shut up, brain!
I went to bed two hours ago and I'm still painfully awake. The last few nights when I've tried to go to sleep, my subconscious has been working on figuring out connections between random things that don't go together. I haven't been able to remember in the morning what exactly the things being connected were, otherwise maybe I'd be able to figure out why they're bugging me and stop thinking about them. It's been almost as bad as the time I had coding/cryptography and virology exams on the same day and my brain spent the night before and after trying to turn biochemical pathways into Turing machine code.
Tonight, I haven't been having the same problem, I just keep thinking of random things that I'm not even worried about. Plus, my legs are restless and I can't get a combination of 2 songs out of my head (they're ones I like, but I think that makes it worse, because I'm going to end up hating them soon). Listening to soothing cello music is slightly helpful, except for the horrible noise of my laptop fan underneath... I wish I had an off switch for my brain.
posted by Lucy @ 2:13 AM
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comments
12 Comments:
This happens to me all the time too. I go through lots of Tylenol PM.
Me too. On the 'it happens to me' part and the Tylenol PM part. In fact, I worried that I was developing some tolerance to Tylenol PM, so I switched over to Advil PM.
The problem with me at night is that I worry over problems that don't really deserve my attention. So I do remember what caused me such anxiety when I wake up the next day, but it's all garbage - stuff I wouldn't even consider unless I was unable to sleep at night. Frustrating, right?
Maybe I should try some Tylenol PM. I did try some tylenol sleep thing (simply sleep) once, but that didn't do anything. I wonder if the pain relief part makes a difference.
I like the idea of turing biochemical pathways into Turing code.
Not sleeping is terrible. I hate restless legs. Do you find stretching helps? that used to work for me, but isn't so much anymore. If you have any solutions, I'd love to hear them.
Off switches would be nice, indeed.
Any of the "PM" painkillers are just tylenol (or ibuprofin or whatever it is) plus an antihistimine. You can also get it without the painkilling part (I think tylenol has something called "simply sleep".) Most of them use the same antihistimine (diphenhydramine HCl), but there are a couple of brands that use a different drug (Unisom uses Doxylamine succinate). Any old antihistimine can probably do the trick.
(Can you tell I've spent A LOT of time in the sleep aids section of the drugstore??)
Hey Lucy,
Like everyone else here I have the same problem. Tylenol PM is my old standby, but I learned some other tricks too. Email me if you want to know some of the ways I've learned to make sleep come faster (and stay longer). If this is a prolonged problem, you could ask your meds nurse for something a little more potent - althogh I think you can develop a dependency. I seem to remember a college friend's pharmacist mother telling us you can't become addicted to benadryl, so I like that idea for once or twice a week here and there type of use. Sometimes you need more help though....
Re: fan on laptop. Do you have an iPod? I sort of liked doing that for a while, but I'm a back sleeper so it's possible to wear the headphones and not have them get in the way.
Things always seem worse when it is dark outside. I don't know why. I always do my worrying in the middle of the night.
I too, have the same problem very often. I so do wish that my brain had a switch as well...
I use valerian to help me get to sleep (make valerian tea). Sleep aids don't work for me (and in fact make me more anxious).
re: ipods - you can hook regularish speakers to them. I discovered that the ones I had for an older desktop work with the ipod (so much for apple's trying to trick me into thinking I need fancy schmancy speakers). They even work with my shuffle.
Eek! Hope you have an easier time falling asleep tonight.
thanks for your suggestions, everyone. I don't have an ipod, but I did just order a more generic mp3 player. I'm seriously considering getting this awesome pillow to go with it.
Very cool blog, btw, clear :) Thanks for stopping by.
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