Insomnia

[Gemonimo]

Can anyone suggest  a remedy for insomnia which doesn't include chemicals.

[NormanH]

Strange as it may seem I have found recently that avoiding alcohol helps sleep, rather than hindering it as I had expected.

[Sunday Driver]

Try here:

http://www.insomniacs.co.uk/

 

 

[Gemonimo]

Thanks, Norman for your advice.  Tempted though I have been, I only have one G&T at 6.00 so perhaps I'd better cut it out.  Your link SD in most comprehensive and I'll be working my way through it.  I did think playing the Labour Party conference on a loop might be a good idea..... bore myself to sleep. 

[Chancer]

Very physical hard work or sport.

Reduction or abstinence of alcohol also helps.

Oh and a worry free life!

[5-element]

[quote user="Chancer"]

Very physical hard work or sport.

Reduction or abstinence of alcohol also helps.

Oh and a worry free life!

[/quote]

As an long-term insomniac, I agree with you Chancer. With the proviso that the hard work and the sport should best be done in the morning, or it might perk you up too much later in the day. (I used to have  sleepless nights after some very relaxing yoga sessions in the evening....relaxed too much there, and felt energised after, and wide awake for hours). Spending the day outdoors doing heavy work is very good if you can do it.

Alcohol only helps in the short-term. If it knocks you out the first part of the night, it doesn't give refreshing sleep, and over the long term, messes up your liver which will make you even more wakeful. Besides, who wants to wake up every day with a mouth like a camel's bum, and a headache and hangover?

Worry-free life. Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhh.....wouldn't that be nice?

[Gemonimo]

Perhaps the raking of the leaves, cutting the grass/weeds will take care of the 'exercise' angle, but a worry-free life?  In my dreams!!!

[5-element]

What dreams?

Catch 22![:D]

[Clair]

I did a bout of night-shift work for a short while a year ago and suffered from insomnia for months afterwards.

My remedy was not to fight it.

If I couldn't get to sleep or go back to sleep, I would get up, get dressed again and do something.

I baked bread and cakes in the middle of the night, I surfed online, I read, I watched DVDs and made a deliberate decision not to sleep during the day and go to bed as normal.

[Judith]

The only time I managed to sleep like a log was when I was packing up to come out here last year.  By the end I was working physically packing boxes from about 8.30am to midnight (with sensible breaks for eating, cuppas etc).  I would then drop into bed exhausted and sleep soundly from midnight until about 6 - 6.30, get up, have a breakfast watching breakfast news (miss that now I must admit), and then get on again. 

Unfortunately, it didn't last.  I am of Clair's opinion.  If you can (ie are alone) get up, read etc, and soon you will find that you fall back to sleep.  I am also pretty sure that if you can relax enough, if you miss out on too much sleep, eventually the body does take over and you will get enough sleep to keep you going.

Other than that, what has already been suggested seems right to me.

Good luck.

[AnOther]

[quote user="Gemonimo"]

Can anyone suggest  a remedy for insomnia which doesn't include chemicals.

[/quote]I think the word is frequently misused so it might be useful to know what your particular definition of insomnia is ?

[mint]

Jen, this missing out on a bit of sleep is nothing, really!

Wait till we are on the Compostelle and we are sleeping with dozens of people in our bedroom and they are all snoring their heads off.  Now, that would ensure we both get insomnia!

Mind you, we'd be so bushed after the day's walk that I don't suppose we'll be able to keep awake if we tried.[:D][kiss]

[woolybanana]

Insomnia? I recommend sleeping on the problem[:P]

[Gemonimo]

AnO, my definition of insomnia is multi-faceted.  Sometimes it means not getting to sleep until 3.00am in the morning... sometimes getting to sleep but waking at 3.00 and staying awake until 6.00 and then having difficulty waking up!

Sweets, you didn't tell me we'd be sharing smelly auberge dorms with hundreds of snoring pilgrims[:-))] Just kidding!  Last night I had a reasonable night as I took everyones collective advice and exercised on my steppping machine (compostelle practice) a couple of hours before going to bed.

Wooly, t'es vraiment drôle, mon pote.

[JohnRoss]

 

Assuming there is no medical reason for insomnia, list here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insomnia , which would need looking at by a doctor, then there are techniques to be used to shut off the worries and stresses of everyday life using guided imagery and self hypnosis. Works for me anyway. Most of us have memories of a warm, dark comfortable place where we were safe. (Womb)  So thinking about representations of this place in terms of things we have experienced in life can stimulate those memories and thus help us to relax and sleep. I spent my youth roaming the woods and fields with my friends near where I lived so for me the images of building a shelter or den, going inside and curling up under warm blankets or sleeping bag, I did a lot of camping too so tent images could be used, and going into a deep safe sleep just as the storm (Hostile environment = life), snow, hail, wind, thunder etc, breaks. So ask yourself where did I feel safe as a child and project that image into your mind. Have you noticed how many kids love playing under the table or sheet stretched over a clothes horse, Wendy Houses etc. No coincidence. If you are a practical person imagine building your shelter first thus blocking other negative thoughts.

