sleeping issues on and off...is anyone else going thru this???
Posted , 5 users are following.
Hello Everyone,
I'm a 21 year old black woman and I've been having sleeping issues for a year now. It began the day before my menstral cycle(late june 2017) where i did 4 hours and then it went to me doing 1 hour and not being able to go back to sleep. There were most nights where I would do 1 to 3 hours of sleep or no sleep at all. A lot of the time is where I would fall asleep and not stay asleep or I would stay awake. There were times where it was sparatic type sleep where it would be me doing a 2 hours and then wake up and then 5 hours later i go back to sleep for another 2 or so hours. There were other nights where I have done only an hour and a half of sleep or no sleep at all. There were Sometimes I wouldnt go to sleep until like 5, 6 or 8am. I would sometimes do naps during the day to help me catch up on sleep. I would worry about the lack of sleep at times and I would feel like if I dont sleep, I'm gonna turn to dust(if you understand where I'm going with it)..lol Sometimes when you've been through insomnia for a while, it feels like "when is it gonna end"? I've tried different sleep aids before and I used to rely on them but I choose not to rely on them. I tried exercise in the middle of the night, which didnt work. I used to do melatonin but it didnt help me stay asleep for a long period of time. So I did the chamomile lavendar tea almost everynight until my sleeping pattern was back on. It used to only take me a few sips of the tea to help me fall asleep. By the time late april came, I was sleeping better...until now..this week it's back to me having no amount of sleep or having a short window of sleep. I did the tea again and I feel like now I have to do more than just a few sips of some chamomile lavendar tea. When i dont get any or enough sleep, I get slight body aches on my upper arms, lower back, upper leg, sides of my glutes or my chest would feel weird if i didn't get little or no sleep. There were times also where I would worry about my sleep in the morning and just cry because the fact that I didn't get any sleep and I get worried about the nighttime because it's like "What if I dont get any sleep?". Plus there are nights where I would get anxious or my brain would just be energized and it wouldn't shut down for sleep. I've dealt with this issue over college dealing with classes and schoolwork and things. I thought the insomnia would go away but it decided to come back during my summer vacay from school. and Yes, I am aware of the repercussions of not getting enough sleep. I just dont like when after you tell people about your insomnia issue, then they say "You're stripping your life span years away" or "you can have heart disease or other health conditions"..I just want people although havent been in our shoes to say positive things and not try and scare the hell out of us. If anyone has been thru this, please tell me your experience and let's all be positive.
Thanks
0 likes, 12 replies
lily65668 SalamiQueen23
Posted
Hi Queenie
,
I quite agree that we don't need any doom-and-gloom merchants on a thread like this one! (Though I'm afraid there are a few of them out there.)
I can only say I started having sleeping problems as a child and went through sporadic periods of insomnia throughout my entire working life, with the same pattern as you.
In my personal experience, sleepless nights can make you feel pretty tired and fed-up but they rarely have any serious health effects. (I'm a former nurse, btw.) If this was true, very few parents would survive the first few years of their children's lives, would they?
My sleep problems largely disappeared when I retired from paid employment at age 66 (there's a message in there somewhere!) and I only have the occasional bad night now. These usually come on "nervous" nights - e.g. before a journey or having to give a presentation in my voluntary job.
I'm 74 now and can't say I have any major health problems. My blood pressure is fine, my cholesterol levels are exceptionally good, no signs of heart disease, liver and kidney function fine etc. etc. I've had the autoimmune condition Sjogren's syndrome for 20-odd years now, but it doesn't seriously impact on my quality of life, and I don't think that was caused by insomnia - more likely hereditary as nearly everyone on my mother's side of the family seems to have had some kind of autoimmune condition, usually quite mild. The only prescription meds I have to take are a low dose of L-thyroxine for a mildly underactive thyroid gland, and use of a steroid inhaler at certain times of year for late-onset asthma (both the result of the autoimmune condition). I get the occasional "senior moment", when I lose a word I'm looking for or briefly forget how to operate household appliances, but nothing more than you'd expect for someone my age.
Sounds like you're doing the right thing, and just getting on with enjoying your life. Keep up the good work!
