How To Stay Asleep?

[Grace11]

I've had trouble falling asleep all my life, but I used to be impossible to drag out of the bed once I fell asleep. Now, I wake up at ridiculously early hours of the morning when I do not need to be up and have a really hard time going back to sleep. Sometimes this results in me getting about 2 hours of sleep per night which I know worsens my symptoms.

Anyone else?

I'm trying relaxation CDs my friend gave me (she is a therapist) but for some reason I get frustrated with them at times. Then, at myself because I'm not utilizing help provided to me. I could go on and on, way too much rambling today...another issue.

 

[Nighthawk]

I have many issues with sleeping or should I say not sleeping. I get to a point were I crash for a few hours usally during the day. I seem to get into cycles of sleeping for 20 min and then being up for hours. I have to work hard to maintain rest time at night.
Good luck
Sorry I did not help.
NH

 

[cherryblossom]

Hi Grace, I can totally relate to your sleep problems. The only solution I eventually found for me, was sleeping tablets. Not ideal I know, and not a solution I would whole heartedly recommend, unless you have exhausted (excuse the pun!)all other possible solutions. But at least I get my sleep now, and I'm not tired and cranky the whole time. My PTSD symptoms, have on the whole reduced, and I'm now in Trauma therapy, which I can now cope with becase I'm well rested. I hope in the future to reduce and eventually stop my sleeping tablets.

 

[Trinomial]

I take sleep medication and go directly to bed at night. This garantees me about 4-5 hours of sleep.

If I cannot fall asleep, I'll do something--like read or draw, and then try again in about 45 minutes. Sometimes doing something when you can't sleep gives yourself a chance to get sleepy enough to fall asleep again.

 

[LSeraphim]

I too suffer from a near to complete lack of sleep. I have found that exercise (just make it happen I know you're tired) is best. Sleep aids have certain risks but can be used short term to re-establish a healthier sleep cycle.
Stay hydrated, keep good sleep hygiene, exercise and um (self care of a sexual nature can help).

 

[brokenchild]

I have trouble both falling and staying asleep. A relaxation CD used to help, but I find it's not helping as much. I have been waking up a LOT lately and have been very restless even when sleeping. Last night I just HAD to get some sleep and took some Benadryl. It seems to help. I'm going to try to sleep on my own tonight and see what happens. I'll be following this thread for more suggestions.

 

[snugglepuss]

I have lived with sleep disturbances since I was a kid (that's where a lot of the trauma came from). For the past 3 years, I have been waking up most nights at 3:33am (creepy huh?). It got to the point where I didn't even have to roll over to look at my phone to know what time it was.

I was using Trazadone and Seroquel at night to sleep, and it wasn't really helping. I mean, I was getting slightly better sleep than if I had nothing, but it wasn't a great restful sleep. I found out through doing some of my obsessive reading about medications that neither of those meds allow a person to achieve full REM sleep. Which is ridiculous, because deep REM sleep is where our brains do all of their healing. That is where our brain and body process the weird things they have experienced, and make things jive with each other. If we are not getting to that stage, it adds a ton of stress to the brain and the body.

I have always had nightmares, ever since I was a little kid. With the medication, they are downright messed up. And they are incredibly vivid. Which is due to the level of REM I can achieve while using the sleep meds.

I was going for acupuncture for headaches and a bulging disc, and happened to mention to the lady who was doing the needles on me about waking up at that time at least 4 times a week. She went and got this chart, and showed me that the organs have times that they are associated to. The time I was waking up was associated with lungs.

All fine and well you might say, but what the hell does this have to do with anything?

I am getting to that, grasshopper.

Turns out that the organs are associated with emotions. My 3:33am wake up time was associated with lungs on the organ clock, and the emotions that are associated with the lungs are .....
(are you ready for it?)

anxiety and grief.
http://www.shen-nong.com/eng/principles/sevenemotions.html

All it took was me talking about this weird experience with my TCM, and I noticed an improvement in my wake up times. Of course, she worked specifically on getting the qi moving again as I was quite stuck. But she also suggested that I figure out where the grief was coming from and journal about it. I thought that was an odd reaction for my body to have, because I don't cry. So apparently my body decided that if I wasn't going to take care of letting grief do it's thing, it was going to hijack me, and make me deal with it. Now, about 8 months later, I am no longer waking up at that time most nights.

The human body is a source of constant amazement for me.

 

[shadowchaser]

Strange would have never guessed that one.

 

[Trinomial]

Trazadone is an SSRI and Seroquel is a heavy duty anti-psychotic...not the most ideal medication for sleep. I just thought I'd put that out there, since I was on an unsafe combination of medication that wasn't designed for sleep-aid, which caused me to have slurred speech and seizures after being on it for about 11 months.

Sleep aids are generally things in the benzodiazepam family, ambien, lunesta, xerem, and other tranq type medications.

Another caution about the seroquel--it can cause extra-pyramidal symptoms and/or tardive dyskinesia which can mimick tourette's or tic disorders. It can also cause memory loss, apathy, lethargy, and weight gain. Be careful...especially if you aren't taking it for schizophrenia or psychosis.

 

[snugglepuss]

Can't take anything potentially addictive. Clean 4 years, and I know that I would totally abuse those. Benzos were big with me for awhile.

The seroquel is bad. I just found out that I have developed diabetes. My psychiatrist told me when I sent him an email "oh yeah, it can cause diabetes"...no one was monitoring me during the entire time i have been taking it. it did help and does help when i am struggling with the urge to self injure, or if i feel really off the wall, agitated.

 

[snugglepuss]

One quick thing...trazadone is NOT an SSRI. it is a serotonin antagonist and reuptake inhibitor.

 

[Grace11]

Wow, Snugglepuss. Never would have thought of that one but it's very intriguing to me. Things have found a way of becoming eerily fitting in that puzzle type of way, lately. I typically wake around 4 (or that is when I finally look at the clock after struggling).