Bloody insomnia

[soze]

Last night at 8 i did an hour on the exercise bike and i was knackerd drank nothing but water till about 10 read a book till about 11.30 till i could not hold my eyes open turned the light off tried to go to sleep and within minutes i was wide awake planning what cars i would buy if i won the lottery. At 1 the wind and rain was insane so i went and stood in the back garden for awhile and i the last time i remember checking the clock was 2.53.

I think it must be something in my head about work as i would bet money theis bank holiday weekend i will sleep fine Sunday night.

 

[cHodAX]

Last night at 8 i did an hour on the exercise bike and i was knackerd drank nothing but water till about 10 read a book till about 11.30 till i could not hold my eyes open turned the light off tried to go to sleep and within minutes i was wide awake planning what cars i would buy if i won the lottery. At 1 the wind and rain was insane so i went and stood in the back garden for awhile and i the last time i remember checking the clock was 2.53.

I think it must be something in my head about work as i would bet money theis bank holiday weekend i will sleep fine Sunday night.

You are a nutjob. Welcome to the family.

 

[kirennia]

Insomnia is a bitch, pure and simple. Some people never have problems with sleeping and for that, I applaud you but it does get a bit annoying when they simply say it's your own fault...even if it is, these people KNOW it is, they don't need to be told. You don't go upto someone in a wheelchair and say 'ooh by the way, your legs don't work!'...


Mine all started about 5 years ago when I started doing nightshift work at the local factory. I basically, didn't think I was going to get in to university so I didn't even try (boohoo, I screwed up my a-levels, my own fault); I simply got a job which would get me a lot of money in a short period of time and thought I'd take it from there. It took 3 years to finally break free.

Two years after starting having switched between a few factories, all doing night shift work, 4 days on, 4 days off, I started to notice the effect it was having on me. My sleeping patterns were growing stranger and stranger. There was nothing worse then going for a night out, ending up at someones house and having them crash out at 4am while you are still wide awake, unable to do anything for the next 4+ hours, just sitting there feeling completely awake, then being woken up at 10am after sleeping for very little time, confusing the hell out of your body clock.

Whenever out and about, I was never really 'with it', always out whenever I could be, trying to break up the monotony(sp?) of my dull, boring work but it began taking its toll. What I didn't really think of at the time, I know it sounds silly but when you wake up at 5pm and are out at 8pm with your friends, you are effectively morning drinking. Because I was doing this for so long, not sleeping right, drinking at weird times my mind was beginning to wander.

Once again, it feels weird to talk about, especially on a forum but I still wonder wtf was going through my head at those times. I'd be sitting down talking normally with friends and all of a sudden come out with the strangest of comments, have really disjointed conversations and occasionally just stop in the middle of a sentence, unsure of how to end it. I'd go for a night out drinking then go home and continue drinking sometimes or stop, either way, being awake through a hangover is a weird feeling and drinking for that many hours is even weirder.

Aaaaanyway, shortly before I finished my nightshift work, it got so bad that I was struggling to finish a number of conversations...while it was funny at first, it had gone too far so I quit there and then and applied to uni. I quite literally would just stop mid sentence completely forgetting where I was and for someone who was always so switched on, it worried me more and more. I've always taken great pride in my friendships with everyone I meet but it was getting to the point that people would get really confused if they hadn't seen me for a while when I spouted out random bullshit and didn't even myself know where I was going with it.

I didn't work from that point up until actually starting at uni, trying to sort my head out before restarting education again...this didn't help my bank balance but it sure did help me mentally.


By the time I got to uni some 6 months later, my body was still used to sleeping at nighttimes but my speech had improved a lot. I'd tried a vast number of things to try and get to sleep but none of them worked...all except, of course, heavy drinking. I'm a pretty level headed person so I knew that wasn't the answer (for the most part) so I'd just sit up watching crap on telly, doing some work or whatever and then I'd fall asleep at 5am ish, only half ready for lectures the next day. I guess it didn't help that there were 4 of us in relatively similar boats in the same flat. One guy had a breakdown (due to smoking too much weed) and was recovering, another was actually working the nightshift in the flat and the other brazilian guy just couldn't get used to the timeshift from brazil to the UK.

Just noticed the length of the post, I'll try and speed it up a bit more.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that some 2 years after quitting the nightshift work, while I feel fresher then I ever have, I'm currently in line for a first near the top of my year and I'm happy with what I do, I still have sleeping pattern problems as a result and I don't think they'll ever go away. I've been a little better recently having cut down on my vices and improving my diet but there will still be the odd day where I just cannot sleep and once every couple of weeks I HAVE to stay up all night so that I can sleep the following night, restoring my sleeping pattern. It creeps further and further forward until I know that if I don't do anything about it, the next few weeks I'll make it into no lectures.

