Days and Nights Confused

[Madavigne]

I feel like a baby sometimes with my sleep patterns.  I want to stay up all night and sleep all day, but this routine is sucking so bad!  I work a full-time day job and I have a teenage son, so when I get home from work, it's time to help with homework and get dinner cooked, etc...  I have a really hard time falling asleep at night, it takes forever, if at all.  There have been a few occasions where I have fallen asleep and then woke up in the middle of the night, but it's mostly the starting process of even falling asleep that I can't do.  My doctor put me on Ambien, but I can't take it anymore because I was one of the "lucky" ones who had the nasty side affects of amnesia and nighttime psychosis when I took it.  So, he switched me to Lunesta and I hated the gross taste it put in my mouth, plus I built up a tolerance to it very quickly.  He later switched me to 15mg of Restoril, I again built up a tolerance to it really quickly.  Now, I'm on 30mg of Restoril and so far, so good.  I can't take OTC sleeping pills b/c they make me feel hungover the next day, no matter what time I take them.  I feel like I'm getting dependent on my sleeping pills and that's not what I intended.  I have anxiety, so I know a lot of this is related, but I want to try and get away from sleeping pills and try to go to sleep on my own.  Any advice?  I did just get my anxiety meds switched (this is my 4th time since October), now I'm on Zoloft.  But, I just want to get away from all meds, in general, and let my body kind of take a break from meds and do what it has to do...maybe try yoga or something.  Any suggestions or adive is greatly appreciated.

[Madavigne]

Thanks for the info.  jellybean, I'll have to see if that works.  My husband tells me that when I am finally asleep one or both of my eyes are slightly open...LOL!  Kinda creepy!  

[jellybean14fun]

Thats ***** when you have a full time day job & teenage son.  Man, you must be literally stuffed.  I used to have extreme trouble falling asleep...but for some reason I discovered I actually fell asleep by going to sleep with my eyes open...yes, sounds weird...but, what I would do....is focus my eyes on something, & gently stare at an object until it became out of focus as such, & somehow I would fall asleep that way.  Of course my eyes must have closed, but I never remember them closing.  If I forget to do this, & I lay in bed with my eyes closed....I cant fall asleep.  It was like as soon as my eyes closed, the brain came alive...  Anyway, you've got nothing to lose by trying this method.  Good luck.

[KatEyes]

Have you googled sleep hygiene and diligently applied all the suggestions for a while? What I had to resort to was getting up early and taking no naps for a few days. By evening three I was so sleepy I was watching the clock and waiting for it to be late enough to call it bedtime. If I allow myself to relapse on weekends, it's like starting all over again, so it's best to stay on schedule. My hours got messed up when I was dealing with sleep disorders of sleep apnea and Periodic Limb Movement, and sleep was so miserable I avoided it until I crashed. Then it became a habit. My sleep doctor is adamant I adhere to an early bedtime, says that works best with the body's natural hormones and gives best quality sleep. Not my preference, but like you, my preferred schedule wasn't working for me. Good luck.