To ask what you’re doing awake post-midnight?

[5YearsLeft]

I had a day that just really banged me about, physically, emotionally, just all the ways, and now, I’m laying here awake and staring at the ceiling.

So why are you awake? Crying baby? Can’t stop thinking? Worried about something tomorrow? Pain somewhere in your body being an arsehole?

Welcome?

Covid insomnia .... exhausted but can’t sleep

Hi , I’m still awake . I hope all those of you that are awake feeling ill or with sick children all manage to get some sleep soon .

@FloatyBoaty You're in great company; lots on this thread with the cough, the cough insomnia, the aches and pains insomnia, or just the insomnia. COVID really has quite a lot to answer for. I'm sorry you're feeling ill! If you've got the cough (or aches and pains), one of our midnight writers has found that codeine helps and may take enough of the edge of so that you can get to sleep. Not surprising as codeine is often used for coughs here in Switzerland.

@Floralnomad Welcome back! I know you said 1:30/2 is your normal bedtime, so you'll be there fairly soon. I hope you have a restful sleep.

My little boy had a nosebleed

@5YearsLeft might be nearer 3 tonight as I’m not remotely tired .

Wondering if I've just gone into labour tbh.

@Intothelight123 Oh no! I hope you caught it in time so it doesn't mean massive amounts of laundry or that it got on the carpets or anything. Hope that it's sorted and your little boy (and you!) can get back to sleep soon.

@Floralnomad Some nights are like that. I've been there... often. Let me know if you want some soft non-flute music.

@WeasilyPleased Oh! Well! If you have, good luck! It seems that lots of babies do like to start the beginning of their appearance in the middle of the night, making it as inconvenient as possible.

Awake again, @5YearsLeft? Hope you're feeling a bit more settled now

Not sleeping great at all due to the sad loss of my Dad 7 weeks ago. Back to work next week and stressing about how I will manage that already.

Hope you all manage some sleep tonight

@BobbieT1999 I have to be honest. It's just been an absolute pisser of a week. I just keep hearing all the words from this week that hurt the most, you know? The judge looking at me with pity and saying, "So, there is no hope?" About me surviving long enough to worry about pensions. My doctor saying, "I propose we do nothing," on Wednesday, because I still have side effects from my last medication, so he doesn't want to start another, but he's leaving it for other doctors to sort these painful side effects out and make them stop. I've been reading a lot and listening to just so much music to drown it all out. Plus, like @Shehasadiamondinthesky, I may be doing "two sleeps," as I fell asleep for a few hours earlier.

I have neurological pain in my feet. And I am exhausted! I have a rare neuro condition that has killed the nerves in my limbs and face, except for the pain I get in my feet at night. Have taken all my painkillers but just can't get over to sleep tonight. I get a regular treatment for my condition which I'm getting on Monday, just have to get through till then! I hate sitting in hospital on a drip but it does make a huge difference.

@Elephantino I'm so sorry. The loss of a parent is such a soul-wound that is impossible to fully explain unless someone else has experienced it too, and even then, it's still impossible because they didn't lose YOUR parent. I can't pretend that I have truly great advice, but can you possibly plan your days with things you want to do until you return to work, so that you can "force" the stress to not have as much time in your day? Even if it's just watching movies or reading books or planning a spring garden. It will still sneak in, and it may still show up at 2am, but at least it won't have free rein. And I do understand why you're stressed - losing someone you love deeply, seven weeks can feel like nothing at all. It's like trying to go back to work when your world has stopped for a bit and everyone else's is still spinning. The pain doesn't stop, but it will slowly become less of a fresh hurt (it has for me) as more weeks and months pass by. And if you are truly stressed to the point of being unwell, do talk to your GP.

Hi @5YearsLeft I've just been skimming your other thread and decided to follow you on Instagram your photos are beautiful.

Then I saw THIS thread and I'm up and can't sleep. My 9 yo Ds has a terrible temperature at the moment so I'm awake listening to him breathing far too quickly in bed next to me and worrying as per.

