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soul2share -> RE: Insomnia (4/4/2011 11:07:57 PM)
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I am an isomniac from before birth....really, my mother told me once that I was up all night and slept during the day. And that, in a nutshell, is my whole body clock. I will not work days if I don't have to. Fortunately for me, I work in a field that is 24/7/265/, and I'm a supervisor's dream because I WANT to work the midnight shift. I am no good on the uphill side of sunrise!
Melatonin works quite well for me, but I take the 3 mg pill, and usually about 3-5 of them. The only side effect I get is really, really, really wierd dreams...not nightmares, but some really strange stuff! I also added selenium, mainly because articles I've read say it's good for the thyroid, I'm hypo....and believe it or not, it has improved my sleep. I'm not necessarily getting MORE, but what I am getting is better sleep. When I"m really desperate, Ny-Quil is my sleep aid of choice, and I've actually had a doctor tell me to take Benedryl if I can't sleep. The only problem with using the two of them is it makes my legs twitchy. To the point of where I HAVE to get up and walk. And they leave me groggy if I have to get up before it's effects wear off.
I watch tv to get me started towards sleeping, and if I can get to bed before I totally wake up from the couch, I'm good. I also read. The key to bedtime is to have a ritual, so to speak. I don't do anything but read and sleep in my bed....sounds pathetic, going thru a dry spell.....but the "experts" advise that you do only sleeping in your bed. I listen to an Evening with John Denver in my cd player, and fall asleep to that....so much so that I had to take it off my mp3 player cuz I almost fell asleep at work once listening to it. I've played it so much that my body has adapted to it. And as far as tv goes, I have about a half dozen dvd's that I only use to sleep by....I can pretty much know where in the movie I'll finally drift off.
Everyone reacts to different things as far as sleep aids.....I got Rozerem once, a 30 day supply lasted me about 17 days....I doubled up on the 8mg dose, it didn't do a damn thing. I'm really leery of overdoing the drugs, both prescription or OTC. I got addicted to Ny-quil once and really don't want to have to restart my system. It took almost a week before I could even think about sleeping more than 2 hours a night. At least the melatonin is a naturally occuring substance in the body.
I so envy anyone who can get a good night's sleep.....I've never had one. I am so jealous of my cats....they just lay down next to me on the bed and in 2 minutes, they are out......how DO they do that?????
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