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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To hate not being able to sleep

35 replies

saltnpepa · 01/04/2015 00:30

Just that really. About once every few months I can't sleep and end up going to sleep at 2 or 4am and a few times I have been awake all night. I hate these nights and get in a total state about it and worry about not being able to function the following day. I wish I could just shrug it off as a bad night but I hate the laying awake fretting. Anyone else the same?

OP posts:
ArabellaStrange · 01/04/2015 00:37

Mine usually happen a lot more frequently than every few months. I am kind of adjusted to it now. And the sleep deprivation suffered when my children were young taught me that I can survive on less than an ideal amount of sleep.
But yes it is horrible and you do have my sympathy.

GammaDelta · 01/04/2015 00:40

hi dear i just started a discussion that i can't sleep. ..

TheCatsFlaps · 01/04/2015 00:48

Had this night before last and one before that, so share your frustrations. I have spent the past 15 years on hypnotics, benzo's and TCA's to get to sleep. It now requires extra dosages to work. If I have sedation short of a GA, neither ketamine nor midazolam can knock me out, but I'm very slim and don't know how I metabolise it.

Do you have a sleep clinic your GP can refer you to?

306235388 · 01/04/2015 01:02

Me too

WhereYouLeftIt · 01/04/2015 01:49

Lifelong insomniac here. Kind of used to it now ...

"I hate the laying awake fretting."
So don't lie there fretting! If I know I'm just going to toss and turn I get up, have a cup of tea, read or catch up with TV I've recorded. Sometimes I iron, I find that quite soothing. If I don't want to get out of bed, I'll plan tomorrow. Write a shopping list in my head. Sternly tell myself that I want to get x, y ,and z done tomorrow. (My adult version of 'writing' my English essay homework Grin.)

As a rule, I can't sleep because my mind is racing. Sometimes about real things (a work concern I'm pondering), sometimes not (trying to remember the name of a book I read 20 years ago). That's why I go for distraction.

If it's occasional insomnia, it's probably harder to deal with - less of a routine you can resort to. My sympathies Flowers.

123rd · 01/04/2015 02:15

Another one signing inHmm. Quite a usual occurrence for me. But then one night I have a mahosive sleep. I have always been like this since pre teen.( Now 40) my DD is following in my footsteps. I feel sorry for her as she gets v frustrated.

LithaR · 01/04/2015 02:22

Another sleepless person. I get moments when I feel time running out and can't sleep :(

KingJoffreyFanciesDarylDixon · 01/04/2015 02:46

Another insomniac here.

Sleep until 2amish then I'm wide awake. Work nights so it's not an issue with work but I'm on a training course tomorrow and could do with some sleep.

Box5883284322679964228 · 01/04/2015 02:57

Seems the busier I am, the less I sleep. It's been a hectic week and a wakeful week. My periods about to start just to top it off! Sorry huge moan. Just desperate for a few good nights

Topseyt · 01/04/2015 03:06

I am finding that as I head further through the peri-menopause my sleep patterns are going more and more up the spout.

I can be awake at odd times, and rarely sleep for a full night. It can be hard, but I have kind of trained myself to consider that I am just going to lie and relax anyway.

I seem to be finding myself generally needing somewhat less sleep now than when I was younger. I tell myself that 8 hours is a fairly arbitrary figure. Less is normal for me, sometimes much less.

Shakshuka · 01/04/2015 04:28

I go through stages of insomnia as well. Usually lasts a few days every few weeks or months if I'm lucky. Also have Sunday night insomnia!!

I find that 1/2 a unisom tablet really helps. Or I get up and do something productive rather than tossing and turnign (I tell myself Ill be tired int he morning whatever I do so I may as well do something). My dr prescribed zolpiderm but I hated how it made me feel in the morning.

MadBannersAndCopPorn · 01/04/2015 04:45

I'm up every night for at least an hour, either tossing and turning or come down stairs to mn/ browse web.
I find if dd 15mo wakes up after about 2ish and starts grizzling (I never go in, she just Grizzles back to sleep in 5 minutes...) I'm up.
I go back to bed and usually fall into a lightish sleep until morning. I feel unless I'm out and away from the children, I'm never really totally off guard- I hope it passes as they get older.

