I mentioned my odd sleeping habits in my last post. Well, it's gotten worse.
I'm not sure what triggered it. One morning, I just woke up and looked at the clock to see it was almost 11. I was raised to think that 9 AM counts as sleeping in, and I've RARELY slept in later. I hoped it was just a phase, but day after day, I've somehow managed to hit "dismiss" on my alarm while remaining unconscious, and over 3 hours later, I wake up still exhausted.
And it's not like I have anything keeping me up at night. I used to have pretty bad insomnia. I'd lie awake for hours, and when I did finally sleep, it was restless and shallow. That was until my junior year of high school when an average of 4 hours of sleep a night, plus school stress, and mental, physical, and emotional issues all teamed up against me, and my body couldn't handle it any longer. Stomach ulcers, headaches, and less than my best grades were the results. I missed more school that year due to sickness than ever. Therefore, when summer came, and I was able to just rest and sleep, my insomnia disappeared, and my body decided that sleep was no longer something it could do without.
Until last week, that is.
For the past several nights, I've laid awake at night for hours before falling to sleep. Completely random, but I'm at a loss for what to do about it. I've tried getting up earlier. I did that yesterday, but it just resulted in me being exhausted by 10:30 PM and lying awake even longer than usual. I finally texted my mom around 1 AM with a "this is getting ridiculous" before resorting to Advil (for the headache and sore neck) and Benadryl (for the sleeping drugs). Bed-knobs and Broomsticks was on BYU channel, so I turned that on, drank another full bottle of water, ate the crumbs in the bottom of my white-cheddar Cheeze-Its box, a Lindt truffle, and finally a German Moser Roth dark chocolate truffle and waited to doze off. Healthy, right?
And here I am now. It's almost 1 AM. And I'm not tired. Well, I am, but I'm not sleeping.
Anyone dealt with insomnia before? Any suggestions? I'm not too keen on the idea of being a full-time college student and not sleeping. I've seen the effects it has on my health, and now, right as I'm starting the music program,
I have to worry about my voice too.
Help.
Edit: 2:44 AM
Edit: 2:44 AM
First of all, insomnia is terrible and i'm so sorry you're dealing with it. Second- the only thing that had ever really worked for me is getting on a completely regular sleeping schedule and not altering it by even a half hour. The first couple days I was like a zombie because I didn't get enough sleep, but by the third day, I was finally able to sleep the entire night. If you can't do that, there's melatonin which seriously works miracles. Time release if you're planning on getting 8 hours, the regular if not. It's 100% natural and wonderful. I don't know if you're in Arizona or Utah, but if you're in Arizona, I have some you can try! Again, i'm so sorry you're dealing with this. It's awful. Feel better!
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, insomnia is terrible and i'm so sorry you're dealing with it. Second- the only thing that had ever really worked for me is getting on a completely regular sleeping schedule and not altering it by even a half hour. The first couple days I was like a zombie because I didn't get enough sleep, but by the third day, I was finally able to sleep the entire night. If you can't do that, there's melatonin which seriously works miracles. Time release if you're planning on getting 8 hours, the regular if not. It's 100% natural and wonderful. I don't know if you're in Arizona or Utah, but if you're in Arizona, I have some you can try! Again, i'm so sorry you're dealing with this. It's awful. Feel better!
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