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Re: This is a bit odd, but I'm curious...

Posted by Honest Expert / but only mattresses on June 29, 2001 at 11:53:24:

In Reply to: This is a bit odd, but I'm curious... posted by eegads on June 29, 2001 at 01:44:23:

Hi eegads,

You would be surprised how "not-odd" your problem is! What you have described is one of the classic examples of insomnia: You have trouble getting to sleep for some undetermined reason ... which makes you even more anxious the next night ... which makes you have trouble getting to sleep ... which makes you even more anxious ... etc.

There are a variety of ways to attack the problem, from breathing exercises and stretching, alternative medications and herbs, all the way up to sleeping pills. One of the books I have read that specifically addreses your problem is "Sleep RX" by Norman Ford c1994 by Prentice Hall. Chapter 5 will probably be particularly helpful. (No, I'm not that smart. I just looked it up! HAHA!)

Mr. Ford, because he is heavy into the alternative realm, avoids recommending pharmaceutical sleep medications. But there are good choices available in this area, as well -- when properly administered and used.

If you take a peek into the Insomnia Forum, you will probably find a fair number of stories just like yours ... and people ready to help you any way they can!

As far as using herbs or medicines to stave off sleep goes, there is a problem. Sleep need is biologically programmed and nothing seems to be able to replace sleep to fulfill that need. Various types of stimulants like Ginseng, caffeine or pharaceuticals cause you to FEEL awake, but they do nothing to eliminate the NEED for sleep. All they do is overpower the sleep drive temporarily. But when they wear off the sleep drive will not only come back, it will come back stronger (because you will have been awake even longer).

Sleep need (called "sleep debt") builds up at a rate of about 1 hour's need for every 2 hours you are awake. Even when you have taken a stimulant and you don't feel sleepy, this still builds up.

And, in an insidious trick of nature, sleep debt is cumulative: If you need 8 hours sleep but only get 7, the "unpaid" hour is carried-over to the next day. If you do this for 8 days, you will STILL be carrying 8 hours sleep debt when you WAKE UP on the ninth day. (That is why it is called sleep DEBT: it piles up like a bill until you pay it off completely.) So far, the ONLY known way to pay off sleep debt is to sleep!

(There is a fairly new class of medicine that seems to allow you to stay awake without ADDING to sleep debt, but also without REDUCING sleep debt. The best known of these is called Modafinil [or Provigil]. Right now, more is NOT known about it than IS known about it.)

I hope this has been some help. By looking in the Insomnia Forum, you will find far more help than I am able to offer!

Good Luck,
Honest Expert

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