Sleeping issues.

[Sasha_]

Hello again, so the main problem for me which isn't helpful especially with exams is sleep. I have two types of occurances and just wanted to know if anybody else has the same/similar problems.

So this is what will happen most nights - I'll go to bed when really tired and it'll take me a few hours to actually get to sleep as I always have a lot on my mind when trying to sleep..then when I finally get to sleep I will end up waking up in the early hours of the morning normally at 1am-3am then I will go to the toliet/get a drink go back to sleep and wake up feeling drained both mentally and physically almost like I haven't slept a wink.

The other thing that will happen when I actually do sleep the whole night (this happened last night) is I'll have a horrible nightmare of past events which will literally mentally scar me and scare the sh*t out of me! It's horrible when all I want is a proper nights sleep, especially when I'm getting up at 6am everyday for a long day at school!

I was just wondering if anyone else experiences sleeping problems, thanks:) x

[Nowuccas]

Hey Sasha_,

I can't tell whether "wake up feeling drained both mentally and physically almost like I haven't slept a wink" is from a deficiency or disorder, but I can provide some techniques and ideas that may help. If you drink plenty of water earlier in the day and evening, you can restrict yourself to small sips in the last few hours before bedtime, and empty your bladder just before bedtime, you may be able to sleep longer.

INSOMNIA:
Exercise, preferably 6 hours before, but not within 2 hours of bedtime. Have a warm bath, or shower, an hour before bedtime, then a glass of very warm milk, possibly with Horlicks, or one of the herbal teas, below, and use dimmer lighting. Your bedroom should be very dark, with the lights out, and a good sleeping temperature is 70 degrees Fahrenheit, or 19 degrees Centigrade. Put your mind in a position where it wants to shut itself off, and sleep. View http://www.umm.edu/sleep/relax_tech.htm The progressive muscle relaxation, http://www.drcoxconsulting.com/managing-stress.html or http://altmedicine.about.com/cs/mindbody/a/Meditation.htm is known to be effective, or http://www.wikihow.com/Meditate Give the EFT a tryout. It is free via the searchbar at http://eft.mercola.com or www.tapping.com (13 free videos) or YouTube EFT. Repeat to yourself: "Even though I currently have a sleep disorder, I deeply and completely accept myself." (or choose your own wording) while you use the acupressure massage/tapping. Find out which works best for you, in the daylight hours, so you will be prepared, come bedtime. For many people, a good idea is to develop a set "wind down" routine for the last hour before bedtime, so your subconscious mind learns that it is time to put thinking aside, and prepare for mindfulness, (awareness, without cogitation/purposeful thought) or the EFT, in preparation for sleep.

The idea with mindfulness is to not even think about sleeping: just drift off, naturally, during exercising those techniques. Avoid TV, computer, or anything exciting in this hour, although reading a BORING! book is a good idea. Experiment, to find which combination works best for you. No coffee, tea, or other caffeine within 6 hrs of bedtime! Try a cup of chamomile herbal tea, an hour before bedtime. Others may prefer Sleepytime, by Celestial Seasonings, Relax, Be Sleepy, or valerian root (valerian "hangovers" possible), etc., from supermarket tea, or health food aisles. Milk, or cream should not be used with herbal tea. Get up and do something, like read a book, if you can't sleep within 20 mns. Personally, I prefer to use word/phrase repetition for a short time, changing over to mindfulness breathing; however, you may well find another method more effective. The following EMDR variant came from a book on treating insomnia for the depressed; I use it every night, and it is well worth trying. It seems to reduce distractions during the mindfulness relaxation methods, so I use it first. Keeping your head still, move your eyes first to the far left, then far right, and repeat this another 19 times. Each full sweep should take around a second. If you like, you can either subvocalise, or repeat: "one one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand ... up to twenty.

After this, allow your body to go limp, and relax for a short time. Then repeat the whole exercise, limpness, and relaxation twice. This may well be all you need. Others may require another round of the above. Before beginning the EMDR variant, I take a whiff of lavender essential oil in both nostrils; some people prefer a drop, or two on their pillow. This provides a strong cue to the subconscious mind to prepare for sleep. 85% of people are suggestible, to some extent, so consider professional hypnotherapy, or more alternatives along such lines are at http://your-mental-health.weebly.com/1.html Try the free sleep aid at: http://www.soundsleeping.com/ You could try melatonin (pharmacies) for a few nights only; more can interfere with the brain's natural production of it.

