Blissfull Chemical Sleep

It did however inspire the song "Another Time Another Place" which my father liked so much he christened his boat "Halcyon Days". This may go some way towards explaining the uncanny frequency with which he got tailed by the river police.

So who's ridin' the hypnotic pony around here lately? What are you on?

I loved Lunesta for a while, but when my anxiety increased, I found it didn't work anymore. It's designed to wear off halfway through the night, so you don't have a sleepy hangover in the morning. Great in theory, but what if you wake up in the middle of the night?

So last night I tried Rozerem. You know, the one with the beaver and Abe Lincoln? It's not as surreal as all that, but it did put me under. So I have traded waking up in the middle of the night (sometimes never to return to sleep) for feeling puffy and groggy in the morning (though fairly clear-headed, all things considered).

do you have insomnia, kenan?

It comes and goes. The last time I had this much trouble sleeping, though, was when I was a teenager. There were no drugs prescribed then, just lots of staying up all night and getting yelled at for doing so. I don't think it occured to me that I had insomnia; I just thought I was misbehaving.

But yeah, night before last I went to bed at midnight, laid there for an hour, finally fell asleep, then woke up at 4:30. Puttered, smoked, had some juice, and eventually said fuck it, I'll go to work weirdly early and get nothing done because I can't think straight. :(

It's been really bad for several weeks now.

lunesta gave me a really nasty bitter aftertaste that lasted throughout the next day. dnw!

Yeah, I got that, too! Like, a metallic taste. It's not listed as a side effect, since "everything tastes funny" isn't considered medically relevant. My doctor explained that the manufacturers probably don't even know what causes that.

i am pretty happy with ambien. if i mix it with alcohol though, it makes me sleepwalk and send nonsensical text messages in the middle of the night.

i think smoking's a bad idea. the best advice for me is the advice that you hear a million times, but it really does work in my experience: get out of the bedroom, get a low-light situation going on, no tv, no computer, make yourself a hot drink, maybe with milk in it, and/or honey. herbal tea with honey really works well for me actually.

i think smoking's a bad idea.

no one's ever told me that before! ;)

No, I mean, strictly physiologically speaking, it's probably a bad idea, but I am an addict, and I'd rather contend with increased heart rate than the anxiety that comes with NOT smoking.

I've recently been able to tame my insomnia with late-night turkey sandwiches and glasses of warm milk with a little honey and a tiny bit of vodka.

kenan i don't mean in general! i mean when you're trying to sleep.

yeah isn't nicotine a stimulant? What I can't stand are those tylenol/ advil/ whatever pm's. they knock me out for a couple of hours, and then I wake up kind of jazzed and loopy. I've only used them a few times out of desperation, but yeah, pretty worthless.

xpost That's what I mean, too. If I wake up and feel like I want a cigarette, I'm not going to stress myself out by exercising will power and not having one. That's not going to help at all.

yeah isn't nicotine a stimulant?

technically, but it has depressant effects as well.

ok, well. just make sure you don't turn on the computer or the tv. and try reading silas marner or something.

yeah, i usually go right to the computer. To my credit, I guess, I'm not playing video games or anything so exciting. I read the NYTimes if I'm up at an insane hour, usually. I'm hoping something has blown up.

it's not the excitement, it's something to do with the light emitted from the screen; it fools your eyes and brane into thinking that it's time to be awake.

huh. I did not know that.

black.css

Ambien's nice. Benadryl works if I'm out.

Bananas are supposed to help you sleep too.

It's not listed as a side effect, since "everything tastes funny" isn't considered medically relevant.

Dude I know it's not considered such, I suppose, but I still think it's the kind of thing they should list as a side effect, so yr not all of a sudden like, "Why has my mouth gone crazy?"

It's a very unnatural flavor. It reminds you all day long that the reason you are rested is because you ingested synthetic things.

I tried Melatonin last night and was very impressed!

the circus boy is feeling melatonin.

and lookin california

I've been sleeping really badly lately, but a friend gave me some Lunesta which I'll try tonight, and report back. Is it okay if I've had wine with dinner or something like that?

Sure, just don't get hammered or anything, and you should be fine.

Well, that worked. I was tossing and turning for about ten minutes and then suddenly it was 9 in the emornign. Crazy dreams too.

I'm a bit of a naif about this all, though -- how often is it acceptable/not acceptable to take them?

I have short bouts of insomnia every few months or so. I find that getting up and reading for a couple of hours usually puts me back to sleep. If that fails, klonopin does the knock-out.

I've never tried any of the new non-benzo sleep aids like ambien, etc. I'm a little nervous about trying them because something like 6% if people who take them hallucinate. This happened to a friend of mine and was not pretty.