Comments on At What Point...

Maybe you keep East coast hours? It's 8:00 here, a perfectly reasonable time to be awake.

It's 7:10 in New Orleans and I'm already at work. Seattle's 3:55 is my 5:55, and I was halfway to work at that point.

Dan I feel your pain. I woke up at 2 AM EST, couldn't sleep and went for a scooter ride. I had to get up at 5:30, and now I'm at work. It's going to be a long day.

Add the game Bubbletown on facebook (or it's equivalent on insert networking site here) - I can clear my head playing that game and then fall back to sleep. Who knew bursting bubbles could be so satisfying???

I give myself 45 minutes to go back to sleep, and then I get up and do something else.

Dan, Try Unisom.....it"ll make you drowsy enough to fall asleep.....Weed works too.

Dan, more sypathetic I could not be. I had insomnia two nights ago. It is fucking awful!

I definitely recommend weed, but I assume you have already gone down that road. So yeah, you might as well give up and go do something....

Have you tried watching McCain speeches? Always works for me

I was awake. Why didn't you call?

For me, I decided that it was 2:00 am and I was getting bored on just laying in bed, so I got up and played scrabble on my computer for a few hours.

I am dead tired at work now.

Well, whatever you try, I hope you get some sleep.

Next time, try chain smoking, pacing the floor, and drinking water tumblers full of whiskey. It may not work, but its delightfully noir - especially if you are dressed as a woman while doing it.

Will do, Catalina.

Catalina, that IS delightfully noir. I love it.

I might try it tonight in a man's suit.

Dan, maybe this will help, just a little:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/06/usa_olympic_diving_trials.html

I heard that insomnia is linked to chronic self-pollution. Dan, what have you been doing?!?

Did you try masturbation?

That hardly ever happens to me but when it does I kind of love it...like you're getting all this stuff done and everyone else is wasting time sleeping. It does catch up to you, though...

@4
Bubbletown has been removed from Facebook. What the hell?

After 1 hour of insomnia I'll get up and do something. If it's the middle of the night, I'll usually read or watch TV, then go back to bed when I'm drowsy. If it's after 5 AM I'll just get up.

Go blow your brains out.

You too? I woke up at 4, gave up at 5. Now I'm trying to ingest enough caffeine to stay awake until the rest of my body catches up.

Generic Nyquil. Works every time.

The only thing that cured my insomnia was a boring new boyfriend.

@ 22: He is trying to sleep, not go into a coma.

Usually at the point where I ask myself, "How the hell are the neighbors still partying at 4:00 AM on a weeknight? Don't they have fucking jobs?"

Normally I can sympathize as I get bouts of insomnia pretty frequently. Last night, however, I slept for 15 hours straight after being up for 55 of the previous 60 hours for work.

I'm just trying to make all of you jealous.

"At what point do you say fuck it...."

I never say "fuck it" unless I am going to fuck it, and not sleeping sometimes encourages me to say "Fuck it (or him, really)" and that usually puts a good sleepy vibe in me.

If that doesn't work, I just get up because nothing is accomplished simply laying in bed saying I should fall asleep or get up. Pretty straightforward at my house.

I had a bad case of insomnia last summer. I started listening to books on tape (or CD). Found it really helpful, like having a bedtime story read to me. Has to be the right voice though. Found a book being read by Lisa Kudrow terribly distracting.

fuck terry in the butt. That's what you do when you can't sleep.

I fully sympathize, as the past couple weeks have been some of the most stressful of my life so far, for reasons I'd rather not get into, and the insomnia has been unbearable.

X@n@x before bed helps a bit. (edited to avoid spam filter)

I have the problem of waking too early like 6:30 and not being able to get back to sleep. Opening Bell is a bitch.

I tried waking up early and still missed the latest express bus to work today.

Totally agree with @31.

Got any economics textbooks?

Melatonin pills! The all-natural, hippie approved, non-habit-forming sleep aid!

I second the beating-off suggestion. Looking at some porn and whacking it is like making a cup of herbal tea...only better.

@30:

X@n@x is my preferred insomnia cure as well. I'm a "get straight to the point" sort of person, basically.

I always choose "fuck it" and get up to surf the internet or watch tv, or organize things. I'm usually ready to fall asleep right when my son gets up, so I can't and this makes me very tired all day. And yet, I still can't sleep the next night and the cycle continues.

@31: who do you fuck in the butt at 6:30 when you can't get back to sleep? terry?

And my sympathies to you, tsm. Hope whatever you're going through works itself out soon, and in your favor.

After we moved to Michigan I was anxious and depressed and unable to really sleep. Meds and therapy worked wonders for me. What about meds and therapy, Dan? Or bourbon.

is it insomnia when you go to bed at 3:30 dead tired ( because i work at night not because of partying ) sleep for five minutes awaken because the boyfriend has to turn over, and then don't get back to sleep until 8;30, fall into deep deep and then have to get up for a day job at 8:45 ? ..
i know it isn't but thought just maybe i'd get a little sympathy before i drag my ass to work in ten minutes to peoples that had breakfast 3 hours ago.

stop smoking pot riz. maybe THAT will help.

