firstwivesworld - Alice’s Adventures in Sleeping - Comments

Meditation and deep breathing exercises...

Cathy Meyer — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 09:05:08 -0400

That is what took care of the problem for me. I still have some nights where sweet slumber eludes me but most nights I'm resting nicely. For years though after my divorce I was tossing and turning while my brain worked over-time. I think it is all about emptying your head of stressful thoughts and relaxing your body before climbing between the sheets. You have to let go before you lay down.

I'm sure you've heard it

Guest — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 19:49:11 -0400

I'm sure you've heard it all, but have you tried meditation? Even a nighttime yoga routine perhaps? I hope you get a restful sleep soon. CM

I think this problem affects

allslpd — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 10:23:51 -0400

I think this problem affects more of us than we care to admit. I couldn't tell you the last time I had a restful night's sleep. I have nightmares of my ex stealing my child, I wake up in the middle of the night just to make sure she is still there, I worry about the bills, and moving, and everything in between. I wish I had an answer for all of us, but I don't. All I can say is you are not alone!!

Alice’s Adventures in Sleeping

Alice Brooks — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 07:49:12 -0400

I never had trouble sleeping before my marriage fell apart. If there was one thing I was good at, it was sleeping. I could do it anywhere, in any and all conditions. I could do it all night. I could do it all morning and all afternoon, for that matter.

I never lay in bed awake, thinking, "Ok, if I fall asleep now I'll still get five hours ... if I fall asleep now I'll still get four hours." I never woke up at three a.m. exhausted, but unable to do anything but flop around on the mattress and make mental to-do lists, over and over.

Nightmares, sure — have had those forever. But your basic, run of the mill insomnia — this is relatively new. And it's killing me.

It's been about two years since a sleep-when-I-go-to-bed, sleep-through-the-night night hasn't been something noteworthy. Now I'm at the point where when I manage to sleep a whole six hours in a row, it makes my Facebook status.

It's a whole subculture, this insomnia thing. There's a weird "You can't sleep either?" bond I have with a couple of friends. Nick and I lament over IM and trade homeopathic remedies. My problem with homeopathic answers is that they work miraculously for about a month, and then stop. The wonder and beauty that was Calms Forte has, sadly, come to an end.

Jake was well on his way to a sleeping pill addiction when we split up, which scared the pants off me. There's a history of addiction in my family as well, so I'm not about to start on any kind of "real" medication. I figure, well, I'm ok with being alone again. I'm ok dating again. I'm close to being ok being in a relationship again. So I'm just going to assume that, someday, I will sleep again.