What keeps you up at night?

brandondanieley
brandondanieley Posts: 14 Member
in Chit-Chat
Since I’m up late, I figured I’d see how many others have trouble resting and why?

For me it’s the inability to turn my mind off. I’ve made major changes in all areas of my life, nutrition, physical fitness and mental health care. Yet I still find my mind always going.. Constantly thinking about things I can’t change or minor things throughout my day. It’s a pain in the butt and it use to be a lot worse.

I hope as I continue my current path of healthier living, it will eventually be a thing of the past..
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Replies

  • ReenieHJ
    ReenieHJ Posts: 9,724 Member
    Stay the course, sounds like you're doing great!
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
    So many threads running now about sleep problems. Check them out because they give all the basic advice of things to try. My doctor told me to use melatonin about 10 years ago. For me it works very well. Most nights I sleep deeply unless I've got some stressor in the family.
  • Ketomoijo
    Ketomoijo Posts: 89 Member
    I’m the same, docs gave me antidepressants for neurological/ nerve pain and Ive found that helped to begin with, also writing things down like appointments and things I have to remember and sometimes what’s annoying me and on my mind that I can’t do anything about. Sort of offloads my mind a bit since I can’t talk to people about things 👍
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    I take 1000 mg magnesium citrate about an hour before I head to bed and that helps quite a bit. I also started reading in bed, and that seems to put me out along with the magnesium.
  • bacon_is_life
    bacon_is_life Posts: 1 Member
    I honestly can't remember the last time I slept through the night.

    My problem isn't with falling asleep, it's staying asleep that I struggle with. Tossing and turning has been my way of life for a very long time. One morning I would love to wake up feeling refreshed from a solid night's rest.

    Worried minds can't relax when their head hits the pillow. We often will turn to electronics, but that only stimulates the eyes and has the opposite effect.
  • OpheliaCooter
    OpheliaCooter Posts: 1,635 Member
    I’ve been waking up a lot lately, of course sometimes it’s because of the cats making noise or the gf coming to bed. I get bouts of insomnia if I’m stressed and won’t sleep guaranteed if I have some event to go to.
  • more_oomph
    more_oomph Posts: 112 Member
    My failures, trauma, and that godforsaken New York Jets football
  • bellababy9031
    bellababy9031 Posts: 287 Member
    "You know what keeps me up at night?....

    Nothing."

    Hank Voight, Chicago PD
  • KosmosKitten
    KosmosKitten Posts: 10,476 Member
    I mean, I have GAD (generalized anxiety disorder), which causes bouts of insomnia, resulting in an inability to navigate to sleepy town. It is compounded by overthinking, over-analyzing and otherwise thinking about the most ridiculously dumb stuff right before bedtime. Most of the time, it is not related to stress, although if I am stressing out about something coming up (like say, a doctor's appointment the next day), the anxiety I experience ends up keeping me awake anyway.

    The best way (for me) that I've found to circumnavigate this is to find white noise and 100% zone in and concentrate on the sound. It doesn't always work, but 85% of the time, it does. For me, that noise is a fan on my nightstand. For others, it might be a white noise machine, a CD of pleasant instrumental music or ASMR stuff.

    I also, as another poster mentioned, have issues STAYING asleep once I get there. My solution for this has been to a.) make sure my feet are covered (which means if I am cold, I wear socks to bed.. as weird as that might be for people). If I'm cold, I can't sleep. and b.) I wear ear plugs for nights where the sound of the fan is not overpowering enough with the other competing sounds in the house. The other sounds could be things like the cats doing their 3AM whirlwind tour of our three story townhouse or my husband's horrible snoring. Usually, the industrial quality earplugs I bought (in bulk) take care of this issue. Another issue is light: If I'm sleeping and there's an external light source somewhere, I can't sleep. So, I also have a sleep mask. I usually only wear this if I stayed up late and desire to sleep in on a weekend, am sick, or get afforded the opportunity to sleep in during a weekday (that never happens).

