Weird electrical vibrations

Unfortunately, I have to travel for work. I'm working just a little - not even part-time right now so thankfully, the travel is only about once/month.

But I experience a very strange phenomenon every single time I travel I just don't understand and can't troubleshoot... hoping maybe you all have ideas.

I sleep generally pretty well at home - fall asleep within seconds of my head hitting the pillow, wake up around 3 or 4am depending on my adrenal functioning and how hard I'm going after babs. I usually get 5-6 hrs max but I generally won't wake up - even if I have to pee, I'll sleep through the night. I still need to add a few hours but I've made a ton of progress.

But all the progress fails when I sleep away from home. It's not just hotels - it's anywhere.

I cannot fall asleep. Regardless of going to bed early or late, It's typically 4 or 5am before I can fall asleep. It's not like a mind-racing adrenal surge--I lived with those for a decade and know them well. Instead, it's a little bit that but mostly it's my body, head, brain are vibrating at an insanely rapid pace - it's like every cell in my body is buzzing as if I was lying on top of the hood of a tiny race car with its engine revving - vibration at the cellular level. I can't feel my heart pounding but it is beating way too fast.

I've done the elimination game and nothing seems to consistently cause this. I generally have to fly to these away locations but sometimes I've driven - happens in both scenarios. It's not the time zone changes. It's not sugar, caffeine, stress, medications, type of mattress, type of pillow, black-out curtains, no curtains, noise, silence, etc.

Nor can I fix it. I've tried:

a warm shower
music
listening to a movie on my computer but w/out picture
watching a movie on the tv
working
reading
surfing the internet
shopping online
posting on this forum
meditation
crying
walking around
food
warm tea
hot room
warm room
cool room
cold room
lots of covers
no covers
lots of jammies
no jammies
perusing thedodo.com website w/ all the animal stories
watching youtube vids of orphan elephants

The sleepless night after a full day of travel, with the 3 hr time zone change, before a full day of work is killing me...

Can these little a**h*** pathogens really prefer to party away from home? How can this be? Is it aftershocks from the vibration from the flights/drive?

ideas appreciated. TY!

-p

Post Edited (Pirouette) : 5/17/2017 7:20:47 AM (GMT-6)

That sucks, P! I really don't have any ideas....


I'm the opposite...I sleep good when I'm away. I think it's because I'm associating this house with the illness/bad memories/trauma.
And when we travel...I'm usually really looking forward to it.

Is it just stress from being away and traveling? Do you feel stressed? (I guess you do when you can't sleep but prior to going to bed?)

Here's something else I forgot to mention in my sleep-deprived stupor...

My house has no A/C so I keep it open during the day (except during a couple cold months in winter) - I have a nice cross-breeze. But I do shut off my bedroom door at night and I don't open bedroom windows (for reasons blah blah blah). But most hotels have inoperable windows so, nearly every time I'm sleeping in air-conditioned space (cold or heat).

This hotel has windows I can open but I'm on 1st floor and can't sleep w/ the window open... too dangerous. But at least I've had the window open all evening. Will be interesting to see if this makes a difference.

I'm also sleeping on sheets that are cleaned with regular detergents - I use all natural stuff. Well, mostly natural.

Does any of this suggest possible reasons?

-p

Hmmm, that sounds rough Pirouette. Remember when sleep wasn't so fragile?

Your home sleep pattern sounds like mine. I haven't traveled since I got sick. Dr. Rawls talks about system disruptors in his book unlocking Lyme. I won't recite them all unless you ask, but one is "energy stress" which comes from artificial energy emf etc. Watch "better Call Saul" and think about his brother "Chuck", an extreme case of energy stress. Maybe he has Lyme.

Are you always staying in hotels and motels? If so, you might try an air bnb accommodation that would hopefully have more similar energy to your own your own home's. There's a super high concentration of emf at hotels and motels.

Tried a reading a book on Buddhist mindfulness? Those are repetitive and soporific IMHO. I love Pema Chodran but her book on tape I have on my phone puts me to sleep..... As long as I don't use it too often. Or a lecture on an obscure technical subject that you don't understand?

Then, there's always pharma which sometimes is better than nothing. I learned about low dose tricyclic antidepressants when I thought I had cfs and read a book on cfs management.

I've tried doxepin at 3-6 mg and it works in a pinch. It's way more tolerable for me than ambien or benzo's. Side effects are minimal at that dose for me and it takes a long time to become dependent. I used it nightly for a month then quit cold turkey with no problems. Works best when used infrequently. Normal dosage is from 50 - 150 MG when used as an antidepressant so you know what I mean by low dose.

Rawls also says avoid travel when possible during the healing process, but that does not help you. Whether or not you think it's stressful, it probably is because you've probably been safely nested up way more than you were before you got sick.

