DISCLAIMER: Not much sleep. No coffee (yet). No editing. Read at your own risk. =)
Does anyone else ever find their thoughts so interesting that they're unable to sleep? Because that seems to be the new trend for me.
It's not that I find adding our bills up in my head exciting, or that I'm enthralled by my cabinet that needs cleaning and organizing. It's just that one thought leads to another, and before I know it, I've been lying in bed for two hours, definitely not sleeping.
Take last night, for instance. It was 11:00. I was sitting with Justin on our extremely comfy couch (it's way better than our bed, seriously), waiting for him to finish up some work on the computer so we could go to bed. I was really sleepy at that point - but then we went to bed, and I lay there for ages, not really thinking about much but being awake nonetheless.
Whenever I get that heavy, "I'm about to fall asleep" feeling, I suddenly have a thought that's interesting enough to keep me awake. It's kinda frustrating, I'm not going to lie.
Justin has the same problem, except that instead of staying awake for just a couple hours, he'll stay up all night. Last night, he brought me an apple and some water when I was having trouble sleeping (how nice, and it did actually help - weird? any possible reasons why?). He then proceeded to stay up until 6am playing video games, reading Wikipedia articles, and working.
Unfortunately, he was definitely tired. We both complained all day long yesterday about how exhausted we were and that we couldn't wait to get to bed.
(Also unfortunately, Justin won't drink coffee. I, on the other hand, have this totally amazing coffee creamer I found at WalMart which I'm sure is terrible for me, but sleeping all day is definitely worse, so I'm content.)
I know that at least part of the problem is that our bed is truly terrible. You have to sleep a certain way or else you can feel all the springs jabbing you. It's also kind of saggy in the middle (and yes, I do turn it regularly). I'm sure our pillows don't help, either - most of them are (lots of) years old. We sleep with the window open and a fan running, so there's a little noise from outside, but less than if we had the window closed and the fan off.
We limit caffeine intake to tea and don't really have much of that after dinner time.
Also, Benny likes to run around and jump on everything - the furniture, us, doors, and imaginary ghosties. It's quite noisy. He usually settles down around 2am.
So, all that to ask:
Do you have any cures for insomnia (or at least something that might help)?
Aside from a shot of hooch to push you over the sleepy edge and let your natural inclination to sleep take over, one of the things I've noticed in myself is that I lost sleep when I'm stressed about something. You two probably have plenty to be concerned about just now. I can often distract myself from those exciting or stressful thoughts by reading a book from my "to be read" stack. Becoming physically tired, not just from normal daily activity, but from some sort of physical exertion, seems to help. Maybe you want to go walking or biking more or spend more time with the jump rope in the evening? A third thing that helps a lot of people is to have a very standard, routine, evening and morning pattern. You spend some time near the end of the day always doing the same things, then go to bed at the same time each night, getting up at the same time in the morning, even if you don't have a fixed appointment you have to get to.
ReplyDeleteBenadryl.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, that'll make you sleepy, and it's cheap, and if you have allergies, it'll help that too. You can get 100 capsules for under $4 at Walmart.
We had an awful bed too when we first got married. A good mattress really helps, so when you start getting paid a decent amount again, save up for a new one. You won't be sorry.
I often have interesting thoughts that keep me awake and keep me from falling asleep just at the point I'm about to. That's where Benadryl comes in especially handy. That old wives' tale about warm milk apparently is true. You might try that. And if you're having trouble sleeping, get up for a little while. That usually helps me. And if you feel yourself heading toward that heavy sleepy feeling, get thee up and to bed. I've done that very thing~~not gone to bed when I'm very sleepy and then I can't get to sleep just a little later when I'm in bed.
Hope something helps soon!
Keep a notebook next to the bed and write down all the interesting thoughts and turn them into a novel. (That'll get them out of the way, and you'll have something to make you want to sleep, since most characters have a bad habit of sending the writer beserk, and sleeping is what shuts them up.)
ReplyDeleteYou could always not drink caffeine after 3:00. Or clunk each other over the head with frying pans so that you sleep.
I like the frying pan idea.
ReplyDeleteI also suffer on occasion from insomnia, actually, and what works for me is to just work it out...seriously, if the cluttered cabinet is bothering you, go declutter it, and about halfway through, you'll be tired...so then you can finish it in the morning. It gets the thought out of your head, takes up space so no new ones crop up, and makes use of the time you were just going to lie there and steep.
ReplyDelete