I know I drink too much which I personally completely credit to the nightshift boredom which started to drive me nuts. I don't mean to sound harsh to those who do it or anything but some people are geared towards that kind of work and can switch off...I can't, my mind is way too active and that kind of work drives me fucking nuts! I'd get out and immediately want to drink and smoke to calm myself after 12 hours of dipping capacitors in vats of acid. It gets to the point whereby you have 4 days of that and the following 4, you want to be out all of the time, drinking to forget, ignoring the fact that in a few days time, you're back to the same stuff.

I guess to summarise, I'd just like to point out to those who are thinking of starting the night shifts for whatever reason.....seriously consider the consequences, especially if you're someone who you'd consider to be an active thinker. It's not only detrimental to your health and social life, it seriously screws you up.

And to those who don't think they can get into uni or are stalling for any reason, just do it. I've ended up coming here 4 years late and am having a great time doing what I enjoy and looking at a life I want in the future. It's a great opportunity(sp?), don't end up leaving it as a regret.

And lastly, anyone who doesn't have insomnia or the like and thinks it's something which people can just switch off automatically, you're wrong. 2 years later and I'm still trying to fix it.


Was gonna read through and edit any bits I wanted to keep out but I guess this version will hopefully make people think more.

 

[cHodAX]

Yep got to agree kirennia, insomnia isn't just something you can switch off, especially cronic insomnia but people just don't seem to understand that. I am just hoping this a temporary bout and I won't be needing anymore medication.

 

[Chronictank]

I personally stay up so that i am so exhausted the next night that i can sleep at a reasonable hour if i am having issues sleeping

my current commitments force me into screwing up my body clock 3 days of the week so i have no real sleeping pattern, doing this helps get some sort of order in the chaos

 

[old.Tohtori]

Yep got to agree kirennia, insomnia isn't just something you can switch off, especially cronic insomnia but people just don't seem to understand that. I am just hoping this a temporary bout and I won't be needing anymore medication.

Personally i don't doubt the sleep problems, and i know that especially chronic insomnia is a b*tch to live with. But i do doubt when someone says insomnia (or depression for that matter), seemingly on one incident. You know?

It's kinda like, stop using a deseace as a "go to reason". Maybe hard to explain.

 

[cHodAX]

Personally i don't doubt the sleep problems, and i know that especially chronic insomnia is a b*tch to live with. But i do doubt when someone says insomnia (or depression for that matter), seemingly on one incident. You know?

It's kinda like, stop using a deseace as a "go to reason". Maybe hard to explain.

Well of course if it is a one off event then it isn't insomnia as such, however it goes beyond one night then it does qualify as insomnia and if it happens once or twice a week it would be classified as acute insomnia. Every night is chronic insomnia and can quickly become debilating to the point of life threatening if untreated.

 

[old.Tohtori]

Well of course if it is a one off event then it isn't insomnia as such, however it goes beyond one night then it does qualify as insomnia and if it happens once or twice a week it would be classified as acute insomnia. Every night is chronic insomnia and can quickly become debilating to the point of life threatening if untreated.

Exactly what i meant, just from your original post it seemed like "wah i can't sleep tonight" and then throw out insomnia. Kinda set the tone for the answer i gave. If you do have sleeping problems, then it's a whole different ballpark.

I'm thinking you're in the same boat, of disliking deseace name throwing like they were candy?

 

[cHodAX]

Exactly what i meant, just from your original post it seemed like "wah i can't sleep tonight" and then throw out insomnia. Kinda set the tone for the answer i gave. If you do have sleeping problems, then it's a whole different ballpark.

I'm thinking you're in the same boat, of disliking deseace name throwing like they were candy?

Well it was two nights in a row and it isn't the first time it has happened recently, also I am not stressed or under any duress. That combined with the fact that I had not taken any kind of stimulant for at least 12 hours before I was due to sleep does indicate a mild form of erratic insomnia. The last couple of nights I have taken medication to help me sleep and I just hope I don't have a problem getting to sleep tonight as I have stopped the medication. If the problem continues then I am off to see my doctor.

 

[kirennia]

Personally i don't doubt the sleep problems, and i know that especially chronic insomnia is a b*tch to live with. But i do doubt when someone says insomnia (or depression for that matter), seemingly on one incident. You know?