SalamiQueen23 lily65668
Posted
christine66659 lily65668
Posted
I quiet agree Lilly..I've had insomnia all my life on and off..I don't think about it or worry..because sleep comes back..I'm 51 now..as my Dr said we used to sleep in groups and do you think anyone slept properly with t..Rex's on the prowl..to much emphasis on the 8 hrs cycle..we are all different..Winston Churchill survived on 4 hrs so did a lot of very intelligent creative people..
lily65668 christine66659
Posted
Hi Christine, I love that caveman comparison - how true!
I read something a year or so ago (but can't remember where) about diaries written by people up to about the 17th century. It appears from the diaries that in those days it was quite common to have two separate sleeps of a few hours each, with a couple of hours of wakefulness in between. During these intervals people would engage in all kinds of activities permitted by limited lamplight: eating food prepared before they went to bed, making love, generally interacting etc.
It would seem that the idea of a solid block of seven or eight hours' sleep per night has only grown up in the past two centuries or so.
christine66659 lily65668
Posted
Hi Lilly..I've read about the seperate sleep phases to...very interesting and makes sense..it seems technology and a fast pace living has introduced the 8 hrs sleep block...maybe it's wrong and causes more anxiety in insomniacs or maybe we shouldn't label ourselves..we sleep when we sleep xx
christine66659
Posted
Charles Dickens and Emily Brontë hardly slept and he often went for midnight walks .maybe it isn't even a condition at all..we've chosen it to be ..I read of a group of women who lived in a village in Europe who went for midnight strolls whilst going through Meno when they couldn't sleep x
moon53540 SalamiQueen23
Posted
SalamiQueen23 moon53540
Posted
Ok, I'll try that. I've been having a short window of sleep or no sleep ever since the beginning of this week. It's kinda technically my 3 or so day in a row with no amount of sleep. but the things you suggested I will give it a shot!
lily65668 SalamiQueen23
Posted
Just another thought... have you looked up sleep state misperception?
I'm not suggesting for a moment that you're really sleeping seven or eight hours a night, but SSM is quite common in people who aren't sleeping well and who are understandably anxious about it.
This used to happen to me when I was young. I'd wake up feeling exhausted, convinced I hadn't closed my eyes at all, or had maybe dozed for half-an-hour or so, but roommates or partners would confirm I'd had quite a lot more than that, although not a full night's sleep.
I'm also taking the liberty of repeating something posted in these boards by someone called "bemmeh" a couple of years back. I was very impressed by it at the time, and wished I'd seen it at least 40 years earlier, as I think it would have helped me a lot. He gave me permission to re-post the relevant extract whenever I thought it would be useful, so here goes.
Partial quote from bemmeh:
...The moment I stopped struggling against insomnia it simply started going away, though not suddenly. It took quite a while. But the improvement was real from the start. Insomnia is not a thing in itself. The ability to sleep is so strong among us, humans or animals in general, that it is almost impossible to seriously alter it. Insomnia in us humans appears when we TRY (and therefore struggle) to sleep. You just need to stop doing all the things you are doing FOR sleeping and let your body and mind do whatever they want - if you sleep it's OK but if you don't, that's OK too (everybody has bad sleep for all kinds of reasons once in a while). When sleep time comes just go to bed, close your eyes, and rest. Don't TRY to sleep, as you are used to do. Just rest! If sleep comes that's OK, if it doesn't that's OK too, you haven't been very successful in getting the amount and quality of sleep you have desired anyway - that's why you call yourself an insomniac. So why keep on trying/desiring? Just let it go. Accept your reality and move on to the things in life you can control over. Sleep is not something we can control. You just need to trust your body and mind for it and stop trying to do anything whatsoever for it. Good luck!
End quote.
SalamiQueen23 lily65668
Posted
Guest lily65668
Posted
Hi hope you don't mind me jumping in your post. I suffered with insomnia in my early 20's then had a long break I'm 35 now and had it the last month. I had never heard of this before what you are describing is me, a prime example last night I thought I hadn't really slept but my partner who has hurt he's back was awake till 4am in pain up and downstairs , I never heard him not at all but I'd have swore blind I haven't slept. It's not all in my head because there are many nights I am genuinely looking at the clock all night but there are many times people have seen or heard me sleeping when I'm convinced I haven't xx
jay_babes lily65668
Posted