I'm so frustrated

Thank you in advance for listening to me complaain!

Ok, I've always had trouble with insomina, especially the past 2 years.  DH get up about 1.5 hours earlier for work, at 4:30 AM. I get up between 6-6:30. That's not bad.

However, his workplace has had a shake-up with hours, firings, new management, etc.  They keep changing his hours to be later; much later, which I loved. Now, the past 2 weeks, the new guy changes their starting times radically, and not for the better.  DH volunteered to do overtime (he needs it--his truck driving hours have been cut back). The bad part: they call him while we are asleep, around 4AM to ask him to come in. He doesn't want to refuse the hours; I can't blame him. He's losing a couple hundred dollars a week in OT.  He also wants to get on the boss' good list.

I've been sick since the weekend. Today, they called at 3:45 AM. It;s bad enough to be jarred awake by a ringing phone, but this is crazy. DH doesn't mind; he's used to making himself work crazy hours (10 years in the military does that to you!). I can't get back to sleep. I dragged myself into work today.  When I have insomnia, I've had a few near misses while driving--getting light-headed and swerving. It scares the crap out of me. I can take being tired. I can't take being scared to drive several times a week.

At least the boss told him advance today what time tomorroow will be: he has to be in at 4AM. Yep. Gets up at 3:30 AM.  I'm going nuts here.

Have you tried taking any medications for sleep? I know I have insomnia sometimes I am awake for days before I can finally get to bed and even when I try to get some sleep I never feel tired enough.

On those nights I know that I NEED to get some sleep there is no harm in taking two 25mg Benadryl pills, Benadryl is Diphenhydramine which is what you will find in many OTC sleep medications. Knocks me right out most of the nights!

If that does not work, I always have Valerian root with me. Have you ever seen those Bob marly mellow drinks? Try drinking one of those an hour before you try to go to bed. This is packed with natural things to induce sleep like Valerian root, and some other ingredients to make you "mellow" and sleepy. It works sometimes to put me to sleep, its pretty powerful, they have to put warnings on the bottle not to drive after drinking it.

Do you have problems breathing at night? You may be surprised to realize that even if you dont feel like you do, putting on one of those strip things on your nose that open up your airways can help out TONS when going to bed. If you don't breath right, you cant sleep tight.

It would be nice for his boss to let him know a day ahead for the OT. That would be sensible; of course, we all know that business is not always sensible.

I agree about Benadryl. Got stung by a bee on Wednesday afternoon. I came home from work, opened the storm door and the bee flew directly at me. My right eye is still a bit swollen. The first thing I did (after giving the cats their dinner, of course, was to pop two Benadryl. Honestly, I was so sleepy that it was all I could do to stay awake. I sat at the dinner table, trying to eat dinner, and fighting to stay awake. I know that it's not used for sleeping, but boy does that stuff pack a sleep wallop.

Hope you can get some sleep.

Winchester said:

 I know that it's not used for sleeping, but boy does that stuff pack a sleep wallop.

Hope you can get some sleep.

Click to expand...

Actually, the VA does (or did) prescribe Benadryl for sleep, along with Elavil and Thorazine.  I am now allergic to all three, thanks to their policy of not giving Ambien until they have tried the others.

Another good home remedy is mistletoe tea.  Use only the leaves, the rest is poisonous.

Oh no, that's terrible, insomnia is the worst. This has to be tough on your husband, too, any phone ringing at 4:00 am sounds like an emergency fire alarm and is going to give everyone a shot of adrenaline that takes 4 hours to wear off.

I don't know if your phone has this feature (I recently discovered it on ours) called "night mode." You can set the hours for a very soft ring, it sounds like you are a light sleeper anyway and that would be enough. Another option is to turn off the ring on the phone by your bed, and have another phone ring in an adjacent room, that's usually loud enough to hear in the middle of the night.

You probably know this, but make sure your bed is comfy, too, replacing mattresses isn't always in the budget but there are great mattress toppers that really improve quality of sleep. We all get accustomed to our mattresses wearing out gradually and don't notice they aren't as comfortable any more, sometimes we just notice we aren't sleeping well but don't know why. Costco has memory foam *gel* mattress toppers for about $100, and they are AMAZING, I don't care for memory foam but with the gel it's awesome. I could sleep on one of those if you put it on concrete! Anyway, your bed might be fine but I thought it's worth the mention. 

 

Oh I'm so sorry!

Something else to try to help you sleep through the night is 0.3mg of melatonin. Studies have shown this to be the most effective dose. It works by helping to regulate your body-clock - it's a hormone your body naturally produces, and it affects your circadian rhythm. The suggested use is to take it 1/2 an hour before bedtime, and it helps you sleep through the night. For most, at that dosage level, there is no hangover. :cross:

Fleakilled said:

Have you tried taking any medications for sleep? I know I have insomnia sometimes I am awake for days before I can finally get to bed and even when I try to get some sleep I never feel tired enough.

On those nights I know that I NEED to get some sleep there is no harm in taking two 25mg Benadryl pills, Benadryl is Diphenhydramine which is what you will find in many OTC sleep medications. Knocks me right out most of the nights!

If that does not work, I always have Valerian root with me. Have you ever seen those Bob marly mellow drinks? Try drinking one of those an hour before you try to go to bed. This is packed with natural things to induce sleep like Valerian root, and some other ingredients to make you "mellow" and sleepy. It works sometimes to put me to sleep, its pretty powerful, they have to put warnings on the bottle not to drive after drinking it.

Do you have problems breathing at night? You may be surprised to realize that even if you dont feel like you do, putting on one of those strip things on your nose that open up your airways can help out TONS when going to bed. If you don't breath right, you cant sleep tight.

Click to expand...

I have insomnia baaaadly! Ambien is water for me..... My doctor prescribed Lunesta, but my insurance is a JOKE, so with Insurance, it would cost me $203 - NOT happening
Anyways..... I bought everything you posted here :lol3: Apparently those Marley drinks reeeeealy work!! The reviews are amazing!
I hope the combo - benadryl + Valerian root + the drinks knock me out! :lol3:

"Cambric tea?"  Warm milk, vanilla, sugar.

Melatonin.  Try the 5 mg and 10 mg doses; Dottie slept 12 hours straight last weekend after taking one. 

By the way, if you read the research on Ambien, it says that the average user gets just 12 minutes more sleep per night using it than not using it.  For some people it's very effective.  For many people, it's not, and it is addictive.
 

Not an ideal solution, but if the ringing phone is interfering that much with your ability to sleep, perhaps on days when he thinks he might be called, he could sleep in another room?  Or maybe he could invest in phone that has a strong vibration and he could sleep with it under his pillow, or near his body so he can feel it?