What helps you stay asleep?

[Kubash16]

Problem: consistently waking up 2-3 times (sometimes more) in the middle of the night. Sometimes in response to nightmares, sometimes (like tonight) over nothing at all.

Solutions I have tried:

Melatonin- gave me more/worse nightmares and woke up more frequently.

OTC sleep meds- work too well then I don’t hear my alarm for work.

Weighted blanket- love this thing but it’s not helping.

Alcohol- maladaptive for one, works too well and sleep past my alarm again.

Routine for before bed to get myself tired- hasn’t worked on iota (this includes no electronics and such).

Essential oils dashed on stuff next to where I sleep- nada/not working

I can fall asleep easily usually so that isn’t the issue. Any ideas I haven’t tried?

Edited to add: I’ve noticed the more I’ve woken up the night before the worse my SI is the next day. Which is risky because my SI right now is really really walking a fine line into serious stuff.

 

[EveHarrington]

Benadryl + Ativan.

I also take other calming meds....geodon, gabapentin, Trileptal....they don’t put me to sleep, but they do help calm me down so sleep is possible.

Sorry I can’t be of more help. Getting this sleep thing pinned down is difficult! :hug:

 

[Kubash16]

:hug: thank you. I will try to get on calming meds and see if that helps. Benadryl knocks me out cold.

 

[Phoenix(not)]

I have this same problem. If I go to bed with only my daily Mirtazapine (the anti-histamine component is not the non-drowsy type so is great for aiding sleep) ... but I still wake up maybe 6 to 8 times throughout the night. Things that help reduce this is no tea or coffee after 8pm and no alcohol after about 5pm. But, if I have one half of a 7.5mg Zopiclone before retiring, I have a wonderful natural sleep, rarely wake up more than once and awaken fresh from a natural sleep (and not a drug-induced one).

Zopiclone is in the Diazepam family so Doctors hate prescribing this long term because some people become dependent on it. My GP has known me for over 30 years and he knows I do not abuse meds. We have an understanding and he prescribes 30 or 40 tablets per three months (alternates). I dislike the small proportion of nights without Zopiclone but totally accept using it every night risks leading to dependency. This works very well for me, but we are all different. I thought I'd contribute to this thread because sleep is such a precious thing, we don't appreciate it until we find it is disturbed. I hope this is helpful contribution to this thread.

 

[knuckles]

I wake up quite often during the night (5-10 times), but luckily I fall back to sleep easily. It's mostly aches and pains, disturbing dreams and some form of hypervigilance that makes me a light sleeper. This has been my "normal" for as long as I can remember, so I am not really bothered by it.

I did notice however that a couple of nights ago I had an unusual restful sleep, with little/no waking up during the night. Now there may have been several aspects contributing to this, but the one thing I now was out of the ordinary was that I took a few drops of a homeopathic remedy called Bach's rescue remedy as I went to bed (four drops in a glass of water -> down the hatch). I bought it for my pets, but have on a few occasions taken it myself; mainly when being really upset/scared/angry/hypervigilant - and it has calmed me down almost instantly.

 

[ImSad]

My doctor recommended something called Enzymatic Therapy Sleep Tonight... haven’t actually tried it yet, but it’s supposed to reduce cortisol levels which can help with staying asleep

 

[knuckles]

... I took a few drops of a homeopathic remedy called Bach's rescue remedy as I went to bed...

Did so again last night, and it did not seem to have any positive affect on my sleep. So, sadly not a magical remedy it seems.

 

[Ronin]

Short of medication, temperature, not being thirsty or hungry and mental maps dotted out, instead of ruminating (as in, things I need to check up on waiting for the morning, well enough.)

 

[ChildofGod]

The only thing that keeps me asleep is prescribed sleep medication. It's the only way I can sleep. Otherwise I can't fall asleep when I want/need to.

 

[Friday]

: I’ve noticed the more I’ve woken up the night before the worse my SI is the next day. Which is risky because my SI right now is really really walking a fine line into serious stuff.

How do you feel about waking up during the night?

I ask, because it’s a new parenting trick to a) drop the idea that humans need a large block of uninterrupted sleep in order to be happy/healthy/rested, quirkily enough scientifically we do better with naps, but the day night cycle doesn’t support that outside of the artic & b) to -essentially- CBT your mood about being woken up. No one uses the term CBT, but that’s what it is. Because people who are angry/sad/scared about being woken up usually end up struggling with depression & anxiety, but that depression & anxiety totally lifts as soon as they can find a more neutral thought process. You don’t have to be happy about being woken up every 2 hours for 6mo-2years, but even just a “this is what we’re doing right now” outlook and boom! The situational depression lifts as if by magic. A whooooooole helluva lot of the “sleep training” books “for” babies are actully less about teaching a baby to sleep, than conditioning parents to be okay with broken sleep because they’re expecting it with a sense of Voctory! We’ve mastered sleep training! :woot: Go self! Rock on you badass mommy/daddy we’ve GOT this! ...lol. Not dissimilar to how dog training is 90% about training owners how to behave with their dogs, rather than teaching dogs to do specific things.

It was the mention of increased depression the next day that reminded me of this... and the fact that my best friend just “woke up” from her sleep dep induced depression. Not because her baby is sleeping better (she’s not, poor thing, they’re up every hour on the hour) but because “You & my mom we’re right! I can tell you, I don’t think I can tell her, yet. But as soon as I stopped fighting it, and being worried about being tired the next day, and being angry about waking up? My days got WOW! Better. Don’t tell my mom. Not yet. I have to work myself up to that.”

...now... I don’t actually remember telling her this (it’s parenting 101, but it’s just rude to tell new parents how to do shit), but either she’s remembering from when my own kiddo was little, or she’s mixing me up with one of her other parent friends, or she reeeeeeally doesn’t want to tell her mom, or I was just a bit dissociative that day :bag:

 

[somerandomguy]

Hydroxyzine. It's just an antihistamine, so isn't habit-forming. Before I started taking it, I'd wake up at 3am (or earlier) and be up for the day. Now when I wake up I just go right back to sleep. It's changed my life.

 

[Kubash16]

@Friday, I remember the broken up sleep being more natural from my anthropology class. Maybe that’s part of why I do it since ptsd is essentially throwing your system to a more base state (can’t think of the word I want here lol, but back to times where keeping watch was necessary-my mind is mush today).

I can try to turn my mind around on how I feel about waking up. Usually when I wake up I’m first feeling frustration and anger because I know my body will fail me the next day. Self fulfilling prophecy probably. But I do know if I wake up too much or for too long I can be wide awake and fine for the first few hours then around 10 am or so my mind just collapses. I can be in a great mood in spite of waking up until around then and I just crash. By the time I get home all I want to do is go back to sleep and thus a nasty cycle commences.

My pdoc prescribed trazadone. It helps me to fall back asleep faster once I wake up but I wake up just as much if not more and the dreaming/nightmares are worse.

One caveat on the Trazadone-it worked wonders for me while I was hospitalized (last month) but as soon as I got back all my sleep problems resumed and worsened. So I’m back to square one. But at least now I know just how important safety in an environment is. I need to find a new place where I can create the hospital safety again and see if my sleep problems will be fixed by that.

@somerandomguy, I will ask pdoc about that one (or is it otc?) I see him tomorrow afternoon.