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NIGHTMARES:

A previous answer follows: Remember the troubling nightmare in as much detail as you can. Create a scenario in which you manage to prevail. "Tonight, in my dreams, I want to confront the ???/call on a dream ally for help". Write down your chosen form on a piece of paper, at least 3 times, and repeat 3 times aloud, after lights out, and visualise yourself doing it, as vividly as you can, and WANT TO DO IT!!!, with all the desire you can muster, to better communicate this concept to your subconscious mind, through imagery & emotional intensity, so it understands that this is important. Place the piece of paper under your pillow (metaphorically "sleeping on it"). Your subconscious existed before you could walk, or talk. It knows images, muscles/movement, and emotions: communicate with it in terms it can understand. It doesn't understand negatives, and everything is in the present tense to it; there is no past or future. When dreaming, try calling for assistance from a dream character - anyone, alive or long since passed on, even your favorite superhero is available to provide assistance, in the dreamstate. You can even try the technique of "dream re-entry", and use your new solution in that exact same situation. Try the above for 2 - 3 weeks; I believe there is a good chance they will work. Options, for later: Hypnosis is merely a heightened state of suggestibility, in which you are better able to communicate with your subconscious mind. 85% of people are suggestible, to some degree, so you could either seek professional hypnotherapy, or more alternatives along such lines are on page O at your-mental-health.8m.com, below where this came from. My experience, however, is that the subconscious mind will re-manifest them in a different form, until what it sees as the problem is satisfactorily dealt with. In dream analysis, we are taught that each character inhabiting a dream represents some part of us. It is an axiom that the sole judge of the interpretation of any dream/nightmare is the person who dreamt it. If the nightmare doesn't respond to the above, after a few weeks of trying that technique every night; then it is time to look deeper for the cause. You may benefit from looking at your normal waking life.

What problems, and decisions are there? Is there something you have been avoiding, or putting off? Your subconscious mind is trying to get you to focus on something which it considers is important, and resolve it. You could try asking for an answer in your dreams, as per the previous answer, writing it down 3 times, repeating to yourself in bed, after lights out, and focusing on wanting the answer. "Tonight, in my dreams, I want to remember what the figure is trying to tell me". This method, if it works, should do so in a week, or two. If not, hypnotictapes.com has one titled "dream the answer", but professional hypnotherapy is always much preferable. Many nightmares result from anxiety, so I suggest that learning to deal effectively with the anxiety in your normal waking life may well have a carryover effect into the realm of dreams. http://sfhelp.org/gwc/wounds.htm may be worth checking out, as well. I have noticed that, since I began using 100mg of 5-htp daily for anxiety, my dreams have become considerably less unpleasant. Eating some things, like large, hot, heavy, or spicy meals late at night, results in nightmares for some people, so be aware of this, and if you experience a nightmare, ask yourself what was it that you ate beforehand, and avoid such "nightmare triggers" in future, unless consumed early in the evening, or before. Avoid coffee/caffeine products within 6 hrs of bedtime; a list is on page F, at weebly.com, below. If you go to http://www.mercola.com and type "EFT" (and EFT therapists) in the taskbar provided, there is an affirmation on nightmares, and this technique is well worth trying, before paying for remedies or professional therapy, and if you give it a good try, but find it ineffective, the alternatives are still there for you to try. www.tapping.com has 13 free videos on it; also www.emofree.com. Read: Banishing Night Terrors And Nightmares: A Breakthrough Program to Heal the Traumas That Shatter Peaceful Sleep by Christopher Raoul Carranza and Jane Rogers Dill, from your bookstore, or Amazon.com More on hypnosis for nightmares is at http://your-mental-health.weebly.com/o.html and effective natural treatments for anxiety are shown on pages 1, and i. If stressed, see page M. More about dream analysis is on page O. View http://www.dreammoods.com/dreaminformation/dreamtheory/perls.htm

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If the above proves ineffective against nightmares after a couple of weeks, you may well be suffering from PTSD ("a horrible nightmare of past events which will literally mentally scar me and scare the sh*t out of me").