@jon,

my boyfriend has a vagina so i fuck him there.

I've been waking up at 5am every morning for the past month for no real reason. If I stay put, I usually fall back asleep in about 20 minutes, which then makes waking up at 8am even harder. But if I actually get up and go to work, I crash pretty hard at about 10am. It's lose-lose.

(sarcasm on)
@43 careful with that, he could get pregnant and go on a national media tour culminating in Oprah touching his adorably pregnant belly.

Does the girlfriend know about your insomnia cure?
(sarcasm off)

@18 update your browser maybe?? Bubbletown is working on my facebook! =)

@45

HAH!

In the homeopathic section at Whole Foods or other health food stores there are some natural sleep aids. They help me stay asleep but don't give me a hard time waking up in the morning. The one I buy is called "Quietude".

Hope that helps! :)

I've been dealing with on-and-off (mostly on) insomnia for a month or so, now.  I had no idea so many Slog regulars are in the same boat, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

Best wishes for all concerned to sort out whatever's keeping us awake.

@48,

That sounds awfully similar to the suicide drug in Children of Men.

@49 If we are all going through this, we should have a nightly "insomniac" post where we can take consolation in the great number of us who are not really asleep, because I don't know about you but one of the things that pisses me off at 3am is the thought that I'm the only one awake and everyone else is blessedly slumbering.

@51, that's an excellent idea.  Maybe we could start something in the Stranger forums.  (The forums still exist, right?)

@51 & 52: maybe you should pick a random post from the afternoon and turn it into the insomnia post. the trick would be in finding it, for the people who didn't designate it as the insomnia post. the forums are weak.

I've just discovered TEMAZEPAM - took my first one last night after a month of healing from a recent surgery and had the most glorious night of sleep ever.

jon @53:

the forums are weak.

I was afraid of that.  I'd prefer to avoid staffer dependency, so maybe we should build consensus around a simple, predictable system.

I propose:  At midnight each night, the last Slog post stamped before midnight that night is designated the Insomnia Thread.

This way, everyone knows exactly where to look, regardless of what the Stranger does (short of going a whole day with no Slog posts at all).

I always liked marzipan to help me fall asleep.

I slept phenomenally last night for the first time in days. Have been in the Colorado Rockies since Friday and I apparently can't sleep for shit at 9,000 ft. 9 hours of sea level bliss last night...

I get insomnia pretty frequently, but I never say "fuck it". For some reason I prefer to just lay there and really hope I'll fall back to sleep.

b'vue @42,
for the record i don't smoke pot.. shit makes you stupid.. ummm... actually respiratory difficulties ( probably ) caused by all those years of concentrated second hand smoke in clubs,makes smoking miserable ( my neighbors smoking on the first floor apartment will awaken me when the sound of the recycling trucks is still washing over my slumbering ears ). but now eating pot ? that's another story, and while i know that pot does indeed exacerbate insomnia in a few people, i generally go out like a light and stay that way until i'm alarmed awake.
something elsewas afoot last night.
thank god for disco naps.

Some of you all might want to get checked out by a mental health professional. You might have depression or hypomania. Anyway, here are some tips for trying to sleep that I will pass down from this professional non-sleeper/daytime sleeper/sleeper too much! heh

1) Don't do anything in bed except sleep or have sex. No computer work, no crosswords, no reading. This supposedly trains your body that bed is only for sleep or sex.

2) If you are awake and you can't get back to sleep, only lay in bed for 15 minutes, then get up if you are still awake.

3) Keep your sleeping area dark.

4) Try to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, even on weekends.

5) Exercising during the day is supposed to help.

6) Try not to drink caffeine after about 2pm.

7) Try relaxation techniques, like meditation or sitting in one spot listening to an Enya song over and over until you become mesmerized and sleepy.

8) If your insomnia/sleep problems last too long, please seek medical help.

Okay, but of course I pretty much don't utilize any of the strategies myself, which is probably why my sleep is completely erratic! I've sort of given up on sleeping like a normal human. Sleeping aids do help, but be careful, because some of them are addicting. Melatonin is NON-addicting I think. Ambien works like a charm, but is probably addicting. Drugs like marijuana and alcohol can lead to serious other problems and may exacerbate symptoms, so it is not wise to use them.

Even if you don't think that you are "depressed" you might want to get checked and make sure. Sometimes depression (especially mild depression) manifests somatically. In other words, sometimes the body will show signs before the mind will realize it. The signs are often sleeping and eating abnormalities or changes in general mood or irritation levels or even changes in sex drive (either more or less).

If you are having a lot of daytime drowsiness, you might also want to get checked for sleep apnea.

Sorry this is so long.

:) kristin