I recently had a terrible 3 month bout of insomnia. I'm just starting to get over it. I saw the doctor after I was only getting two hours of sleep every 30-36 hours.
She gave me a prescription for sleeping pills (ambien). They did nothing. I tried a different prescription (lunesta) that had worked in the past, combined with zoloft. The zoloft helped me FEEl better, but the sleeping pills, even at higher doses, still did nothing.
She also gave me a whole slew of stuff on good sleep habits, and told me to read a book called Say Goodnight to Insomnia. I ordered it off Amazon, and it should be arriving shortly. The changes in my daily habits have helped a LOT though.
I stopped drinking all regular soda, which cut a significant portion of sugar and caffeine from my diet. Caffeine can stay in your system for up to 20 hours. I started going to bed at the same time every night, following a bedtime routine. If I couldn't fall asleep, I'd get up for a period, and try again. Once I woke up, I got up no matter how much sleep I'd gotten. As soon as I woke up, or as soon as it was light out, I went outside for 30 minutes and took a walk.
I've suffered from insomnia periodically since I was 10. This was the worst it's ever been for me, and I'm still not totally over it, but it's getting better! Going to bed at the same time each night was pretty hard at first. I was used to going to bed when I felt tired, sometime between 11pm-3am, sleeping in, and taking naps during the day. That's all pretty counterproductive to getting a good nights sleep. You might want to give it a shot ^.^
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ninetydegrees
no subject
on 2009-04-30 03:13 am (UTC)She gave me a prescription for sleeping pills (ambien). They did nothing. I tried a different prescription (lunesta) that had worked in the past, combined with zoloft. The zoloft helped me FEEl better, but the sleeping pills, even at higher doses, still did nothing.
She also gave me a whole slew of stuff on good sleep habits, and told me to read a book called Say Goodnight to Insomnia. I ordered it off Amazon, and it should be arriving shortly. The changes in my daily habits have helped a LOT though.
I stopped drinking all regular soda, which cut a significant portion of sugar and caffeine from my diet. Caffeine can stay in your system for up to 20 hours. I started going to bed at the same time every night, following a bedtime routine. If I couldn't fall asleep, I'd get up for a period, and try again. Once I woke up, I got up no matter how much sleep I'd gotten. As soon as I woke up, or as soon as it was light out, I went outside for 30 minutes and took a walk.
I've suffered from insomnia periodically since I was 10. This was the worst it's ever been for me, and I'm still not totally over it, but it's getting better! Going to bed at the same time each night was pretty hard at first. I was used to going to bed when I felt tired, sometime between 11pm-3am, sleeping in, and taking naps during the day. That's all pretty counterproductive to getting a good nights sleep. You might want to give it a shot ^.^