Saturday 9 July 2011

Better than never

I had to have an early night last night, so apologies if you were glaring glumly at the screen at midnight wondering where I was.  Bed by 10.30 didn't help me sleep, so I probably won't bother again, however.

In fact, I spent most of the night in the spare room.  The Sage gave the occasional little snore, so I left him to get on with it.  I know I have said it before, it's sad to say that I sleep better alone nowadays.  It's more than possible that he does too, he is certainly asleep still now, and it's after 8 o'clock.

Ro and I were talking about Google+ recently, and he sent me an invitation yesterday.  I suspect that Facebook will up its game in response - the thing is, you can choose how you categorise the people on it, so that they don't necessarily see everything you post.  This doesn't particularly matter for me, but there are those who come to regret being so outspoken.

The Sage has just come downstairs.  It seems that the day can begin.

12 comments:

Christopher said...

Good morning, Z. Just dropping by to see that all's well and if you need a couple of matches to prop your eyelids open I'll be happy to oblige.

Dave said...

I certainly sleep better on my own.

Z said...

Thank you, Chris. That would be useful.

I'm impressed that you have recent experience for comparison, Dave.

Dave said...

Least said...

Roses said...

I don't sleep alone.

I'm glad to say the Cat doesn't complain much about my snoring.

Gledwood said...

Here is an enormous rant I penned when I read about your sleeping in't other room. I hope it's not totally irrelevant..? Here goes!



I didn't sleep at all on Thursday night but it didn't bother me. I did websurfing galore!

I have had profound sleep difficulties going back to my late teens though I remember staying up all night not sleeping even in childhood (unfamiliar surroundings: camping holiday).

Insomnia used to drive me round the twist so badly that I used to dream about rugbyball-sized temazepam eggs ~ my own sleep medication ~ scattered in amongst some infinite lawn in the mists of dawn... a recurrent dream that surely signified my deep desire to SLEEP. Because I certainly was not abusing this medication.

Things changed completely when I found out about sleep hygeine. Only use your bed for sleeping and shagging. Don't WORRY about how little or how much sleep you get but by all means keep a sleep diary if you see fit... cut out ALL caffeine and if you cannot do this, drink none after about 4pm. Exercise. If you can't sleep don't lie about in bed feeling frustrated or glum; get up and do something and only go back to bed when you're tired. A red fireglow light in the bedroom definitely makes you feel drowsy. Works on me; other people have mentioned that too. A cold bedroom is much better than a hot one, so open those windows and snuggle under the covers. Taking a hot bath raises the core body temp; as it falls, so you fall asleep. And however many (or few) hours you sleep you're supposed to rise at the same hour each day. Our body clocks are supposedly set by getting up time, not bedtime. Hence that phenomenon when you're up like a lark at 7am Sunday morning because your body's para that you'll be late for work!

This is the sum total of my anti-insomnia advice from one who has suffered from it for over 20 years. Sometimes despite all this I simply cannot sleep. Eg when I'm hyped up I close my eyes and literally see moving pictures (bizarre ones ~ eg golden retrievers dressed in business suits sawing down trees) brightly lit and clear as day. It's VERY hard to sleep when your brain is this active (it only happens this way when I'm clinically manic). Zopiclone 7.5 is a wonderful sleeping pill. Unlike the benzodiazepine type you don't end up watching nighttime teleision feeling rubbery. Your eyes go heavy-lidded. You go to bed. And you sleep. And it's relatively non-habit-forming.

As I say, the night before last I didn't sleep a single wink because I was too manic again. The next day I was hyped up enough that I VERY nearly walked out of a petshop with a little bird that was the spitting image of an anorexic robin in tow. The man had told me it sang beautifully and all I could think was how this little birdie would make my life complete. I have to be careful. If you seriously can't sleep zopiclone is by far the best pill I know of. Speaking with the problems you know I have I'd say it has very low abuse potential so don't worry about getting hooked. Nytol (the proper chemical version, not the herbal one) is far better than nothing and that IS nonaddictive. Relaxation exercises can work wonders, if you're open to that type of thing.

If you give me your email I'll send you a complete guide to Sucking Eggs on PDF! Seriously though I hope by some chance... maybe?... something I said was helpful?... I hope so. But I hope more that you get a decent night's sleep tonight. Not sleeping is the pits.

Z said...

The main problem at this time of year is that it's too warm. I sleep better in the winter. And sleeping and shagging, true too. We don't have a tv in the bedroom, I do read but that's part of unwinding. I usually go to bed very late because that's my best chance of a good night. Thanks, Gledwood, I'll look at your blog and find your email (although actually, you can get mine by clicking on my profile).

Z said...

Oh, I've tried caffeine/no caffeine and it doesn't seem to make any difference. Winding down at the end of the day helps far more.

Gledwood said...

The summer/winter thing makes perfect sense. As well as there being more daylight keeping us all awake in summer there's the heat issue. Try sleeping with no sheets whatsoever in nothing but a thin nightie or nothing at all... you could try directing a fan on you as you sleep..?

That red light thing is scientific proof. It cropped up again when I was googling my sunglasses (I just bought a pair of prescription sunshades). They said blue light causes eye damage and I've heard before that blue light wakes you up. Artificial light and firelight of course is very orangey whereas sunlight contains far more blue. To get round this you can either wear brown sunglasses, or you could try that fireglow lightbulb trick. I used one because my hammies couldn't see under red light (it's darkness to them) so I could observe them pinging full-on. Occasionally one would dash into my hand and look very shocked indeed which was most entertaininng. So anyway, it's not that red light makes you drowsy as such, but it does "fail to wake you up"... if it works on me with my problems it might well work on you so it's well worth trying. And as I say, the sunglasses would make a viable second choice. Intuition tells me red light's probably better. My Nanna always had a red light in her spare room; I never had any difficulty sleeping there. Just thinking back to that makes me feel drowsy!

Z said...

I do just have a sheet, but I wake up feeling chilly so pull the bedclothes up, then I wake up later feeling hot...and then the Sage and I wake each other every time we move! I've not heard about the red light thing before, that's interesting.
I once tried a herb pillow, with hops and lavender and so on, that was supposed to help sleep, but I found the smell very stimulating and couldn't sleep at all.
I do catch up with sleep every few nights though, it's not that I'm exhausted all the time.

Gledwood said...

I've tried lavender but it's probably one of those "one thing among many" rather than a single factor... otherwise you'd have people passing out left right and centre in aromatherapy shops!

O shit I came to give my email which I'm going to have to delete from sheer paranoia it is:~~~~~~~~

Gledwood said...
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