Hello! And a random thing!
I have decided that I am going to get back into the habit of posting here regularly, so I have made a vow to post once a week, minimum. I make no promises about quality! Putting words together is still really hard, so it's practice, practice, practice...
Sharing a (non-) sleeping space with an insomniac
I don’t sleep well. I haven’t since I was a teenager. For many years it wasn’t really a problem. I was young and healthy and learnt how to get by on 2-4 hours’ sleep a night and soon it was all I knew, so all was well. Then thirty something happened at the same time my brain went into melt-down and I was just exhausted all the time. Still am. Sleep is the most precious thing in my life.
So, if you have an insomniac in your life, here are some tips to help them keep their precious.
Generally when I am sharing a room with friends, it’s after a time of not seeing each other for a while and we have a lot of catching up to do. So we talk all day, decide its late and time for bed, stop talking, go to bed, turn the light out and start talking again.
Awesome.
But, when you are finally done talking, you then turn over and within 10-20 minutes you are sound asleep. But not us. Oh, no. we still have a minimum of an hour to lie awake seething with jealousy and panicking that you have died when your breathing changes in the tiniest way.
As the non-traditional sleeper you have hours to lie awake, listen to weird noises if you’re not where you normally sleep, refusing to move even though you have gone someway past discomfort just in case it wakes the utter, utter git in the room with you who is SLEEPING even though you don’t care because the utter, utter bastard is sleeping and sleeping is all you want to do and oh, god, now you need to use the bathroom and getting up will also disturb them, and hell that is not going to help getting to sleep and I wish I could just read, but I can’t put the light on, and OH MY GOD could that smoke alarm light blink any brighter? Who needs an illuminated smoke alarm anyway? Knowing where the smoke alarm is never helps anyone, especially when it is outside your kitchen and every time you cook bacon you know exactly where the bloody thing is and oh bloody hell, bacon, now I am hungry.
This goes on for some hours while you are asleep. This is why we are grumpy a lot.
And I bring it up as a request that as the awesome talking is happening, when we say, “okay, I have to stop talking now and go to sleep,” what we mean is “Okay I have to top talking now and go to sleep in three hours” please let us.
Waking the sleep challenged
You know the expression “a bear with a sore head”? Well, waking an insomniac once they have achieved sleep is more like waking a bear who you have woken by playing a mash-up of Justin Bieber and Barbie Girl on repeat who not only has a sore head but also has raging PMT and you’ve hidden all the chocolate.
The best thing to do if your non-sleeper is sleeping, is leave them. Leave them be and let them sleep. I promise they will be grateful. Think of it as a trade-off - their hours of night-time silence in return for your time of morning quietness. (I genially can’t express how upsetting it is to be woken up when you have finally got to sleep. I have cried before now out of the sheer frustration.)
But inevitably, the day has to be faced and there may come a time where you have to poke the very, very angry bear. (Long sticks are preferable.)
i_bananas has come up with a genius approach that she uses with me. She manages to make drinks without disturbing me much and she wakes me up by placing a cup of coffee next to my head and backing away slowly. I haven’t killed her yet.
My suggestion is that you find something that your under-slept one likes even more than you to distract them with.
Beer
Beer helps you sleep. It’s the hops. Other alcoholic drinks can send you to sleep to, but you usually have to drink an awful lot and beer works best and quickest. If you are sharing a room with an insomniac and they have a drink before going to bed and they do that a few nights in a row, it I possible that that is the reason why. Especially as they are out of their normal environment and probably not able to use whatever tactics they normally use. A beer will help me get to sleep, but just one won’t have any effect on me the next morning whereas a sleeping tablet will make me feel rough as hell the next day and I certainly can’t drive.
Coffee
I reiterate - you can not go wrong with thiis. preferably keep a steady supply on you. At the end of your long stick.
Sharing a (non-) sleeping space with an insomniac
I don’t sleep well. I haven’t since I was a teenager. For many years it wasn’t really a problem. I was young and healthy and learnt how to get by on 2-4 hours’ sleep a night and soon it was all I knew, so all was well. Then thirty something happened at the same time my brain went into melt-down and I was just exhausted all the time. Still am. Sleep is the most precious thing in my life.
So, if you have an insomniac in your life, here are some tips to help them keep their precious.
Generally when I am sharing a room with friends, it’s after a time of not seeing each other for a while and we have a lot of catching up to do. So we talk all day, decide its late and time for bed, stop talking, go to bed, turn the light out and start talking again.
Awesome.
But, when you are finally done talking, you then turn over and within 10-20 minutes you are sound asleep. But not us. Oh, no. we still have a minimum of an hour to lie awake seething with jealousy and panicking that you have died when your breathing changes in the tiniest way.
As the non-traditional sleeper you have hours to lie awake, listen to weird noises if you’re not where you normally sleep, refusing to move even though you have gone someway past discomfort just in case it wakes the utter, utter git in the room with you who is SLEEPING even though you don’t care because the utter, utter bastard is sleeping and sleeping is all you want to do and oh, god, now you need to use the bathroom and getting up will also disturb them, and hell that is not going to help getting to sleep and I wish I could just read, but I can’t put the light on, and OH MY GOD could that smoke alarm light blink any brighter? Who needs an illuminated smoke alarm anyway? Knowing where the smoke alarm is never helps anyone, especially when it is outside your kitchen and every time you cook bacon you know exactly where the bloody thing is and oh bloody hell, bacon, now I am hungry.
This goes on for some hours while you are asleep. This is why we are grumpy a lot.
And I bring it up as a request that as the awesome talking is happening, when we say, “okay, I have to stop talking now and go to sleep,” what we mean is “Okay I have to top talking now and go to sleep in three hours” please let us.
Waking the sleep challenged
You know the expression “a bear with a sore head”? Well, waking an insomniac once they have achieved sleep is more like waking a bear who you have woken by playing a mash-up of Justin Bieber and Barbie Girl on repeat who not only has a sore head but also has raging PMT and you’ve hidden all the chocolate.
The best thing to do if your non-sleeper is sleeping, is leave them. Leave them be and let them sleep. I promise they will be grateful. Think of it as a trade-off - their hours of night-time silence in return for your time of morning quietness. (I genially can’t express how upsetting it is to be woken up when you have finally got to sleep. I have cried before now out of the sheer frustration.)
But inevitably, the day has to be faced and there may come a time where you have to poke the very, very angry bear. (Long sticks are preferable.)
i_bananas has come up with a genius approach that she uses with me. She manages to make drinks without disturbing me much and she wakes me up by placing a cup of coffee next to my head and backing away slowly. I haven’t killed her yet.
My suggestion is that you find something that your under-slept one likes even more than you to distract them with.
Beer
Beer helps you sleep. It’s the hops. Other alcoholic drinks can send you to sleep to, but you usually have to drink an awful lot and beer works best and quickest. If you are sharing a room with an insomniac and they have a drink before going to bed and they do that a few nights in a row, it I possible that that is the reason why. Especially as they are out of their normal environment and probably not able to use whatever tactics they normally use. A beer will help me get to sleep, but just one won’t have any effect on me the next morning whereas a sleeping tablet will make me feel rough as hell the next day and I certainly can’t drive.
Coffee
I reiterate - you can not go wrong with thiis. preferably keep a steady supply on you. At the end of your long stick.