For reasons I mostly don’t understand, for the last couple of weeks, I have been going to sleep, waking up anywhere between three and four and a half hours later, and then being unable to go back to sleep. I stay in bed for as long as an hour, then finally get up and check my e-mail, or, rarely, watch TV for an hour, then go back to bed, pretty much in time for the alarm clock. I usually DO fall asleep in that brief time between when my wife wakes up and when she returns from the shower; I know this because I am likely to have quite vivid dreams.
The annoying thing is that I’m often too unfocused to write a comprehensible blog post, to even start one. Yet the IDEAS are still there, which is actually worse.
I’ve experienced this condition before, for a day or two, and I can operate OK in the short term. But in this extended bout, not so much. There was a First Friday event I plugged in this blog, and which I remembered at 2 pm Friday. But by 5:30, when it was time to leave work, I totally forgot, went home, and at 6:20, I was too tired to go back out.
In case you’re wondering, I’ve tried having a glass of wine, or having nothing to drink; different times of going to bed (yeah, I know you’re supposed to go at the same time, but that only applies when that’s working.) I had been staying off caffeine until the last few days when I feared dozing at my desk.
Saturday afternoon, with absolutely no energy, I watched a little of the TV show Grey’s Anatomy. Meredith and Derek are exhausted with a new baby. On another show, Parenthood, there’s a couple with a new, crying-all-the-time, infant. Then it hit me: the last time I was THIS tired was nine and a half years ago
I HATE using them, but, in desperation, I took one of those OTC medications that are supposed to let you sleep for 3 or 4 hours, and it DID work.
But my friend Jon said that had a better idea – 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 see hear feel. You open your eyes and note five things you see, 5 things you hear then 5 things you feel. Then 4, 4, 4, then 3, 3, 3, et al. Always worked for him. Well, not for me; I found that it was so focusing – where am I at, 4 hear or 3 feel? – that it made me alert, and even the pill didn’t help.
To boot, I must have slept wrong one night, because the back of my neck aches much of the time lately.
My problem is, paraphrasing John Lennon (whose birthday is today), I have a tough time turning off my mind, relaxing, and floating downstream.
Beatles songs:
I’m So Tired
Tomorrow Never Knows.
Tell yourself a story. Start by visualizing the place, down to details, and then the people, and so on. That helps me and I often have had this problem.
I think the problem is that stories make me want to get up and WRITE the stories. Still, I will try.
Sounds like either stress or depression or you may have a heart condition. If the condition persists do seek medical attention. Yep getting old sucks doesn’t it? And we thought we we immortal.
Roger, I share your pain. I do get up and scribble or (like with the migraine poem) I’ve started drawing. I have one almost done that exactly addresses this problem, and when you see it, you will laugh, or cry… given the amount of sleep you had the night before.
Let me recommend: Take inventory of your whole body, all muscles, and clench them as hard as you can. I’m talking cramping up your butt, your gut, your fists, your eyelids… and sticking out your tongue as hard as you can, until the base of it hurts. Do this a couple of times (and pray that no one has a camera phone handy) and it might help.
I hope this clears up, my friend. Amy
Entrepreneur had the same problems. He takes diphenhydramine; the same ingredient in Benedryl. But, he gets about 1,000 straight diphenhydramine pills from an online vet supply store for much less than the branded OTC sleep aids! And they work flawlessly. Of course, he tends to bark and howl at the moon…….;-)
I heard a while back that some sleep researchers say that before the invention of gas and then electric lights, people used to sleep for longer period than we do. But they also used to sleep in two shifts, waking up in the middle of the night for a couple of hours. So maybe it’s natural to do that. When I wake up and can’t get back to sleep I console myself with that thought.
Fear of not getting any sleep often keeps me from getting any sleep. What the heck kind of deal is that?
That is so hard! I come from a family of insomniacs and nothing works for us all the time (and very few things work some of the time for us). I do think it tends to get worse when there is a lot of stress in your life, which it sounds like you’ve got, my friend. Hope you start sleeping better again soon.
On a side note, what you wrote on my blog last week has had me thinking. I wrote a little something about some of it today. http://melanie.boudwin.net/general-conference/
Take care and sleep sweet!