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  • TDS Moderators: AlphaMethylPhenyl | paranoid android

How do you deal with insomnia?

Jabberwocky

Jabberwocky

Frumious Bandersnatch
Joined
Nov 3, 1999
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How do you deal with insomnia? Specifically, I'm interested in how you deal with it during the early stages of sobriety. Also, there is no way in hell I wanna start taking any sleep aids like ambien (trazadone doesn't do shit for me except that horrible side effect that starts with a p 8) ). Melatonin has also more or less stopped working. Same goes for the various drowsy OTC allergy meds.

FYI, been self medicating with weed for sleep over the last seven years. A bit over a week sober from weed and heroin.

I figure, for now, just gonna stick it out for a month, then re-evaluate the situation with the good old Dr.

Any supplement/vitamin suggestions? At one point magnesium helped with my sleep, so I should probably start doing that again... I guess exercise is the obvious answer, but hasn't helped much thus far.
 
a simple practice among many, is to not go try and sleep because of the time... wait until you actually do feel reasonably 'sleepy' and then finding a way to clear your mind (a journal etc. lay out thoughts to rest) and then lay down - this is what i try and do.
~
once you do finally lay down, only imagine a particular comforting thought, playing in repeat slowly - or thinking only of your body performing its mechanisms in confidence, and feeling assured of that - allowing your mind to relax as a result.
~
Hemi-Synch audio is invaluable for anyone, there are other ways to promote the L&R sides of our minds to work together, but, there is information about that out there.

hemi-synch cd;s or mp3's are easy enough to find.
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its something you could do a lot with, especially with what ever else might be effective for you.
 
^ Thanks for the Hemi-Synch audio advice! Will definitely try that as I always used to enjoy listening to books on tape when I fell asleep. I've been using Dido recently to relax, and lets just say that sort of sucks, for so many reasons.

In terms of waiting till I'm sufficiently tired, I actually realizing the importance of that last night. And regarding the journaling, discovered that last week.

Thanks for the help!
 
On my iPad, there's this thing called "white noise generator". It has sounds of rain or the forest or wind, etc- like a whole bunch of sounds that relax. If you have some app-driven device, you could do worse than to get something similar. It really helps me relax
 
toothpastedog said:
Melatonin has also more or less stopped working. Same goes for the various drowsy OTC allergy meds.

FYI, been self medicating with weed for sleep over the last seven years. A bit over a week sober from weed and heroin.

I figure, for now, just gonna stick it out for a month, then re-evaluate the situation with the good old Dr.

Any supplement/vitamin suggestions?
Click to expand...

I have to say it's pretty understandable that you're having trouble sleeping now that you're sober from weed and heroin! That's not to down-play how frustrating it is though. I suffer from insomnia a lot whenever I get sober off alcohol so I know how painful it is.

What is your usual routine (if you have one) at night, more specifically before bed-time?
I know you've tried the OTC allergy meds, but what about OTC herbal sleep-aide supplements?
 
Other than magnesium preparations I haven't tried much in the way of OTC herbal sleep-aids.

Generally, HAH, just for the last 9ish days, my routine has been:

Get back to the house around 9-10pm after work and classes, then yoga for about an hour, sometime approaching two hours (depending if I'm trying to focus on stretching or building muscle), to tire myself out. Around midnight I take my trusty 10mg Lexapro, read, journal and listen to "soothing" (my taste in this regard isn't necessarily universal...) music until I feel my head/eyelids drooping. Then take 12mg melatonin (really out of habit, as I had read that >1mg doesn't add much), trudge up to bed and rest my head.

This worked perfectly last night, at least in the sense I was out like a light and got a solid two hours. Oy...

But yes, you hit it on the head. Coming off the dope obviously plays a huge role in this. Major life change sorta thing. The thing is, I don't really mind the insomnia. During the day I still have loads of energy, and the insomnia isn't having any (noticeable) effect on my day to day routine, other than lots of yawning past 4pm.

Any herbal sleep-aids to recommend? Thanks for the help!

Oh, and panic: got some hemi-synch coming to me from a friend studying Sanskrit. Safe to say I'm looking forward to this at bedtime, as well as when I'm doing my yoga routine.
 
Any time man :)
Like I said I suffer from insomnia fairly frequently so I know what you're going through.

At the moment I am using melatonin, which seems to be working okay.

I also have an extensive artillery of OTC sleep-aides (including some of the allergy ones) so I switch it up every now and then if I'm struggling to sleep.

However, the most reliable herbal supplements that I've come across are ones containing valerian root extract[/B. You can get valerian on its own, or it comes in various combination tablets/capsules. I find it to be very effective (surprisingly so).
I also drink chamomile tea before bed (sometimes 2 or 3 mugs) which is also quite effective for me.
 
At night all I can really do is down a few beers and smoke a bowl. Usually does the trick. I've suffered from insomnia my whole life, but most of them time I have trouble sleeping through the night more than getting to sleep. I usually wake up for an hour or two during the night and I'm up by 6 AM most days, even if I get to sleep late. Its convenient when I need to be up early anyway for work or whatever, I'm up anyway. Sometimes when I wake up in the night I'll take a shower or drink some tea and get stoned. Honestly, I haven't found a non-drug solution to insomnia, and I was drug free all through high school. Cannabis has been a real blessing for me, but it definitely is a drug that deserves more respect than it gets. Shit, If I'm going to have to take a drug for insomnia and pain for the rest of my life I'd much rather use weed than pills, personally.
 
exersize about 5 hours before bed will help.

if you can, stick to a schedule - go to sleep and wake up and the same time each day.

a hot shower will help. it will raise your body temp a bit and the cooling will help you fall asleep.

if you can , put a red light in a bathroom and wake up to it for 15 mins and sit in it for 15 mins before bed to mimic the red effect of the sun which some say helps.
 
^^i actually do this with HPS;-) - yes mmj, is a big responsibility, and is to be of much consideration from all perspectives.
... it would would be a lot better to realize you dont need the stuff; trust me whom-ever.

but if ones does need mmj,, the options are -- IF'y at best.


even with though, i personally still look for others methods and practices.
 
schwiftee said:
if you can , put a red light in a bathroom and wake up to it for 15 mins and sit in it for 15 mins before bed to mimic the red effect of the sun which some say helps.
Click to expand...

Whoa does that really work?! If so, that is awesome and amazing! :)
 
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