Today’s Featured Comment
I’m a chronic insomniac and menopause has only made it worse. My brain doesn’t turn off as it should. I’ve been told that there are certain bio-chemical processes in the brain which motivate the descent into sleep. Body temperature begins to drop and thoughts that keep the brain busy during the day wane. This happens with most people. Chronic insomniacs such as myself have higher body temps and more active brains. Or, the natural progression to sleep simply takes longer than normal sleepers.
A lot of folks have good advice regarding the proper “sleep hygiene,” as a doctor once called it. I’ve found the following to be the most helpful:
- Regular exercise no later than 4 pm. This will raise body temperature and then lower it more quickly, helping you get to sleep.
- Avoid caffeine after late morning.
- Go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day, even if you’re tired. This will induce a certain sleep debt that may make the sleep you get of better quality.
- Finally, if your brain’s active, find a way of “unloading” your thoughts. For example, I’m a writer. I get lots of good ideas late at night. I keep a digital recorder near the bed. When they keep me up I flip on the recorder, record the thoughts to get them out of my brain and then get back to sleep.
[This comment was originally posted in this conversation. ~ Eds.]
What helps you sleep?
I agree with you both totally, but thought this might be a good issue to raise here. I myself wouldn't go with a TV ad unless I knew it was exceptional medical practice. I think again it is so good Robbie that you have raised this issue and educa
Hi Darcy
I always appreciate your comments. Emasculating a man means not letting him have his DNA role of being a man. It happens when we take control and literally want to wear the pants versus letting him.
It's very hard for Boomer women to
Glad it works for you. None of that worked for me. I had a horrendous time sleeping for 15 years. Even now, it’s not that good. It’s something I had to get used to.
I’d love to hear what works for others. I am a chronic insomniac, too, and it has taken a toll over the years. I do know about “sleep hygiene” and have done my best to follow all the rules. There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to why I cannot get to sleep on so many nights yet on others I drop right off. Once I’m asleep I rarely wake up unless arthritis pain gets very bad. I see a sleep disorder doctor who prescribes a couple of meds that definitely help. . . . .none of them being ambien which I won’t take. I have found that listening to an audiobook, a light, funny one, that I am familiar with, over and over frequently lulls me to sleep. Wish I could get consist good sleep, though.
Frizzylee,
Do you watch what you eat? For example, if you start keeping a log of what you eat and drink very day, then over time you can see if your sleepless nights correlate with certain foods and drinks, and then eliminate those things. It takes time. For some of us it’s a matter of chemistry. If I have caffeine in any form, I won’t sleep that night. If I eat prepackaged food, I don’t sleep that night – all the junk they add to it. If I eat very much sugar, I don’t sleep that night. If I don’t drink enough water, I have to get up and pee every hour. The less I drink, the stronger the urine, so it feels like I have to pee when I don’t. If I eat pizza with pepperoni I don’t sleep much that night.
Medications can negatively impact sleep, so that’s something to monitor as well. Then sometimes one medication will conflict with another and keep a person from sleeping. Bottom line, our bodies function according to the chemical messages they receives. As we get older we are more sensitive to all kinds of things. Also, if I exercise too late, I can’t sleep. I do yoga, I meditate, I watch my diet etc.
The other biggy is menopause. Here again, it’s an issue of chemical messages. I’m hypoglycemic and when I was in the middle of menopause, the hormone fluctuations conflicted with the blood sugar levels. So I hardly slept at all. I slept better on HRT, but stopped taking it after it gave my sister breast cancer. She died from that. So…as far as I can tell it’s trial and error for each person. All meds have negative side effects, and sometimes we don’t know what it’s done to us until it’s too late. Our bodies are more sensitive to things than the medical industry would have us believe. Medicine is still in it’s infancy.
My recipe for insomnia has always been: a few nice glasses of wine, a long passionate session of sex with an energetic -eager to please- younger man. Then snuggle in soft sheets. I guarantee it!
Sounds good to me. Trouble is, the wine would hype me up – a blood sugar issue – it would elevate the blood sugar. And good sex does the the opposite, but the result is the same. It lowers the blood sugar level – dropping it low because of burning energy. Either way I’m awake. Maybe the thing to do is for you to share your DNA with us insomniacs. Grin.
At 59 1/2 and newly menopausal (Aug.2010), I have NOT had one bad nights sleep. Yes…you read that right. I discovered the little blue pill…Lunesta (sleeping pill) just 6 years ago when my x and split up. What a life saver as it still is now! If it’s not broken why fix it. I and my dr. said if this is the worst…it’s all good. I don’t care if I take this for the rest of my life. I have no side effects except I can’t sleep without it. How do I know? About a month ago I thought I had taken my pill….went to bed and tossed and turned for hours and slept only 4 hours only to discover that I had left the pill on my bath room counter! I am prescribed 3 mg. but years ago as a test I cut the pill in half and it worked great….so I only take 1/2 a pill each night.It also makes them last twice as long. In the years, my close friends know that I’ve taken a sleeping pill, because whats there to hide? I don’t know one person my age that gets a good nights sleep or can sleep through the night. I CAN!! I wake up EVERY day fresh, in a good mood, no grogginess or other side effects…It’s me and my little blue pill every night!
When I take Lunesta I wake up feeling so good, so refreshed. I have had problems with sleep because of menopause (I am 55), usually I could take a Midnite and everything would be ok. But stress has added a new dimension to the insomnia. I had a recent lay off (end of April) and sometimes I take 2 Midnite – not at the same time 30 minutes apart and then a Tylenol PM 30 minutes later and then another after another 30 minutes. One night I couldn’t sleep for 22 hrs, then I could only take a 2 hr nap. I have no health insurance and can’t afford the Lunesta. If all else fails I take one of my remaining Lunesta after 45 minutes after the second Tylenol PM. But I just tried Melatonin and it seems to do the same as the Lunesta, at least for now. I actually tried it for the first time last night and that was all I needed. Hopefully I will be sleeping well.
I too had trouble going to sleep and found a unique solution. I smoke pot right before I go to bed and it puts me to sleep. I also wear a sleep mask to block all light and I sleep very soundly and have very vivid dreams. It wears off during the night and I wake up refreshed. It really works! Too bad it’s illegal! That’s the only time I use it.
Gees, Melissa, I wish it would work for me. It relaxes me, but that’s it. As for it being illegal, in Oregon a person can get a prescription for it, and so Big Brother isn’t strong arming us quite as much. There will be a measure on the ballot in November to see if it can be legal here for recreational use. Of all the mind altering substances, legal and illegal, it has the least side effects and the most positive therapeutic affects. So most places don’t want to legalize it, because you can grow it for yourself. Pharmaceuticals want to make money. There was a show on CBS some years ago that talked about why it became illegal even though they found the side effects negligible. They used it to try to get rid of the Mexican’s here illegally. I noticed that the show was not repeated. The government needs to stay out of it.
I rarely have trouble sleeping, coffee crudea and magnesium helps.