Sleep problems! :( - Sleep Disorders Message Board

HelpMEPlease123 · 04-10-2003, 11:19 PM

Hi,
I have a major problem with sleep, my problem seems to be unusual as I cannot find help on it very many places at all. What happens is I cannot fall asleep until real late, and then I will not wake up for at least 12 hours after that. So I normally get to bed around 1-4am and wake up around anywhere from 12-4pm, that is if I wake up at all.. I have the ability to just sleep all day, but I have to try not too, or else then I start sleeping during the day and only being awake at night.

I now will have classes at 8am next semester so I need to find a way to sleep. I have been attempting to go to sleep an hour earlier each day and attempting to limit my sleep to only 8 hours, but so far it has not really worked.

I do not drink caffeine at all (I drink coke, but non caffeine type).. I have had depression as well and the pills I am on seem to regulate my sleep to the 4-12pm type, but I have not figured out how to wake up any earlier than 10am since I went to college.

My family has a history of sleep problems, my dad has apnea (he is tired all the time), but I am never tired really even when I go to bed. Sometimes its like I cant turn off my thoughts and that is a problem, but I dont know what to do anymore... and this does not help my depression as all I can think of when I have a real job and I cant wake up and I would get fired and all that, and I only have another year of school.. I dont know anymore what to do, I tell my depression dr about it and she ignores the problem.

Someone HELP PLEASE

koden · 04-11-2003, 12:23 AM

i have the exact same problem. it's no problem for me to stay up to 4-5 average & sleep till 3-4. i tried some valerian root capsules but they didn't really help me at all & i've never been on any kind of prescription medication at all for it. i've had it for years but just recently i found a couple of products for insomnia that look really cool. one is called 'sleep deep' & it's some kind of an ayurvedic treatment & the other one is called 'serenite'. i think i'm leaning towards the serenite cos in the liquid form it knocks u out in 5-10 minutes & 15-20 for capsule form. they say it's 100% safe & non-addictive & been scientifically proven so i think i'm gonna get it as soon as i can. that or the sleep deep are supposed to improve the quality of your sleep each night u take it so there's nothing to lose. hope this helps

Citykittie · 04-13-2003, 01:55 AM

I wrote on your other post but will here also. I have the same problem. I can sleep 16 hours plus!

Here are some thoughts

Do you have any schedule? Any reason to get up? I don't on most days so I just LOVE to sleep.

Have you researched sites on anxiety and depression to see how the meds your on have affected the sleep of others? Maybe you could try taking it at another time of day.

I have tried Sonata and Ambien, I would suggest not too. I got addicted easy. And it sounds like your probelm isn't sleeping - just getting on a schedule.

[This message has been edited by Citykittie (edited 04-13-2003).]

devastated · 04-18-2003, 12:47 PM

My boyfriend kinda has the same problem, and once he's asleep, nothing wakes him up. I don't know what to do about it. He will normally wake up on his own about 2pm, no matter if he went to sleep at 11pm, or 2am, but seems to reqire, at a minimum, 12 hours of sleep. He can't hold a job where he has to be there at a certain time before like 3pm, because nothing wakes him up. He could set 5 different alarm clocks, and sleep through all of them. If I try to wake him up, its impossible. Shaking him and yelling in his ear doesnt work, and I'm 99% sure if I hauled off and punched him in the face, it wouldnt phaze him. It's like he's comatose. He has fallen off the bed before and hit his head hard enough on the corner of a table that it was bleeding, and I still couldnt wake him up to get him to get back in the bed. I hope that there is never a fire in the house, because I would never be able to wake him up to get him out. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what this may be, or anything we could do for it?

HelpMEPlease123 · 04-18-2003, 09:11 PM

Hmm. I have also fallen out of bed and bit off a piece of my tougne and didnt wake up. I discovered that the problem with that was that sound caused me to think "its just the TV" or something and I wouldnt wake up. (ie: the TV is on, a fan or anything will make me sleep longer because I will believe that the alarm is just part of that sound)

Something else to note, I had a problem with Alarms not waking me up at all ever. However I have found a way around that too, I have an alarm that rotates the sound so that it changes in stages and gets lounder and louder if I dont turn it off. (I also have one that zaps the bed but have stopped using that one) Its a TIMEX one the only one I have ever seen with this feature. I also have set one alarm one hour before I want to get up and another when I want to get up as I normally wake up in stages and will hear the 1st one as part of a dream (my dreams a lot of times have my alarm sound in them I remember hearing it for awhile and then put it off and think its something else) until my second alarm goes off then I will hear it and wake up just as it starts.

You could also try some light techniques that I have heard about, making the room so dark at night and then opening it up to wake him up at a certain time.

You could even try touching a sensitive place or pinching in a random location (my g/f used to do that).