What type of insomniac are you?

I'll keep my festive fingers crossed as well, 23! I've found that resting my aching leg on my toscana sheepskin has helped. It soon holds the warmth. Makes me think sleeping in a cave or an igloo on animal furs wouldn't have been so bad. Cold getting up of a night wee though!
<wonders how Eskimos managed that>

Definately a radio gaga. Of course some mornings the world service is replaced by schools programmes, so on my head I am running around like the north wind or some such. I find some programmes extraordinarily interesting but not interesting enough to remember them the following morning.
When I was working I certainly used to worry that I wasn't able to sleep but now it really doesn't matter. My biggest worry now is 'am a going to get a lane to myself when I go for a swim' but swimming issues would take a whole thread itself

If I wake up in the middle of the night I use my iPad or watch television and usually fall back to sleep. I appreciate having my bed to myself and no old Git snoring next to me shudder.

I am another one who drops off (usually fairly quickly) after reading for a while, but then wakes at about 2/3pm. I then toss and turn continually for the rest of the night, my brain rushing from one daft subject to another - until dropping off again, and dreaming heavily, at about 6.30pm.

I am sure a lot of our sleep problems have been brought on by our lives. Firstly children, and always having to have one ear on alert (one daughter was asthmatic in her teems which didn't help), and then the menopause and hot flushes, and then often by our partners and their heavy snoring - which seems to be very common. Many years ago my OH and I started sleeping in separate bedrooms, which has certainly helped as I am sure that part of my problem is that for so long I just couldn't sleep due to his continuous thunderous snores right next to me. There were times I seriously wanted to put a pillow over his head! Actually I have discovered that a large number of our age group do sleep in separate bedrooms to their partners - it used to be rather a taboo subject but once someone mentions it, it is surprising how many other women then hold their hands up and say they do too. As a famous actress once said: "Sex and sleep don't automatically go together - to have one it is necessary to have the other!"

I think that about sums it up susie. Throw in a few adult children with their ups and downs. I can successfully not worry about them in the day. But that does not mean my subconscious mind can be similarly beaten down.
My DS1 is setting off next week to drive from Sydney to Perth, on his own, towing the family's belongings. When they get there they have to sort out a house to rent and a job for him. La la la. I'm fine, la la la. But I will be finer once they are settled.

This insomniac has to get up early tomorrow as I'm working in welsh Wales!

DH is asleep before his head hits the pillow and shortly afterwards snores so loudly that the windows rattle!!! When I complained about the snoring, he said "well, go to sleep and then you won't hear me". If only......................!

What kind of insomniac am I? The kind who is awake at 3.45 in the morning posting on Gransnet.

Do you really worry that your grown up son cannot cope with something he has undertaken to do, jess?

Gosh.

it sounds like a momentous journey, Jess. Sydney to Perth is a huge distance and it does seem that they are taking a leap in the dark. Good luck to them.

Good luck to them indeed, but I expect they've thought it through and taken the necessary precautions and put some effort into working out what to expect. I would. Wouldn't you?

Just giving grown up people some credit for a bit of sense is all.

Bags, why get heavy with Jess because of what her subconscious comes up with? I'm quite sure that she knows, in the clear light of day, that what you say is right. But we are not responsible for the things that our subconscious minds throw up in the middle of the night.

Sorry. I thought it was her conscious mind doing the worrying.

When she's awake in the night. We are talking about insomnia, aren't we? That is, being awake.

But seriously, it sounds like a great adventure. I hope it works out splendidly.

I suppose I'm trying to zap out some positive thinking on the airwaves.

Fail

Yup, bags dismally. You do always give the impression that your kids have never really given you much to worry about. No drugs. No dropping out of education. No problems with the police. No major financial problems. No major health problems. Am I wrong or did I perhaps miss something?
And then you bloody lecture the rest of us about how to cope!
Yes it is my subconscious when I find myself half awake thinking about something that, when fully awake, I can usually choose not to think about.
Or worry about whether they will be able to find somewhere to rent over the xmas period (they have a house sit for 3 weeks) . Or whether he will be able to get a job.
And yes it is a big adventure and he is an excellent planner and a very competent adult.
And yes I have had epic amounts of practice at not worrying and am pretty bloody good at it. But there is still a bit of me that has protective feelings towards my grown up kids.
OK rant over.

I've found with my son that it's best that I don't know what he's doing and find out about it afterwards. When he went on a short holiday to America couple of years back his, then girlfriend told me they were planing to skydive. I could have done without knowing that. As it happens, they didn't anyway,

Jess - as mothers we always worry about our children, no matter how old they are so you are in good company here. I'm sure your son is a competent young man and I hope good luck comes his way soon

Too right, york46 - I find it hard to understand how any mother (parent?) can just stop worrying about their children once they've grown up and moved away from the family home. They may no longer be our official responsibility but we continue to care about their wellbeing, and sometimes 'worrying' does come into it!

Tonight I'm soooo tired I really hope I'm going to sleep. Only 3 hours last night, no reason, just couldn't sleep!

Tonight!
May God grant us a peaceful and tranquil night.

Good night, sleep peacefully

Hope you slept well, jeni. Lovely this morning.

jess, I'm sorry the relaxation techniques you have, ahem, 'lectured' us about, do not seem to have worked for you. I wish you joy of your matronising.

Thank you york and ana I find it hard to know how a parent can truly and completely stop worrying in some corner of their mind. Maybe a year or two of meditation in a Buddhist monastery would do the trick.
Crimson I thought like that until one of mine got cancer and thought he could beat it without conventional medical treatment. And didn't tell me. Since then I think I would rather know. Certainly if it is something I might have an influence over.
Bags it would be nice if you would start being a bit more understanding when people are upset and when you have upset people. I am pretty thick skinned and consider myself a very strong person. But only strong because of the things I have been through and the learning that has resulted. And each time I feel challenged the other times are there with me. It is like walking up to a pit of demons. I have learned to walk away from the edge and not get pulled in. But they are all still down there calling with their siren song.
You seem to have a different type of strength - but everyone is not lucky enough to have natural emotional resilience. Please be gentle with us.

It doesn't seem to occur to you, jess, that you might have upset me too! My 'lecturing' as you call it was meant to be bracing rather than upsetting. If you find it upsetting that is a shame and I'm sorry for that, but it is not my fault that you interpret things as you do. You clearly have not read much of what I've written on here if you think me an unsympathetic person.

How do you think I acquired what you perceive as my "natural emotional resilience"? Just because I haven't told of the harder parts of my life on GN doesn't mean I haven't had them (may still be having them for all you know). However, I don't wish to play the emotional card. My points on this thread are to do with clear thinking as a way of dealing with pointless worry, and my last ones perhaps need a bit more explanation.

I'll put myself in your son's shoes (actually, I have been in a similar situation more than once). If I, as a recognised "competent adult" and "good planner" was about to embark on a life adventure such as you describe and a man – any man, including my husband or father – "la la la'd" about it, I would think their attitude patronising. Why is it different if a mother does that? I don't think it is. That's just my view and I'm allowed to express it.