Change Of Plans In Sleep Therapy
Question:
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text ->Alright, So my big plans for chronotherapy went right down the toilet! Just >a >lot of big lip flapping and empty words on my part. I’m getting tired >earlier >now and I think that has to do with being on a higher dose of medication. >(100mgs of Luvox). Light therapy is playing an important part in getting me >tired earlier. Also, I didn’t take any naps yesterday and had a little bit >more activity in my day. I ended up going to bed an hour earlier than >usual(4:00am instead of 5:00am). I plan on keeping up the activity and >passing >on the napping. I will go to bed an hour earlier each day, until I am on a >day >schedule. >I think my problem is one of bad sleep hygiene more than anything. I think a >sedentary lifestyle contributed to this as well. My attitude is different >about sleep now. I have less of a neurotic take on it as being associated >with >death or losing control. This is due to behavioral therapy and medication. >I have confidence that I can change my sleeping habits for the better, >because >now I really have the desire to change. I actually slept for 6 hours >straight >for the first time in quite a while. I’m going to work on being more aware >of >the kind of thoughts that I put in my head during the day, so I can insure a >better night’s sleep. >Time will tell if this is just another episode of big lip flapping and empty >words from the zombie who cried change. >I would be interested in hearing from anyone who has a psychological problem >that is at the root of their sleeping disorder. Bad sleep hygieners welcome >too! >Zombie Man
1) Where is your sleep study? 2) Sounds like vigilance and scanning and ruminations and maybe obsessions. Anxiety. 3) Sleep disorders cause anxiety. 4) Sleep disorders ARE depression, 5) Anxiety and depression each have both a physiological and psychological component, 6) Therefore, sleep disorders can cause "mental" illness. 7) "Mental illness" is such a Medieval phrase. However, you have it backwards, in-that the sleep disorder is at the root of the psychological problems, and not the other way around. D
Response:
Alright, So my big plans for chronotherapy went right down the toilet! Just a lot of big lip flapping and empty words on my part. I’m getting tired earlier now and I think that has to do with being on a higher dose of medication. (100mgs of Luvox). Light therapy is playing an important part in getting me tired earlier. Also, I didn’t take any naps yesterday and had a little bit more activity in my day. I ended up going to bed an hour earlier than usual(4:00am instead of 5:00am). I plan on keeping up the activity and passing on the napping. I will go to bed an hour earlier each day, until I am on a day schedule. I think my problem is one of bad sleep hygiene more than anything. I think a sedentary lifestyle contributed to this as well. My attitude is different about sleep now. I have less of a neurotic take on it as being associated with death or losing control. This is due to behavioral therapy and medication. I have confidence that I can change my sleeping habits for the better, because now I really have the desire to change. I actually slept for 6 hours straight for the first time in quite a while. I’m going to work on being more aware of the kind of thoughts that I put in my head during the day, so I can insure a better night’s sleep. Time will tell if this is just another episode of big lip flapping and empty words from the zombie who cried change. I would be interested in hearing from anyone who has a psychological problem that is at the root of their sleeping disorder. Bad sleep hygieners welcome too! Zombie Man
Response:
Reply to Zombie Man’s message <N.072898.161722…@ppp199.lr.centuryinter.net> Hey Z-Man! Maybe it was just a setback. I hate to see you beat yourself up over it. You’re putting a lot of time and effort into this. IF there’s success to be had from these methods, surely you’re going to achieve it. I am somebody who has had a sleeping disorder at the root of most of my psychological problems, and that sleep disorder often contributes to a sedentary lifestyle. I have DSPS. Even on days when I do all the voodoo and kung fu–and it seems to work–my body still has a *drive* to sleep from 4 or 5AM to Noon or 1PM. In periods when I sleep from 11PM to 7AM, I wake up congratulating myself for living right. I start out those days with a smile on my face for the whole human race. But by the end of the first day, maybe the second or third, I become grouchy and irritable. If I hang onto the "right schedule" long enough I become a total bastard. Eventually I take a long nap in the afternoon or evening, then stay up till nearly dawn. The next day, I’m a nice person again. When I sleep the DSPS schedule, at least I’m a human being. Of course then I still feel like I’ve failed everybody–especially myself, but I’ve got to get over that silly "magical thinking." If I accept that the magic (or elixir, or alarm clock, or colored light, or snake-oil) always works, then when it doesn’t work, it’s got to be my fault, right? From what I’ve been able to glean from the