What to do with insomnia?

What do you do when you've tried all the recommended actions by the experts in sleep and you're still awake - and getting more irritable by the second - hours after going to bed?

There are all sorts of suggestions out there from drinking warm milk to getting up and doing something different for ten minutes. Both of those are out for me. Milk tends to make my IBS symptoms flare up, while getting up and moving around is out for obvious reasons.

Tonight I opted to stay in the riser chair again. My husband has a bad cold which, when mixed with asthma, does not make for an easy night's sleep for him. I figured it was my turn to look after him and the best thing I could give him was some peace for the night.

The chair is easily as comfortable as the bed, as it is piled in pillows and blankets. Sleep, however, is choosing to evade me. I'd chase the bugger down and kick it's arse if that was possible. It isn't, so I've made do with reading, catching up with online gossip, listening to music with the hope of falling asleep. I also tried listening to an audiobook with the hopes of falling asleep. It's almost 7am and I am still awake. Tired, a wee bit irritable, but still awake.

I've read dozens of blog posts and advice columns telling me to lie in a certain direction and relax before bed-time. Been there, done that and it still isn't helping! Right now I would give a less favoured body part to be able to sleep, so if anyone out in planet blog has any unusual suggestions that I may not have tried before, please contact me.

Insomnia and riser chairs

                         Once again I have had another night without sleep; it shows.

I promise you that I did try to smile, it just didn't quite work out as my mouth refused to co-operate.

As those who know me well can guess from this photograph, I was not able to make the trek the thirty feet or so from the living room to the bed room. Despite the amazing riser chair that a friend of my mom's kindly gave me for free, my body refused to co-operate with the planned long-distance hike. I have spent the night playing with the chair control going from almost horizontal to almost vertical. While this was great fun, it didn't really accomplish much other than make me giggle. 


Yes, I have a lot of medical issues that have a big impact on my life, but here is one thing that can kick your butt whether you are healthy or, like me, have conditions such as fibromyalgia, ME/CFS, Lupus etc: Insomnia. Okay, yes, it is going to have a far worse impact on someone like me who already has severe fatigue to deal with, but it isn't pleasant for anyone. 

It is difficult to get accurate figures on just how widespread insomnia is, though a recent survey by Dreams found that almost one third of the over 15,000 respondents said that they never woke feeling refreshed. Almost two thirds felt that they weren't getting enough sleep. That is a heck of a lot of people waking up feeling tired. 

There are things that various sleep researchers over the years have suggested, for example: 

• Keep the bedroom for sleeping and sex - remove the tv and keep the computer out of the room. 
• Do something relaxing prior to sleep - so that means no horror movies likely to haunt your dreams, folks. 
• Lights are best kept off as your body responds to the dark by producing melatonin to stimulate the pineal gland and send you off to night-night land. 
• Don't eat or drink anything stimulating for several hours prior to bed - that means caffeine is out for all those coffee lovers out there. 

The list goes on and lets be honest, most of us who really suffer from insomnia have tried all the things on the list desperately hoping that this time they will finally work for us. So far I'm on the losing team, but I'm hoping that some or all of the helpful ideas that sleep specialists mention have worked for some of my friends out there is cyber-world. I am spending an increasing amount of time meditating, not aimed particularly at helping me sleep, but you never know; it could be a nice side effect. 

In the here and now, I just hope that you managed to get a decent night's sleep and are ready to have a good Sunday. I am going to head back to Duolingo and see if I can mess up some more German phrases because my talk to type programme doesn't understand how to spell some of the more interesting words. Have fun - and for my fellow insomniacs, I wish you a good day with people who understand you are feeling tetchy and know not to do anything likely to incur your wrath.