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I also take seroquel for sleep and it does help. I've been an insomniac/night owl my entire life, so I'm resigned to sleepless nights - sort of. It was really grim when I was still working. I couldn't help but glance at the bedside clock and thinking "If I can just fall asleep now, I'll get 6 hours; 5 hours; 3 hours; oh to hell with it!
I am also very sensitive to heat and if I don't have AC or a swamp cooler or at least a good size fan, the heat will keep me up all night. I like to walk my dog in the evenings which relaxes me plus giving me some much needed exercise. But right now it's just too hot even at dusk. People keep telling me to switch to a morning routine, but that's next to impossible for this night owl - my best hours for sleep are 4am to 10am.
I actually get jealous of my cat and dog who sleep on or next to my bed and snooze away in an adorable fashion. Why do only humans get insomnia?
@LivingDeadGirl : I love your "watcher" idea! I'm going to console myself with that thought on extra bad nights.
Maybe you should add more activities during your daytime normal hours, makes time go quicker and you would feel tired and in need of rest/sleep at night time.
Start by going to the gym, working out, running, reading, walking outdoors, at the Malls, shopping, crossword puzzles, arts and crafts, be creative, anything to make your body and mind work and stay busy. At the end of these activities, your body would ask for rest/sleep.
Just a thought.
I walk 5 to 6 miles a day, fish in the evening, work in my shop. Generally I stay pretty busy, I don't really pay much attention to what time it is until 9:00 pm or so when I try to wind down.
After getting maybe 2 hours average sleep a night for months on end having to work full time, I just gave in many years ago and went on medication. Seroquel to be precise, prescribed off-label for insomnia. It knocks most people down in low doses. It works but I hate having to take medication to sleep. Hate it with a passion. Sleep has always been an issue. It's partly genetic as most things. My dad took medication to sleep for years. I tried all that natural stuff like valerian, melatonin, exercise, etc, etc. None of that stuff even remotely worked.
I actually started another thread a while ago about Seroquel. It doesn't work for me.
Oh, yes. Neither of us USED to have insomnia, but since retirement we DO. It could be the lack of physical activity, since we both had active jobs. We'll fall asleep at 11:00 or so, then wake up at 3:00 or 4:00, pee, then can't get back to sleep. Since we want to be IN bed if sleep does come, we lay there with a Kindle or phone in the dark. Usually sleep will come at some point. Then we sleep in as long as we want to. No meds and the natural stuff never worked either.
After getting maybe 2 hours average sleep a night for months on end having to work full time, I just gave in many years ago and went on medication. Seroquel to be precise, prescribed off-label for insomnia. It knocks most people down in low doses. It works but I hate having to take medication to sleep. Hate it with a passion. Sleep has always been an issue. It's partly genetic as most things. My dad took medication to sleep for years. I tried all that natural stuff like valerian, melatonin, exercise, etc, etc. None of that stuff even remotely worked.
... Been taking a half-an-ibuprofen 'PM' late in the evening. That seems to slow me down enough to be able to fall asleep. I began doing that while still working, because sore wrists and thumbs from keyboarding all day were keeping me awake from the pain.
Checked with my Doc, and he sort-a laughed ... He said he doesn't think a half-ibuprofen will do much of anything to help, but the 'PM' part of it really does 'trigger' me to sleep.
Like you, Texan2008, I hate taking prescription-anything! If I can't conquer a problem with over-the-counter meds, I mention it to Doc; he's been pretty straight with me about stuff. If he becomes adamant that there's some prescription med that I should take, I'll probably go ahead and get it - or try it. If it works without a lot of side effects, I might continue to use it. For sleepy-time, that hasn't happened yet.
I was having a terrible time sleeping and then I was told to get some MagMind. I tried other brands of Magnesium and it didn't do any good. It plays an important role in your nervous system, helping to activate mechanisms that quiet and calm you, helping you sleep. It may also help relieve anxiety and depression, which can interfere with sleep. It took a few weeks to see the benefits but now I do sleep better than I have in years. I take 3 per day. https://www.amazon.com/Jarrow-Formul.../dp/B007LEO4Y6
I'm a retired from a swing shift schedule, and even years later I seldom can get to sleep before about 3 am. Once I do get to sleep, I sleep soundly and seldom waken. It's the initial getting-to-sleep part that's difficult. When the lights go out, my brain becomes a movie theater. I replay my entire life in my mind and dwell on all the things that might have been if only this or if only that had been different. It's hard to get my mind to shut up and relax.