I was up at 4.30 yesterday and even without his nibbs being poorly my sleeping patterns are frankly shite. I'm not doing too badly for being awake this long though.

I might go and make a cup of tea but then my dogs ( all 3 of them ) will wake up and want to go outside to howl at the moon or some such shittery 🤷‍♀️

Talking of, it's gorgeous at the moment out there. Every night so clear and crisp and the moon phases are evident. In the morning it's frosty and lovely.

My horses are from the french alps ( we imported them - mother and daughter for me and my grown up daughter ) they like it when it's cold I think, they become furry monsters in the winter. I do so love seeing their friendly faces on a cold frosty morning from my kitchen.

@weegiemum Trigeminal neuralgia, by any chance? I've heard it's incredibly painful. And then I know about peripheral neuropathy, as I'm dealing with it myself, though obviously caused by something different than yours, but I lose feeling completely in feet, or get terrible neurological pain in them and in my legs. I'm sorry to hear you're suffering from them. I get immunoglobulin injections, but I know people who are on Remicade and methotrexate to try to deal with the situation if it's caused by an autoimmune disorder. And I really, really understand that feeling of, "I've taken the painkillers, I just need the pain to decrease JUST enough so I can sleep. Please, if it could just lower just enough for me to drift off... I'd be so grateful." I've probably said that to myself and the universe 100 nights. I hope your infusion is a huge help! It's Friday morning (2am) now, so just a few more days. Being brave is shite sometimes, but you can do it.

@5YearsLeft thank you, it's true that life just carries on around me but I feel stuck. I'm actually hoping being busy back at work will help quieten my brain down a wee bit.

I am awake partly because it is the only time of the day there are no demands on me and I can just sit but I am also awake because I am terrified of the future. DH's cancer is rampaging, the stroke he has in November has robbed him of the chance of any further treatment and we both know it. Each new day scares me more than the last.

Can’t sleep as thinkkng about a million ways to change my life

@5yearsleft it's not trigemial neuralgia, I have a condition called CIDP which is demyelination of the peripheral nerves causing peripheral neuropathy, fatigue, loss of balance and proprioception - I don't know where my body "is" without looking (best example is I can't clap my hands with my eyes closed,)

But weirdly, I get the same treatment as you - IVIg! I get it once every 4 weeks for a day and it makes a good deal of difference to me. I'm on a slightly reduced dos3 at the moment because of the shortage.

I hope you get some sleep, everyone!

@Wagsandclaws Oh, thank you for the follow! I'm definitely trying to get better at the photo taking. It's a good time to start following. The light festival starts here in a week and I'm going to go absolutely mad taking pictures of it. I'm really hoping that everyone will enjoy seeing it.

Oh no. That's such a worry about your DS. It's hard when you're ill yourself, but at least you can feel you maybe have some control. But when it's your little one, the worry is just orders of magnitude greater and you find yourself doing things like watching them breathe. I do hope the temperature manages to break (maybe this is its height?) and he feels better soon.

And I can understand that about the broken sleep pattern. @Shehasadiamondinthesky shared an article earlier about how people in medieval times actually had two sleeps, so perhaps we can all just act like we're doing that and it's the hip new thing.

Ugh, there's nothing more annoying at times than trying to sneak around like James bloody Bond just to make a cup of tea. We're moving into a two-bed flat in May, but currently we've got one-bed, so people sleeping in the bedroom and the sitting room, and so to make tea at 2am, I have to sneak in and one of these days, I'm going to trip on some furniture and break my nose. BUT that still beats three dogs trying to say hello to the moon in the middle of the night and all the batshittery that goes with it, even though I'm sure they're trying to be very good boys and just keep you company, ha.

You do make it sound SO lovely, though. We don't really have frost on the ground here; the city is just too warm, and instead of being crisp, it's freezing here. And your horses sound absolutely lovely. I like the idea of furry monsters saying hello at the kitchen window on a frosty morning. Sounds a bit like the very best kind of children's book.

@bloodywhitecat thinking of you and your dh I know there's nothing I can say to make it any better for you x

@5YearsLeft caught up with the full thread, I'm so sorry to hear of your circumstances. You seem very strong! I wish you the very best.

