Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Unpleasant Insomnia

So this is my third or fourth time this week being up at this time.

Lately I have either slept WAY TOO LONG (see the 17 hour sleep post) or I can't either get to sleep or stay asleep.

Unfortunately, tonight is a "stay asleep" problem. I went to bed tired around 11pm, fell asleep rather easily (for me) which means within a half an hour. Unfortunately at 2:45am I woke up wide awake. I am still wide awake now at 3:30am.

I haven't had caffeine since about 2pm today, and didn't get enough sleep last night either (another round of insomnia, 4 hours worth actually!).

If I was an outsider looking in I would ask about depression or anxiety. Honestly, I have had mild depression (treated with weekly trips to a social worker) and anxiety along with it when I was completing my nursing degree and my masters degree. That is definitely not a feeling I want again and I don't have any of those symptoms now, except the insomnia.

I have been quite happy with my life lately. I have occasional bouts of stress (the whole not-knowing-if-I-will-have-an-ED-job situation) but with the 4.5 days off in between rounds of shifts I have plenty of time to relax and contemplate other options.

Counting out medically related items: I'm not pregnant, my iron has been stabilized, and I've already had mono (8 years ago).

Any thoughts as to why I can't sleep or seem to need extra sleep? I'm all ears.

4 comments:

Moira said...

I think anxiety has a huge correlation to not sleeping. When my anxiety was really high, I had terrible insomnia. As my anxiety subsided (with medication and situational changes) I slept better. I used Ambien (sometimes only a half) to help sleep.

miss-elaine-ious said...

If that was the case, wouldn't I wake up and be worried about it? I wake up and think about many things, but I know I have a job in the end so that appeases me.

Hopefully that is the case and post-decision I can sleep!

Anonymous said...

For me... my insomnia is a combination of stupidity and the uncontrollable.
Stupidity: drinking anything too late at night, especially caffeinated.

Uncontrollable: I have this crazy tendency to not shut my brain down. I lay in bed and thoughts just keep running about the day, yesterday, tomorrow..next week.. the sign on the street.. the color of the dirt... blah blah blah.
LOL
My insomnia goes in cycles and spurts.
Go figure.

zolpidem said...

I'm 15 and in 10th grade. It's very hard for me to fall asleep. Usually taking me a few hours to do so. I wake up at night and it's usually still hard for me to go back to sleep. I wake up at the smallest noise. =/ idk is it insomnia or what? If so what do i do?