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Post by Cindy on Jun 23, 2021 8:51:04 GMT -5
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fearnot
Living With Pain
Posts: 8,383 
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Post by fearnot on Jun 24, 2021 9:39:51 GMT -5
I almost always aim for between 9-10 to go to sleep....mostly 9....
however....sometimes it works fine,
and sometimes no sleep all night.
Unfortunately I have taken melatonin for years,
and maybe that allowed my body to not feel the need to produce it or not very much?
And then there are cats....sometimes sleeping all night, but just as often,
demanding to be let out and in and out and in and out and in all night.
( in the winter they sleep more at night...too cold, too wet etc. but spring, summer and fall....)
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Post by Cindy on Jun 25, 2021 10:05:47 GMT -5
I almost always aim for between 9-10 to go to sleep....mostly 9....
however....sometimes it works fine,
and sometimes no sleep all night.
Unfortunately I have taken melatonin for years,
and maybe that allowed my body to not feel the need to produce it or not very much?
And then there are cats....sometimes sleeping all night, but just as often,
demanding to be let out and in and out and in and out and in all night.
( in the winter they sleep more at night...too cold, too wet etc. but spring, summer and fall....)
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fearnot
Living With Pain
Posts: 8,383
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Post by fearnot on Jun 25, 2021 12:28:33 GMT -5
that is a relief to hear about the melatonin!
Anyway, even IF... the melatonin had turned off my pineal gland
( is that the right area of the brain where it is produced LOL)
The slowing or halting the production of melatonin, would already have been done!
And at my advanced age, trying to reverse the damage...
at the expensive of, maybe not sleeping for days,
and struggling to get it back to 'normal',
might take weeks or months, years....????
IF... at all successful....
and, I need the sleep... MORE,
at this point, than trying to fix what I broke!
However, last night, I did go ahead and take 1/2 a melatonin and it worked! :)
I had to get up and go to the bathroom once or twice,
and let the cats in or out a couple of times,
but went back to sleep fairly quickly!
For a change :)
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Post by Cindy on Jun 27, 2021 9:01:37 GMT -5
lol OK, I've got to be honest with you. It's not the melatonin that's "working", it's more of a coincidence then anything. Mostly we get in a habit of doing certain things before we go to sleep, which often includes taking certain medications. After awhile we begin to think that if we take the medication and we go to sleep, it means the med worked, when in reality it most likely just means you went to sleep in spite of the medication. I've seen this with many people, including Bruce.
He doesn't know much about medication anyway so it was easy to see what was really happening. He'd get awful migraines and the doc gave him a med to get rid of them. He'd take the med and about 4 minutes later the migraine would be gone, and he'd think the med had worked. But it hadn't done a thing for him. It takes at least 30 to 45 minutes and sometimes as long as an hour for a medication to start working. (It depends on the medication and how it's delivered into your system). But as long as Bruce believed that it was the med that had gotten rid of the headache, it "worked." When the doctor let him know that meds don't work that fast, it didn't work any more. Anyway, that's just one example.
Don't worry about taking the melatonin. It won't hurt you to take it and if you think it helps you sleep, then by all means continue taking it! Like I said, it won't hurt you at all!
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Leigh
Living With Pain
Posts: 663
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Post by Leigh on Jul 12, 2021 7:23:20 GMT -5
Cindy, thank you for this list of articles! I'll have to work my way through.
I did read the one entitled "It's worse to sleep on this side" and am relieved to know that I usually sleep on the 'correct' side.  (I think many of us ladies learn that secret during pregnancy - thanks to heartburn that seems to come along with it.)
Sleep has become more difficult as I get older. I too take melatonin (occasionally), which my doctor says is fine (up to 10 mg. I think). I take the 5 mg. quick-dissolve cherry-flavored tablets from Costco and they are tasty! Recently I read that melatonin can cause nightmares and after that noticed that I do seem to have more vivid dreams on the nights I take it.
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Post by Cindy on Jul 13, 2021 9:26:21 GMT -5
Cindy, thank you for this list of articles! I'll have to work my way through.
I did read the one entitled "It's worse to sleep on this side" and am relieved to know that I usually sleep on the 'correct' side. (I think many of us ladies learn that secret during pregnancy - thanks to heartburn that seems to come along with it.)
Sleep has become more difficult as I get older. I too take melatonin (occasionally), which my doctor says is fine (up to 10 mg. I think). I take the 5 mg. quick-dissolve cherry-flavored tablets from Costco and they are tasty! Recently I read that melatonin can cause nightmares and after that noticed that I do seem to have more vivid dreams on the nights I take it.
One article in particular really helped me a lot. I can't remember which one it was, but was one that talked about how it can feel like you haven't slept at all, and you can think you've been wide awake the whole time. The article explained that even though it seems like you're wide awake, you're really not, and that you actually get a good nights sleep in spite of what you think. I have quite a few nights like that and was sure I hadn't slept at all, but it was weird because I felt fine when I finally did get up in the morning. Normally if I don't get at least 6 hours of sleep, I feel sick, like I'm going to throw up; and that feeling continues until I get enough sleep. But that doesn't happen when I think I've been awake all night. So that article at least explained why I didn't feel sick in the morning and let me know that I was getting enough sleep when that happens.
Since then, I've learned to tell the difference between that kind of "sleep" and when you really are awake. (I mean besides whether or not I feel sick to my stomach lol)
I read all of the articles and felt like they all had some good hints and ideas in them. I was impressed with the article that spoke of how taking Magnesium can help too. I went on amazon and looked up different kinds, and read what they're supposedly good for, and looked it up on drugs.com as well. I wouldn't mind trying the Magnesium myself, and wish Bruce would give it a try too. I sent him these links, but I doubt if he's read them.
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(I think many of us ladies learn that secret during pregnancy - thanks to heartburn that seems to come along with it.)
!!
