I sleep between 4 and 12 hours depending how many shifts im doing per week. I can be awake between 15 hours and 36 hours.
The long awake/short sleep is to get back into daytime routine. I can never shut off, I can only ever sleep when I am completely exhausted. Once I am asleep I am completely out of it. Have a ridiculous alarm to wake up me,
Been suffering for around 12 years with this on and off, i can go a few months no issues the the old restless legs start and when it does its hell, as i end up down in the kitchen eating. It can last for months on end.
They told me drink, exercise etc
Does not make a difference, to be fair i am not a big drinker, odd occasion or at football, eating, well we eat a lot of veg, not had a chip fryer in the house for years, exercise, do more now than i used to, since we got a dog, out most nights with him and normally big runs at the weekend.
In fact going to go back to the quack, i don’t want to end up relying on sleeping tablets
I'm not usually one for self help books but this one really does work.
I was already doing a fair few of the things it suggests, which were helping my sleeping but to have it all written down in one short book is very useful.
Two of the rules that spring to mind...
• Don't use any kind of sleeping pills, they're a total waste of time. And this includes Nytol etc
• Stick to a routine. This is the thing that really made a difference to me. Go to bed and get up at the same time every day even if you feel knackered. Don't have massive lie-ins at the weekend, they don't do you any good in the long run. If you get up at 7:30 in the week, do the same at the weekends, sounds brutal but once you get in to a routine your sleeping will improve dramatically, so you won't need those weekend lie-ins. Don't go to bed incredibly early because you slept badly the night before, you'll just lie there tossing and turning for hours and make it worse.
There are loads of things the book gets you to do and lot of it is common sense but if you put them all together they just work.
Well worth a few quid for a life time of better sleep!
The 3 things that do for me are painful joints, a weak bladder and a wife who takes more room in the bed than Giant Haystacks would despite being not very big!
I'm not usually one for self help books but this one really does work.
I was already doing a fair few of the things it suggests, which were helping my sleeping but to have it all written down in one short book is very useful.
Two of the rules that spring to mind...
• Don't use any kind of sleeping pills, they're a total waste of time. And this includes Nytol etc
• Stick to a routine. This is the thing that really made a difference to me. Go to bed and get up at the same time every day even if you feel knackered. Don't have massive lie-ins at the weekend, they don't do you any good in the long run. If you get up at 7:30 in the week, do the same at the weekends, sounds brutal but once you get in to a routine your sleeping will improve dramatically, so you won't need those weekend lie-ins. Don't go to bed incredibly early because you slept badly the night before, you'll just lie there tossing and turning for hours and make it worse.
There are loads of things the book gets you to do and lot of it is common sense but if you put them all together they just work.
Well worth a few quid for a life time of better sleep!
Been suffering for around 12 years with this on and off, i can go a few months no issues the the old restless legs start and when it does its hell, as i end up down in the kitchen eating. It can last for months on end.
They told me drink, exercise etc
Does not make a difference, to be fair i am not a big drinker, odd occasion or at football, eating, well we eat a lot of veg, not had a chip fryer in the house for years, exercise, do more now than i used to, since we got a dog, out most nights with him and normally big runs at the weekend.
In fact going to go back to the quack, i don’t want to end up relying on sleeping tablets
Bermuda_red recommended magnesium supplements as a remedy for poor quality sleep earlier in this thread (p 2 with a link to a very interesting article). I was having very restless nights a couple of months ago and, remembering Bermuda_red's tip, did some pretty extensive research into magnesium and decided to give it a go, since I also realised I had a couple of other symptoms of magnesium deficiency mentioned in the article (an occasional twitchy eyelid [really disconcerting if you're talking to someone at the time] and, more often, muscle cramps). I now take Magnesium Glycinate (it needs to be chelated for absorbtion) every night, an hour or so before bedtime and, it maybe a co-incidence but, I sleep pretty well, no twitches and only rarely a cramp. When you mentioned the restless legs I wondered if low magnesium might be an issue for you. It is for most people, though symptoms aren't always the same and it's rarely diagnosed. You'd have to look into it carefully of course but it's virtually impossible to get the RDA of magnesium even with a good diet. Take a look at Bermuda_red's post anyway and see what you think. BTW, cheers Bermuda_red. Much obliged.
Suffered for a number of years as my wife is a chronic snorer and also likes to sleep in a light room so we have a velux with no blind and curtains open on the main window. 5.00 am and its like a summers day in there. I finally found a way to cope a couple of years ago when I chopped my wife into little pieces and fed her to our pet guinea pigs over a number of months. The bones went into general rubbish round dartford tip. The guy thought I was joking when he asked me what was in my black bags in the boot and I said "the wife".
