Questions about sleep apprehension
Question:
Tal wrote: > You could try the discipline approach…which is hard work, but bound to > make a difference, that simply means……..MAKE yourself go to bed at the > same time every evening, whether you sleep or not, then follow these > "sleep hygiene" guidelines. http://talhost.net/sleep/insomnia.htm
It works. Give it about a week. You’ll nod off like clockwork. — Sojo SEVEN.2.7.2.reply. ASCII stupid question. Get a stupid ANSI
Response:
Hi – Very often I have apprehension about going to sleep at night but don’t know why (AFAIK there are no traumatic sorts of reasons behind it; I’m not taking any kind of medication; it’s not job-related). It manifests itself by me finding all kinds of reasons to avoid going to bed until far too late at night (or often not at all). I’ll read too long; things I could’ve done during the day all of a sudden are "must do now" items; I tell myself "six hours of sleep should be plenty" (I need at least 
or "I’ll wake up tired then it will be easier to go to bed early the next night". But then I’ll wake up tired the next day only to stay up late again the very next night. And I read on into the night that next evening even though I’ve been through this loop a million times. I _know_ it’s not true that if I wake up tired I’ll go to bed earlier the next night because I never, ever do. But for some reason I keep telling myself that and I can’t seem to stop it. This has been going on for years. I’ve been fortunate to be off from work for an extended period (no financial problems) and you’d think it would be the perfect time to get some real good sleep. But I haven’t had two nights in a row of full sleep a single time! And at this point in time I have no mental stresses that you might be thinking are the problem. Typically I’ll just "inadvertently" find myself being up far too late and starting the "get up tired" bit. I could go to sleep at 8-10a but that means I wouldn’t get up until 4-6p and I hate the thought of getting up that late more than the thought of going to bed early. I feel like I’m fighting against something but don’t know what it is. I know the cost of going to bed too late. I know that my justifications are always wrong. I HATE being tired/groggy all day. Yet night after night after night I repeat the same pattern! Part of my problem is that when I lay down to sleep my mind is no longer distracted and it races through every thought imagineable. Sometimes I can overcome it – most of the time I’m just along for the ride where one or two hours will go by and by then I’m into the "get up tired" routine. But I really don’t think this is a cause for the apprehension – it’s more like a symptom of it. Or maybe there are two problems. I’ve been through all kinds of web sites, books, etc., on relaxing and the like; been to a couple of sleep doctors over the years but nothing ever seems to last more than a night or two. I feel like I’m trying to fight against something but can’t identify it. I consider myself a normal person. And as I said, at this point in time I have no weighty "life" issues I’m stressing over. This is like a pattern which I know inside and out but can’t get control over. I don’t know very much about disorders so can anyone tell me if this is some common disorder that there’s a fix for? Mike — mike.ballard–at–earthlink.net "Roses are red, violets are blue, I’m schizophrenic and so am I"
Response:
> Very often I have apprehension about going to sleep at night but don’t > know why (AFAIK there are no traumatic sorts of reasons behind it; I’m not > taking any kind of medication; it’s not job-related). It manifests itself > by me finding all kinds of reasons to avoid going to bed until far too > late at night (or often not at all). >SNIP<
Hi Mike. You could try the discipline approach…which is hard work, but bound to make a difference, that simply means……..MAKE yourself go to bed at the same time every evening, whether you sleep or not, then follow these "sleep hygiene" guidelines. http://talhost.net/sleep/insomnia.htm You may also want to take a look at the symtpoms of delayed sleep phase syndrome and see if they fit your problem at all – assuming this hasn’t been a short term problem. — Beth in Australia (I am not a medical professional and anything stated in my posts is my opinion only unless specified otherwise) =================== FAQ for alt.support.sleep-disorder can be found here http://talhost.net/sleep Newsgroup Archives http://talhost.net/sleep/archives.htm this site is a work in progress – feel free to submit info/articles Remove my name to reply
