Sleeping Problems?

hugo_pt asks: "I have had sleep problems for some years, but it always get worse in the Summer. Yesterday I slept one hour, so when I got home at 8PM I thought I'd sleep till 9AM or so. Wrong. It's 1.36AM, and I can't sleep anymore. Instead, I'm reading The Complete FreeBSD, and the urge to sleep is gone. I was wondering how many Slashdot readers suffer from this problem, and what they do to combat it ?"

Comments

Get some kids

[o1d5ch001]

My wife has given birth to two beautiful children in the last three years. We used to like to stay up late and sometimes I couldn't sleep. Now I go to bed at 10:30 PM if I can, and stay there as long as possible. Which is usually until 7 AM when our 2 year old wakes up and wants breakfast!

I never have a problem sleeping.

What I'm trying to do....

[dave-tx]

....cut way back on coffee. I've got similar sleep problems, and I'm convinced it's caffeine related. I don't drink coffee after 3PM, but if I don't have a cup early in the morning, I've got headaches for the rest of the day.

Currently, I'm cutting back, and have been on a 2 in the morning, 1 in the afternoon ration. Bit by bit, I'm going to get off it completely. Of course, when work gets busy, I'm sure I'll get back on it.

Re:What I'm trying to do....

[Anonymous Coward]

One drink and you'll be back, but it's not nearly as hard as some people make it out to be. It's not heroin, people. It's not even cigarettes.

I think you're vastly oversimplying addiction. There's a huge variation betwean different people and how psychoactive drugs will affect them and how severe withdrawl will be. As worthless statistically as anecdotal evidence is, here's mine. It took three weeks for the headaches to end for me when I gave up caffeine, but only a week when I gave up meth. But I'm sure not going to go around calling anyone having a hard time getting off meth a wuss or liar!

my solutions

[xutopia]

1. play sports
2. drink only on week ends (yeah drinking just a bit makes it harder to get a restful night)
3. I have sex (regularly)
4. I never have any cafeine after 3 in the afternoon.
5. try to keep my bed/eating time the same throughout the week (means week end too)

YMMV

Forgot One (a fun one :)

[blunte]

You may not want to do this every night (it can get a little unexciting after a while), but 1-2 hours of sex definitely helps.

A few things to try

[raider_red]

I've dealt with sleeping problems in the past, and have made some adjustments to deal with them.

First, I don't drink caffeine after 5:00 PM. Second, I exercise regularly. Third, meditation of some form usually helps. Fourth, when all else fails, there's Benadryl. And finally, you can always try reading documents from www.dot.gov .

I'm not a doctor, but I play one on Slashdot

[KilobyteKnight]

Sleep disorders can be a symptom of medical problem. And lack of sleep can lead to them. Don't be a dork. Go to the doctor. The doctor will likely perscribe you some anti-anxiety medication or sleeping pills.

Asking medical advice from these folks is silly.

Good news for you

[Anonymous Coward]

John Kerry is scheduled to speak for 55 minutes tonight.

Your sleep problems are solved.

You're not gonna like this idea...

[missing000]

but it may be worth trying.

Years ago, I had an extended bout with insomnia, and the only thing that cured it was a career change.

Often, sleep loss coincides with stress, and that typically is job related. Even going on vacation doesn't tend to help due to the fact that you still think about work (at least in the sub-conscious.)

At the time, I was sleeping maybe 3-4 hours a night, and I had no idea what was causing it. On the advice of a professional, I tried another industry, and found that my sleep pattern improved almost over-night (no pun intended.)

It Could be serious...

[Breakerofthings]

I just went to the Dr a couple of weeks ago for this very problem. Turns out, my insomnia was being caused by a very serious medical problem. A medical problem that I didn't know about, and would have likely killed me (eventually) had it not been discovered.

So my advice is, go see your Dr.

Re:It Could be serious...

[Piquan]

I can't tell you about the OP's condition, but I can give you a few examples.

Fatal familial insomnia is a rare, inherited degenerative brain disorder. It's pretty much what it sounds like: the victim gradually loses the ability to sleep, and dies within 7 to 36 months.

Nocturnal cardiac ischemia is one cause of insomnia: chest pains keep the victim awake at night. It is caused by atherosclerotic heart disease. (You can Google this stuff.)

Any number of obstructive pulmonary diseases, such as emphysema, can cause severe insomnia.

Now, I'm going to talk about a more common disease that can be fatal, but is frequently misunderstood: obstructive sleep apnea. In this disease, the soft tissues of the throat collapse during the night. The lungs work harder and harder to pull in air, and this only draws the throat tighter, like sucking a milkshake through a straw. The victim eventually wakes up, the throat muscles tighten, and with a gasp, the lungs fill. The victim then goes back to sleep.