Actually the first bit of that is true. I only fantasise about the second bit. I wear heavy duty ear plugs and go to bed late having dozed off on the sofa for a couple of hours. I've learned to live with the light issue. When it's all too difficult I go to bed and analyse my latest round of golf shot by shot. I'm normally well away by the fifth hole.
8 hrs kip what the hell is that I ain't had hrs kip since I was 14 or when I was coming off doing to much speed and I needed to clean my act up, I slept for virtually two weeks solid execpt pissing shitting and eating
I get 4-5 hrs a night if lucky it's called kids deprived sleep it's a natural phenomenon known to many
8 hrs kip what the hell is that I ain't had hrs kip since I was 14 or when I was coming off doing to much speed and I needed to clean my act up, I slept for virtually two weeks solid execpt pissing shitting and eating
I get 4-5 hrs a night if lucky it's called kids deprived sleep it's a natural phenomenon known to many
Walked through the door from Fulham about 1.15 Saturday morning and was woken at 5.30 by the kids. Same pretty much the Sunday and Monday. Knowing i'm getting woken early then leads to you getting anxious lying in bed if you don't go straight off as it becomes a mental game of 'come on, you need to get to sleep as you're waking up in x hours' which makes it worse.
Very rarely drink now as i feel most days like i used to with a hangover.
Can sympathise with the non sleepers, I have myoclonus which is very unpleasant when it goes on all night. Thankfully the really bad episodes have died down since I cut out caffeine though it comes and goes.
Between 1-3 hours on average every night and that's with one eye open lol
Seriously Dave if you are that run down and exhausted with that much sleep maybe lack of sleep isn't what's causing it, depression? Or anaemia? Other medical reasons maybe?
8 hrs kip what the hell is that I ain't had hrs kip since I was 14 or when I was coming off doing to much speed and I needed to clean my act up, I slept for virtually two weeks solid execpt pissing shitting and eating
I get 4-5 hrs a night if lucky it's called kids deprived sleep it's a natural phenomenon known to many
If you ain't getting 8 hrs you don't need help
If you are only getting 2-3 hrs you need help
Unfortunately this.
Sorry only just seen this. Maybe your problems are not enough sleep. In that case you need to find the cause and fix that unfortunately for us we can't "fix" our kids but you may be able to get to the root cause of your problem, best of luck.
The BBC has a raft of articles,self tests and advice. They seem to suggest that 8 hours is a total myth, that 4 hours plus anything over 100 minutes ( the time needed to go through all 4 stages of sleep) is enough. Certainly when I learnt this a couple of years ago I stopped worrying if I woke up in the night. Instead I thought,ok this is normal and good then dropped back off to sleep after a little reading
I'm usually a just get on with it person but this is rediculous.
Long term problem that's harming working and social life.
It basically like people have said its an anxiety problem. The un-natural pressure to have sleep. Exhausted...but the core of the brain just isn't exhausted enough.
Ah well people have much worse problems in this world
A lack of sleep is one of the main triggers of my epilepsy so when I do have trouble sleeping it's made worse by my subconscious over thinking about the fact I can't sleep.
Is there anything else that is affected in your life if you are struggling to sleep Dave21?
Been suffering for around 12 years with this on and off, i can go a few months no issues the the old restless legs start and when it does its hell, as i end up down in the kitchen eating. It can last for months on end.
They told me drink, exercise etc
Does not make a difference, to be fair i am not a big drinker, odd occasion or at football, eating, well we eat a lot of veg, not had a chip fryer in the house for years, exercise, do more now than i used to, since we got a dog, out most nights with him and normally big runs at the weekend.
In fact going to go back to the quack, i don’t want to end up relying on sleeping tablets
There's no real direct cause of the restless legs (and they are horrible aren't they, unexplainably frustrating). But I'm pretty certain diet plays a huge roll, cutting lactose entirely out of your diet could do the job, human bodies aren't built to break down the amount of lactose we put in them. Obviously a healthy lifestyle etc. will help too.
i was prescribed Amitryptiline for an Irritable bowel issue about 5 years ago ...it is also a mild anti depressant /relaxant.. the added benefit is that i sleep like a log and that i am a lot happier..just the lowest dose has really improved my life
Mostly getting to sleep bit if it's "one of those nights" that have been heavily building then I'm likely to wake up too early. I hate calling sick so it's increasingly frustrating from that perspective too.
I suffer from insomnia from time to time. When I do, I use an anti histamine, Chlorphenamine Maleate, an allergy relief medication that is available over the counter at (e.g.) ASDA. It is very mild and ensures that I get a good unbroken sleep. But no drug that induces sleep is recommended for long term use, including alcohol.
