, 2020, 11:18:31 AM
Good stuff, thank you. My problem is that I fall asleep no bother but wake up far too early. So I do try to keep myself up despite feeling tired, but it frequently doesn't really help anyway (I wake up the same time). Should I stop doing that?

Yep, I do this.  I've given myself a little routine.  Go for a wee, have a sip of water, lie back down nice and snug.  Just think about being cosy.  No worrying or shit like that.  It works for me almost every time.

I hope this helps you all.  I'm no expert but I've had terrible sleep problems in the past and seem to have conquered them at last.  And it's lovely.

poo


Fr.Bigley


alan nagsworth

Quote from: Buelligan on May 12, 2020, 12:04:48 PM
Heheh, I love that and yes, that's the worst one.  Learning to manage your own mind calmly, without raising your stress levels.  I think it's important to view yourself like you'd maybe look on a small cute animal or child you were caring for, just be gently amused if they do something silly and set them gently straight, rather than getting upset or losing your rag.  Does that make sense?

IMO, the point is not to get stressed because adrenaline keeps you awake and circular thoughts can do it too, so try to patiently smile at your own silly brain and gently move it back onto the path you want.  It takes practice and a little time and work, but IME, it's doable.

Of course it makes sense. Much like the glaringly obvious solutions to a lot of my mental problems, it's something I've been acutely aware of for a long time but that doesn't necessarily make it easy to achieve. I regularly exist in a fug of depression/self-doubt/defeatism, and in sleepytime quietude with a wandering mind that won't shut up (be it with thoughts of anxiety or misery or, more often than not, just complete blathering noise and stupid ideas) it can be extremely difficult to let go of all that. These issues feed one another, it's a vicious circle, and compounding them with platitudinous advice makes it worse because then I end up feeling stupid for not getting something so evidently simple. That's why I take issue with what you're saying and how you often go about saying it.

I apologise if that is an unpleasant attitude or if my wording is messy, but I am really fucking tired.

Buelligan

No, it feels like listening to myself nags.  I went through a period, couple of years ago, where everything was raw, broken, threatening.  Money and shit like that was just terrifying and there seemed to be no part of my life that was safe.  No one I could rely on.  I really felt desperate and I suppose I realised that I needed to find some peace for myself or I couldn't carry on. 

I think maybe my yoga practice, I took it quite seriously for a long time, had taught me about controlling and directing things, breath, consciousness, that I'd previously imagined to be things beyond my control.  So maybe I used some of that confidence I'd gained through that to try corralling my stress and feelings of imminent disaster and powerlessness.  Just slowly bit by bit, never giving up.  IME, you can do just about anything with that. 

It's not as if you reach Nirvana and then it's all easy, well, not IME anyway, but the more small successes you achieve, the more your confidence in controlling your own inner life builds, the calmer you get, the easier it feels.  Like the opposite of the circle you're talking about.  Some shit like that.

alan nagsworth

Aye, soz, I'm pretty cranky right now. Thanks for elaborating, even though I'm aware we've been through this same sort of chat on here a few times before!

Buelligan

Don't even worry about it old lad.  Just know that you're not alone and you are cared about, you fucking twat.  (I don't mean the last bit about being a fucking twat, just trying to make you smile).

Emma Raducanu

Can't believe no one has thought of listening to Bob Ross yet. Instant sleep

chveik

get on the amphetamines ASAP you big wally

Cerys

Wouldn't that make it even more difficult to sleep?  Mind you, back in the day I took half a wrap of pink champagne, got bored before it came up, and went to bed.  Slept for about seven hours.  Annoying.

Cuntbeaks

Quote from: Cerys on May 12, 2020, 03:28:34 PM
Wouldn't that make it even more difficult to sleep?  Mind you, back in the day I took half a wrap of pink champagne, got bored before it came up, and went to bed.  Slept for about seven hours.  Annoying.

Gonna have to assume it was an Askit Powder.

Amphetamines and boredom are mutually exclusive.

Cerys

Oh, it was definitely the real deal.  I'd had the other half of the wrap a week or so before and it was fine.