Questions about sleep?

Keep practicing the meditation. I can fall asleep almost imediately now. I have practiced it for years, and it is almost gaurenteed to work for you. Just keep doing it. I take a half of an ambien every other night. I use to take a whole one every night. I am trying to get a more natural sleep, though I do find when I take the ambien, I actually get a more restful sleep. Keep relaxing the muscles. I find the tension ends up in my legs, but I imagine it going out the bottoms of my feet. You will win the battle if you keep after it.

I wish you the best, sweet dreams...

Hugs, Karen...

Hi, and welcome! Yes, we are a more active board. Anyway, start at your feet andtense them tight and then relax them. Then work up your legs. Then your hands and arms, then your abdomen, then shoulders, neck, etc. You will be surprised how tense you are and how this does relax you.

I don't have caffeine anytime after early afternoon. Otherwise, I can't get to sleep. I also go to bed with the TV on. When I'm laying there I end up dozing off. I never get to finish the program I was watching. Occasionally I really can't sleep so I'll turn on the Weather Channel with just repeats itself and that usually puts me to sleep. If all else fails, I get on the computer until I get sleepy. If I try laying in bed trying to get to sleep, it just won't happen.

Sherrine

Yeah, I realize some activities are too stimulating in the nighttime hours and prevent falling asleep in a reasonable amount of time.

A little conversation on this message board is fine, but a heated political debate on another online forum I visit after 10 pm? Not good. :)

You might want to make sure that you have low mental, emotional, social, or intellectual stimulation prior to bed. Make a list of things which stimulate you and make sure you do those things prior to a certain hour in the evening to give yourself leeway to cool down, so to speak.

(Example, no phone call after 8 pm, or no tv after ten, or no important conversations after 8 pm)

One thing I have to do is limit checking my emails after a certain time, because sometimes some come from work that get my brain ticking or get me stressed.

I meditate using mental imagery and it has a calming affect on me. Days that I have a lot of nervous energy, I will take time to soak in a warm bath. The warmth of soaking in the water calms me. I then use a chamomile and lavender body lotion and find it to be relaxing. deep breathing exercise can be helpful too.

hugs, Robin

OMG I haven't properly slept in like 4 days...
This is weird even for me because the last few months my sleep schedule has been overall working out for me and I have not had a lot of insomnia
I'm wondering if maybe me stopping Concerta (this week) could have caused some sort of withdrawal or side effect that is just showing up now, or maybe my anxiety is just that bad now (but I'm thinking it's the Concerta)
The overstimulation thing happened on SUnday night, then on Monday I was feeling really bad so I had to go home early from school (like halfway through first period).... Monday night I guess I was worried that I had missed something important at school because I got the weeks mixed up and thought I had missed my first chemistry laboratory session of the semester, (they are mandatory attendance and I would lose marks) so I could not sleep again.
Tuesday night I saw my psychiatrist and he prescribed me an SSRI which he told me would help me sleep because trazodone doesn't always work, but that didn't work either. Wednesday night (at this point I am getting sleep anxiety because loss of sleep wrecks me/I am getting more and more depressed as well...) I fell asleep but then I woke up really early this morning and couldn't fall back asleep.. I find that I am just more anxious/depressed now, which really isn't a good thing, but I'm hoping it'll be resolved....