    It's just a bunch of tiny stuff I do so I can sleep. Because if I don't sleep, I'm a very grouchy, uncooperative person. And coffee (caffeine in general) does nothing to "pep" me up, so sleep is 100% important since I can't rely on any external supplements or tricks to help me navigate not getting enough of it.
  • britneyd109
    britneyd109 Posts: 331 Member
    I'm a night owl. I love being awake when the world is quiet and the house is quiet. I used to work nights because of this. I can go to bed at 3am and still wake up at 7am and function properly. When I do sleep I wake up on average 4 to 6 times during the night. Usually due to My partners snoring because I'm a light sleeper. I tried taking melatonin it helps me fall asleep but, gives me crazy dreams. Anyone else find that melatonin gives you weird dreams?
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
    britneyd109 wrote: »
    I'm a night owl. I love being awake when the world is quiet and the house is quiet. I used to work nights because of this. I can go to bed at 3am and still wake up at 7am and function properly. When I do sleep I wake up on average 4 to 6 times during the night. Usually due to My partners snoring because I'm a light sleeper. I tried taking melatonin it helps me fall asleep but, gives me crazy dreams. Anyone else find that melatonin gives you weird dreams?

    Melatonin (taking it for over 10 years now--doctor's orders) does not give me weird dreams, I have no dreams at all. That I remember, at least.
  • _QueenClean_
    _QueenClean_ Posts: 3 Member
    Hi all! Has it always been hard for you to sleep or did this change at some point in life (think hard)? When did restlessness start? Personal life, work, school, kids, husband, family, friends, association, volunteering, clubs, etc. Habits and routine changes are a big factor in feelings anxiety because it takes time to settle into those changes. How do you help aid the settling process? When do you have YOU time?

    Suggestion: Social media….turn it off 1 hr before bed. You’re going to feel like you’re having withdrawals the first couple of days, like an addict. But, be selfish for just 1 hr out of the day. We’re ALWAYS plugged in. Disconnect and focus on what you have absolute control over - you/your body. Add Chamomile tea w/honey, nighttime meditation (focus only on your breathing/your body/how you feel in those moments of meditation and nothing more) and literally speaking to your mind/body out loud til it begins to become habit denying the feelings that keeping you awake/making you feel this way. After a while - the body will align with your commands. It’s yours, you’re in control. It takes practice - 21 days to make/break a habit. I was a worry wart. I allowed my body to control me instead of the other way around. I’m a perfectionist at heart, tend to worry about the smallest details. Will my worry make it change? Whatever it is? No - actually, it makes it worse. Anxiety sets in, responses and or lack there of became the norm, fear of inadequacy loomed, etc.….all steaming from worry. You’ve made it this far in life/your journey - why are you so worried (in other words look at your accomplishments thus far - you’ve done great). Now, I still focus on the details with minimal time for worry – I no longer let it control me. I control my thoughts, my feelings and my responses to the details of whatever the situation is. When I feel a bout of worry coming on, I’ll take a mindful moment - breathe and recenter (encourage) myself, reminding me to take it day by day. I can’t control everything.

    Try a few if these suggestions listed. Melatonin on top of chamomile tea works wonders. And, when you feel yourself wanting to worry - just remember that is where your energy is going. Worrying never changes the situation, because if it did you wouldn’t be restless night after night. I hope this helps!
  • michael1976_ca
    michael1976_ca Posts: 3,488 Member
    I have a tooth that's looes so i can't sleep. I'm thinking of pulling it tomorrow. I need my sleep. That and my doctor changed my sleep meds
  • ReenieHJ
    ReenieHJ Posts: 9,724 Member
    Sometimes it's my dog, usually I have to get up a couple times a night anyways(part of getting older) but when I do wake up it's becoming much harder to fall back to sleep now. So I can toss and turn for 2 hours which is why if I lay down to read after supper, I'm out before the first chapter's done. Deep sleep, wth is that anyways??

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