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Cat Forum / Cat Anecdotes / January 2006Re-regulating my sleep patterns (OT but helpful)
I had an idea, since nothing else was working, on how to get back on a regular sleep schedule rather than stay up all night. I stayed up all night! Seriously, the night before last I didn't let myself go to bed at all. Kept myself busy, either online or doing small things around the house. I went to bed yesterday at 10AM and got up at 4PM. Then I went to bed last night at 11:30PM and slept through the night! Didn't wake up until 7:30 this morning and I felt so refreshed! I will not allow myself to nap today, which will just throw things off again. Don't ask me why, but it seems like when I stayed up those extra hours it sort of got me back in sync. We'll see if this continues. OB Cats: Persia was extremely puzzled about why I didn't go to bed at all the other night, not even at 3AM. She finally realized I'm crazy and she snoozed on the couch while I persisted in staying awake. And no, I wasn't sleepy, that's part of the problem with me trying to sleep when my body isn't inclined to. She happily curled up next to me when I went to bed at 10AM yesterday, although I'll admit she had a puzzled look on her pretty face :) Oh well, she'd been fed and would be fed again shortly after I woke up so all was right in her world! Jill >I had an idea, since nothing else was working, on how to get back on a > regular sleep schedule rather than stay up all night. I stayed up all [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > when I stayed up those extra hours it sort of got me back in sync. We'll > see if this continues. I fell into the same pattern of getting up later and staying up until the early hours when I off sick and I didn't sleep well. I'll mail you soon about what I did about it. Tweed > OB Cats: Persia was extremely puzzled about why I didn't go to bed at all > the other night, not even at 3AM. She finally realized I'm crazy and she [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > > Jill > I fell into the same pattern of getting up later and staying up > until the early hours when I off sick and I didn't sleep well. > I'll mail you soon about what I did about it. I would be quite interested in this, myself. Between the fact that I do freelance work at home, so I don't need to be at work at any particular time, and I live alone, so there's nobody to insist that it's time for bed, I keep extremely late hours. (The kitties don't care - they love having me up late!) My typical sleeping time is from 5AM to 2PM. Hey, I did say *extreme*. (And yes, I do seem to require 9 hours of sleep, no matter when I do it.) But last night, I went to bed at 7:30 AM, and slept until 5 PM!! I have a cold, so I needed even more sleep than usual. I've been battling this problem for years. It's not just a habit anymore - my body is now completely acclimated to my schedule. If I go to bed "early" (say, midnight or 1 AM), I cannot stay asleep, and I have a very poor night's sleep, waking up frequently and sleeping very lightly. From my body's point of view, I'm supposed to be up and about at this time! In some ways, I don't really mind having weird hours - it's fun to be up and doing things when the rest of the world is asleep. I work much better in the middle of the night - no phone calls, no visitors, no delivery trucks, or kids making noise, or beautiful sunny weather calling to me... it's dark and quiet and tranquil, and my concentration is excellent. But when it comes to trying to live in the real world, it's a big problem. People want to get together to socialize shortly after I've finished breakfast. The nerve of them! I'm always rushed to do my errands, because stores and gov't offices close not long after I get up. Society is diurnal, and I simply don't fit in, and I usually feel out of sync and out of sorts. So I'd like to change it, but boy, it's hard to do. Last year I even went into therapy, with the explicit goal of changing my sleeping hours. Needless to say, this failed, because therapists do not work with goals. Their job is to probe and probe, and then ask you how you feel about that. :) I actually like my therapist, so even though I didn't succeed at changing my hours, I've continued to see her for other reasons. I realize now that I don't need a therapist for this problem - I need a dominatrix with a whip! :) Anyway, Tweed, if you could include me in that email (remove the X's in the "jXwXeXrXmXoXnXt" part of my address), I'd appreciate that. Or if you want to, you could just post about it here. Thanks! Joyce > I had an idea, since nothing else was working, on how to get back on a > regular sleep schedule rather than stay up all night. I stayed up all [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > when I stayed up those extra hours it sort of got me back in sync. We'll > see if this continues. That's more or less my method for combating jet-lag, when I go to Europe! (I can never sleep on planes, and most overseas flights from California are overnights.) After being more-or-less awake for most of the night on a twelve-hour flight, and having my internal clock confused by the nine-hour time loss, I simply go to bed as soon as I reach my hotel (I may have a meal, first, depending upon