net, it seems that all the studies using chronotherapy were short term ones–and mostly geared toward making night-shift workers more productive. Some people have been helped, and I’m happy for them. Bright full spectrum light therapy works for some people, especially those whose sleep problems have a seasonal component. The effect of light therapy is considered nearly diagnostic of Seasonal Affective Disorder. No wonder light therapy has such high rates of success: if it doesn’t work, then it’s concluded the person never had SAD to begin with! They don’t use insulin injections to diagnose juvenile diabetes, but I guess what matters is fixing the problem. I’m glad this newsgroup is named alt.support and not alt.answers, because I don’t have The Answer for me and certainly not for you. Forgive me if I’ve utterly lost patience with looking for a psychological cause of my DSPS. I don’t think ruining a lot of the last 21 years of my life was a delayed reaction to my grandmother’s death–or anything else like that. Here’s what I know: I started as a morning person; had no trouble going to sleep on time, or getting up at 5AM if I needed to. A boring childhood. I never had fear of the dark, or of sleep, and I still don’t. I had a not-so-bad case of rheumatic fever in high school and a really bad case of mononucleosis in my college years–1976 to be exact. Slept through the night and took lots of naps through both illnesses. Starting in 1977, for no apparent reason, I started sleeping around the clock. Several times, my roommates thought I had gone away for the weekend, when in fact I was asleep in my room from Friday evening through Sunday evening. That’s when the DSPS pattern of sleeping 4AM to Noon really started. Oh, I could still fight it then, but by 1980, I decided–I was threatened by my employer–to look into The Problem. Because I worked in a big hospital, I had Neuro, Gastro, Cardio, and Internal Medicine consults, all the blood work, echocardiography, and a CAT scan of the head. They found nothing they were looking for. I transferred to another department, and worked very long hours to compensate for my morning lateness, but in a few months, the hospital quietly let me go anyway. Right now I think that using "training" methods on DSPS is like try to train a hamster to sleep through the night and run on his wheel all day. All it would do is piss off the hamster–give him lots of psychological problems. I remain interested in anything that will shift my *drive* to sleep. I keep strict sleep charts on myself in Excel. I’ve discovered that I average 7 hours and 40 minutes sleep each 24 hours, and that I stay remarkably close to that average within any 48-hour period. Six hours and 20 minutes one day, means 8 hours and 20 minutes the next. When I’m ready to sleep, usually between 4am and 6am, no power on earth can stop my falling asleep. The longer I stay asleep, the more likely I’ll remain asleep for the duration. Really bright outdoor light makes me sleepy immediately: an afternoon event in bright sunshine means somebody else is driving home, because when it’s over, you’ll find me already asleep in the car. In jobs where I’ve had to fly East and West a lot, I seem to suffer much less jet lag than my coworkers. Jet lag really doesn’t happen to me at all; I want to sleep 4AM to Noon at the new time zone almost immediately. One psychological observation: night and darkness seems to sharpen my senses, especially hearing. I’m not fearful, just vigilant. Maybe natural selection favored groups with a small percentage of people born to keep nightwatch over the tribe? (Now I’ll be accused of romanticizing my affliction.) I’ve tried alcohol–another story, and a very bad idea. I don’t go near it now–haven’t for years. I have one cup of caffeine whenever I wake up. I’ve tried prescription drugs. Trazodone worked great for getting me to sleep, but I couldn’t hack the extreme weight gain, the headaches (this is me–not everybody), or feeling (and looking) dopey & spacey. Lonny Wilcox posted on this newsgroup that he had conquered his DSPS by taking B12 supplements. I’m trying it now–because I remain hopeful, but it looks like I’m not one of the lucky ones who will be helped by it after all. Hang in there, and do what you need to do, –dsps77 If anybody … thinks rigid schedules, multiple alarm clocks, and other sleep-hygiene hijinks are the answer for DSPS, try that stuff on normal sleepers. Make them go to sleep at 5 PM and start their day at 1 AM. Tell them they have to keep this schedule rigidly every day for the rest of their lives. If they’re cranky or resistant, tell them they’re lazy–or crazy. If their body & mind, health & happiness are destroyed under the pressure of this weird schedule, tell them it’s all in their mind. Schedule all the really important events of their lives–not only work, but family weddings and funerals too–at 3 AM. If they’re late, or if they sleep through these important events, tell them it’s because they’re passive aggressive or that they don’t care enough, but most of all, punish them. It would be torture on a scale that would interest Amnesty International. That’s what life is like for somebody with DSPS.
