hi I wanted to bump this up for a friend...
thanks
bizi
*who only sleeps with the help of ambien...lunesta worked for about a year then quit!

you are not alone! I also have no trouble sleeping well, and yet I also sit up until the small hours, fiddling with the computer, procrastinating though I'm dead tired and longing for sleep. And I know I'm beeing an idiot, and that I really need the sleep I'm avoiding.
I can see two reasons:
One is that I get so tired that it's easier just to stay up than to wash and floss and brush - which is exhausting. So I wait, and wait, and wait......
The other is that I am beginning to realize what it means to be obsessively compulsive about something. The computer is beginning to draw me like a magnet.
I still love to read. I used to read in bed, but now I wake up when the book crashes down on my nose two minutes after I think I've begun to read.
And Paula, I also scream and moan in the night and frighten my poor husband, who thinks I'm in pain or having horrible nightmares, while I actually invariably have fun and entertaining dreams, but a dream laugh comes through sounding like a moan.

ZZZZZZZZ
birte

Birte.

i have woke up laughing.....I do like it when that happens, usually can't remember why but it's a real positive energy surge

Paula

whew! so i am not alone! what medication(s) are you taking, if you don't mind my asking?

boann

I can certainly empathize; my wife doesn't understand why I keep coming to bed at 1:00 or 2:00, and neither do I. I figure it may something to do with sleeping so poorly once I get there - I keep waking up every hour or two, and in the morning I am awake at 7:00 AM, whether or not I'm rested, which I can guarantee I'm not.

I shifted my Mirapex so that I take a dose at bedtime; it has helped in the sense that I no longer scream and/or flail about in the middle of the night, or start "vibrating" at 4:00 AM (my wife's descriptive term). I also take Seroquel at night.

i have been told i have done that - any ideas what it is about?

I can relate to the procrastination thing too. I think It's because sleeping is such a trial. My body wakes every few hours, my tremor acts up (especially if I've been eating sugar) and it's an effort to make the transition from one plane of existance to another and back again. Its a major ordeal to change positions, and rearrange the blankets. I sleep with a light weight duvet, and am looking for an even lighter one. sometimes my meds go off before I'm ready, and there is the obligatory wait for them to kick in before I can start my day. I get tired just thinking about it. That thing about not reading since starting Mirapex was an interesting comment. I'll have to give that some thought. I find I read for information. Wouldn't want to miss anything important you know... Yes the computer can be an obsessive thing. I make myself leave it alone some days when I have a grip. Of course if it dies (It's not been bad today), I will have forced exile from the magic window and have to get along with substitutes for a few days. Could be traumatic. Ahh but there are other computers in the house. What a life!!! Someone should start a thread...what would you do if your computer self destructed? Probably wouldn't get any response because no one wants to think about it...

Hi,
This comes very close to describing my sleep issue.

I have bipolar but I noticed that my bipolar issues are not like the other folks. When my psychaitrst offered Ambien I didn't take it.

Many therapists have suggested that I follow "sleep hygiene" the way that they teach it in cognitive behavioral therapy. I learned this: only use the bed room for sleep and sex -- to tv, no phone, no reading, no eating, no computer...


One therapist said that my sleep thing is a kind of ADD/ADHD thing where I distract myself from going to bed.

Another thinks it is a kind of PTSD thing when I feel out of control/panicky about going to sleep.

The thing is that I can sleep at the computer, in the car (parking lot), and just about anywhere else. I simply put off going to bed until it is very late and then I have to will myself to sleep. I can be asleep 19 times out of 20 in about 15 minutes (with the help of Klonopin). If I am still awake after 15 minutes, I get up and read for 30 minutes. Then try again.

I'm been told that I have control issues and that I learn to let go through meditation.
My current therapist does hypnosis but we have made limited progress.

Anyway, this is more than you wanted to know.
I popped in to say that your situation sounds very similiar to mine.

Mari

Of course I don't mind at all, boann.
I take 8 1/2 mg Requip, 1 1/2 carbid./levad.(Teva) 25/100 pill, 100 mg Amantadine per day, divided into three portions.
Amantadine in the morning only, 3 mg Requip morning and evening, 2 1/2 mg Requip at noon, 1/2 c./l. pill morning, noon and evening.

I also take 1500 mg curcumen, 250 mg magnesium, 500 mg calcium, flax, fish oil, vitamin B complex and vitamin C every day. And I make sure to have some walnuts and almonds and a bit of candied ginger (yum) every day.

Supposedly magnesium taken at night helps you sleep, and calcium calms the nerves. But none of it has helped me go to bed at a decent time.

all the best,

birte