the "real" time there). I then sleep the rest of the day, and through until normal "getting up time" the next morning. I may lose a vacation day, but that's no hardship when I've planned for it, and the rest of my vacation, my internal clock is "in synch" with the people around me. (For some reason, the return flight from Europe to California doesn't affect me the same way.) >> I had an idea, since nothing else was working, on how to get back on >> a regular sleep schedule rather than stay up all night. I stayed up [quoted text clipped - 24 lines] > reason, the return flight from Europe to California doesn't > affect me the same way.) My method doesn't seem to work well if I have several glasses of wine while enjoying a meal with friends and then get home and want to go to sleep at 9PM. Here I am awake again! Oh well! Jill >>>I had an idea, since nothing else was working, on how to get back on >>>a regular sleep schedule rather than stay up all night. I stayed up [quoted text clipped - 28 lines] > enjoying a meal with friends and then get home and want to go to sleep at > 9PM. Here I am awake again! Oh well! Despite its supposed classification as a depressant, I find that alcohol in the evening (far more than strong coffee) will keep me awake at night. However, if warm milk fails, I find a melatonin tablet usually does the trick. I very seldom have to resort to sleep-aid medication, and then it's just Sominex or another OTC preparation that's mostly antihistamine. >I had an idea, since nothing else was working, on how to get back on a > regular sleep schedule rather than stay up all night. I stayed up all [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] > > Jill I have a tendency to stay up later and later and later, particularly when I'm doing a lot of reading or not feeling well or going through a depression cycle. The stay up all night thing is the only way I can get back in sync with the rest of my family. Jo I've had various sleep disorder problems over the years, including being unable to go to sleep until 6 a.m. or so. My boss at the time was pressuring me to fix it, saying to just go to bed earlier and earlier each evening. After talking with my doctor, I replied to the boss that the only way to re-regulate was to stay up later and later until the cycle got back to normal: was he willing to have me work gradually forward-shifting hours until I got back to normal hours? He wasn't, so my doctor decreed the only alternative: I went on disability for 2 months while my sleep routine got re-established. I don't see how that was better for the company than if I'd worked, but that's what happened. Sandy >I had an idea, since nothing else was working, on how to get back on a > regular sleep schedule rather than stay up all night. I stayed up all [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] > > Jill > my doctor decreed the only > alternative: I went on disability for 2 months while my sleep routine got > re-established. I don't see how that was better for the company than if I'd > worked, but that's what happened. Did it work? Joyce > > my doctor decreed the only > > alternative: I went on disability for 2 months while my sleep routine [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > > Joyce Yes, it did. I had to have some help from medication (Ambien), but it worked. I stayed on the Ambien a long time (2 or 3 years, much longer than normal), but in the last couple of years I've only taken it 3 or 4 times. To this day, it makes me happy when I get sleepy around the time I need to go to bed. When I went back to work I had an additional work restriction, which I still have: no night-time or 24-hour oncall work (which is a normal part of the computer technical support work I do). I have mixed feelings about that: I'm happy not to be oncall, but the oncall work can be some of the most interesting. Sandy >> Did it work? > Yes, it did. I had to have some help from medication (Ambien), but it > worked. I stayed on the Ambien a long time (2 or 3 years, much longer than > normal), but in the last couple of years I've only taken it 3 or 4 times. > To this day, it makes me happy when I get sleepy around the time I need to > go to bed. That's great! A couple of my friends have suggested I try this myself. It's a little scary, though. Staying up until 9 AM, 10 AM, noon, and then sleeping through the day. It just seems like I'd be getting *worse* instead of better. But they say it works, and so do you. So maybe I should try it. Right now I work at home with few external demands on my schedule, so this would be a good time to do it. How long did it take until you got back to a normal schedule? Joyce > >> Did it work? > [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > > Joyce Oh, I think I may have misunderstood what you were asking. I think we might have tried the stay-up-later-and-later thing if I had been going to keep working during the process, but I wasn't. I ended up using the Ambien to make myself get sleepy and fall asleep at the time I wanted to. It took a while for that to feel stable: until I got used to it, I would sometimes fall asleep in the middle of something I was doing. I had to learn to recognize when I was feeling sleepy and go to bed. Sandy |
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