Sunday, March 11, 2007

I Know You're All Hanging Breathlessly On Every Detail About How Well I'm (Not) Sleeping...

Well, I have discovered that sleeping pills:

a) Do, indeed, make me very, very sleepy.

b) Do not, however, magically allow me to sleep.

And, c) Make my legs twitch in a strange and annoying fashion, which, at least according to Wikipedia, is a recognized side-effect of diphenhydramine.

Point c) really kind of didn't help with point b), although I think the real problem was the usual thing about being so concerned with whether you're going to get any sleep that you can't actually get to sleep. So last night turned out to be pretty much a replay of the night before, with me being awake for hours, then finally falling asleep, but waking up a couple of times, and ultimately maybe getting six hours or so of sleep despite spending something like ten hours in bed.

I think that at least while I was asleep, I slept more solidly than last time. I think I feel slightly better-rested than yesterday, but I also have a bit of a headache. Sigh.

Also, the goddamn time change means it's now later in the day than it really ought to be, and makes it beyond unlikely that I'll be able to get to sleep early enough tonight to manage a reasonable amount of rest before work tomorrow, even if I sleep like a baby this time.

It's hard to know exactly what time it really is, though, because except for the one on my computer, all the clocks in my house are confused, including the one that automatically sets itself based on radio signals from an atomic clock in Colorado.

8 comments:

  1. Sleeping pills aren't a substute for healthy, natural sleep. Try steamed milk, exercise, valerian root, (got that one from Fight Club)... but the pills will just hurt'cha in the end.
    I say this as the man who had a mother with an addiction to sleeping pills of assorted types.

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  2. Well, like I said, it wasn't a case of substituting sleeping pills for healthy, natural sleep, it seemed to be a choice between drugged sleep and no sleep, and it didn't work, anyway.

    I can't stand steamed milk, I did exercise a bit before bed last night, and as for valerian... Well, I've been discussing this with someone else, and it's very possible valerian would be useful, but in order to obtain any, I'd have to somehow overcome the deep conviction in the back of my brain that buying anything from the herbal section of the drugstore necessarily involves giving money to companies that mostly make their living by selling fake, untested, or occasionally downright dangerous products to the gullible. I'm not sure I can bring myself to do it.

    Anyway, sleeping pill addiction is certainly a serious issue, but I'm pretty sure that one pill every 35 years isn't going to cause me any problems on that front. :)

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  3. I used valirian root as a sleeping aid for a number of years. You know the sleep patterns I used to have. As far as the am I getting my monies worth, if you have a GNC thats the place. If there insnt one close us the good old internet. They DO work.

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  4. Yeah, spring Daylight Savings Time has to be one of the worst times of the year to get insomnia. Have you talked to your doctor about it? I'd do that, or try some simple natural remedies (like the milk) before trying more sleeping pills.

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  5. Dad: My understanding is that valerian, to the extent that it's been studied, seems to be more useful if taken in the long-term, but, I dunno, maybe it might do some good.

    Fred: Daylight savings time sucks, and the fact that I'm switching onto morning shifts now just makes the whole thing suck even more.

    I'm not doing the sleeping pills again. They were an unsuccessful experiment. I suspect, annoyingly enough, that the best thing I can do is to stop trying to go to bed earlier than I'm used to, even if I am tired. I've been regularly going to sleep at 2-3 AM, and the worst nights I've had have been the ones where I tried turning in at midnight, figuring that I was sleepy enough that it ought not to be a problem.

    Sigh. And I gotta be at work at 7:45 tomorrow. Or, as I am accustomed to thinking of it, 6:25. Eeep.

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  6. For some reason, my atomic clock doesn't change for Daylight Savings Time (even when it was on the April/October schedule), so I end up more confused about what time it is -- or supposed to be.

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  7. Your comment system fucking hates me. I'm gonna try to post again...

    While I wholeheartedly believe in better living thru chemistry (esp. Lunesta, which is actually a precursor to melatonin, the active ingredient in valerian I think), I thought you might want to read this...
    http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/03/14/sleep.drug.warning.ap/index.html

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  8. Huh. I figured this commenting system would like you a lot better than the last one...

    In any case, it doesn't look like the simple antihistamine I took is on the list... Plus, it's unusual for me to drive while I'm awake; I maybe get behind the wheel once a month. So I'm not gonna worry about it. Although I might worry about the other people on the road. :)

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