Insomnia

[stephenj]

In the last 7 days i have had less then 20 hours of sleep .today is going on my third day with zero sleep .
I had to call off work .. i am way past the point of being safe to drive a truck .
I am extremely agitated and stressed out from the lack of sleep .my blood pressure is aproaching the stratosphere . And i am not real far from calling the dr and asking for valium ... it doesnt help me to sleep but at least it relaxes me .
As a life long sufferer there are very few i would wish this on .
I havent yet reached the point where i would sell a gun to buy some sleep .. but i am not far from it

[9w1911]

Too bad you dont live in Ca. When you are desperate you will try anything right? Most on this board I assume are anti, but medical grade cannabis candy or tea would work. It beats a bottle of pills.

(I have a close friend who is running a study, he has had remission, 100% remission in 4 patients, cannabanoids(sp?not sure) prevent tumors from feeding. It is actually mind blowing. )

*I do all his graphic design and web work , so back off :P|

[dilly]

Have you tried some hard physical labor or exercise? That may help a bit.

[snuffy]

I know just what you mean, there's very few things you'd rule out doing to get to sleep. I've never been able to get to sleep easily. I mentioned this to a friend, he's in the same boat.. He gave me a couple on Ambien pills. He's on them almost constantly. What a miracle! For two nights I slept like a log. I asked for and got a prescription for them through the VA , called Zilpidem,(generic Ambien ). I don't need them every night, sometimes I can get to sleep naturally.

Before that I got some stuff,(OTC), called Alteril . It's a combination of three natural sleep aids, melatonin, L-triptophan, and Glycine. It works, but is slow, may take an hour to get to sleep.

Since I'm an insulin dependent #2 diabetic, along with heart and other stuff, I take a lot of drugs. I think that causes issues with sleep. Also I'm retired and some days I do nothing physical to get really tired.

Sometimes the wrong bed can be the reason. The head of the bed should be at least 4" higher than the foot. More than that for some people.

[Pb2au]

St. John's Wort.
Start a regimen now. It will take about 3-4 days for the supplement to settle into your system. All natural, no dreadful mornings.
In the evening, take two Valerian supplements about a half hour before you retire for the evening. Valerian root is a natural muscle relaxer. Again, no horrible morning after.
Typically, the St. john's wort will help keep you asleep. It more or less evens you out and settles your mind.
Valerian root helps settle you into sleep. Also excellent if you sprain or pull a muscle.
I work around heavy equipment and cannot risk any prescription sleep aids. I like my fingers and toes too much.

While you are at it, research on the interwebz "sleep hygiene." It will help you curtail any bad habits before you go to bed that can trigger insomnia.

As others said, sometimes a rigorous bout of back breaking work that leaves you worn out will help reset your system. Do not drink a bunch of hooch. That does not help in the least.

Long time insomniac here.......

[lavenatti]

A drink or two does the trick for me. Not more than that though, it'll make it harder to get up in the morning.

[crowbuster]

Wife has some stuff called calm. All natural. Helps leg cramps to. Also straight meletonin pills work well. Good luck. Be carefull if you go the ambien route, seen people do weird and dangerous things while on that and have no memory of it at all.

[MaryB]

I have been looking into the various sleep aids, chronic pain can keep me up all night, I have gone 7 days on 3 hours sleep and most of that was dozing in my chair. Pain meds used to zonk me out but I have built up a tolerance and have actually cut way back on them. Why waste money/kill my liver if they don't work.

I have heard bad stuff about ambien too, sleepwalking and not remembering, people actually getting hurt because of that. Minnesota just passed a medical pot bill, waiting to see if they try to tie any gun restrictions into it and for them to add chronic pain as a diagnosis.

[waksupi]

St. John's wort is actually better to use for mild depression. It is a sleep aid, but can make you light sensitive.
If I have trouble sleeping, I take a black cohosh as a muscle relaxer, and a couple valarians. Works well for me.

[GoodOlBoy]

+1 on the Valerian root. Just be cautious what you are taking it with. It is not LIKELY that you will combine too much Valerian root and other muscle relaxers, but if you do it is very bad. Valerian root is available at almost every herb shop and health food store. Also remember Benadryl. Don't combine it with Valerian root, but when I didn't have root, and I had Benadryl.... well two Benadryl work pretty well for me.

9w1911 I know that you can probably pretty safely assume that much of a board as conservative as shooters and casters would be anti on the cannabis front. But not all of us are. I can tell you this much I learned awhile back. I would rather deal with a busload of potheads all at one time, than to deal with a single angry drunk.