It's kinda like, stop using a deseace as a "go to reason". Maybe hard to explain.

Completely agree. Have had on more then one occasion people who, surprisingly, being the ones who complain that I sometimes say I wont be up in time for a midday meeting, complain that they've got a bit of insomnia and couldn't sleep until 2am...

It burns me up to think that for 4 years in total of bad sleeping I thought I was alright and it was just the work which effected me...it was only at the end of my first year of uni looking back over how many lectures I'd been to when I noticed I'd been to a grand total of 4 lectures before 11am (had 3 modules at those times).

I don't think it's insomnia I've got really but I can't think of a better word for it. I often just cannot sleep no matter what I do but at the other end of things, once I'm asleep, I'm impossible to wake up unless someone stands there physically pushing me...at which point I generally get irrate.

Insomnia is defined as not being able to sleep and when you do nod off, only being able to sleep for small periods of time isn't it?

 

[Ezteq]

i went through a spell of not being able to sleep, mainly when i was on long term sickness and had nothing to do all day so i'd stay up all night and nap in the day and so on and so forth.

i now have an excellant sleep pattern (dont get me wrong i still have the odd night if something is on my mind where i find it hard to sleep) if you'd like to know then read on:

-i dont have any caffeen after 15:00 and usually only 1 cup of tea/coffee or a coke a day.
- like the chap said previously dont go to bed hungry, but also dont eat immeadiately before bed, just make sure youve eaten well and i try not to eat after 7:30 (or i turn in to a gremlin lol)
- i dont keep a tv or pc in my room, bedrooms for sleeping and occasional spankings, nothing in the room that will distract me or keep me awake.
- I keep (pretty much) the same routine, this is actually a lot easier for me as i have no social life so i understand if its not doable for you guys but it really helps. I go to bed at about 8pm most nights and if theres a show on at night i want to watch ill tape it or watch it on iplayer another day. i dont go to sleep at 8pm but i read to wind down for abut an hour or maybe 2 but by 10 im ready to go to sleep and i dont have to stress about it.
- i always try to wake up at roughly the same time every morning even if its my day off, i'll wake up early and just lay in and read but not sleep in because thats disruptive.
- i try not to smoke late either so i have my evening fag no later than 8pm usually about 7, 7:30.
- also (peanut sized bladder) i try not to drink much if at all after 7:30 otherwise i just get settled then i need to go pee lol.
- i dont really drink much tbh but wouldnt drink anything like beer or whatever at night but i occasionally have a wee nip of sherry in the evening and have not found it to be disruptive to my sleep.
- hot bath in the evening (or shower): i work out in the evening and even when i dont i find that a hot bath when you get home from work and done for the evening is a great way to relax.

hope these help, its just what i do, like i said it may not all be practical for you guys as you all know i am a creature of habit and this is easy for me.
#

oh and p.s boots do these herbal sleeping tablets, smell like crotch but they work quite well, if my sleep pattern does go out i tae these for a couple of nights a few hours before bed time and they really help.

 

[Roalith]

Personally, I go through patches - a couple of months of never sleeping more than 4, maybe 5 hours a night at most, then maybe a week of getting to sleep at a 'normal' time (IE: around midnight) before the cycle starts again. Weekends are a bit different, as I can lie in bed staring at the inside of my eyelids for half the morning. Have been that way since the age of 16 or so.

Know exactly what you mean about the mind racing thing though. I find it helps me to try and focus on one particular train of thought for as long as possible, and work out every permutation of that thought right to the end, before moving on to the next... eventually somewhere down the line I'll get so bored I just drift off - and then find I have to get up for bloody work!

 

[cHodAX]

Know exactly what you mean about the mind racing thing though. I find it helps me to try and focus on one particular train of thought for as long as possible, and work out every permutation of that thought right to the end, before moving on to the next... eventually somewhere down the line I'll get so bored I just drift off - and then find I have to get up for bloody work!

That doesn't work for me as I often have a song playing in my mind while I am thinking about other things so I am constantly at war with myself trying to switch off instead of changing channels.

 

[Roalith]

That doesn't work for me as I often have a song playing in my mind while I am thinking about other things so I am constantly at war with myself trying to switch off instead of changing channels.

Blimey Cho, multi-tasking? You sure there's meat and two veg down there?

 

[cHodAX]

Blimey Cho, multi-tasking? You sure there's meat and two veg down there?

32oz of rib eye, carrots and swede.