Sleep

I’ve received some emails and comments about where I am with my sleep. An Ambien soaked couple of days lead me into over-the-counter territory and I haven’t looked back. At first, I went to the standby, a half tablet of a generic version of Unisom. This is a great med, but only if you can sleep until it wears off. With a kid, that is not an option and you wake up more groggy than if you slept less. Although my mood improved and I was getting sleep, if I missed the window, it would be disastrous the next morning. I have to take it at 8:30 pm and then by 10:15 pm, I’m ready to pass out. If I take it later and sleep, I’m groggy for twelve hours after I take it. Leta gets up at 6 or 6:30, so that means a couple hours of grog versus four or five. We like to have breakfast as a family after easing into the day.

Once hay fever hit, I gave up on the Unisom and started taking Benadryl, which is essentially the same thing as Unisom but has the allergy season benefit of antihistamine, although it seemed to have a faster ramp up than the Unisom. However, I’m still groggy until 8 or 9 in the morning. Even coffee doesn’t jump start me. It’s not until the daytime allergy meds (OTC Claritin with a couple of 10mg non-pseudephedrine Sudafeds) kick in that I feel normal.

Last night I wasn’t tired until 11:30. With the summer waking of Leta, that’s still about 6.5–7 hours, which is definitely more than I was getting during the winter. It’s just that first wake at 6 or 6:15 is so brutal when you go to bed at midnight. I’m currently trying to get to sleep in the 10:30 — 11:00 pm realm so I get 7–7.5 hours, as I think that fits our current lifestyle and is a good amount of sleep for me.

Also, I advise to avoid switching your main browser at bedtime, exporting bookmarks and importing them. Then testing the new browser. Too much stimulation.

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  • tk

    Yeah, that whole not getting enough sleep thing can really be a bitch. I’d never suffered from insomnia and usually fell asleep within seconds of my head hitting the pillow. Then I ended up being off work for health issues and then ended up having major problems with insomnia. I think the main issue was that due to the health problems I was not able to be as active as I had been previously so I was not “exhausted” by the time bedtime rolled around. It took a long time for me to get my sleep patterns sorted out again. I really do think it is tougher when you don’t have to get up and go to a job or have that hard and fast routine. Obviously, the fact that you have a child forces you into a routine that you do not have a choice about so you have to make that effort to get the regular sleep. I’ve been on and off of various sleep medications for a couple of years with varying effects. Over the counter Unisom will sometimes help. Other times I need to use the harder stuff. I’ve taken a few things that knock the crap out of me and I only taken them if for sure I’m going to be able to sleep them off. I’ve had bad experiences if I’m not able to sleep the full amount of time. One of the medications I took was Restoril. I’m OK with it if I can sleep it off, but if I get less than about 9 hrs. sleep on that one, the after-affects are frightening. So I’m very, very careful.

    Glad to hear you are getting the sleep stuff sorted out though. It does make such a difference to get the rest you need. Good luck with it!

    TK

  • http://perfectpeacefarm.blogspot.com gordon

    I sleep fine when I am allowed to sleep. Between a 8-month old who thinks playtime goes to 10 pm and a cat who wakes me up at 5:30 am (You try ignoring the deadly sound of purrrr…purrr..purrr. Yes I have tried removing her from the room and jailing her in another room. She escapes somehow.)

  • http://www.eighthourlunch.com Eight Hour Lunch

    I had someone tell me that if I wanted to sleep better than I should give up spicy food, alcohol, workouts and snacks close to bedtime. My question is, if I give all that stuff up why would I want to be awake *ever*?

    The occasional melatonin has worked well for me, but mostly I’ve just come to accept that cramming in everything I want to do just means I’m going to feel dead a lot of the time. (Not much help, I know).

  • Jezzie

    unfortch is really can be lifestyle related, can’t it? I dunno, I get a second wind about 10:30 and I’m screwed.But I agree from watching my sister, meds are a roller coaster, once you feel rested enough to experiment I’d try two weeks of each type of herbal or vitamin therapy combined with lifestyle change, hard as that surely is! Badia makes a linden leaf tea which does great with no hangover if taken 1 hr before planned bedtime, available here at publix 99 cents a box :) good luck, the whole of the internet says Jon! bedtime!If we have to tell you one more time young man! Get your jammies on and get to sleep. Yes, you can have water and a book. Now that is it, don’t make us come back in there. hee hee. jezzie

  • montanamommy

    when i was little and couldn’t sleep my aunt would run cold water into the bath and i’d soak my feet up to about my ankles for a few minutes. don’t know why but it worked. sorry bout the allergies, they suck.

  • http://www.slolane.org Twinmama

    I had to give up coffee six months ago and I think it helped a little, but I still have trouble on a regular basis so I guess caffeine wasn’t the root problem. I am reminded of something one of those toddler sleep experts wrote: “sleep begets sleep.” That means a crappy night of sleep often means a hard time getting to sleep the next night (true for my kids, true for me!).

    The two biggest things that have helped me: yoga, and going to bed about two or three hours earlier than I’d like. That last thing has been, like, the hardest thing in the world for me. I hardly get any computer time during the day and I’m a night person. So turning off the computer at 9:30pm or whatever is *really* difficult for me. But I do sleep better when I’m not rushed to get to sleep, like when I try to crawl into bed at 11:30.

    When nothing works…then I pop Lunesta. No grogginess like with the OTC stuff.

  • http://www.visual-voice.net VisualVoice

    I had chronic persistent insomnia for a year. Took ambien the entire time, which made me very unhappy with myself… having to rely on medication for that long. It got to the point where I felt performance anxiety every time I got to bed. There was an expectation of certain failure. To say the least, it was abysmally bad. I sleep fine now due to two methods. (when I was going through it people would offer up redundant suggestions, which became annoying… sorry if I’m annoying you… I know you probably feel you’ve tried everything… I know that feeling) First ~ I seriously began meditating each day. Second ~ I exposed myself to bright light first thing in the morning. Both really did work for me. I wish you luck and success with this. I know how hard it is.

  • http://www.amanda.veryzen.com Amanda B.

    I’ve had problems sleeping at the appropriate times since I was 8 or so, and I have found over the counter meds to be helpful, although I build up a tolerance to them very quickly.

    My doctor just gave me something called Rozerem, which non-narcotic and safe to take every night if needed. It acts on the part of the brain that tells you it’s sleepy time, and it’s very gentle. I have had no problems getting up when I need to, and I don’t feel drugged in the mornings.

  • Leeloo

    Sorry so late to the party here, Jon. Don’t know if you’ve already tried this or not, but I’d be willing to bet you could get away with a LOT less than a full dose of Benadryl at night. Seriously. Before the Ambien, I had great sleep on a quarter-dose of TylenolPM, which is just Tylenol and Benadryl in pill form. A full dose is listed as 2 pills — I was fine with half of one pill. It took effect just as quickly as the full dose, and I slept just as long. The only thing that changed was the length of the zombie effect next day. I don’t suffer with allergies, though, so all a full dose did was dry me out unnecessarily. Anyway, just a thought. I love that you’re so proactive about it — not just like “Well, I guess this is as good as it can get.” Oh, and white noise, that was my other thought…a fan (aim it away from the bed if you don’t like a breeze — it’s all about the noise, for me) or something like that. Good luck!

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