All this time, the victim's blood oxygen level is plummeting. The victim is suffocating, turning blue, and the heart is losing its ability to function. Too long without oxygen, and the heart can stop altogether, possibly unable to restart. What's more, when the heart does get oxygen, it suddenly is working like mad to get it to the rest of the body: transient BPs of 300/* have been measured at this time (normal BPs are around 115/*). An estimated 38,000 strokes and heart attacks per year are due to apnea.

This happens hundreds of times per night. And, amazingly, the victim doesn't know it; the barely-awake mind doesn't have its long-term memory wired up right yet.

At best, the victim knows that he snores, and that he's tired during the day. Besides the direct fatalities during the night, tired people can be killed in a number of ways, such as missing a light if they doze off at the wheel, or making a bad judgement and crashing a ship (Exxon Valdez). Apnea is theorized to be an indirect cause of a number of high-risk conditions, particularly high blood pressure.

I'm going on about obstructive sleep apnea because it's amazingly common and dangerous, yet amazingly easy to diagnose and treat. What's more, apnea (like most sleep disorders) is barely-- if at all-- understood by most physicians: they just don't have training to deal with it. So people get misdiagnosed for years, maybe decades.

Personally, I'd recommend that anybody who feels tired and snores should learn about apnea, and see a doctor (possibly not in that order). I learned about it by reading a book I heard about on /.: The Promise of Sleep , by Dr. William Dement, which I strongly recommend to anybody who wants to know about sleep.

Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor, and have no medical background or training.

Exercise and relaxation

[Grab]

First move is exercising. Do some. If you're working insane hours (12+) at work then you'll likely have no problems sleeping, simply through exhaustion. Otherwise exercise will use up some energy so that you don't feel twitchy.

I know people say "don't exercise after 8pm/10pm/whatever", but it's not a big deal. It may take you an hour or so to stretch, shower, chill out, etc after you've been running, but you'll sleep much better after that. Being a little later to bed is no big deal if you get a better quality of sleep.

Second move is to be relaxed before you go to bed. Do something that doesn't take serious mental effort. Play a game, play a musical instrument, read, whatever. *Don't* spend hours hacking immediately before bed, otherwise your brain will still be racing.

And if you can't sleep, get up and do one of the above for a bit until you *do* feel sleepy. Sometimes all your body needs is a change of scene - go to the bathroom, have a drink of water, and your body will get into "sleep mode".

Grab.

Depends on why you're not sleeping

[Fished]

As a long-time insomniac (read "programmer"), I've found that there are several different kinds of insomnia.

1. There are some medical - i.e. conditions other than insomnia - that can cause sleeplessness. If this is a new thing, you might ask your doctor although he's unlikely to be very interested.
2. Are you depressed? (Doesn't sound like.)
3. I find that often my schedule just gets out of wack. In such cases, I find that melatonin - available over the counter as a "diet suppliment" helps most. Melatonin is allegedly the compound your body makes at night and is why you tend to get sleepy at night - don't know if this is true or supplement "hype". However, it is as effective for me as prescription sleeping pills, but without some of the side effects. It DOES, however, have other side effects, particularly if you're hypertensive or have an Autoimmune problem. Read up first.
4. There are several kinds of sleeping pills available. The most common is diphenhydramine, i.e. benadryl. Available over the counter, don't take a big dose because a big dose can make you hyper. Doxylamine Succinate is also readily available otc, works much better for me than benadryl. It is usually found under the brand name "unisom", but not everything with a unisom label is doxylamine succinate. Buyer beware! Last, the doctor has many, many options, ranging from valium-like drugs (ambien, ativan, etc.) to anti-depressants (Remoron, one other whose name escapes), to blood pressure meds (clonidine.) However, I find that Doctors tend to be cavalier about side effects, so would try prescription meds last.
5. Most of all, exercise will help, especially first thing in the morning. It helps set your cycle.
6. "Sleep Hygiene" is important as well. When you go to bed, don't read: go to sleep. (If you're hitched, have sex - this is also a good sleep aid.) Don't do anything in bed but sleep and have sex. Put the clock where you can't see it - looking at the clock just gets you worried and keeps you up. Go to sleep at the same time every night, get up at the same time every day.

That's all that comes to mind. :)

Re:Have you tried drinking????

[Bishop]

If you are taking 3 or 4 beer a night to sleep, you have a health problem. You could be an alcoholic, or just an insomniac. One beer before trying to sleep is too many.

Re:benedryl

[c0d3h4x0r]

Be VERY careful not to take an over-the-counter medication like this on any long-term basis (longer than 2-3 days straight) as a "solution" to your sleeping problems. These medications are harsh on your liver and kidneys and are not meant to be taken for longer than a few days, max. If you take them every day over a long period you can permanently screw yourself up.