For years I took Unisom or a similar over the counter remedy with an antihistamine as the active ingredient. It worked really well. Then I saw a news story on line that got my attention. It said that scientists had found a link between seniors who use these sleep aids regularly and higher risk of dementia. That doesn't mean that sleep aids cause dementia, but there is a correlation. I'm nearly 70, I had been using Unisom for nearly 20 years, but that scared me away from it for good and motivated me to look for safer, alternative ways of getting to sleep.
Here are some of the things I tried that didn't work:
Sleep mask with built-in blue lights that gradually fade. It did nothing.
Sleep mask with cooling gel and built-in vibration. The noise kept me awake.
Valerian - very little effect
Chamomile tea - again, very mild and not really helpful
Blue light blocking glasses - supposed to counteract the effect of light waves from TV and computers. Didn't work.
What finally helped me most was legalized medical cannabis. My doctor was on board with this and wrote a recommendation. At first I tried smoking and vaping, but they're too hard on my throat. Now I use an indica strain in capsule form. Unlike smoking, which hits you immediately, cannabis edibles have a long onset time (about two hours) before you feel the effect. I have to remember to take my nightly dose well before bedtime. But the effects last longer than smoking, four hours or more. I combine this with a CBD syrup containing a small amount of melatonin.
It's been two years now. I still have the occasional bad night (usually caused by stress or caffeine), but I'm sleeping way better now. The combination of cannabis, melatonin and CBD has been working really well for me. I'm not having as many bad dreams as I used to, and I actually look forward to bedtime.
Humans used to sleep in two segmented periods: "In 2001, historian Roger Ekirch of Virginia Tech published a seminal paper, drawn from 16 years of research, revealing a wealth of historical evidence that humans used to sleep in two distinct chunks.
Roger Ekirch says this 1595 engraving by Jan Saenredam is evidence of activity at night
His book At Day's Close: Night in Times Past, published four years later, unearths more than 500 references to a segmented sleeping pattern - in diaries, court records, medical books and literature, from Homer's Odyssey to an anthropological account of modern tribes in Nigeria.
Much like the experience of Wehr's subjects, these references describe a first sleep which began about two hours after dusk, followed by waking period of one or two hours and then a second sleep."
I'm a retired from a swing shift schedule, and even years later I seldom can get to sleep before about 3 am. Once I do get to sleep, I sleep soundly and seldom waken. It's the initial getting-to-sleep part that's difficult. When the lights go out, my brain becomes a movie theater. I replay my entire life in my mind and dwell on all the things that might have been if only this or if only that had been different. It's hard to get my mind to shut up and relax.
For years I took Unisom or a similar over the counter remedy with an antihistamine as the active ingredient. It worked really well. Then I saw a news story on line that got my attention. It said that scientists had found a link between seniors who use these sleep aids regularly and higher risk of dementia. That doesn't mean that sleep aids cause dementia, but there is a correlation. I'm nearly 70, I had been using Unisom for nearly 20 years, but that scared me away from it for good and motivated me to look for safer, alternative ways of getting to sleep.
Here are some of the things I tried that didn't work:
Sleep mask with built-in blue lights that gradually fade. It did nothing.
Sleep mask with cooling gel and built-in vibration. The noise kept me awake.
Valerian - very little effect
Chamomile tea - again, very mild and not really helpful
Blue light blocking glasses - supposed to counteract the effect of light waves from TV and computers. Didn't work.
What finally helped me most was legalized medical cannabis. My doctor was on board with this and wrote a recommendation. At first I tried smoking and vaping, but they're too hard on my throat. Now I use an indica strain in capsule form. Unlike smoking, which hits you immediately, cannabis edibles have a long onset time (about two hours) before you feel the effect. I have to remember to take my nightly dose well before bedtime. But the effects last longer than smoking, four hours or more. I combine this with a CBD syrup containing a small amount of melatonin.
It's been two years now. I still have the occasional bad night (usually caused by stress or caffeine), but I'm sleeping way better now. The combination of cannabis, melatonin and CBD has been working really well for me. I'm not having as many bad dreams as I used to, and I actually look forward to bedtime.
The problem is it's not legal in most of the USA. If it were I'd get some to make my husband some Rick Simpson Oil.
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