sleeping problems

Hey how is the sleeping going?

We also have some problems. Only recently we fall asleep too early because we are so tired then are up all night....

I read a really cool article yesterday (I will try to find it online and post) about some animals like dolphins only "sleep" one hemisphere of their brain at a time - because they need to be vigilant of their surroundings. Sound familiar anyone? And Humans do it too, only on the first night sleeping in a new place, by the second they are sleeping both sides. Makes me wonder, parents of a newborn that sleep with "one ear open" or DIDers. or any one who feel the need to be hyper vigilant at night.

I am with firedrake, I fall asleep playing a flow game on my phone or watching some TV. Something to lull the mind away from the inner conversations, rethinking, catastrophizing etc. But getting back to sleep I also ask everyone to cool it, and ask something to come out who wants to sleep, and they get to think of whatever makes them feel happy. And imagine that down to the every detail. Usually the further we get into details we eventually sleep.

Sam

still struggling. we tried a change in meds with the same result.
we dissociate the effect of meds because the hypervigilance seems more important.
the assistant T said that we should just sleep during the day. usually its about 6am when sleep comes, then we sleep til noon. and that makes the days very short. not everyone gets time...
about ten more days if its the same as the last few years.
it gets better in january.
i gave up on meds experiments.
i just wish i could stop random eating at night. we gained so much weight it actually hurts.
just gotta get thru new years eve now. its the moms birthday. at least nobody expects you to go to bed early

this is another reason I want a dog. supposedly, one of the many symptoms eased by dogs are insomnia and night vigilance. that the dog is there to alert you to danger so you sleep better.

I hope so. anything that helps. course if you have asshole dog that snores or barks -- not so much I guess.

i am back to this topic because it describes it perfectly.
sleep got a little bit better in february, but now we are back to being awake until the sun is up again.
and sleeping into the afternoon. i want my life back. one where i live during the day.

i take a good amount of meds every night but they dont seem to work anymore.
if there is an alter involved i dont have any connection to them.
its not that sleep is impossible, its just impossible between about 1am and 7am.
sometimes i even fall alseep in the evening, but wake up around 1am... usually after a nightmare.

there is a certain restlessness about easter coming up. i am wondering if all this is somehow connected to certain dates...
is there anyone with a background of ritual abuse here who experiences similar things?

I read through your posts on this thread thinking how much this pattern sounds like us. The times of year, similar times. The waking up at a certain time usually after a nightmare. Lots similar.

We actually find it harder to go to sleep with white noise because then that means we won't wake up if there was a problem. Likewise medications usually make us more vigilant because they are supposed to make you sleep, so there are always some who work really hard to assuage the effects. I think some of those were given sleeping meds when little and they resist due to that. We usually keep our blinds open a bit so that light can shine through if anyone was there. And we have some colour globes that act like a night light that we can put on instead of a really bright white light that will wake you up, this helps us feel like it's at least still night time when we are feeling vigilant.

We haven't found anything that gets over the fundamental problem though. We just sleep during the day. It's not helpful though. It sucks to lose so much of the day.

the meds we take are low potency anti-psychotics, not sleeping pills. they help, the other half of the year. we are absolutely immune to sleeping pills. sedatives dont work either.

we have just survived one of the harder anniversaries. some of it is an anniversary reaction for sure.
i make it a point to get fully oriented after waking up from a nightmare.
and we have a list of things we can do during the night without waking the neighbors.

thank you for responding salted lipstick. its good to know that we are not alone with this. even when there is no easy solution.

i keep coming back to this and there is little change, little i can add.
another anniversary, and the little arrangement we had with our anti-psychotic helpers fails us.
in the clinic they tried sleeping pills. we could swallow sugar and have better results.
how is it possible we are so damn resistant to anything that could help!
so two things. i will go all alternative and try some unusual essential oils that are said to be good for sedation. could get lucky.
and i will talk to our doc/T about the stuff Beccabee are taking, see if it could be a miracle for us too.

My Heidi is afraid of the dark... and she doesn't sleep at night. If it's completely dark in my bedroom when I close my eyes she won't let us rest. I keep on a nightlight for this reason. Finding out who was keeping me awake and finding a way to make them comfortable was helpful to me.

it seems like it does make a difference coming back here over and over again. not like the ideas are new to me, but sometimes parts who are not usually co-con see some of it. like my helpless response for not knowing what is going on and reading about other alters....

i had someone leave me a message last night. she didnt say her name, she just typed about certain fears and sensations she is having. i think that she might not have been aware that we are many, that there are others here too.

i switched on all the lights and invited her to come and see where we are and that it isnt dark and she is in a safe place. dont know if i got thru with this. but i offered her the trauma stuffy and i think she liked it, i woke up holding it.

It seems like for about 2 weeks straight ill sleep great with maybe 1 or 2 nights i cant sleep... Then there's the rest of the month. My therapist says try melatonin so i did... Big surprise it didnt work and if i finally did fall asleep i couldnt wake up on time. I was up til 5 am this morning and had to be up at 8 so im really hoping by the time i get my bedtime routine done (because you know if one thing doesnt get done you will never sleep) i can just lay down and fall asleep. Its never the case though im exhausted until its time for bed then im wide awake.