Staying asleep!

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!

Do you like in the South West of England?
Are you aged 65 or over?
Do you take medication for sleeping problems?

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR VIEWS AND EXPERIENCES!

Volunteers are invited to an interview regarding personal experiences with sleep medication, approved by The University of Bristol's Ethics Board.

If interested, please email Georgia on [email protected] or call 07753448779.

This study is confidential and all details will be held anonymously.

Woke at 2 ish, so stiff and in pain that I couldn't settle again. Tried walking around the bedrooms for a few minutes, that eased the stiffness and I got back to sleep quite quickly and didn't wake until 7.

I have the opposite problem. I've just slept for 30 out of 31 hours. The hour I didn't sleep was when my husband forced me awake to eat and drink. I've been up about 3 hours now and I'm beginning to feel sleep again.

Make the most of your extra hours. Enjoy them and let yourself nap if you find you need it. It's better than losing entire days.

Spent the night in a chair as my bad back won't allow me to find a comfortable position in bed. It's much easier and bearable sitting, standing and walking but makes sleeping even more of a problem than usual. I had a series of naps throughout the night but gave up trying and made some tea at 4.30 and read my book. Just hope it eases soon as I really need a decent kip!

I went to bed, and sleep on the dot of 10.00 yesterday. I was dead tired as we were out on Monday evening and didn't get home until nearly 1.00am. I slept like a log and then started to wake, as one does as after a good night's sleep. After half an hour, feeling awake and refreshed. I looked at the clock. It was 4.00am!

I retreated to the spare room with my radio and after half an hour or so was back to sleep.

Pompa Sympathies I woke up about an hour ago needing a pee and now can't get comfortable with my usual back ache. I must have dozed off lying flat and my back is complaining. So its waiting for the painkillers to kick in.
Its a B miserable time of morning and the kitchen fitter is due at 08:30 so no chance of a lie in.

Here we are again 4am and up watching TV.

Faye thank you for your advice and glad it worked so well for you ....yes, sugar, aspartame, ice cream, alcohol, magnesium, vit D, ferritin iron levels, low dopamine..... so many possibllities can be a trigger. I've had the RLS for 30 years at 24/7 level in both legs, both arms, and shoulders (it's not just a condition of the legs) and take specific medications. Insomnia in my case is now a medication side affect/habit/ a part of rls. The result of the treatment is cr*p but better than the symptoms of 24/7 rls.

Sorry, didn't mean to change the thread to rls.
Just to share one cause of insomnia and empathise with anyone who has continuing sleepless nights.

Coolgran and Tricia you might find it's processed sugar and/or chocolate. Mine was getting so bad and I stopped eating chocolate and within a few days it was gone. The other thing I was told is eat more food with magnesium.

I was reminded about my no chocolate rule the other day when after a really busy day out I ate four squares of chocolate.....urghhh, my legs.

Like jingl I find having a radio on very quietly, so that I can barely hear it gets me back to sleep, my mind is trying gently to listen and that seems to be enough. On a very bad night I sit in bed and read until I am falling asleep over my book.

I also move into another bedroom so that I am not worried about disturbing DH with my radio or bedside lamp. If that is not possible try earphones and a back-lit Kindle.

Restless legs - I've got that too, as you say Coolgran, it's a nightmare. It doesn't happen every night though.
There's a thread about it on here somewhere.

I've been managing to get to sleep in the evening again recently but keep waking up after a couple of hours and then being unable to get back to sleep again till about 6. I always used to wake up but go straight back to sleep. I hope this isn't the shape of things to come and is just temporary.

I suffer from insomnia and restless legs syndrome.
Tonight I've had my meds including a sleeping pill.
It's 3.30 am and I'm still awake sitting on the balcony of my hotel in Malta on holidays. This has been my pattern for 20 years. We need up at 6 to go on a special trip today and I don't want to spoil the planned outing.
Regardless legs is an utter nightmare ..... to ease the symptoms I need to walk...but I'm exhausted.

I fully sympathize with all other installers.

Gagagran I missed your post, I think we read the same link. I normally have two sleeps and enjoy being awake for a couple of hours if I know I am not having to get up early. A woman I was talking to recently said she always goes to bed at around midnight because otherwise she wakes up if she goes to bed too early. I didn't know until I read the link that it was normal.

thank you! that was interesting! the one theory i could come up with about waking earlier in winter was that you'd have needed to get the fire going again by that time.

so interesting to know this used to be our sleep pattern. definitely going to stress less and embrace it more.

i work from home and ds is home educated so it's not like we're slaves to anyone else's clock anymore.

I only read this the other day and thought you might find it interesting honey. Your ancestors didn't sleep like you.

i guess mumsnet is back up now. am i allowed to stay i wonder - have plenty of granny habits.

As I now tend to drink decaffeinated tea and coffee I've realised recently just how much caffeine affects my sleep pattern. One cup will keep me awake for hours. I tend to use it at times when I need to stay awake but it's a nuisance when I can't sleep and know I've gotto be up the next morning [which, thankfully isn't often these days].

Just woken from my after lunch nap, 1 x Downton Abbey plus 2 x Call the Midwife, long.

honey yes, as in napping.

My daughter is 36 and she calls her afternoon nap her "me time"

i had a nap!

had a large glass of wine and found some rubbish on tv and laid on the sofa and that was that! have woken up and had a cup of coffee and am hoping i will get a second wind and manage to stay up a bit later than usual.

have decided from all your comments that in reality i might as well embrace the early waking and train myself to have a nap in the afternoon and break my day into two.

i feel a bit disorientated but i reckon another cup of coffee and i'll be fine.

just a tad worried i'm turning into an old lady already

My husband sleeps badly but doesn't really want us to sleep in separate rooms. I don't sleep too well myself but he does disturb me by tossing and turning. The other night every time I nearly dropped off again he banged round the bed until finally he fell asleep and snored loudly. It's a wonder I didn't strangle him!

I used to have a Paul McKenna cd that I'd put on in the afternoon; I used to nod off and get about 15 minutes of sleep and that used to set me up for the rest of the day. Problem is the tape that really made me sleep was the 'stop smoking' one; I didn't actually fall asleep with the actual relaxation one.

OP are you my sister? My mother did the same thing with the Hoover.

oh god no baubles - i can remember the hell that was a hoover deliberately and agressively being bashed into my door at 7am on a saturday morning for no other purpose really than to establish i had no right to sleep or relax in my mother's house.

grannyknot - so the pencil trick was about napping then? as in it meant you got a quick one but didn't conk into deep sleep and not wake up?

in my last 'employee' job i had my own office and would turn off the lights and lay on the floor listening to a relaxation/guided meditation track each afternoon. maybe i need to instill that kind of routine into my life at home now i'm self employed.

i often just feel like modern life timetables don't work with my natural timetable if that makes sense. i want a few hours chilled quiet me time in the morning (so yes my early wake up helps there), then a few productive hours then ideally i'd have a napping/sexing(dream on)/slouching few hours before the next productive period before a lovely extended social period then sleeping again. there just aren't enough hours in the day for that though.