fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #5700 ]

[ SECRET POST #5700 ]

⌈ Secret Post #5700 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Every couple of months I have trouble sleeping for no apparent reason. I'm not stressed (or rather, not more stressed than usual), I haven't had too much caffeine before bed, etc. etc. It doesn't matter if I've been physically active or not, or if I feel tired or not before bedtime. I just... can't sleep. I usually take 5mg of melatonin at times like this, but it doesn't always work. At worst, it's this awful can't-get-comfortable thing where my pillow is rock hard, underwear's bunched up weird, my back itches, no wait it's my leg, it's my neck, etc. etc. and now my underwear's all bunched up again from squirming around.

Part of the problem is that I have this collection of stories I tell and re-tell myself as I'm trying to fall asleep and they usually help me relax, distracting me from focusing too much on trivial physical discomforts, real or imagined. Each story features a different fictional character or real person, and it's sort of this epic fantasy romance thing. But my story collection has gotten stale, and it's no longer working. Usually I'd try to create a new one, but that hasn't worked, either.

Do you guys ever struggle with insomnia? What do you do to fall asleep, FS?

Yup. Every now and again, my brain will. Not. Shut. Off. I hate it. I do actually take a melatonin gummy then, though that doesn't always help, or I try to finish one of my many WIP in my head (the focus seems to help settle everything down so i'll get sleepy).

But usually if it's bad, I just cannot sleep so i'll get up and watch mindless stuff, or i'll lay in bed and read, and eventually (hopefully), i'll be tired and drift off. I am very very happy it doesn't happen too often.

I have occasionally, when i must sleep, taken a Benedryl. That puts me *out*, but also makes me feel hungover in the morning.

All the time. Doesn't help that I get my best sleep when I worked nights and slept 7a to noon and I don't work nights anymore. :(

I am a big fan of a nice hot bath, maybe a little snack, and then put on a movie I've seen a hundred times for background noise.

Doesn't always work and with chronic pain sometimes nothing will help at all, but I force myself to close my eyes and lay there, because even just 'resting' is more helpful to your body than not trying.

I have considered looking into cannabis products since it's legal in Canada, but I really know nothing about it so I don't know where to start lol.

Isn't that just... your pillow? I am super picky about my bedsheets and pillows because I will NOT sleep if it's too cold or too hot. I have allergies so they have to be CLEAN. Need to wear comfy clothes and socks. My room's colors help with my mood ... And other than all of this I have neck and back pains and a thing on the back of my head that hurts when I lay down anywhere hard. Same goes for people with CSF leaks ... etc. So yeah. A lot of issues can make you need a softer / harder pillow than the average person.

Other than this, have healthy sleeping habits whatever this means to you. "Don't check your phone" is bs to me - I have to go to bed minutes in advance, make sure that there is nothing pending on the phone and sometimes read a story or check ship art. This is what calms me down enough so I can fall asleep. (Yeah, it's fandom.)

My pillows are fine most nights, they're definitely not the problem. It's just on insomnia nights, NOTHING is comfortable, you know? I'm not... sleeping on a rock hard pillow while being too dim to replace it. ;P

At worst, it's this awful can't-get-comfortable thing where my pillow is rock hard, underwear's bunched up weird, my back itches, no wait it's my leg, it's my neck, etc. etc. and now my underwear's all bunched up again from squirming around.

Yup, I get this. It's very much hormone-related, at least for me. It doesn't happen every single month. Some months I manage to avoid it somehow, but most months there'll be one night, some time just before my period, where I get hit with bad insomnia. And I can always tell it's the hormones sabotaging me when I keep pulling at my clothes and having to scratch a fleeting itch that just reappears somewhere else. I also tend to randomly overheat on these occasions. It's the worst.

What's funny is that I have basically zero PMS otherwise. No pain, no bloating, very mild moodiness, extremely light flow. It took me a long time to realize my insomnia was connected to my cycle, specifically because I'm not used to having "period troubles."

As far as strategies for helping myself sleep: I set the blue light filter on my phone and laptop to turn on quite heavily in the early evening. I use lamps and avoid overhead lights for several hours before bed. And I take 1mg of sublingual melatonin around five hours before bedtime.

A very small dose of melatonin taken hours before bed is the way specialists advise people with circadian rhythm disorders to use melatonin, and since I have a circadian rhythm disorder (which I'm currently managing fairly effectively) I take my melatonin in that way. I have no idea if taking it that way would be of any benefit to someone who didn't have a CRD though.

Unfortunately, the bottom line is that when my hormones are against me, nothing I do can really counteract their effects. Furthermore, if I happen to be anxious about something at the same time as the PMS insomnia is hitting me, then I'm just completely fucked and probably won't sleep until shortly before I have to get up for the day.

I never even considered that hormones and my cycle could be a factor, wow.

I've begun talking about my periods a lot more with a friend and she mentioned that she gets really hot when she's on her period and I began to notice that I get really hot and sweaty when I'm about to get my period (2-3 days before). It also affects her sleep. Lately for me, not as much. My periods have been on the lighter side for the last couple of months so I don't feel as bloated and uncomfortable.

As long as I'm comfy, I initially fall asleep pretty easy, but I tend to wake up regularly and also have hypnopompic hallucinations most nights; so getting back to sleep can take ages when my brain is 100% convinced that there was definitely a scorpion on my pillow or hair coming out of the ceiling or something.

I haven't had a proper night's sleep since 2012 and I haven't slept for more than four hours with the very few exception of a handful of nights since 2020.

The one game changing advice I was given was to just close your eyes in the time that I'm suppose to go to bed - even if I don't actually go to sleep, resting my eyes certainly feels better than when I use to just stare at the wall or ceiling when I couldn't drop off.
The only times when it doesn't work is when I've been unwell and the room feels like its spinning when my eyes are closed - i really hate it when that happens :s

I cheat. I have SVT, so I get to permanently have beta blockers with me. When stuff like this hits, I just take a couple of those and the low heart rate puts me out like a light.

I listen to audio books. Something about a quiet human voice sends me off - and if it doesn't work I still got a story out of it.

And I have a breathing exercise that I do for relaxation pretty regularly: breath in on a count of 4, hold for 7, breath out against a curled up tongue or pursed lips so it whistles, on a count of 8, repeat two three times.

I wouldn't call either an instant cure, but they are helpful.

I used to listen to rain sounds on youtube to help me sleep. Now I play long video essays to help me sleep. Usually Jenny Nicholson, Shanspeare, Hbomberguy's "Sherlock Holmes" video, Sarah Z, and for the past week it's been a playlist of Todd in the Shadow's "Cinemadonna" series (OT but I think I would read or watch/listen to anything Todd has to say about Madonna; big fan of both and Todd's such a good writer).
I also turn my fan on the low setting. I get hot easily when I sleep.

White noise or rain sounds to sleep. Fan. Having a shower before bed. Stretching or massage if I have body aches. Low light/ blue light filters on phone/ not using phone right before bed. Clean bedding. Having a story to think about in my hsad (new fandoms or ships help).

That said, sometimes it just doesn't work. When that happens I just try to rest my body, as that's better than nothing. Training yourself not to stress about the insomnia when it hits will do wonders.

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[ SECRET POST #5700 ]

Sleep habits and insomnia.

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Re: Sleep habits and insomnia.

Re: Sleep habits and insomnia.

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Re: Sleep habits and insomnia.

Re: Sleep habits and insomnia.

Re: Sleep habits and insomnia.

Re: Sleep habits and insomnia.