Hi BJD -

Thanks for the suggestions!

No, this doesn't just happen in hotels, it happens when I visit my parents, friends, bed & brkfst. My parents don't have wifi. I went through a period w/out wifi at home. And I have it now and don't have problems. So I think I have ruled that out - I should have mentioned that.

At home, I generally fall asleep listening to some music or just fall asleep. If I'm having a particularly thoughtful time or feeling stressed or can't shut off my mind, the silence bugs me and I can literally fall asleep immediately w/ my little laptop running inches from my face - lights and all - with either the tv or movie playing - doesn't make a difference anymore. Silence or noise. The sleep is pretty reliable and solid at home.

I should add that in order to get to this "reliable and solid" sleep at home, it took years... and blacking out my windows, removing all the color from my room, trying out 7 different pillows and types of bed sheets, and so much more. So I am pretty familiar with all the ways to tweak your sleep environment. But what am I missing?

I can't try sleeping meds or other psychotropic meds when I have to work. I react VERY inconsistently to them. I just can't risk it. If I have to go there, I might as well stay home (which I agree, I should just stay home but have to pay for treatment somehow...)

I used to listen to mindfulness on CD but none of that magic works while this vibrating thing is going on. Even if I could solve the brain part of this, I can't turn off the vibrating.

THank you everyone for the troubleshooting... maybe we'll eventually have a hit!

-p

Thanks Simon -

I hadn't thought of LDN for awhile but yes - I liked LDN - used it for about 2 yrs but went off it last year. It really helped with my leg pain at night - was a tremendous help. Took awhile to get used to it but I was able to work up to 4.5mg.

It might help with the vibrations but the weird thing is I don't want to go back on it full-time, and can't just take it when I travel because of the type of med it is.

-p

Melatonin 6mg and 1/2a kavince pill plus a dropper of deep sleep (formula with passionflower hops valerian and hops poppy etc

Simon Templar said...
Okay, how about a fifth of Jack Daniels and a ball-peen hammer?!?

This is probably the only thing that would work!!!

-p

I had this happen when I recently traveled to my LLMD in NY. I will also sometimes itch all over in certain hotels. I think it's a chemical sensitivity. On my flight back my body was vibrating like crazy. I think the trip and doctors visit just stretched my nervous system to its limit.

Since then we went on a family vacation and I didn't have this at all. No crazy internal buzzing and no reaction to this particular hotel room.

Some hotels have hypoallergenic rooms. We stayed at a hotel in FL once that I itched the entire night and then requested to be moved to hypoallergenic and had no issues. I also reacted to a new bed that we purchased. I no longer react to it but my doctor said it can still be affecting me but possibly in a different way. So maybe it is contributing to other nervous system issues. So consider chemical sensitivity and EMF's.

P,
How'd you sleep last night?

Thanks so much for the additional ideas...

I'm thinking it was not the movement from air travel, driving, because this generally doesn't happen after a return trip. I usually fall right back into my (fairly good) sleeping rhythm once I get home.

I'm leaning more toward a chemical response but when I sleep in hotel beds I sleep in long-sleeved t-shirt and yoga pants and socks so that I get less of the skin on sheets. Still, there's my head and hands. And I'm breathing the air. But it's not like the air at home is purified - it's outside air.

This is crazy that I'd be so sensitive after all this time but it's gotta be SOMETHING.

I used to be so hyper-sensitive to regular laundry detergent that it felt like someone was rubbing sandpaper on my skin. Once I started using more natural products, this improved. I had horrible rosacea, ultra-dry skin on legs and hands but once I treated my yeast/fungal issues, this all went away. But when my viral load surges or I forget to take my antivirals, my scalp feels on fire, my hair hurts... so that might have played a role too.

Anyway, the first night I finally fell asleep at 4am, only to be awakened at 5:30am by a semi-truck or a delivery truck, or something making a 24-point turn right outside my window. I nearly cried. I mean, WTH. The next night I probably slept a total of 3 hrs so it was better. Last night was a little better. On my way home today so should be a good night. I'm just barely functioning.

Thanks for asking ;)

Thanks. I probably shouldn't be posting in my stupor... ha!

I saw on the other thread you said this was assoc. w/ bart. Ugghhh.... that means 3 more mos of winter (vanco).

-p

Ahhh... interesting. I did take CSA recently and had to stop because it made me c-r-a-z-y. Will resume mid-june-ish-esque. Doc & I decided to stop testing for babs - I have it. It hides.

I also realized that I've been feeling these electrical vibrations for many, many years but I literally ignored them because I couldn't interpret them. I now have so few sx they've become really clear to understand now. So there's a little progress...

-p