Yet another FUCKING INSOMNIA thread

[Buelligan]

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.

And where did you keep it in the mean time?  Didn't you notice your mum hoovering the lawn?

[Ferris]

Melatonin is good, puts me out like a light and is nice. No grogginess or whatever in the morning.

Also a fan of finding some mental exercise and working through it as a distraction technique*. Name all 20 premier league teams, or all 30 baseball teams, or the phonetic alphabet. Keeps me distracted enough to fall asleep again.

<sub>*Current fave is picking 3 random numbers and working out baseball positional double-plays. Eg 925 = right field, to catcher, to third base = pop fly to shallow right pulling the first baseman off his bag like an idiot so catcher moves to cover at first, right fielder (9) manages to field back to the catcher (2) at first to get the batter, then notices the runner at first has overcommitted and is headed round 2nd, so he throws out the runner at third base, tag applied by third baseman (5). A lot of the scenarios involve the first baseman running into shallow centre field for absolutely no reason.

If that don't put you to sleep, nothing will</sub>

[Cerys]

And where did you keep it in the mean time?  Didn't you notice your mum hoovering the lawn?

I was twenty-four and living over forty miles away from my parents, so nyer.

[Cerys]

Can someone please come round and throw some ketamine through our letterbox from a safe distance?  I'm still not asleep - or at least if I am then I'm typing too damn accurately.

[Marner and Me]

Have a wank, always sleep well after one of them.

[Cerys]

Just tends to wake me up even more.  Am I even fucking human?  I'm beginning to wonder.

[Marner and Me]

Hot bath, I feel drowsy after one of them too.

[Cerys]

We don't have a bath.  Sniffle.

[Marner and Me]

Well you're fucking fucked then, you fucking fucker :p

[Cerys]

Tell me about it.

[Ferris]

I'm telling you, stupid mental games that are boring will distract you enough to stop worrying about insomnia, but not so distracting that you stay awake.

Close eyes, then try and think of actors with surnames of each letter of the alphabet.

Alan Alda, there's one.
Sean Bean, there's another...

[non capisco]

I've been an insomniac most of my adult life and I'm actually welcoming lack of sleep as a respite for all these intense lockdown dreams I'm having where I keep losing my temper and really falling out with my friends. Nags was actually in one, in the dream he's meant to be coming to my house and he rings me going "I'm here, where are you?" and texts me a photo of him standing by the Eiffel Tower and I lose it down the phone at him and call him every cunt under the sun because he's confused the Crystal Palace transmission mast with the Eiffel Tower and gone all the way to Paris like a FUCKING DICKHEAD arrghhhh I'm getting angry about it again now.

[Captain Crunch]

I was at a sleep safety presentation earlier in the year (when life was exciting).  Here are their tips for good sleep.

Think about quality over quantity, don't get too hung up on hours, concentrate on how you feel after sleep.

PREPARE

Think about your bedroom, does it have fresh air or good quality air?  Do you like your pillow?  Is the mattress comfortable yet supportive?
If worry keeps you awake, write down all your worries two hours before you want to go to sleep, pre-empt your worries in other words (they admitted this might take practice and personally if I wrote down every worry I'd be there all bloody night).  In the same way, keep a pen by the bed and write down anything that worries you in the night, think of the worry going out of your head on to the paper.
Eat a banana before bed.

PRIORITISE

Avoid alcohol to get you off to sleep, it's good for pulling you into a deep sleep but it doesn't last (again think about quality over quantity).
Avoid caffeine before bed.
Stop using your phone / tablet / thing two hours before bed.
Breathe to reduce your heart rate before bed.
Try muscle relaxing exercises.
If you like to fall asleep to the TV try just the audio instead so the light does not bother you.

PRACTICE

If you're awake for more than 20 minutes, get up.  Teach your body that bed is for sleep only.
If you can't sleep, get up and go and do something like reading the Yellow Pages then get back into bed when you're tired.  If you do get up, don't put on the TV, drink caffeine or listen to the radio.

Seek professional help at a sleep clinic if your insomnia is chronic.

As I said not my ideas but 'expert' advice from the sleep research team.  Sounds like some of these are easier said than done? 

[Cerys]

All wonderful suggestions - thankyou.  I'm still awake, by the way.

[C_Larence]

Last night was the first time I can remember falling asleep before sunrise in months, and that's only because I took some Nyquil. Melatonin does absolutely nothing for me, I don't even get a yawn out of it. Nyquil knocks me out, but it makes me feel numb and floaty for the next day and, apparently (based on last night), can give me worse than normal sleep paralysis, so I don't like to take it too often.

[Cerys]

Dammit, I knew there was something we needed to get today!

[C_Larence]

Dammit, I knew there was something we needed to get today!

What do you use? I've got a declining stash of Nyquil from the last time I went to America but most cold and flu medicine here, even the night stuff, seems to be non-drowsy.

