and boy am I tired. I don't know what is up with me. I have had insomnia before, but not nearly as bad. I mean I haven't literally shut my eyes and slept for one minute in the past three days. I feel tired, really exhausted, but when I lay down and close my eyes, my mind will race or my body is twitching and spasming (sp?). At one point my whole body went into a spasm. It was very painful and lifted me off the bed. That is the second time that it has happened that way. So I just get up, it is worthless trying to lay there and sleep when you can't.

Can anyone share any ideas that may help me get some ? I would appreciate any help.

Thank you in advance.

M

Finally!!!

I was able to get to sleep some today with the help of a little pill called Ambien. I had tried it before with no avail. But this time since only sleeping for 6-8 hours since Saturday a.m., It did it jobs. My Psychologist called it in for me. I took one at 5:00pm and slept until 8:15, then I took two at 11:22 and woke up at 4:09. So I have about 8 more hours than I did at noon yesterday. Not really tired now, but I can't take anymore Ambien until tonight. So I am going to try and see if I can fall asleep on my own. Thing is I have to get up here in an hour and take my son to school. Kind of seems not worth it to try and sleep right now.

So, if anyone ever has problems with insomnia and hasn't tried Ambien (either at all or for a while), it worked good for me this time.

Thanks.

Was the lack of sleep due to coffee, salt, alcohol or a drug that might have affected your sleep ?

Hi, I came across this thread entirely by mistake and just had to post our experience.

My one child never slept properly. It was awful! I believe it was part of what was making him very ill. His joints were also so stiff that they couldn't even do the full hip rotation test that they usually do every month with babies at their monthly checkups.

Three years of specialists and illness (viral/bacterial) and no one could figure out why this kid was so sick.

One doctor said "It's food." All the rest kept saying that was ridiculous. Well, for a year, she kept saying, I think it's food. I kept telling her I only made homemade, wholewheat bread... our house was devoid of chemicals and colours of packaged food. She said, "I think it's the bread."

Finally, I got sick of listening to her and formulated a total elimination diet for my family (so that she couldn't shift from bread to some other food). Honestly, I thought it was totally ridiculous but I didn't want her to doubt my results at all when we didn't see any change... so I was really precise and picky about everything.

Well... colour me shocked... in four days I had a brand new kid! And one of the first things that got better... his ability to sleep.

So, once in a while I'd give him a piece of bread (just to re-test it) and he'd turn upside down in his bread. Take the bread (grain) out of his diet and he would sleep right side up. So, we said good-bye to gluten and are complete avoidance fanatics now.

Some people think it's a lot of work... but I'll tell you, it's worth it for the excellent quality of life we now have.

It was the weirdest thing for me to finally admit... but it was definitely food that was doing it to him. All those doctors, all those years... and only one of them made the correct call. That must have been tough for her... No one would listen to her... I'll be sorry about that until the day I die. She turned out to really be our saviour!

Six years later, on a very strict gluten free (and not-so-strict casein free; refined sugar free) diet, he remains hospital free, drug free, he's sleeping and growing better than ever before.

Funny thing was, his sister would complain all the time of being tired (when she was four years old). I told the doc. I didn't think that was right for a four year old, but it was put down to our modern-day hectic lifestyle.

Well, she lost her fatigue too. No more complaining, "I'm *so* tired Mom!" No more leg cramps for her anymore either (which do seem to onset in the evening). The leg cramps are related to dairy protein though. We tested it using 'fake cheese' with casein in it and her leg pain came back.

I'd never go back.

Please do look at food as a possible culprit.