Oh, to dream. . .
Insomnia has its benefits, you know.
Nightly I am given the opportunity to wake up at midnight, two or four AM (sometimes all three) and think about important things like if I saved the final version of that Excel sheet or whether I turned the oven off after dinner. During the day, you don’t really get to worry about those things because you can just hit ‘save’ or you can just go into the kitchen and check the dial.
I don’t recall when I became a true insomniac. I think it was sometime after college when I stopped drinking heavily. Now instead of waking up with a raging headache at 11am, I wake up at 2am and wonder if the spider crawling on the ceiling is going to come down and bite me in the ass.
I’ve tried all kinds of things. For a while I was taking Tylenol PM like it was prescribed daily medicine, and although it did work sometimes, when I woke up I would be in a hazy fog for the rest of the morning. That shit is strong, especially the nights when I took three pills after days on end of two pills failing to deliver.
But I stopped taking Tylenol PM so often because I envisioned myself turning into Rush Limbaugh or Brett Favre, but not having the financial clout to pay for my addiction, I’d end up diving into wishing wells at suburban malls gathering up all the dimes I could get my hands on.
And I tried some of those natural herbs that cost like a hundred bucks a bottle at those natural pharmacy stores (I live near Berkeley so there is one on every corner). For each one I tried, it usually worked for about a night, and then after the next three four nights sitting up in bed at 3am, saying “WTF, Theanine?” I chalked it up to placebo effect.
The obvious answer seems to be to return to heavy drinking. A couple shots of tequila after a long day at work and a taxing evening with the kids will knock your shit out. And the headache in the morning might be preferred to the one I get from listening to crying first thing in the morning.
Yes, at this point, I haven’t quite figured it out. Anyone have any surefire cures for insomnia? If you do, give me a call in the middle of the night. It’s the best time to reach me.
About Jared Karol
I also wake up at random times during the night. Often. It sucks. (Or it blows, depending on which way you wanna swing.) If I wake up worrying I usually go face my worry. Go check the stove, save that document, etc. Now the worry is gone and I can go back to sleep. This only works about half the time, though, so if anyone else has any solutions, I’d be interested in seeing them.
If it makes you feel any better, I’m glad that you think about the same stupid stuff in the middle of the night as me. One thing that has worked is that when I DO get six hours straight sleep I am totally set for the day. Give me ten to four any night and I’ll be running marathons the next day. . .
Twitter Name: lickthefridge
Melatonin is your friend…
Twitter Name: thedgoddess
tried that for a bit, with some success, but not enough to make her my friend – we’re more like acquaintances, I think. . .
Twitter Name: lickthefridge
I have a wonderful habit of semi-waking at around 3.45am, at which time my brain kicks into “OMG what work stuff have I forgotten?!” mode, or as I also like to call it, “monkey chatter”. There are only two things that have ever worked to help me drop back to sleep – Rescue Remedy (occasionally) and my alarm going off (NEVER EVER FAILS).
Have been tempted recently to set my alarm for 4am to see if this cure only works in conjunction with emerging daylight.
Twitter Name: RHWKai
I think you just gave me the name of my next band – “monkey chatter”. Awesome stuff! I think you should try the 4am alarm and see if/how it changes things. Maybe after being forced to wake up early for a while, your body will adjust and and you’ll be so exhausted at 8 or 9 at night that you’ll just head off to bed and get a solid seven or eight hours of sleep. Or maybe you’ll just wake up at 2 instead of 4. Damn, this is hard!
Twitter Name: lickthefridge