 

Some hospitals like the RLHH have tried using soothing recordings of sea sounds, waves on beaches, camp fire with crickets, storms and rain sounds, whales singing  etc like these http://www.soundsleeping.com/mp3downloads.html  and it works for some. It is no coincidence that many of these images and sounds feature water in some form or other.

 

Sequential muscle relaxation starting with the feet and working your way up, tense the muscles and then relax deeper and deeper each time. Just slow deep breathing with total muscle relaxation on each breathing out works for some. It is a rhythm we all recogise from those early watery days and maybe an even deeper racial memory from way, way back, down, down through the centuries to our origins!...Goodnight...........JR

 

[Clair]

[quote user="JohnRoss"]It is no coincidence that many of these images and sounds feature water in some form or other. [/quote]

Guaranteed to make me want to get up several times in the night!

[JohnRoss]

Ah yes the molecules just want to return to their origins too, the deep, deep restless sea..........snore!..............JR

[sueyh]

I often sleep well till 3am and then read till 6am then sleep till about 8.30 am but a couple of drops of lavender oil on the pillow, bien nuit tea and perhaps a herbal sleeping remedy in tablet form seem to help.

Suey

[mint]

[quote user="Gemonimo"]

Wooly, t'es vraiment drôle, mon pote.

[/quote]

Jen, he ain't no "pote" as he has refused to come with us on the Compostelle and carry our bags over the Pyrenees...........[:P]

[5-element]

C'mon Sweet, how could you ever imagine Woolyb as the bag-carrying type?[:P]

Unles there is a lot of  extra space in the camper, of course.

[Chancer]

My so called insomnia closely resembles Gemonimos and sueyh's and it occurs when I am not completely exhausted before going to bed.

Insomnia is only a problem if you let it get to you and worry about it, if you dont get enough sleep one night the body will make up for it the next.

Another problem can be that of getting too much sleep or rest, I like my relaxation time and am quite happy to spend 8-10 hours in bed but (for me) it is too long really, in the past when I had a big workload a long way from home I could only manage 5 hours per night but I slept 100% of the time and had never felt better in my life.

Here in France dependant on the work I am doing I am either restricted by the daylight hours or by my own physical limitations of not being able to do hard labour 16 hours a day hence more relaxation/sleeping time resulting in more disrupted sleep.

Last week I did (for me) a fair bit of sporting activity, on Saturday I cycled 28 kms, the first time on a bike in 5 years, Sunday a 17km randonée, Monday another 25kms on the bike leaving it at the lycée in advance for our sortie velo later in the week. Wednesday we cycled 22km with the lycéens to a camping (not much sleep that night I can assure you)! Thursday we returned on a 26km leg with a break for horseriding. At the end of all that I had done enough really but had to go to on to my scuba diving club as I had missed the Wednesday evening practice session, I joined another group and we swam 40 lengths, 1km that night.

I slept for 12 hours non stop on Thursday night and woke feeling really refreshed and on top of the world menatlly but physically the batteries were still discharged!

For you two girls going on the hiking holiday please take earplugs with you and choose some in advance that are comfortable for you, as a ronfleur myself I can assure you that there is nothing worse than being constantly awoken in a dormitory by people huffing and puffing and rolling agitatedly in their beds as they dont like and are disturbed by my melodies [6]

[woolybanana]

Just having my afternoon nap and you woke me.

The answer is surely: Make love, sleep well?

[mint]

[quote user="5-element"]C'mon Sweet, how could you ever imagine Woolyb as the bag-carrying type?[:P]
Unles there is a lot of  extra space in the camper, of course.
[/quote]

Je crois que son camping-car est malade!

Anyway, why do you think he can't carry bags?  Do you think he lacks a certain robustesse?[;-)]

PS:  Jen says the bags won't weigh much and she has promised me that she won't be bringing her heated Carmen hair rollers.[:D]

 

[Gemonimo]

Sweets, I think we should recruite Chancer rather than Wooly to carry our bags...... sounds a lot fitter to me!

And tonight I am pretty certain of a good nights sleep (please God).  I have just cut the grass for the last time this year - four hours worth of hard labour and I am crevée.

[5-element]

And Gem, believe it or not, you made me go out and cut some of the hedge (with those manual clippers) until my arms started to shake - and after that I went for my little walkette - in the hope that it will help with tonight's sleep. The hedge says thank you, as it would not have happened without this thread.[:P]