[quote]SSC wrote:
Okay. The topic of poor sleeping habits has been beating to death.
You know the story - Insomniac, can’t sleep worth a damn, blah blah blah.
Well, hear me out. To try and rememdy my lack of ability to sleep, I take Valerian Root, Magnesium, and Melatonin. (Probably too much, but whatever.)
I work Asset Protection at Best Buy. I’m basically just the guy who stands up at the front and catches people stealing shit. Thing is, I really don’t give a shit about my job. It’s a part-time job to help me pay for college.
This is where the problem comes in. I’ll come home at night, ready for a good night’s slumber, and I will be in a matrix of half sleep/half work all night. I’ll “dream” (though I’m barely sleeping) that customers are coming up to me all night, asking me questions. Just made up customers, asking about made-up things.
What the fuck?!
It’s pretty much fine if I don’t work, but I’m raking in at least 20-30 hours a week, so I’m generally working at least 4-5 days a week. Use your thinking caps, and you can equate that I don’t get much QUALITY sleep. Sure, I “get” 7-9 hours every night, but none of it is unbothered, solid sleeping. Hell, if I can sleep for more than 2-3 hours without having to piss or having some ghost customer come up to me in my bed, I’m ecstatic.
So, I know it’s messed up, anyone have this problem before?
…Or have any solutions to this?
I’ve really tried to avoid becoming part of RX-Nation with perscribed sleeping pills, but I don’t know what else to do.[/quote]
I do not have any answers for you, but I have suffered from insomnia for years. It gets worse when I am under stress, or if I am outside of my normal environment. I have literally gone up to three days with no sleep at all. This started when I was a small child. My mom tells me that even as a toddler, I would be, as she puts it, ghosting around the house in the wee hours. I also was a sleepwalker as a child, and will occasionally sleepwalk even now. When I was in college, and drank somewhat heavily and used…ahem…pharmaceuticals…I would sleepwalk much more.
Just wanted to say be careful with any sedatives you may end up taking. Most do not work for me at all, and in fact, seem to make me feel more wired. I took Ambien, and had a scary incident of sleepwalking. I actually got out of bed, dressed, except, for some reason, my shoes, and got into the driver’s seat of the car. My sister found me there. Apparently, many sleeping pills turn off the brain, but not the body. Scary. Luckily for me, I did not have the keys. A friend of mine who sleepwalks a lot keeps his keys in a glass of water, under the theory that putting his hand into the glass to retrieve the keys will wake him up. I rarely sleepwalk without medications.
Melatonin is known to help. L-tryptophan can help. Massive doses of fish oil can help.
Nothing much helps me in the long run. Used to be I functioned fine on little or no sleep but I am now being impacted quite a bit. I am having difficulties with fine motor coordination and short term memory, among other effects.