[Ferris]

Last night was the first time I can remember falling asleep before sunrise in months, and that's only because I took some Nyquil. Melatonin does absolutely nothing for me, I don't even get a yawn out of it. Nyquil knocks me out, but it makes me feel numb and floaty for the next day and, apparently (based on last night), can give me worse than normal sleep paralysis, so I don't like to take it too often.

I've had a few people say that about melatonin, it seems to be a bit different for everyone.

When my son was very little, I used it to fall asleep to a schedule. Stuck with it for a while after but (thankfully) haven't needed it after that.

[Cerys]

What do you use? I've got a declining stash of Nyquil from the last time I went to America but most cold and flu medicine here, even the night stuff, seems to be non-drowsy.

Boots own Nytol equivalent.  Worked last time I went through this a year or so ago.  SNG was going to he picking some up today, but he got delayed and Boots were closed when he got there.  So we didn't actually forget, it turns out - time was just against us.  They'll be open tomorrow, so we can sort it out then, if necessary.  What I'm hoping is that I'll just crash and burn[nb]Metaphorically[/nb] at some point over the next hour or so, and then catch up in snatches of two or three hours each time.  That's how it generally seems to work.

[Brian Freeze]

Talking of Nytol equivalent, I use the one a night tablets, the little ones?
The chemist I went to last time only had the two a night ones. What size are the tablets?

Twice as big but with half the dose.

Reckon I'll start being able to produce white stools and can pretend they're dog eggs?

[C_Larence]

Boots own Nytol equivalent.  Worked last time I went through this a year or so ago.  SNG was going to he picking some up today, but he got delayed and Boots were closed when he got there.  So we didn't actually forget, it turns out - time was just against us.  They'll be open tomorrow, so we can sort it out then, if necessary.  What I'm hoping is that I'll just crash and burn[nb]Metaphorically[/nb] at some point over the next hour or so, and then catch up in snatches of two or three hours each time.  That's how it generally seems to work.

Ah, that's Diphenhydramine, which I haven't had great results with either. Took two sleepeaze on two separate transatlantic flights (did I mention i've been to America?) and didn't get a second of sleep, just a numb tongue because Diphenhydramine also weirdly works as a topical anaesthetic.

[Cerys]

That's the one.  I'm beginning to wish I'd been more insistent that SNG left early enough to get some.  Forty hours now, and trying to send myself off by walking from Stromness swimming pool in Orkney up to the cottage we stayed in thirty years ago.  Yay for Streetview.

[Cerys]

Argh.

[Dex Sawash]

Did you sleep yet?

[Cerys]

For a given value.

[Barry Admin]

Pfffftt.

[canadagoose]

Having a bit of a one just now. Didn't get to sleep until 12 noon today (yesterday?) and even then that wasn't a proper sleep. It's a shit. An insomni-anus. A shitting buggering fuck really.

[flotemysost]

I've had it on and off throughout my life but it's been a real shitter in lockdown. The factors are pretty glaringly obvious (limited social interaction, looking at screens all day and evening, working a couple of feet away from my bed, generally feeling depressed and anxious a lot of the time) but it doesn't make it any easier.

The point at which I know it's gonna be a really bad night is when the rage kicks in. I'm generally quite a calm and passive person most of the time but for some reason really bad insomnia triggers this completely irrational anger and frustration at the siutation and it's all but impossible to relax after that, although sometimes I do eventually fall asleep for about an hour out of sheer exhaustion.

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:

Could it be the milk that's helping as well maybe? I know dark chocolate does have lots of proven benefits but I thought lactose was known to have soporific effects too. Milky drinks make me retch unfortunately.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I'm having a bit of a weird one where it's not taking me too long to get to sleep (about half an hour most nights, which is fairly good compared to when my insomnia is at it's worst) but for the first time in my life when I wake up in the middle of the night I'm struggling to get back to sleep. It's frustrating as I used to be someone who'd pass out instantly after a night time trip to the toilet, but not any more, and the only thing that seems to help is if I get out of bed and read for 30 - 40 minutes, though even that's not guaranteed to work annoyingly.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Well the above's now developed in to full blown insomnia, right now I'm getting 2 - 3 hours most nights and feeling pretty fucking horrible, though about once a week I get a full night's sleep, but by that point I'm so exhausted it's beyond miserable and I still don't feel great the next day. I'm also sometimes managing to fall asleep, waking up to use the toilet and then that's it, I'll not get back to sleep even if I'm exhausted / it's 6+ hours before I'm due to wake up. I've tried all of the advice above, and everything the NHS has to offer bar sleeping tablets but that's what I'll be doing next, if they don't give me any (as I was on zopiclone for years and years and they were never happy about that) I don't know how I'm going to cope.

So on that front, did you ever get over yours Cerys / anyone else? And if so, what did it for you?