Sunday, November 11, 2007

insomniac


Do you ever go through a time that you forget how wonderful sleep is? Last night I had one of my periodic can't sleep nights. I was cold. It was not cold. I was soo tired that I tried spooning and covering with the down comforter but could never get to sleep. I know I dozed a few times but no real rest. Finally at 4 a.m. I gave in and got in a HOT tub. Once I stopped shivering, I got warm and was able to sleep... for a whole 2 hours! Those 2 hours felt great. A deep restful sleep. Unfortunately that didn't enable me to stay awake during church or even during a phone call later from our son.
I periodically can't sleep for a multitude of reason; cold, hot, heartburn, cough, itchy feet and hands, and finally; brain too active. I just told you my solution to cold, although an electric blanket on high for a short time also works. Hot is easy, tepid bath and turn the a.c. down. Heartburn is taken care of by prevacid, a prescription I take every day. Cough; I have a chronic cough, usually an antihistamine helps although sometimes laying on my side helps, or sleeping in the recliner. The itchy feet is a strange one and my Dr. looked at me funny and had no suggestions. I googled it and discovered that other people do have this even when it is not a fungus problem. I always put lotion on my feet, night and morning, and then if they do start itching an antihistamine is the best tool I've found. The brain too active is an old one (often appears after quilt festival or a quilt guild meeting) that I have struggled with for years. My sister also has the problem and she told me that she concentrates on opening a book, in her brain, and reading a very boring book. The book only has one word repeated over and over i.e. the the the the the the the the the...see it works you're all ready going to sleep. I changed the method to my favorite activity; quilting. I only allow myself to quilt with black thread on black fabric in straight boring lines (in my head not real life). Sometimes I just concentrate on getting the needles threaded so that I can start the quilting, I can usually get to sleep this way, but not always and then I actually get up and go sew for a while.
Now you have it, altogether more information than you needed about my sleep. I am grateful that I'll sleep very well tonight!

2 comments:

Lauri said...

Hi-just found your blog...I'm in San Antonio now, but I grew up in Houston (Kingwood) and my husband grew up in Alief! We met at UofH. Anyway, I love quilting also...I gotta run right now, but, I'm coming back to read more!

Jendeis said...

My friend has itchy feet and legs at night too! She uses a loofah (the natural scratchy kind) to rub down her feet and legs before going to bed and that's helped her.