GoodOlBoy

[Just Duke]

In the last 7 days i have had less then 20 hours of sleep .today is going on my third day with zero sleep .
I had to call off work .. i am way past the point of being safe to drive a truck .
I am extremely agitated and stressed out from the lack of sleep .my blood pressure is aproaching the stratosphere . And i am not real far from calling the dr and asking for valium ... it doesnt help me to sleep but at least it relaxes me .
As a life long sufferer there are very few i would wish this on .
I havent yet reached the point where i would sell a gun to buy some sleep .. but i am not far from it


Sleep is for mortals. Call me some time and I'll bore you to sleep with my life story.

[Beagle333]

What is this "sleep" of which you speak? :confused: How does one achieve it?

[Just Duke]

What is this "sleep" of which you speak? :confused: How does one achieve it?


It only comes to young single guys with a new girl friend. Not old guys like me burdened with the old ball and chain. :violin:

[stephenj]

I think i have tried just about every trick or remedy over the years when i get like this .
None of it works .
For me the insomnia comes in cycles .. my sleep patterns get steadily shorter over about two months untill i reach the point where sleep becomes impossible no matter how tired i become at this point my only option is to just suffer threw it and snatch what sleep i can .

Unfortunatly i also become a very poor person to be around due to the stress and agitation
For tue most part i try to just turn the phone off and stay at home and not inflict my poor attitude on others .

Ive been to a few differant dr's and three sleep studies over the years at well .. most just throw a prescription at you and say theres not much to do about it except suffer .
The sleeping aids and other drugs do not work for me .. mostly just turn me into a zombie for 12-15 hours so i dont even bother with them
Once or twice a year i do ask my regular doc for a valium script .. it will knock me out if i take enough.
But i mosly i will ask because it cures the being agitated constantly and it lets me relax .

Nearly two hours of sleep last night ... that helped some

[doc1876]

St. John's Wort has side affects, be cautious with it, High Blood pressure can cause it to do things. I also recommend the black cohosh, and Valerian, but be careful with the Valerian as stated previously. Too many can cause an overdose, two should be more than enough.

[shooter93]

Black Cohosh shouldn't be taken while taking any drug that can damage your liver......this includes Tylenol and the like. Just a note of caution.

[1911cherry]

Valerian root extract will help you get some z's, all natural give it a try.

[Polecat]

About 2 shots of Everclear and you will sleep like a baby.

[leeggen]

Stevenj, I suffer from insomnia also. The Dr. has now prescribed Ambeint CR. I can get about 5 hr sleep every nite. Boy what a relief. You might just want to see if he can help. It will bring BP down some by just you getting you some rest from the script.
Good luck,
CD

[zardoz]

Everyone's different for sure, and bad sleep has been plaguing me for quite a few years now.

I now take a combination of things.

Like suggested above, valerian root extract. I also take Passion Flower extract as well. A full dropper full of each a couple hours before bedtime.

The blood pressure can get high during times of high stress. I have a prescription for Toprol, and I sometimes take it right before bed. It is a beta blocker, and will knock down blood pressure quite well. It leaves me feeling flat the next day, but far better than that "irritable zombie" feeling of not one wink of sleep.

On alternating nights, I take either L-tryptophan capsules, or 5-HTP capsules. Both do pretty much the same thing, in raising serotonin levels in the brain (so they say). All I know is that they make me sleepy.

Also for blood pressure, I take a about 500 mg of potassium gluconate before bed. Sodium (table salt) tends to raise the blood pressure, and potassium tends to lower it.

I also have a prescription for flexeril, at low dose 5mg it helps a lot with sleep. That low a dose does not leave me feeling groggy at all in the morning.

I used to take melatonin and either Benadryl or doxylamine succinate (both sleep inducing antihistamines), but not lately. I find I have to rotate things around a bit, as one thing does not work so good after a while of regular use.

Sometimes, and I found this quite by accident, being overly acidic will result in thrashing about at night. I got a product called "Alka Max", which is a powder stirred into water. It is potassium bicarbonate based (rather than sodium bicarbonate or baking soda based. Many times, that will let me go quickly asleep if acidosis is the problem.

After years of trying this and that, in various combinations, I have a bit of a system now, and it works most of the time.

Just some suggestions for you to try. I sympathize with your plight.

[iomskp]

Hello Brother Insomniac
Like you I have suffered all my life and still do from time to time, I have tried every cure that has been suggested and the only thing that has WORKED FOR ME is a complete diet change, no alcohol, no caffeine, I cut back on all sugar drinks and read all the small print on every thing you buy to avoid artificial colourings and flavourings.

People tell me I won't live forever, it will just fell like it.

Regards Trevor

[Mumblypeg]

And on that note.... I'm going to bed......nite.