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Dear Truddles

Sorry you are having a bad day. I am replying separately rather than tow your call for help otherwise the others may not realize it is you who needs help. Two or three hours sleep a night is simply not enough I agree. I wake up four or five times a night and get night terrors and nasty dreams. But I generally get around seven hours -just not seven hours in a row. I took a Diazepan last night and got five in a row which helped. I believe that lettuce is supposed to help you sleep as is not having tea or coffee after about 5pm. The other thing that is supposed to help is to repeat the word ’the’ over and over again as it takes away unwanted thoughts and is boring. You could also try to catnap during the day as this is as good as sleeping at night. Finally worrying about not sleeping makes things worse so take a book to bed – preferably a boring one so that it tires your brain out.

I hope some of the others will come up with something positive. I have left my computer downstairs and will look in ever hour or so. So please get back to me and let me know how you are getting on.
Best
Glad x

Sat Nov 28 2009 16:23:56 #
nettlenoo
Member

i read this quote and i like it
Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another.

Sun Nov 29 2009 13:32:13 #
Unregistered

Netti

I like this quote. Actually loads of catnaps are as good as a night's sleep. I got 8 hours in three sections last night. Was awake from two til four but used this as an opportunity to work out some new strategies for dealing with the dreaded thoughts.

Sun Nov 29 2009 14:34:52 #
Parvez Choudhry
Member

I find the following things help me to sleep when I am feeling anxious:

Before I get into bed, I write a list of all my worries on a piece of paper and leave it where I will see it in the morning. That way I know I can safely fall asleep without the risk of forgetting overnight anything I am worrying about. If I didn't write it all down, I would then have the added worry that by morning I may have forgotten something and consequently I would lie awake for a long time reciting my list of worries in my head to make sure I didn't forget them. (Ssssh, don't tell your OCD this but by morning your list of worries probably won't seem so daunting because you won't have fretted about them while you were asleep and so your anxiety will have faded and you will have regained a more rational perspective.)

If you regularly suffer from insomnia or nightmares, you will probably regard your bed as an enemy and you will dread night times. Try to turn it round so that you come to view your bed as a friend and look forward to night times. You could buy yourself a delicious fruit juice drink (something really special like Robinsons kiwi fruit & strawberry squash with no added sugar*) and ration yourself to only ever drinking it at night. Take a glass of it to bed with you and treat yourself to a sip of it intermittently throughout the night. Or if that's not your thing, commit yourself to only ever listening to your favourite type of music at night time and take an MP3 or iPod to bed with you. You mustn't drink that juice or listen to that music during the day - you must reserve it as a special treat for night times.

If you suffer from insomnia, brace yourself each evening for not getting any sleep at all during the coming night. Then after you go to bed, if you find yourself still awake after 2 hours of tossing and turning, you won't start worrying about all the sleep you are missing, since you weren't expecting to get any sleep in the first place. On the other hand, if you go to bed hoping to sleep well and then you end up still awake after 2 hours, the realisation that you're not falling asleep quickly will only vex you further and create more tension that will keep you awake longer.

If you get to the stage where you are lying in bed in the middle of the night feeling very tired but not sleepy, get yourself into a comfortable position (as snug as a bug in a rug as my old pa used to say to me when I was knee-high to a grasshoppper) and close your eyes. Then concentrate hard on keeping yourself from falling asleep! Keep your body still and use only your thoughts to try to keep your mind alert and avoid losing consciousness. It works for me everytime.

I hope you find this helpful.

* I suggest a drink without added sugar to avoid tooth decay from not brushing your teeth after taking a swig of it!

Tue Dec 1 2009 14:12:33 #
Parvez Choudhry
Member

A couple more tricks I use to sleep better:

A relaxed body can create a relaxed mind. If I feel anxious when I go to bed, I sometimes do physical relaxation exercises in bed, which make me feel calmer mentally.

One technique is called Progressive Muscular Relaxation (PMR). You tense up a group of muscles so that they are as tightly contracted as possible. Hold them in a state of extreme tension for a few seconds. Then relax the muscles normally. Then consciously relax the muscles even further. Repeat for other groups of muscles all over your body.

Slow deep breathing is also a good way to relax physcially. Imagine your mouth is positioned on your abdomen just above your umbilicus (navel). Then slowly breathe in and out about ten times, imagining the air is entering and exiting through this point. Many of us breathe from the top of the chest, whereas it should be from just above the bottom of the ribs. We can re-train ourselves to breathe in this way automatically at all times, not just when trying to relax or when lying in bed.

Have you noticed how your worries seem worse in the middle of the night and early in the morning before we get up? Apparently it's due to the amount of endorphins in our bloodstream. Endorphins are chemicals produced by our body when we do strenuous exercise, so after lying in bed for several hours, our endorphin level is low and this depresses our mood. Therefore if you are prone to waking up early and lying in bed worrying about things, it would be better to get out of bed and run up & down stairs a few times. Your worries probably won't seem quite so bad after that.

Wed Dec 2 2009 16:03:53 #