Sounds like you have the classic sleeplessness paradox, lying in bed worrying and losing sleep over not getting to sleep. Obvious question, have you talked about it with your GP ?
Comments
I can be awake between 15 hours and 36 hours.
The long awake/short sleep is to get back into daytime routine. I can never shut off, I can only ever sleep when I am completely exhausted. Once I am asleep I am completely out of it. Have a ridiculous alarm to wake up me,
The joys of night work!
Bed time!
They told me drink, exercise etc
Does not make a difference, to be fair i am not a big drinker, odd occasion or at football, eating, well we eat a lot of veg, not had a chip fryer in the house for years, exercise, do more now than i used to, since we got a dog, out most nights with him and normally big runs at the weekend.
In fact going to go back to the quack, i don’t want to end up relying on sleeping tablets
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Effortless-Sleep-Method-Incredible-Insomnia-ebook/dp/B004UC4ZNM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1402493212&sr=8-1&keywords=sleep+method
I'm not usually one for self help books but this one really does work.
I was already doing a fair few of the things it suggests, which were helping my sleeping but to have it all written down in one short book is very useful.
Two of the rules that spring to mind...
• Don't use any kind of sleeping pills, they're a total waste of time.
And this includes Nytol etc
• Stick to a routine.
This is the thing that really made a difference to me.
Go to bed and get up at the same time every day even if you feel knackered.
Don't have massive lie-ins at the weekend, they don't do you any good in the long run.
If you get up at 7:30 in the week, do the same at the weekends, sounds brutal but once you get in to a routine your sleeping will improve dramatically, so you won't need those weekend lie-ins.
Don't go to bed incredibly early because you slept badly the night before, you'll just lie there tossing and turning for hours and make it worse.
There are loads of things the book gets you to do and lot of it is common sense but if you put them all together they just work.
Well worth a few quid for a life time of better sleep!
I now take Magnesium Glycinate (it needs to be chelated for absorbtion) every night, an hour or so before bedtime and, it maybe a co-incidence but, I sleep pretty well, no twitches and only rarely a cramp.
When you mentioned the restless legs I wondered if low magnesium might be an issue for you. It is for most people, though symptoms aren't always the same and it's rarely diagnosed. You'd have to look into it carefully of course but it's virtually impossible to get the RDA of magnesium even with a good diet. Take a look at Bermuda_red's post anyway and see what you think.
BTW, cheers Bermuda_red. Much obliged.
Actually the first bit of that is true. I only fantasise about the second bit. I wear heavy duty ear plugs and go to bed late having dozed off on the sofa for a couple of hours. I've learned to live with the light issue. When it's all too difficult I go to bed and analyse my latest round of golf shot by shot. I'm normally well away by the fifth hole.
Don't think there has been a night in the last month where I have got the standard 8 hours in.
Now need to reluctantly take prescribed drugs that will probably screw with my body...just to stop this certain problem.
How's that for a Monday morning.
I get 4-5 hrs a night if lucky it's called kids deprived sleep it's a natural phenomenon known to many
If you ain't getting 8 hrs you don't need help
If you are only getting 2-3 hrs you need help
Walked through the door from Fulham about 1.15 Saturday morning and was woken at 5.30 by the kids. Same pretty much the Sunday and Monday. Knowing i'm getting woken early then leads to you getting anxious lying in bed if you don't go straight off as it becomes a mental game of 'come on, you need to get to sleep as you're waking up in x hours' which makes it worse.
Very rarely drink now as i feel most days like i used to with a hangover.
Hope you get sorted soon Dave
Between 1-3 hours on average every night and that's with one eye open lol
Seriously Dave if you are that run down and exhausted with that much sleep maybe lack of sleep isn't what's causing it, depression? Or anaemia? Other medical reasons maybe?
They seem to suggest that 8 hours is a total myth, that 4 hours plus anything over 100 minutes ( the time needed to go through all 4 stages of sleep) is enough.
Certainly when I learnt this a couple of years ago I stopped worrying if I woke up in the night. Instead I thought,ok this is normal and good then dropped back off to sleep after a little reading
I'm usually a just get on with it person but this is rediculous.
Long term problem that's harming working and social life.
It basically like people have said its an anxiety problem. The un-natural pressure to have sleep. Exhausted...but the core of the brain just isn't exhausted enough.
Ah well people have much worse problems in this world
Is there anything else that is affected in your life if you are struggling to sleep Dave21?
I hate calling sick so it's increasingly frustrating from that perspective too.
Sounds like you have the classic sleeplessness paradox, lying in bed worrying and losing sleep over not getting to sleep. Obvious question, have you talked about it with your GP ?
I have increased my use of the odd cup of tea over the weeks which might have more of an effect on me then most people.