Those of you who take pills etc for sleep, do you find it hard to awaken in the morning? And are you able to wake during the night if you need to? Sorry to sound ignorant but would be interested to know as I've suffered bad sleep all my life- I've never been brave enough to take more than something herbal as I'm scared I won't wake up!

Beeswax2017 · 01/04/2015 05:00

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Ginmartini · 01/04/2015 05:09

I'm the same. Often wake at 4/5am and get up in the end (my kids are all older so it's nothing too do with that). So tiring. For me it's stress plain and simple and not being able to shut mind off.

I never take pills. But I do have a couple of glasses of red wine most nights though I don't think it really helps.

MaidOfStars · 01/04/2015 08:34

Not as bad as some but I have at least one poor night a week, lying awake until 4-5am then a couple of hours of sleep before work. It doesn't happen on the same night, so I can't pin down a specific activity or pattern that creates sleeplessness - it's just a busy head failing to switch off.

I usually know by about midnight if it's happening. I've taken a couple of Night Nurse capsules before and they work well. But midnight is a little late for them so I feel pretty spaced all of the following morning. I tend to get up, go to another room and read.

ragged · 01/04/2015 09:17

Once every few months? (insert hollow laughter here)

SomewhereIBelong · 01/04/2015 10:03

I used to be an insomniac, but now my head hits the pillow and I am gone.

Did a need-to-sleep course - to start with, half an hour before you go up, you sit - no tv/book/gadgets, just sit - close your eyes and imagine a fingerprint, concentrate until you can see all the ridges and furrows - it takes some work to start with, this empties your mind of "stuff", then go to bed lie down and imagine it again - it comes more easily,

after a week or 2 you don't need to do the half hour thing, just imagine it when you lie down, your body starts to associate it with sleep, next thing I know it is morning....

ragged · 01/04/2015 10:16

I guess you were you someone who couldn't sleep because your mind was "full of stuff", Somewhere?

ihategeorgeosborne · 01/04/2015 10:23

I'm the same. Been like it for years, well since having dcs. My GP has referred me to a sleep clinic, which is quite helpful. I now keep a sleep diary and try not to stay in bed when I'm really not sleeping. I have started taking circadin tablets too, which are supposed to enhance your natural circadian rhythm. They are really helpful, although I'll probably struggle to come off them. I miss sleep!

MyCatIsAGit · 01/04/2015 10:29

Life long insomniac here too. Sometimes I listen to the radio (on headphones), quite often I'll get up and make a cup of decaff tea. Kindle/Ipad has been a godsend as I can read without waking husband up (though he sleeps through anything).

I think occasional insomnia is worse, husband has one or two nights a year when he can't sleep, and boy do we hear about it.

Things that help, cutting out caffeine, alcohol and chocolate - or being aware that if I have any of those I'm probably not going to sleep.

Exercise.

I'll also lie there and go round the garden in my head naming all the plants - a bit like counting sheep - and I've usually fallen asleep before the end.

SomewhereIBelong · 01/04/2015 10:42

"I guess you were you someone who couldn't sleep because your mind was "full of stuff", Somewhere?"

I didn't think I was, but it worked, so I guess I must have been...

Original poster
saltnpepa · 01/04/2015 16:17

I know once every few months isn't much, I certainly don't think I'd need a sleep clinic, it's just so frustrating. I lay in bed hoping I'll drop off but get more and more stressed but on the Some nights I've got out of bed and distracted myself I've ended up staying up all night pottering about.

OP posts:
Ratfinkandbobo · 01/04/2015 16:42

I work nights and sleep better in the day than at night when I'm offConfused.

VerminEquinox · 01/04/2015 16:50

Chronic Insomniac here
I used to go running in the night
I liked the silence of the streets then but gave it up because I could never get back to sleep afterwards.

The most calming thing really is knowing I can function quite adequately on 4 hrs sleep - maybe not brilliantly - but ok. So not anticipating a s*t day means I'm more likely to go back to sleep.

Original poster
saltnpepa · 01/04/2015 17:20

I think that is excellent advice VerminEquinox I have managed to do today on just over 3 hours sleep and I've been a bit crap and distracted but ok. I don't know why it gets me so stressed. I love the idea of giving up on sleep and going running but I think I'd be out all night rather than lay in bed not sleeping. Has anyone read anything about adrenal fatigue and links to insomnia?

OP posts: