I woke up at 2:30 AM and can't get back to sleep

Lovely? I'd have to shut him up, possibly by physical means like finding the broom and hitting him with dust balls.

I'm getting back to more normal sleep lately, after Katy's (sigh) problems. If I do wake up I tend to need to pee (old, you know) which gets me up for a bit. I'm an in bed reader, and can zoom right off to dreamland unless it's some kind of best seller type thriller, but I don't like those much anyway. But when I have read those, bad choice for sleep inducing. History is pretty good for bed books.. to me.

On food, I tend to have protein (and other stuff) in the morning, and carbs (and other stuff) at night. That's the mashed potato insomnia cure..

I used to get insomnia back when I was in school, working at the same time, and doing homework in the middle of the night. That was deadly. A lot of that was worry, worry, worry. I still get it even now if I'm fearful about money problems. Thus my interest in distraction, where the hell did I put the Herodotus histories?

My mother used to say I was born with my nights and days mixed up. Sleep all day wake up and spend the rest of the evening awake. That had to be terrible for her, because she is also a morning person. Before I retired I had to get up at 5:30, I needed assistance but my husband would chant in a leaden fashion "Janice....get up". I can sleep thru alarm clocks without turning them off. When I was single, I had three alarm clocks set and placed out of reach from the bed so I would actually have to put my feet on the floor. I don't know why I'm this way, but I've been this way as long as I can remember. By the time I was 9, my mother would come in on Christmas morning and say "everybody is up, we want to open the presents, get up and get to the living room. My mind is a total blank for 15 minutes as I struggle to wake up fully. After that, I like it quiet until I've had my coffee. I can handle limited conversation but until all the circuits are firing do not ask me if I've decided where I want the plants to go, or do I think a refrigerator 1 inch deeper will protrude too much, truth be told any question that requires me to think should be postponed until I've had time to read the paper. I don't get cranky, I just get a look of resigned desperation.

Well it's 10:41 PM, any one care to start a pool on what time I'll fall asleep tonight or how long I stay asleep. I will start a thread singing the virtues of the person who guesses correctly. The winner picks his/her favorite talent or whatever and I will wax poetic in praise of that person. Or if you wish, I'll make up my own glowing accounts in your honor.

I'm hoping before 1 AM. Have a lot to do tomorrow as well.

glitterbag wrote :



have you tried a " bedshaker " ? ... ...

I bought one , but ... find the bed just a little too heavy for lifting to place the shaker under one of the legs !

just in case you think i'm kidding :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGabXx6Hctg

( though I don't know where the " joy " is in having such a gizmo ! )

I have one identical to the first one shown. It was quite annoying, since it did it's shaking in irregular little bursts instead of following a particular pattern. It quit working after maybe three months, in spite of my having put it under the pillow as intended, instead of under one leg of the bed. I am very disappointed in it, as it was impossible to sleep through, and I did not get abusive with it.

I have just logged in and have opened this thread on your post.
Reading it in isolation, initially it appeared that you were discussing something very "adult".

Made me smile, anyway.

Yes. In isolation is good too.

This happens to me if I drink coffee too late in the day. Fall asleep at 11:30; wake up at 3:30. Sometimes, if I go into another room and read or post here for a half hour or so, I can fall asleep again.

Can you function properly next day if you've had so little sleep? Or do you become forgetful, or short-tempered, or any other problem?