Posted by lulubelle on March 15, 2009 at 15:55:57:

In Reply to: how do you while away the hours? posted by F43 on March 15, 2009 at 13:31:32:

When I had trouble sleeping about 10 years ago, I would get up, clean the house, go grocery shopping at 3 AM, work (I worked out of my home), or lie in bed just thinking random thoughts.
Of course all of these options are strictly verboten with the sleep hygiene folks, but I didn't know any better. That go round lasted about 1-2 months, not brought on by stress, I think I was just entering perimenopause. I think I averaged about 4 hours of sleep a night. At any rate, it passed, I didn't really see the insomnia as permanent, just as a phase I was going through. It didn't scare me, I think I may have seen it as a badge of honor-look at me I only need 4 hours sleep!
This go round was a whole other enchilada-when I would wake up after a couple of hours sleep sometimes I would get out of bed and knit, or read. At other times I would just stay in bed.
I like the idea of a jigsaw puzzle, it's sort of mindless. I talked with somebody else who had sleep problems, and her therapist recommended that she fold laundry, then unfold it, and then fold it again-repeating this until she got tired. Never tried that myself.
Based on the recommendation of a sleep specialist I was seeing, I tried to set up a little couch "retreat" to go to at night with my afghan and light reading/catalogues. Sometimes, I would just sit and rock to help soothe me.
I didn't do relaxation per se, it put to much pressure on me to relax. I would sometimes visualize floating down a river gently held by angels and that was very soothing as well.
I did struggle with a real fear of getting out of bed however, because I was afraid I would miss a wave of drowsiness that would let me fall asleep.

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