August 12, 2013

More insomnia

I've had several more bouts of insomnia lately. Even Rik joined me in not being able to sleep one night last week!

I can't figure out why this is still happening. I weaned myself off nightly Ativan at least two weeks ago, but when I get into bed I find I cannot fall asleep. And when I finally do fall sleep, usually around 2 or 3 AM, it's patchy -- I awake frequently -- and I hardly ever feel rested. So I stay in bed until 10 AM when I tell myself I really need to get up.

I may have developed a very short window after getting into bed when I can fall asleep easily. But if Rik coughs, or I turn over, or someone says something, sleep ends for me until the middle of the night.

Last Friday night it also didn't help that some young men were standing in front of our neighbor's house (across the street) talking and carrying on until almost 3 AM when a thunderstorm and rain finally drove them away.

I try not to nap during the day so that I hopefully can sleep at night. I am open to trying new techniques to deal with insomnia. I already practice yoga breathing and counting backwards from 100. I really prefer not to get out of bed in the middle of the night.

4 comments:

  1. Kathleen Daley5:43 PM

    Are you still taking the Aromasin? After a few months on it, I started getting progressively worse insomnia, and was worried about getting addicted to the Xanax and Sonata I was taking to get some sleep. Like you, the sleep I could get without taking other drugs was just not restful. I ended up for other reasons going off the Aromasin, and the insomnia cleared up within a few weeks. I found out later that insomnia was a common side-effect.

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  2. I have occasional phases of insomnia that will last maybe a week at a time. Some herbal remedies from PCC have helped, as has an app that plays ambient sounds. There are several available; mine is Alarm CSSP, and it has a variety of sounds to choose from (I like the ocean, but the kitten purring is also nice!). I also find that the more I use the app, the faster I fall asleep to it -- it's like practicing. Not sure if it'll help, but give it a shot!

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  3. I have terrible insomnia, and was taking 20mg of Ambien per night for years until that did not work either. My primary put me on Trazadone nightly... and it is a godsend. It doesn't "put me to sleep" it just allows it. I'm not sure if this is something you can take, or would even work, but thought I would offer the suggestion.

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  4. bjohanna9:24 AM

    When I'm organized enough, I take Alprazolam one hour before I want to fall asleep and then a Trazadone one-half hour after that. The nice thing about Trazadone is that it is not addictive and you can decide how much you want to take (1/2 tab, full tab, 1 1/2 tab). The Alprazolam lets me not worry about falling asleep and the Trazadone lets me continue sleeping.
    Someplace in my house is the definitive handbook on homeopathic treatments. I'll step up my efforts to find it.

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