November 21, 2017

Who volunteers to sing me a lullaby?

I don't know what is going on. I have not been able to sleep at night. I cannot blame it on jet lag, I have been home for almost a week. Besides, I had issues sleeping while I was in China. In fact, my problems started before I even left on my business trip.

I am so tired, I fall right asleep. Then, a couple of hours later, I wake up. I manage to get back to sleep but wake up every hour or two until about four or five then I am up for the day. I fight sleepiness and exhaustion all afternoon and evening until I hit the bed, fall right asleep only to wake up a couple of hours later....

My sleep is marked by expressly vivid dreams, something I used to rarely have ( at least that I can remember when I wake up).

I am so sick of this pattern that I am seriously considering taking a sleep aid for the first time in my life. I have eliminated evening caffeine. I have tried staying up later and going to bed earlier, but I do not know what to do about the thoughts and worries that creep in as soon as the firewall in my brain is weakened by sleep and exhaustion. Poof, I am awake again.

I have always managed to get by on 5-6 hours of sleep. I have occasionally fought bouts of insomnia. Back in my graveyard shift days I was often up 24 hours at a stretch. Never have I had such a protracted period of sleep deprivation as I am experiencing now. I feel muddled and tired all of the time.

Enough complaining for this morning. I am sure this pattern will break soon. If not, I suppose I will just get used to it.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Welcome to not being a spring chicken anymore. That old jet lag deal impact is worse as we get older, during my younger days I could recover in a few days, at the end of my fun filled Army days it took up to a month to fully recover. I am have the same issues since I retired, probably because I have no actual need to jump up at a certain time. Sleep aids are ok I guess, the wife uses one, I just lay there and toss and turn, fall asleep, wake up two hours later, etc etc.

James Getting Older GUy

Jean said...

Might be worth asking your doctor, if you haven't already.
Could be medication related?

Joe said...

I never thought of that, Jean. I have been on a new med.

Carole said...

After suffering a long time with similar sleep problems, I was tested for sleep apnea, and found out I had a severe problem with it. The solution for that is a Cpap machine which is hard to get used to, but helps tremendously.

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