I’ve been having trouble sleeping. Not just lately either. In my adult life, I’ve struggled with sleep for about the last 10 years. Some nights are better than others, where I do sleep but wake frequently, whether it be to use the bathroom or to just turn over. Sometimes I go right back to sleep and other times it takes a while.
Then there are those nights when I can’t seem to fall asleep. My mind is racing with all kinds of important and unimportant thoughts.
I’ve been working on it. I am currently seeing a Dr. that leans towards the Holistic side, which is exactly what I am looking for. I try to stay with the natural remedies, but when I go two, three, four nights with little to no sleep, I always have my trusty Xanax. 🙂
I think part of it is noise. It used to be that I could not sleep without a white noise fan. A troublesome issue if you are traveling, as this means you must always bring your fan with you.
We started using the noisemaker when our daughters got into their late teens. Many nights they would be coming home much later than we went to bed, or they were up late watching TV in the living which was just below our bedroom. The white noise machine helped cut down on the noise, enabling us a better sleep.
When we had the freak snowstorm last October and lost power for a week, we had no white noise. We adjusted to life without it and haven’t been using it since.
I didn’t sleep well Sunday, which wasn’t surprising, since I don’t usually sleep well on Sunday nights. I think Monday morning and the work week weigh heavily on my mind on Sunday nights.
This past Monday it was incredibly hot and became necessary to turn the air conditioner on in the bedroom. Monday night I didn’t sleep very well. (I think it was the noise from the air conditioner and me not being use to it.)
Tuesday it was cool enough to sleep with the windows open, but we used the fan to cut down on the outside noise. This was more or less to keep a crazy chocolate lab from barking in the middle of the night. (It didn’t.)
Tuesday night I woke up a LOT. Every time I woke up there was someone else that woke up too. Someone who had their body pressed up against mine, who lifted their head, or shifted themselves to be closer to the Mama, encouraging physical contact.
Please pet me Mama, he seemed to say. And pet him I did. Over and over. Ear rubbies, head rubbies, belly rubbies; all night long I pet Sampson.
Hubby said when he got up to shower Wednesday morning he thought Sampson was going to lay on top of me, he was that close.
Mornings Delilah gets up and heads out to the kitchen with Hubby, because she knows when he has finished packing his lunch, he will give her a couple of carrots or biscuits.
Sometimes Sampson goes, sometimes he stays in bed with Mama for morning rubbies. Surprisingly enough, he stayed with me Wednesday morning, despite all the attention I had showered upon him during the night, he still wanted more. 🙂
Last night Hubby said he couldn’t sleep because Sampson was running against his back. He says Sampson must have run for miles in his sleep, all the while his feet against Hubby’s back.
I slept like I was getting paid to do it. (I had popped a Xanax.)
Do your pets ever keep you up because they want attention? What do you do when you cannot sleep?
Sent you an email –
when I can’t sleep I imagine I won the lottery and then I think about all the stuff I would do with the winnings. I get down to what kind of dishes I would buy, etc. And sometimes I concentrate on “nothing” . . . which takes a LOT of practice. And then when all else fails, I get up and go into the living room, sit on the recliner and watch tv or read.
xoxoxooxo
Recently I read that sleep isn’t always continuous. There’s a period of wakefulness in the sleep of many people. Unfortunately for me, I don’t always have alot of time to enjoy that second sleep.
Me and sleep, we got a love/hate thing going on…
I have always had trouble sleeping because I have Fibromyalgia. I’m usually up till 12 if not later. Once I’m out though, I’m out.
I have two cats that love to sleep with me. My husband has told me that Anibel sleeps right next to me and when I turn she turns with me. Mama sleeps at the foot of the bed.
I am so used to them being there it hasn’t bothered me. My problem is getting to sleep.
Never been much of a sleeper myself. Pups seem to do well with Miss Saide being the world’s best snorer. If they are in need, I usually get a snout in the face, a short whine, and maybe the bed nudged. It looks as if there may be a pattern here as all that have commented, as well as you, have some sort of ”little/lack/trouble” with sleep. Hhhmmmm….those that have difficulty sleeping start blogging. New research material for someone. : )
I say my prayers over and over again, and I fall right to sleep!
UGH, I am a terrible insomniac. In fact, I get most of my most productive blog writing done after Midnight. Then I cat nap for a few hours, get up write a bit more and then nap again.
