Truly, no rest for the wicked.

[truepenny]

The insomnia has been particularly bad the last couple of nights (5 hours or so Thursday night and I slept this morning from 8 a.m. until Catzilla knocked my glasses on the floor at noon.) Partly, this is the same insomnia I've had for literally as long as I can remember, in which my body periodically seems to forget how to go to sleep, but partly, I seem to be developing Restless Legs Syndrome, as the long muscles in my thighs spent the night muttering, can't sleep, clowns will eat me, can't sleep, clowns will eat me. (They're still muttering it now, as a matter of fact; my plan for today includes a Very Long Walk to see if we can maybe drain some of this tension so as not to do this all over again tonight.) Yes, before anyone feels the need to tell me to come in out of the rain, I do intend to go talk to my GP.

I also think that part of what's causing this current, persistent round of insomnia is that my health and physical well-being have improved dramatically over the past year and a half or so. I started taking iron supplements and trying to exercise regularly (on the "day in, day out" kind of model of regularity rather than the "once a week whether you need it or not" model), and the result is that I have substantially more energy than I have for, well, a really long time now. So I don't physically need as much sleep as I did for a big chunk of the first decade of the twenty-first century, and neither my body nor my mind seems to know quite what to do with that. That part of it is a good problem to have (I have also noticed that I want to get out and do things instead of resisting like a turtle resists being turned out of its shell), but just at the moment, it's not helping.

Bleah.

Comments

[kate_nepveu]

Urgh. My RLS-ish symptoms can usually be banished by proper hydration, stretching, and waiting, but even as mild as they are, if someone else were doing it to me I'd call it torture. So, sympathies.

[liminalia.livejournal.com]

Some of my friends have found that taking a melatonin supplement 2 hours before bed helps with insomnia. YMMV and all that. One friend did report an increase in freaky dreams on melatonin.

[cerulean-sky.livejournal.com]

As a fellow sufferer of RLS, I sympathize. I've had sleep problems similar to yours since high school. Not fun. The only thing that seemed to help it for me, was finding the right person to sleep next to. Which is a wholly unhelpful "helpful suggestion", really.

My father takes Tylenol Simply Sleep, which is Tylenol PM without the pain relief stuff. I forget what the actual drug contained therein is called (some long thing) but as far as I know you can get house brands of it as well. He's had trouble sleeping for years, which has affected his health, and only just found this Simply Sleep stuff, which seems to be helping. Similar to melatonin (which he tried and it didn't work) you need to take it about two hours before you're planning on sleeping.

(Having just checked, I guess it's "diphenhydramine HCl" which is an allergy relief stuff. But it's also a sleep aid.)

[joycemocha.livejournal.com]

Diphenhydramine HCl is Benadryl, and it doesn't work for everyone as a sleep aid--I'm one that it can backfire on.

(I take Benadryl for other stuff and it's one of my preferred antihistamines)

As another fellow sufferer of RLS and insommia, I highly recommend a pre-bedtime stretching ritual--depending on my daily activity, I go anywhere from 15-40 minutes working out, mostly weight bearing stretches but also shoulder, upper body, core and leg work. Despite common advice, I find it helps with the sleep (which I think is probably because it gets me past that phase where the muscles would ordinarily relax and RLS stomps its way inside instead).

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

I have all your sleep.

Seriously, seven, eight hours a night. WTF?

[magpie49.livejournal.com]

An herb available over the counter here, Ruscus aculaetus, or Butcher's Broom, is good for peripheral circulation, and is used in Europe to treat RLS.

I used it, with my surgeon's blessing, after major leg surgery to reduce the collection of fluid in my ankle. It worked wonderfully well for me. While I was taking it, it also reduced the incidence of the feeling that electric ants were crawling on my toes.

I discovered it in The Honest Herbal, by Varro E. Tyler, PhD, ScD; showed the article to my surgeon, who read it on the spot and said it might help, and wasn't likely to do any harm.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Taking calcium that includes magnesium seems to make a big difference in my Restless Leg Syndrome...have to bounce around on the sleep remedies, but a combination of Zyrtec, melatonin, and valerian works about half the time, if I occasionally take a break and go for Benadryl or even Ambien. But over time, Ambien isn't great.

Ugh

[hakumeiun.livejournal.com]

As a life-long sufferer of both insomnia and RLS, you have my complete sympathy.
I found a nifty little homeopathic called Restful Legs that helps with the RLS when it gets bad. Soaking my feet in cold water also helps, and though I can't exactly sleep while soaking my feet in a tub of icy water, it's not like I was sleeping, anyways. Plus, throw in a cup of tea, and its sort of relaxing.
Melatonin, as someone else mentioned, is useful for insomnia, though it doesn't always work. Just don't take too much. The results can be...ammusing.
Personally, I sort of enjoy that surreal feeling that happens after three days with crappy sleep. It's like tripping without the drugs! And by gods, if that isn't the source for some very /interesting/ story material...

And now that I've proffered my unsought advice...
I have a hefeweizen to drink, I believe.

[finnyb.livejournal.com]

Sounds like my legs. Mine was caused by a long-term doctor-prescribed overdose of meds; after over two years off said meds, I've still got the RLS-type issues. I hope yours, and the insomnia, gets better.