Insomnia Support Group
Insomnia is a symptom, rather than a disease, and is characterized by inadequate quantity or quality of sleep. People with insomnia complain of difficulty falling or staying asleep, which results in significant impairment of daytime functioning. Insomnia is categorized as transient (shorter than one week), short-term (one to three weeks) or chronic (longer than three...
Hi, my name's Gina and I am beginning to feel like a real weirdo. All my life I've fallen asleep soon after my head hit the pillow. Now I have to wait till the sun comes up half the time, keep taking more pills, and sometimes even that doesn't work. I also use sleep meditations; they do help if I'm not too energetic..
I have chronic illness and I'm told that sleep cycles get disturbed, or even upside-down, with people who are ill or depressed. I am depressed -- about being ill. I don't have many commitments, I've been dropping them, as I never know when I'll get up, partially. The big one is that I'm not giving my dog enough exercise which causes huge guilt also I get so lonely in the wee hours.
I've always been a fun and active person. This is so hard. I wish I could have someone over right now! We could talk, watch a movie, play scrabble, whatever. Just sad and lonely.
WEll I'll leave it at that for now. Any ideas for sleep will be welcomed. Thanks for reading this, Gina
I have chronic illness and I'm told that sleep cycles get disturbed, or even upside-down, with people who are ill or depressed. I am depressed -- about being ill. I don't have many commitments, I've been dropping them, as I never know when I'll get up, partially. The big one is that I'm not giving my dog enough exercise which causes huge guilt also I get so lonely in the wee hours.
I've always been a fun and active person. This is so hard. I wish I could have someone over right now! We could talk, watch a movie, play scrabble, whatever. Just sad and lonely.
WEll I'll leave it at that for now. Any ideas for sleep will be welcomed. Thanks for reading this, Gina
I have to be brutally honest. Ideas don't work for insomniac. Every sufferer of sleep needs a solution. Before that, you must know what is the problem. I always ask "what is wrong with me"?
I guess the chronic illness is the cause of your sleep problem, or maybe there are other reasons.
You must identify the top 3 reason that makes you a sleepless person, then you can attack it with the right solution or you will get nowhere by many ideas flowing here and there.
many insomniacs gets overwhelmed by 1000 ways to go to sleep and ends up "still awake in the night".
negative emotions are unavoidable for now. you can;t stop feeling sad or lonely or whatever. If I tell you "Gina, don't worried too much", that is useless. you will become sadder...
the only solution now is, to find out what is disturbing your sleep, then take the right action. many suggestion may come out here, so please let us know more.
Things are not that bad as you think. Sometimes insomnia is just giving us a signal...wanting to tell us something goes wrong...you gotta fix it or do something to improve .
Sounds like you've hit the nail on the head with your comment about depression contributing to your insomnia. It most certainly can and will.
And if you're stressed and worn down by dealing with a chronic, long term illness of some sort, depression is understandable.
My suggestion would be to get some counseling. There's no doubt some parts of y our life that you can enjoy, maybe it's the beauty of outdoor Colorado, or just the simplicity of nature. Reframing and refocusing on what you've got instead of what you don't got might help. And a counselor will listen, understand, and offer suggestions for your unique situation.
The other thing you can be doing is all the helpful sleep hygiene kinds of things. Consistent sleep schedule, avoid caffeine later in the day, exercise to your ability, limit day time napping, keep yourself stimulated mentally and supported socially. Etc.
Keep us posted on how you're doing.