Sleeping

[angel2write]

I visualize myself to sleep by remembering a time or place when I felt really safe. One of my favorites is rocking in a hammock beside a lake.

Or I tell myself stories. I imagine I'm in a fantasy land (sort of like a one-person role-playing game) and I go through the story until at some point the sleep takes over. This is good, because it keeps my mind from wandering on to bad things.

I take care of myself well before bed. I have a snack. Brush my teeth. Get my glass of water, both my stuffed animals, make sure my bed is nice, turn on my noise maker, etc. Try to feel safe.

Some nights, the best I can do is read until my eyes burn and I get so tired I sort of put my face down and pass out.

Of course, some nights, nothing works and I don't sleep until dawn. Like a vampire- awake all night. Then 2 hours sleep (or so) after dawn before the kids get up. Then a 2 hour nap later in the day. Then up all night again. I get a lot of knitting done.

 

[Bordo66]

Hey angel,

Yeah the fantasy in my mind is something but sometimes when I do it I think I'm nuts lol!

Bought a new book, guess ill read it in bed and try to sleep

 

[Gamereign555]

Yeah I also try to stay away from my computer before bed. Sometimes while trying to sleep I will see shifting images of text and images because viewing forums and reading other texts.

Lately I am able to recall dreams I'm having and while their content isn't anything to be afraid of, I will wake up in the middle of sleeping feeling pretty anxious.

 

[Ian Vp]

Bordo, I think you might have missed MissAntiSunshine's hint at sleeping aides helping you fall to sleep. You have a slightly more legal way of abtaining it from coffee shops than others of us in the rest of the world. For me the quality of the sleep is what matters. It doesnt matter if you sleep for 4 or 8 hours just the quality of deep uninterupted sleep free from nightmares. Do what you have to do to get that bit of quality sleep even if it is gaming beforehand or whatever.

 

[Gamereign555]

My sleeping pattern is odd lately. My regular sleeping hours are between 12am and 8am but lately its more like 6am to 12am. If I dont wake myself up for real I will go back to sleep until 6pm. If I try to reset my schedule by staying up my PTSD gets really bad but it works. It works for a few days that is, after that I'm back to the 6am to 12am sleep. I sometimes feel that I don't want to sleep because of the discomfort I feel lying there with my eyes shut. So I stay up.
Its pretty good sleep actually compared to some of you it sounds like.

I have some Restoril I take, but since im so in my head with a lot of things, I refuse to take it more than once every3 or more days. I notice that when I take it on a regular basis it stops working and I have a harder time sleeping with the anxiety caused by the inabiliity to sleep.
But taking it every3 or 4 days works awesome for me, I get 12 hours of uninterrupted sleep usually while on it.

I think its because if I rely on it every night, I convince myself its not working and then it wont.
A lot of our bodies also lack melatonin for different reasons and a supplement helps some people out a lot.

 

[angel2write]

I really think one of the biggest things that help PTSD people sleep is finding ways to make yourself feel safe at bedtime. I've heard of people sleeping with weapons. I like my windows "secured". Whatever it takes to make you feel safe and secure will help.

 

[BrazenBull]

I ... kinda sleep in a dark secure bathroom ._.
and I too, like to imagine myself somewhere else

Every night I say to my self "Thats tomorrows problem, im going to get some well deserved sleep for going through all this shit today " and "This is my time of the day where I don't have to give a f*ck"

 

[angel2write]

Every night I say to my self "Thats tomorrows problem, im going to get some well deserved sleep for going through all this shit today " and "This is my time of the day where I don't have to give a f**k"

I like your affirmations. :tup:

 

[Bordo66]

Ough, so now in theory I should get 8-9 hours of sleep but I wake up at least 5 times every night because of some random dream, yesterday it was a nightmare. I havent taken my medicine in5 days because of my broken shifts(it says use if there is at least 8 hours of sleep. The last 2 days I had the time but didnt take em, on the instructions of the pills it said when you stop taking them the side effects may go worst for a certain amount of time (1-3 weeks). Ough, I am always a bit sleepy on work which sucks.

 

[scott_1971_h]

I always have trouble letting to enough to sleep. Yeti was always at her best when I had my defences down...
Anyone else here have severe and chronic insomnia?
I used to go 3 days without any sleep whatsoever. And that's before i "discovered" speed... Used to go 5 days at a time and actually still be functioning (sort of) at the end of it.

Scott

 

[shell]

I have been averaging 3-4 hours sleep a night, it was affecting everything. I couldn't concentrate, read or remember how to spell. Driving a car, had become dangerous. After starting on antidepressants I had started sleeping. I first started waking up in the middle of the night from terrible nightmares, memory recalls etc. sweating and nausea every night. I then worked myself into a panic that every time I was dozing off I would panic, feel like I'm falling or my throat would get tight like I'm choking and I would wake up and start the cycle all over again. Things had improved until the last two nights when I still up and its past 3am. Hopefully the medication will settle me down and I'll stop this vicious cycle, as it makes coping with everything so much harder.

 

[Bordo66]

So im a few days furthur, and I still wake up at least 5 times a night and I get 1-2 nightmares and some other random dreams. but in the end of a dream I always wake up, any1 els has this