does anyone else experience this personally???!!!

[smileyK]

is anyone else out there or teen /young adult restless sleeper what i mean by that is ( tossing and turning in bed can't get comfortable) or just let body rest does anyone else struggle with this issue? i also struggle to drift off into natural sleep pattern without assistance of herbal sleep tabs and ear plugs ( foam ones) block out sensory noise as this affects also my sleep as hear buzzing/humming as really annoys bugs me bad! helps block traffic noise even though isn't bad traffic i asked my mum if i'd always been 'bad sleeper' she replied you used scream as a baby nothing would stop or solve it really even then so been long term sleep issue by sounds of it! just don't know what to do! any ideas/tips etc??? melotonin route GP? maybe could ask? as don't seem be improving any?

 

XKLX

[LancsLad]

Smiley I am a very bad sleeper. Firstly I have found that medication does not work for me as anything which might have an effect is in such strong doses there is no possibility of getting a long term prescription even if I wanted one the doctor would not sanction this.

 

Throughout my life as a child and as an adult when I have had to got into hospital for operations and have required a general anasthetic I have taken an age to get to an unconcious state to the then bemusment of the anethesist have been sat lying in the operating theatre with staff stood waiting for me to go out, I have also come out of anasthetic really quickly and last time in a very big hospital came round in a room sat up and was in the middle of a number people still out cold on their operating trollies, I shouted across to the porter who was quite shocked and said you should be asleep for ages yet, I need you to wait while I move these other people out of the way first as you are boxed in, really funny at the time and in hindsight, but then I have an odd sense of humour.

 

I say this because I am sure there is a consistency here, there will be a medical answer as to why this happens, but there might no be a solution for some time. A big thing for me has being accepting this is part of how I am, and as I get older it does not get better it gets if anything worse. I would expect this as it is true of ther ggeneral population we get to be lighter and lighter sleeprs as we age. If I try to fight something I can not change I will become exhausted and eventually loose, If I accept it then maybe just maybe we can live with each other. If you have tried a lot of things and you sense you are at the same stage as me, nothing really works, then Smiley I would say try and accept this.

 

In respect to background noise it is everywhere if we search for it and often when we dont go looking at all. It is there in my central heating system, the weather outside, my partner and my dog breathing, the movements of the house, the movements of people in our neighbourhood, for me a motorway well over a mile away but can hear the lorries at night. I am also pretty tunned into the movement patterns of my neighbours, this might be a throwback to my teaching and knowing a couple of seconds before any bells would go. I might be unfortunate but living around me there is a restraunt owner, a golf club bar steward, a taxi driver all who come home from work at regular times between 1:00 and 3:00am it is the quiet for an hour or so before the milk arrives and people start to go off to work first at about 5:30. I have tried foam ear plugs but have found if used constantly cause inflamation in my ears, often they fall out after a few hours.

 

I could say the same things about lights which are there from street lighting, burgular alarm systems, flashing led's in cars etc...

 

My solution has been a medative approach to the problem. I know all these sounds and more are around me durring the day but are not at the same anoyance levels and that is because I am focused on something else. The old wives tale of counting sheep is along these lines but doesen't work for me, rather I need to focus on 'nothing' or something similar such a a relaxing coloured shape such as a soft textured green sphere in my mind. The aim being to gradually filter out and away all these other stimuli like light and sound. This takes a lot of diiscipline, focus and patience. I am not as good as I could be in this area and I need to be in a pretty good place to take me there. When I feel I am slightly tired then I have to try to go to bed, push it for another 5 minutes and I am stuffed, my partner lets the dog out for example as the slightest change in temperature will without doubt start to waken me up again.

 

For me it is all about body and senses conciousness, that causes the problem and so I need to find solution which use it, physical poitions which allow me to meditate stretched relaxed and open, if I have slept well I might wake curled up in a feotus position. If I can't get to sleep or if I wake in the night and can't quickly go back into sleep I get up and find something to do.

 

There is a lot of research coming out now which says we do not need 7 or 8 hours sleep a night and some of us might be fine on 2 or 3. Some says we naturally sleep better in two blocks with a couple of hours break in the middle, other cultures from around the world do it this way. I think this shows there is no one solution. We are in a culture dominated with too much groupthink which makes us believe if we are not like everyone else there is something wrong with us. At times this makes us feel bad about ourselves believe we have a problem and as a result go looking to solutions for something which might not be that problematic in the first place. I have been a 'bad sleeper' for 46 years now if it was a case that this is bad for my health I would be dead by now, I am not. It is true when I only get an hour or so I can feel ragged the next day and so will try and catch up with a nap if I can.

 

I think it is about attitude and putting a positive spin on it if you can and making your life work for you. If in fact you simply need 2 hours less sleep than the average person and live to 80 that's an extra 58,240 hours in your life to do something productive with, what would you do?

[chris54]

There is a lot of research coming out now which says we do not need 7 or 8 hours sleep a night and some of us might be fine on 2 or 3. Some says we naturally sleep better in two blocks with a couple of hours break in the middle, other cultures from around the world do it this way.

 

I'm usually so exhausted when my head hits the pillow, that I'm asleep in minuets. But I will often wake a few hours later, My wife called it night wanders.

Ill get up and go and do something like listen to the radio, (BBC Radio4/World service)(some interesting things on at that time of night). After an hour or two, Ill go back to bed and usually sleep the rest of the night, only to find the morning comes to soon.

Its not at all unusual for us to pass on the stares in the middle of the night, I just of back to bed and my wife is setting off on her night wander, She always sits and reads.

 

I work night, which doesn't help sleep pattens, But I can sleep in the day with all the normal house noise going on.

They say that your hearing never turns off, but your brain filters out the unimportant things.

This is why you cans (I can) sleep though a thunderstorm, the phone ringing, someone banging on the door. But that little buss from the alarm clock wakes you up. Or as any parent knows the tiniest cry from a baby.

 

Ultimately, I think it is best just to go with what your body is telling you, if in the middle of the night you cant sleep stop trying. Of course the problem with this is you (I) will find you (I) need to sleep at other, inconvenient times.

[robert7111a]

Yes, Hi Smiley, I'm a new member btw

 

I used to suffer badly with early morning waking but this was due to severe clinical depression.

 

I have AS and some degree of hyperacusis which means I cannot sleep at night without ear plugs in. I try and listen to my ipod before removing the headphones just as I feel I am falling asleep but more often than not, I will go to bed late when I expect to be tired.

 

Often I also have "restless leg syndrome" which prevents me going to sleep

 

robert7111a