How Did You Sleep Last Night?

[Lionheart]

I sleep in the late evening, about 90 minutes at a time, for about 5 hours, and then awake in the wee hours of the morning. I seldom if ever feel truly rested but just recently got a Dx of sleep apnea and will be getting treatment, so I hope this will improve soon!

 

[NukaGirl]

Seriously cannot sleep unless I am absolutely exhausted. Which I am not right now.

 

[rainy_daze]

I've been trying out the recommendation that the psychiatrist made about sleeping. It's very difficult. He suggested to go to bed at 10pm every night, and try to sleep, and do no activities in bed that could keep me awake, like the computer/TV/reading. If I don't sleep the entire night, I've still to get up around 7am.

He says this will help establish a sleeping pattern. I either sleep way too much or not enough. He didn't seem keen on giving me the wondrous sleeping tablet I had years ago that really helped. :(.

So far, I've been making sure I'm in bed by midnight. 10pm is too early, it makes me feel like a child with a bed time.

I've had 2 days in a week where I had no sleep for over a day, and keeping myself awake the whole day was a huge struggle, and I ended up crashing on the couch at 10pm. My partner has kindly woken me up at midnight to get me to go to bed.

I'm still not convinced by the advice, but it's worth a shot. I don't like fighting off sleep when I really need it though :O_o:. I overslept today, but I got 7 hours. Sounds almost like a normal amount of sleep :rolleyes:. [I also got out of bed about 2am last night because I couldn't sleep. I feel like if I stay in the bed trying to sleep for too long, it amounts to mental torture]

 

[Lionheart]

Forgot my nightmare medication the night before last and had some bad nightmares. I also had some very vivid dreams last night, but still, I am managing to sleep more deeply and I am truly grateful for that.

I feel rested which is amazing to me. I have gone many years without restful sleep....ummm since 1998 to be exact, so as you might guess I am thrilled to be getting peaceful slumber once again!!!

 

[Tigger123]

It's such a relief to find a group of people going through the same thing as me - don't get me wrong, I don't wish nightmares or insomnia on anybody but knowing there is someone out there who knows how it feels...<sigh>.

Lately I have been lucky - a change in my pain medication has helped me sleep through the night a few times now without waking up in pain but there are still nights when I can only describe it as my brain having too many tabs open.......then there's the other nights when I wake up covered in sweat and trembling from the nightmares. I will take the positive that these are not happening every night (like they used to).

Hugs and warm thoughts to all of us............

I also struggle with anger at my poor darling husband - when he's sleeping soundly and I'm lying wide awake. I've learnt to get up on nights like those, make a milky drink and read a book until the eyelids start to droop - my therapist agreed it was a good plan so that I don't associate bed with a place where I can't sleep (if that makes sense to y'all?)

 

[Finding Maeve]

I am so tired all the time. I can't sleep at night, then sleep all day. Or if I do get to bed early, I wake up several times during the night and look at the clock, pissed off that it's not time to wake up (like I'm bored of sleeping, but so tired.) I get up really early for a couple of hours then go back to sleep and sleep too long. Been missing appointments and totally dysfunctional. I had to ask for a ride today just to get to a doc appointment that I missed last week from oversleeping.

 

[Littlemissbrit]

I slept really poorly......as usual. Falling asleep doesn't seem to be an issue for me, but within an hour I will be awake, either because I have a nightmare or just because I wake up. My Counsellor says that basically I am waking up every time I get into REM sleep in my cycle, which is the part of the brain that is closely associated with the amygdala. Which is the part the us PTSD sufferers "memories from trauma" are stuck in......

I am so sick of it. Does anyone find that they get to the point where they don't want to go back to sleep again? Through fear of having more nightmares? Or that every time they wake up whether they have had a nightmare or not that their heart is racing?

 

[franciemarnie]

Yes @Littlemissbrit, I fall and then wake up shortly thereafter often with pounding heart.

Once upon a time to avoid the hassle of trying to fall asleep and then waking shortly after or wrestling with nightmares, I thought screw this - I just won't sleep. But after a year of almost no sleep, I began hallucinating.

It is a drag. I try to just accept whatever happens and keep expectations low, but it is such a drag. I am always exhausted.

1 1/2 hours last night, then wildly beating heart. Now it is morning. Ugh.

 

[BlackbirdSinging]

I slept really poorly......as usual. Falling asleep doesn't seem to be an issue for me, but within an hour I will be awake, either because I have a nightmare or just because I wake up.

Yes yes yes definitely yes. I was just posting somewhere else on the boards about this the other day. I'd had so many nightmares one night and I'd woken up after each one. That night I was actually starting to feel afraid of falling asleep. I don't know if it's always been like this and I'm just noticing it more now but I haven't slept all the way through the night for about a week now. I keep waking up startled and looking around the room like I'm searching for something and then just passing back out again. It happens 2 or 3 times every night. And I'm so tired. On top of that I have nightmares probably 2 or 3 nights a week. And it's pretty rare that I'll have just one nightmare a night when I do have nightmares.

 

[Nothing]

Terribly. Slept terribly. Had a few nightmares, and feel awful this morning. Don't want to face today.

I want so desperately to sleep, but at the same time I don't want to sleep because I don't want any more nightmares. An impasse that seems impossible to get over at the moment. Every night is the same. Sometimes I really wish I didn't have any responsibilities, which is bad of me I know because my kids are wonderful and I love them so much. I just don't want to do today at all.

 

[Littlemissbrit]

That night I was actually starting to feel afraid of falling asleep......And it's pretty rare that I'll have just one nightmare a night when I do have nightmares.

I have now got to a point where I am afraid to sleep, because I don't know what horrific images/nightmares it will bring.....like you I don't have nightmares every night (although I do wake up every hour pretty much every night). But when I have a nightmare I never have just one, its one after the other after the other......I am just so exhausted, and sick of it.

Trying to maintain a full time job (and a stressful one at that) is a nightmare on this level of sleep....I am such an emotional wreck.

Can you remember the last time you slept through the night?

 

[BlackbirdSinging]

Can you remember the last time you slept through the night?

Unfortunately I can't. Since I started paying attention to it sometime last week or 10 days ago I know I haven't slept through the night once. I'm wondering if I was doing that all along and I just wasn't really aware of it because it happens so often. I really have a hard time with comments about me sleeping late though. I guess people don't realize most nights I don't go to bed until it's between 2am and 4:30am. And then I have broken sleep. So it definitely affects whether or not I get up at 9am or 11am. I guess people who don't have sleep issues just don't understand how exhausting it can be. Especially over time. I hope you sleep better tonight.