Anybody else not sleeping?

So glad that works for you and nice that it isn't a prescription product.  In addition to the Ambien (which I really try not to use very often) I also take a product called MidNite which has 1.5 mg Melatonin along with Lemon Balm, Chamomile and Lavender.   It is really expensive but doesn't leave me groggy the next day which is key for me since I have to get on the road by 4-ish a.m.  It is better to be sleep deprived than medication groggy, in my opinion. 

Sorry to be a whiner, there are just some days that this insomnia thing gets me down.

 

I completely understand. I've been battling a painful tailbone that narcotics barely contain the pain. Problem is that i don't react typically to narcotics, they're an upper for me. I also can't take the narcotics earlier in the day as I need to be able to teach, and teaching while on narcotics is less effective. So I take the pain meds when I get home, and cannot sleep. I was taking Tylenol PM which left me groggy and blah in the morning. Then I switched to the Melatonin, which works like a charm. I got a bottle of 180 pills for like $7 or so, it's a green bottle from Nature's Bounty, from Walgreens.

I hate hearing how "you lose weight when you sleep" and I've been so busy and stressed that my sleep has suffered. I've been going through my longest stall since surgery (typical, since I'm so far out)... what I found though was that when I finally caught up on my sleep, I lost the 3 pounds over minimum that I'd been hovering at for over 6 weeks, and two more additional pounds besides. I'm a firm believer that the sleep-losing is an important factor!

As long as the melatonin works I won't try to get any sort of prescription to help me out. I'm ALREADY a sleep-walker, and don't need anything that will exacerbate THAT condition. Bad enough that I sometimes find myself standing OUTSIDE NAKED without taking something that would make it worse.

Oh, I so empathize with you on the tailbone issue....that is horrid!  Mine has thankfully settled down and unless I'm sitting on a metal folding chair or something else hard like that it behaves very nicely finally.  You poor thing, that is so hard to live with.  Hang in there!  Don't you wish that we could just have the darned things surgically removed or have some sort of numbing done to kill that pain?  Yikes...how come in all the medical advances they haven't fixed THAT?  Seems simple enough.... 

The sleep/weight connection is so annoying but important to pay attention to so I am really going to work at it this summer.  Good for you getting those 3 pounds off and ending that stall.  It just have been hard work and a very sweet victory.  Yay!!!!

Hope that you can keep the sleepwalking under control...that is scary!

HI Molly,

I too am so sorry you are having this problem. I need less sleep now than I did pre-surgery, but 4 hours is never enough. It may not be the problem, but have you tried getting rid of all caffeine. I am very senisitve to it, and when I get too caffeinated, I can't sleep for at least a day and my muscles tighten so tight they hurt. Since surgery, I can do de-caf with milk, but I can no longer drink Lipton tea. Just a thought. I hope something works.

nancy

Nancy, I used to be such a good rule follower in the early post-op days and no coffee or caffiene was a biggie.  But first the decaf snuck back in and then the half-caff. and now it is mostly full-caff.  I do try to cut back often and make my morning protein lattes with half-caff but then by our first break time at work I am just dragging and besides needing some calories I need the caffiene too. 

Someone at work suggested I actually try drinking coffee in the night when I wake and while on vacation I tried it just for fun...it did put me back to sleep or at least didn't keep me awake longer.  But since I am not supposed to be drinking coffee anyway I won't do that on a regular basis. 

Have you tried drinking decaf tea?  Since surgery, oddly enough, I haven't gone back to caffienated black tea.  Green tea, sometimes, but I still drink decaf or herbal teas.  Weird, huh?  Thank you so much for the help and concern.  Heaven knows I have to take all suggestions and give them a try in order to find something that will work.

Molly

Good Morning Molly,

We are probably all hoping you got some good zzzz's last night. In answer to your question about tea - my drink of choice for night time is now diet hot chocolate. I have this huge, 32oz. cup and I put one pkg. of diet marshmellow and one pkt of diet regular hot chocolate in it, and then I add all tha****er. It takes me at least 1 1/2 hours to drink it, and that keeps me from eating for a long time (through the late night munchies). I no longer drink any tea, just my decaf skinny vanilla lattes, water and these.

I once had hypnosis and I know some people use it to sleep. Know any good hypnotists?

nancy

Yum!  I love diet hot cocoa at night but my husband always gives me flak about it saying how it is going to keep me awake.  You know, there is VERY little caffiene in chocolate and certainly probl. a microscopic amount in hot cocoa mix. 

I don't know any good hypnotists but if I had the money to shell out I think I'd just go into regular old therapy instead, apparently surveys show that it is as effective as sleep aids.  Gotta be the depression factor, I think. 

So a report on last night:  tried 2 new over the counter sleep aids.  One is billed as being an anti-anxiety aid and the other for going to sleep.  One of them or the combo of them has kept me so d*mn groggy today that it just isn't worth it.  I did get 7 hrs. sleep and woke up twice in the night.  You now what really woke me up finally today (well, at least temporarily...) a flat tire on the way to work.  LOL! 

God bless the wonderful driver who pulled alongside of me, honked and pointed at my back tire to let me know I was driving on a flat.  At least it wasn't on the rim yet and didn't damage the tire.  Seems I picked up a screw somewhere recently and developed a slow leak. 

Think I will set my cell phone alarm and try to take a mini nap.  Afraid to sleep too much but I'm so beat after all that car stress today.  How silly is that, too?  Car stuff just throws me for a loop and I really should be much more grownup than that. 

Hope you are having a nice day.  We are having awesome weather today...so pretty!

Molly

That's a good idea.  I will try it on the weekend when I don't have to worry about driving.  Guess I will just do without tonight.  Honestly, it is so much safer to drive just tired than driving groggy from medication.  And actually, if I got into an accident and got a blood test I could get a ticket from it.  We have a law here in WA that considers driver-impairing otc products on par with alcohol. 

Couldn't take that nap for a very good reason...my big old male kitty cat decided to come snuggle with me and he was purring so loudly I just couldn't ignore him.  He is never a cuddler so any chance like this to get to spend time with him is really fun.   Can't believe my little baby kitties went from mere ounces to around 12#!   Oops, I don't want to get in trouble with the little girl.  She isn't as big as her brother and only weighs in at a petite 7#.  We gals would never talk trash about another's weight, would we?

Prefacing this with I don't have time to read full through..

But have you also tried OTC Tylenol PM?  One tab makes me sleepy, 2 make me comatose.  And how about a white noise machine?

Okay, Caitlin screaming, got to change and feed her!