What do you do all night when you can't sleep?

Just curious what others do and go through. I'm currently on the high side and not really responding to treatment yet. I'm getting uncomfortable, paranoid, and anxious. Anyway, I didn't sleep a single second last night, and I had no caffeine aside from my usual cup of morning coffee. You know the drill. Mood goes up, sleep goes way down or disappears.

So here I am, creeping around my dark apartment, trying to do things quietly so I won't wake my husband...or the whole dang building for that matter. I got in trouble with a landlord a few years ago because I moved furniture in the middle of the night (during a manic episode, naturally) and my neighbors complained. At the time I had a very good explanation and I'm sure I truly needed to rearrange heavy, noisy things at 4am but the reason escapes me now.

Anyway, back to my lovely evening in with insomnia. I clean the dining room, that's easy to do quietly. I play an extra quiet game of tug-of-war with the dog when she gets up for water around 3. I go back to bed and get up a while later...half a dozen times, thinking each time, surly this time I'll sleep!

Nope. No sleep. Just fast thoughts and a burning desire to do yoga. I get out the yoga mat but I'm limited because I have a healing hand injury. Dog lays on the mat, so I lay down too. Maybe I can sleep here, on the yoga mat on the rug.

Nope.

Clean some more. Sun rises so I put on some quiet music and go ahead and make my coffee. Now here I am, writing here, dog and husband still sleeping.

Even nights when I get things done, I have a sense of terror and dread when I can't sleep. I know a storm is probably coming right at me, and I can't even close my eyes and get away for a minute.

Thanks for reading, lots of blessings to you. What do you do when you can't sleep? Do you also feel a sense of dread while you go about your activities?

huge huge hugs

It sounds like things are not good for you. I can def empathise with you about this - it is horrible. When i cant sleep I tend to try to focus my mind on anything I can that I can keep focused on. I quite often do a google walk as this is interesting and jumps about enough for me to stay interested but also requires some focus. Or have a bath - that can help. Esp with lavender - that can help with chilling out. Can you put your finger on where the dread is coming from?

Hugs and let me know if I can help

Cracked

Hugs and thank you for the support, Cracked. I know you're going through a lot too, I extend the same to you as always.

I guess the dread is coming from the fear that I will hallucinate or lose touch with reality. That is truly scary to experience, and has happened to me after long nights like this. Hopefully the Geodon will prevent that kind of thing though.

I think I will take your suggestion and go have a bath, I always get body aches when I'm awake all night.

Thank you again, I appreciate your kindness.

BrainStorm wrote:Hugs and thank you for the support, Cracked. I know you're going through a lot too, I extend the same to you as always.

I guess the dread is coming from the fear that I will hallucinate or lose touch with reality. That is truly scary to experience, and has happened to me after long nights like this. Hopefully the Geodon will prevent that kind of thing though.

I think I will take your suggestion and go have a bath, I always get body aches when I'm awake all night.

Thank you again, I appreciate your kindness.

Thank you so much about me <3 And I think that dread is understandable. I hope the Geodan can help with that and prevent anything bad happening.

Enjoy your bath

Hugs

Cracked

www.psychforums.com

I sometimes get that feeling of dread myself. I used to call it my spider sense and used to think I had some precognitive abilities from it.

I, too, have to be very quiet about the house at night when I can't sleep and my boyfriend is snoozing away. I invested in some wireless headphones so I can watch movies and the sound won't disturb him. I also tend to clean things as quietly as I can, and I've found that it's really nice outside at night, so I'll sometimes go out on the deck. I also listen to recorded books. And yes, I understand that familiar feeling of dread when I have yet another sleepless night.

I have started taking quetiapine, which helps me greatly, as I only sleep from 12-3a or 3-6a without it. So these days, I only miss my sleep if I miss taking my med. Have you tried asking your Pdoc for help tackling your insomnia? It took me a long time to find something that worked after a lot of trial and error, but now I have it and getting regular sleep has made a huge difference for me, and eliminates the anxiety and dread of sleepless nights.

I can definitely empathize!! I think it's probably worse when you're living with a partner, because I remember lots of similar experiences when I lived in an apartment with my now-ex. It's hard to stay quiet. But by myself, I generally just watch a lot of TV shows, use the computer, play games, write...sometimes do laundry or clean my room, or make food. I'm sure everybody else in the house has been woken up from rearranging stuff in my room or going up and down the stairs constantly.

I think the worst part about it is the restlessness. I've had problems with my sleep schedule for 8 years now and I can always accept that I won't sleep, but it's so much worse when you can't sit still long enough to just stick to doing one thing at a time. Or when I have a deep, burning need to socialize but it's 4am and nobody's up. It's torture.