"The signature cluster of symptoms for PTS is the "re-experiencing" that takes the form of spontaneous repetitive flashbacks, nightmares and/or intrusive thoughts. These are not coming from the part of the brain where normal memories are stored, but are stuck in a more primitive, survival-based section of the brain, where they neither fade nor shift, but stay contemporaneous and current and terrifying. And you can't talk your way out of them with the best counselor or therapist in the world. Wrong chunk o' brain. You need imagery, hypnosis, acupoint release, energy work, etc etc. The other 2 symptom clusters of PTS - avoidance/numbness and alarm/ hypervigilance - can be symptoms of other conditions as well. But this is not so with re-experiencing."

I have my doubts that I can fit in my previous answer about PTSD, so I'll post it below:

[Nowuccas]

There is a quiz for the presence of P.T.S.D., via http://psychcentral.com. Some of the symptoms include "flashbacks", hypervigilance, sleep disorders, especially nightmares, and just staring blankly. View the http://1-800-therapist.com/ & http://www.metanoia.org/choose/ websites, and Google:"therapists; EMDR; (your location)" or use the phone book, and/or various associations for psychiatrists and psychologists, to find the nearest one using EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy). In EMDR, a therapist will ask you to revisit a traumatic event and remember the feelings, negative thoughts, or memories associated with it. While you are doing this, the therapist may hold up two fingers about eighteen inches from your face and move them from side to side. You may be asked to track the movement of the therapist’s fingers with your eyes. As you concentrate on the traumatic event during therapy, you are trying to bring its memory to life. The mental imagery you are able to conjure up during the therapy session is then processed, aided by your eye movements, facilitating the processing of painful memories, enabling some of the powerful emotional states involved to be discharged to some degree, and helping to achieve resolution and a state involving less painful emotions.

EMDR has 8 stages. Professional EMDR is always much preferable, and a LCSW and therapist with more than 20 years experience, stated that it was one of only two disorders which can be completely cured. Sometimes, a beta blocker, such as propranolol, or atenolol is administered prior to being asked to recount the traumatic event, reducing the emotional charge associated with it, as it is re-recorded in your memory (which has been shown to be plastic, at least to some extent, with many people). I suggest trying something milder, such as valerian, (some people get "valerian hangovers") or "Tension Tamer", or chamomile herbal tea (no milk, or cream!) from supermarket tea, vitamin, or health food aisles, at least at first, to see if sufficient, otherwise (SHORT TERM ONLY, as a risk minimisation strategy - potentially ADDICTIVE) a benzodiazapene, like Xanax. Check out medications first at: www.drugs.com and www.rxlist.com/ and http://crazymeds.us/ and www.askapatient.com/ If unable to afford it, or to locate one nearby, contact the county/local mental health agency: any therapy on offer may prove helpful, particularly if combined with appropriate medication. Contact your county/local mental health agency, and find out what help they can offer. Google: "clinics; mhmr; (your city); (your state)" Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is also recommended, and has been used successfully, with PTSD. Some people, however, may benefit more from psychotherapy, or counselling, at least until they are some way along the path to wellness, and feeling psychologically robust enough for the harsher CBT (a free E course in it, which can help reduce the time spent in therapy sessions, is at: http://moodgym.anu.edu.au/welcome ).

Use a relaxation method daily, and when needed, like http://www.drcoxconsulting.com/managing-stress.html or http://altmedicine.about.com/cs/mindbody/a/Meditation.htm or http://www.wikihow.com/Meditate or Tai Chi, Qi Gong, or yoga. Give the EFT a good tryout, to see if it helps you. It is free via the searchbar at http://www.mercola.com "EFT" & "EFT therapists", or http://www.emofree.com Professional is best. - There is a version for use in public places, (if you want to, you can claim to have a headache, as you use the acupressure massage/tapping on your temples, but you would then be restricted to subvocalising: saying it to yourself in your mind: "Even though I suffer from PTSD, I deeply and completely accept myself."

Read: The Tapping Cure: A Revolutionary System for Rapid Relief from Phobias, Anxiety, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and More, by Roberta Temes Ph.D., from your bookstore, Amazon.com or BarnesAndNoble.com

Most people are suggestible, to some degree, so you could either seek professional hypnotherapy, or, quicker, cheaper, and more conveniently: http://www.asktheinternettherapist.com Defeat Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) CD - MP3 or http://www.hypnotictapes.com POST TRAUMATIC STRESS SYNDROME (DISORDER) PTSD, OVERCOME