I'm absolutely interested in the medieval sleep pattern, I sometimes do that naturally, maybe it's worth a try!

@5YearsLeft I'll attach some photos of the 'reprobates' ( pups 🐶) and also a photo of one of our horses, she sneakily and cleverly ( her middle name is Houdini ) broke out of the paddock opposite our kitchen and was having a fine old time ( she also persuaded my sons pony to join her on our front lawn - you can see her in the background ) her name is Ulyssia and she is a mud monster for most of the Autumn and Winter. Our horses don't get stabled as they are native breeds and hate being 'in' even if as it rarely does snow here in Somerset the snow just settles on their backs and their fur keeps them warm toasty and insulated.

Gosh I'm sorry to hear you get no frost! That's rubbish and the least I'd expect from living where you do. Do you get much snow? I'm a snow fiend - we were very lucky to take our two ds's to Lapland in December where it was -28 oh the snow was wonderful! I didn't want to leave tbh.

Ooooo a light festival!? How wonderful, I shall look forward to seeing some of your photos.

Calpol seems to be doing the trick for ds now, I woke him up at 2 as it was time for his dose again. I can't work out why I've been up for nearly 24 hrs and am not sleepy at all. Urghhhh I hate insomnia, usually I take some dodgy American antihistamines to help me sleep as peri-menopause has wreaked havoc in my sleeping patterns and I'm asleep by 11 ish bit if I don't take them I'm awake half the night ready interesting things on mumsnet and fannying about on Instagram

@Elephantino Well, then I hope work does exactly what you need it to do. And that stuck feeling, at least in my experience, is so normal. The world will slowly pick up speed again, with you in it. OH! And here's that BBC article on the medieval sleep pattern: www.bbc.com/future/article/20220107-the-lost-medieval-habit-of-biphasic-sleep

@bloodywhitecat Oh no. I can't tell you how sorry I am to hear that. I don't blame you for being terrified. Cancer is a right bastard, always. I really do realize how lucky I am to have the time I have left, even if my symptoms are progressing, especially when I know there are people like your husband facing situations like you're facing right now. I'm sure the thought of waking up tomorrow is scary, not knowing what it will bring, and fearing more bad news. You already faced the cancer. Then the stroke. Then the news that the stroke has ruined the chances of treatment. I don't know if this will help you, but my therapist tell me to take 5-10 minutes in the morning and take either a journal or just do it in your mind if you want, and let yourself give in to it. Let out all the worry and anger and everything. Think of all the worst possible case scenarios. Get mad or sad. And then, I think it's most useful to write them, because then, you close the book and put it in a drawer. It doesn't mean that you won't think of them at all during the day, but know that you (have tried to) put them away for the day so that you can live and enjoy the day with your husband as much as possible, with the time you have left. And I'm not pretending even that will be easy, with how scary it all is, but it might just be something worth trying. You don't need to buy anything new - you can even just right on spare paper, and keep a stack of it in the drawer.

@LovelyYellowLabrador Maybe get a piece of paper and start making a plan? I'm all for thinking, especially at this time of night, but there's also a lot to be said, for having a list of the direction you want to take when the sun rises. If there's a million ways to change it, could you do one in the next week? Five? Ten? Or are they all big changes? Regardless, I wish you the very best luck, and hope they're all good changes.

@weegiemum I know exactly what CIDP is actually! My grandmother had a different form of polyneuropathy and she ALSO had IVIg. Small, small world. That's an incredibly tough disease, and I'm so sorry to hear that you're living through it. I hope you find ways to find special bits and humor in your days, still, even with the pain. I'm also so sorry to hear about the shortage, especially when you need it. I haven't experienced it, maybe because I do it subcutaneously, because if I do it through IV, I get aseptic meningitis (have had it three times now, because they tried: original try, tried more slowly, tried a different brand). But I have to administer it to myself once a week (not much fun sticking four needles in my legs). Good luck, and I hope sleep finds you soon.

Whoops pressed send without sorting out the spelling and paragraphs - apologies for the word salad!