My holistic doc turned me on to Melatonin which has been a God send. I actually sleep through the night. It’s awesome.
Sorry to hear about your sleep problem Jodi. I do not have any suggestions as none of us have that problem. We sleep like logs! Tall person even has a cup of coffee before bed and always falls asleep within a couple of minutes. But please don’t take that as a suggestion. I do hope you receive some helpful suggestions from blogging friends.
So two things, I am pretty darn sensitive to caffeine and though I don’t consume a lot of it silly normal amounts will sometimes keep me up. There is a powder product called “calm” that is basically a bunch of calcium magnesium that helps me stay asleep when I fall asleep… and use it if my brain is racing too. Might want to look it up.?
Secondly, I am not a heavy sleeper so my dogs are both crated at night to make sure I get sleep. To me it is not mean, because it is their routine and we all sleep better at night this way. If we all sleep better at night we will all be in better moods thus it is good all around. Sometimes if the Mr. is gone I will let Luna sleep in the bed, but usually I end up getting up and crating her cuz she is up and down too much. They get their cuddle time before bed, but it just doesn’t last all night. Just a thought, I know plenty that sleep with their dogs… for me it simply comes down to getting good solid sleep when I can.
Oh and the Mr. also needs to sleep with a fan on, when our last one died (in winter) he had about a 2 weeks of sleeping without one but has not looked back since we found another. It gets hard to fall asleep around here without one though as we have neighbors upstairs on hardwood floors (we are in basement) who walk all night, and 5 dogs who move around and come dashing through the door right when you are about to fall asleep. So the fan def. helps.
Good luck!
Anna
http://www.akginspiration.com
Some of what you described – waking up randomly in the night – kind of sounds like sleep apnea. I know you’re going the holistic route, but if you were to get a sleep test done, that might be the diagnosis. If it is that, waking up is caused by your body reacting to the fact that youv’e stopped breathing for a moment. My parents both have it, and wear a mask thing that prevents that moment of not breathing – it has helped enormously with their sleeping.
When I’m having trouble sleeping, I try warm milk or chamomile tea with a bit of honey. Another thing I find is that I sleep considerably better if I shut off technology at least 45 minutes before I go to bed. I read a few articles on the fact that tv/computer/ipad/phone lighting all stimulates your brain activity, and reduces the overall restfulness of your sleep – so that even if you get the same number of hours, you might not feel as rested as you would have if it had been those hours without the technology righ tbefore bed. I have trouble following this guideline, though – the tv, it calls to me in the evening, and all i want to do is curl up in front of it 😛 When I do just read a book or make my lunch for the last hour before bed, though, I really do find that I’m more rested.
I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night and can’t get back to sleep. The dogs sleep in their own room so they’re usually not responsible for waking me up for attention. I do sometimes beg attention from them though if I can’t sleep and invite them up on the couch for a snuggle as I try to turn my brain off and get back to it. I find having one of them curled up behind my knees is a great way to feel cozy, which is the first step to getting back to sleep.
I used to have major insomnia. My mind kept running and I slept at most two hours every night. I really don’t know how I did it. For whatever reason, I never took anything to help either. I wasn’t the happiest person back then.
And then I got this dog…
Our cat keeps my husband up a lot. He doesn’t bother me at all, though, just him. In this instance, I don’t mind not being his favourite.
One of my cats (Cinder) used to keep me up all night. ALL NIGHT. Just doing weird things like meowing in my face, pawing my chin, running over my head. It got so bad that we started locking both cats out of the room at night. But, I still don’t sleep well, even without the feline interuptus. 🙁
Hey, you would think your hubby would enjoy Sampson running along his back. Sounds like one of those expensive shiatzu massages!
Well now I remember why I don’t allow dogs in the bed. Of course the cat has free reign, but when she is an issue I kick her out. 🙂 Sorry about the sleepless nights. A friend at work has a similar problem and I always feel badly for her when she has a run of sleepless nights.
Somehow it seems that in the last coupole of years, waking up at 3:00 am has become the norm (ugh!). Cali has always slept in her own bed and never bothered us . . .MONKEY is the little cat that walks all over me and wakes me up every morning. I’ve heard that eating a tablespoon of peanut butter before you go to sleep will help keep your blood sugar even and you won’t wake up . ..it’s worth a try, right???