Tag: Sleep

No sleep

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Nothing helped last night, counting backwards, trying breathing techniques, listening to the radio on very quietly. I couldn’t get comfortable, the bed cover was wrinkled, I kept getting cramp.

I’m surrounded by three cats, one on an armchair, one on the settee, which was getting in the way of my legs, one on the cat tree. I just realised they are being supportive. I know it sounds strange, but they have become much more attentive since my injury.

I’m going to make a warm decaff coffee and try and sleep…

And yet I’m just listening to the awful news about the flooding in Libya and the Earthquake in Morocco. My problem is nothing compared with that. The world is a cruel place.

I try and meditate

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How do you relax?

I try to meditate at yoga, but I often lose the imagery and fall asleep instead! Somehow the words of different visualisations deeply relax me. Luckily I’ve never had to be woken up, and usually I wake up as soon as the teacher tells us to bring some movement back to our bodies.

I was also given advice about using the word ‘the’ to take your mind off your worries. Basically thinking the word ‘the’ over and over has no context, you can’t attach other ideas onto it. So as I say you lose the worries and you can relax.

Tired

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How are you feeling right now?

I tried to draw a cat yawning, which made me realise how tired I am at the moment.

If I were a cat I’d have yawned and fallen asleep by now. But I’m doing things, I’ve just eaten my evening meal, and I’m going to be doing things till well after midnight.

But cats have more sense. They come in when they are hungry or cold. They curl up on your lap, or in a little quiet place, a cat bed, or a chair, and then they get up and go out when they have rested. I read somewhere that cats sleep for up to 16 hours a day? I get by on barely 5 usually. Sometimes I’ll catch up. But these last few weeks have tired me out. I realise sleeping on the settee doesn’t help, but I still can’t climb stairs. I wish I could trans(mogg)rify into a cat! I’d get all the rest I need.

Hangover!

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I was looking through Facebook and saw this image about hangovers and sleeping after drinking heavily. I decided to post anyway because I like the image.

But when I checked the word hangover on Snopes.com it said it does NOT come from people sleeping over ropes in Victorian times. It’s a false claim which is a shame because it sounds right. Even this image of people hanging over the ropes seems to reinforce the idea.

Look up hangover on Wikipedia and it generates all sorts of infotainment, especially if you look for ‘hangover meaning’. Including comedy films and hangover cures. Luckily I’m not suffering from one. (A build up of toxins following the consumption of excess alcohol or other poisons).

Random

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Falling asleep with my finger on the screen of the Sketchbook app on my phone. I’d chose a smudge and soft pastel app. I started with an image in mind, but I woke up from my doze a few times and saw the straggly pattern developing! I could have worked on it but just let the ‘process’ carry on.

It is entirely random and I can alter angles and colours and opacity if I want to. But I like the idea of having no volition over it, making it really random.

Sleep where art thou?

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My head nods forwards or sideways and suddenly I wake with a jump. I’m sitting in an armchair propped up with cushions. I’m a one level person at the moment, living room, kitchen, bathroom. No escape from a forty foot long pathway to nowhere. I can’t climb upstairs yet and the step out the back door or out the front are non negotiable even with crutches.

Hobbled is a thing that people do to stop horses wandering off, I think they tie a couple of their legs together to stop them running away.

I feel hobbled as I shuffle through the house. Jacob Marley with all his tangled chains couldn’t go much slower than I am at the moment. Then a cat will create an amusing barrier, wanting it’s tummy tickled or just to let me know it’s there. The nightly perambulation of a cat is interesting but inexplicable. In, out, in with a little purr… Crunch biscuits or eat wet cat food, out again. I’m up and down to the bathroom frequently. I have to guess when I will need to use it as it takes about five minutes to walk there.

Dawn is coming up in about two hours. If I put the radio on low I might drift off. Otherwise I’ll watch a bright dawn come up on one side of the house and the sun set behind the big hill about 9pm on the other.

Sleepy but not sleeping, sleep walking? Waiting for loud cars to start roaring past at around 6am. I want my bed!

Late

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What time do you go to bed and wake up currently?

Early to bed, early to rise, just isn’t me!

I think my circadian rhythm is out, because over the last few months I’ve gone to bed later and later. Then I eventually sleep for a few hours, before waking up around dawn. Then sadly I look at my phone! Spend an hour or so catching up with videos and messages, before falling asleep again and waking up in the late morning.

I don’t want to be this way, I sometimes need to be up and out earlier, but insomnia and an overactive brain can see me struggling to sleep. It doesn’t help that I have to wear a mask at night to help me breathe. I also do have painful joints and my arm is still very shaky and sore (I sound like a wreck!).

One thing to do is to think the word “the” over and over to yourself. This was recommended by my friend and it works when I remember to do it. “the” is a word with no connotations, it interrupts your train of thought and gives your brain time to disengage (at least that’s what I think!).

Anyway hope you all have a good night’s sleep. Best wishes!

Sleep deprived

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I was looking at a friend’s Facebook page and she talked about how some nights she sleeps well but on others she struggles to sleep at all with lots of thoughts flying around inside her mind.

It reminded me of something I now do. I’m not pretending this is a cure for the problem, but it might help? I wrote a comment about sleeping problems: “I get them a lot, but someone told me to think the word ‘the’ over and over again. It takes your mind off other things, while it is innocuous enough not to prompt other thoughts. It doesn’t always work but it certainly helps.”

It’s interesting that I’ve got so old without anyone sharing advice until this suggestion, except the old idea of counting sheep!