Sleep Issues

[taurean]

In general terms I am now a good sleeper.

Before sleep I undertake relaxation by reading an enjoyable book and listening to relaxing music on my bedside radio/CD.

Last night I awoke at 02.00 hrs needing a comfort break, then fell asleep but into a vivid lucid dream that I think must have lasted until I woke up. A lot - that I can distinctly remember - happened. Nothing really bad - it was just a day in my working life but an imagined one in a very different location - and I was very young and still living at home. ( In fact I never was working in my career when I lived at home, I had left home by then).

So a long, interesting, powerful, lucid dream - yet I woke up feeling exhausted! !!!!

I believe that dreams occur during a period of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep.

I think what happened is an unusual, very long period of this REM sleep - with vivid dream - and this took a lot out of me mentally and physically.

[daisy]

I am glad to hear Roy that you now generally sleep well,I so wish I could!

I am getting worse really,I'm up most of the night and when I do finally drop off I still keep waking up,and also have lots of dreams,then in the mornings I feel absolutely awful!

I could sleep then sometimes but have things to do!

Still I guess I am not alone,but it really makes coping with this wretched illness and my other problems so much more difficult!

I can't even lay down during the day because I would have to shower first and I just haven't the energy!

Take care Roy x

[taurean]

I think that having lots of dreams takes it out of us - cxertainly it truly did last night, I felt I had gone 10 rounds with a champion boxer !!!.

I seem to be ok when I haven't had a lucid dream. I understand - from the books I read on sleep - that maybe a couple of REM periods are needed for an overall balanced night's sleep - maybe I had too long and too vivid an REM period?

I do think if we can get ourselves relaxed before sleep then we will sleep better; this is what has been working for me. So I think your sleep problems Daisy are a collateral damage to the anxiety response and worry issues.

Invoking a relaxation response would help therefore I am sure.

My latest therapist - young and relatively recently qualified - uses mindfulness-based CBT - and in that school of thought, our troubles - OCD, thinking distortions, worry, solution-seeking, compulsing - all take place in the active (doing) part of the brain, and when we are able to switch from that into the mindful (being) part of the brain, then she says we can invoke this relaxation response.

Relaxation is the absence of all effort - the mind and the body are calm, with the body functioning autonomously and automatically.

So I have bought into that concept, and as a result I am finding it easier to switch off all the obsessing and compulsing, and just relax. And as a consequence to that my sleep pattern has normally been good.

What helps me do that is - when the active mode is operative, is getting busy on one, but if safe to, two fronts - eg doing the washing up and listening to the radio - that takes up so much attention it leaves little left for the OCD, thinking distortions and compulsing to grab hold of.

When I have finished those, I can take some rest and do a straight refocus from that distraction into relaxing - usually with the TV, or a book accompanied by relaxing music.

Hope this might help a bit

Roy xxxx

Edited August 27, 2015 by taurean

[taurean]

Well I hope I don't have a lucid dream like that again tonight - I have been shaken up all day today as a result.

It was so real - it makes me see how the falsehoods OCD peddles to forum colleagues are so realistic - clearly our imagination is as strong as real experience.

So enormous empathy is going out from me to all who struggle to get relaxing sleep; let's hope we fare better tonight.

Edited August 27, 2015 by taurean

[Gemma7]

I can't stand having loads of dreams it feels like you have been running a mental marathon rather than sleeping. I blame loads of dreams on disturbed sleep. Maybe there was noise you aren't aware of or you were uncomfortable especially with the heat recently.

Hope you sleep better tonight :original:

Edited August 27, 2015 by Gemma7

[daisy]

Hi Roy i am sorry for my late reply,thank you for your advice,i will try the relaxation/mindfulness cd's,but you are right I can't sleep mainly because of my on going personal problems besides my OCD which is so bad right now!

I'm sorry to hear that you have been shaken up all day because of the dream you had last night,I really hope you have a better night tonight.

Take care Roy,and thanks again xx

[Caramoole]

Sleep is a weird thing.......largely because it's something we can't control.

I always fall asleep easily....like within 10 seconds. Often I sleep without any problems whatsoever. Other times it's a nightmare and I can wake up every two/three hours and feel like I've been plugged into the National Grid! Everything is pulsing, I can literally feel blood whooshing through my ears,I feel hot, thoughts loop, dreams invade and a feeling of fear controls.......when I wake in the morning it takes between 30 mins/an hour to subside.

Dr Clare Weeks describes this unexplained phenomena in her books very well.

Good bedtime routine makes very little difference to me. Anticipation, acceptance and refusal to respond to the anxiety response (for me) is the way forward.

I'd love to wake up relaxed and refreshed....it rarely happens. I wake frazzled and build from there. There's no point buying into the whys and wherefores, it just is and I have to deal with it.

As the saying goes......

"I don't do Mornings" :crybaby:

[Guest Chickpea]

Sometimes I suffer from insomnia. I've been sleeping alright lately though.

When I fall asleep feeling anxious I have the most intricate nightmares, I feel like my brain, when it's asleep is a horror/thriller master mind, it even comes up with the most amazing twists right before I wake up. I used to like scary movies, before my OCD got really bad.

I never wake up feeling refreshed either, it takes me at least an hour before I'm ready to face the day.

[taurean]

I think that is a sad collateral damage from anxiety, Rita.

I can't get off to sleep when anxious - in fact, the arousal brings on leg cramps which lead to "restless legs syndrome"

So last night I went through my - simple - route to calming down. Lying on the bed playing relaxing classical or jazz music, whilst reading a very relaxing book (on my Kindle).

To help, I also took two "Nytol" herbal sleep remedy tablets.

Another calming method I use involves listening to a guided meditation on headphones - the voice and the imagery is very calm-inducing.

My wife woke me up, humming the main theme to "Peter & The Wolf" :original:

I had been dreaming, but as normal for me, about what I could not remember.

And although I had a dry mouth and was a little aroused, nowhere near the same levels as last night

Better then. I am reminded now how debilitating sleep issues can be. I hope everyone has an improving sleep experience going forward.

:group:

Edited August 28, 2015 by taurean

[taurean]

Tonight I am wallowing in the deep relaxation that emanates from listening to a brilliant guided meditation CD from New World Music.

On it are 7 10-minute meditations by the australian psychologist Simonettse Vaja - it is called "Mini-meditations For Stress Free Living".

You can get the CD from New World Music or the CD or download from Amazon.

It is amazingly, soothingly relaxing.....

[Sodovka]

Nice to join this very important thread. I've been taking Unisom (doxylamine) gel tabs every night for a couple of months. It's really kind of annoying, because before I was depressed and off medications entirely, I fell asleep nicely and slept mostly straight through the night. It's not that the Unisom is so terrible. It does the job and I am not especially groggy in the morning, but I want to do as much as possible without relying on pharmaceuticals, including something as fundamental as sleep.

Regarding dreams, I've recently had a couple in which I was coping with OCD and trying to respond effectively to obsessions. Not my actual, everyday obsessions, but it was the same process. I wonder if others have found that OCD has invaded your dreams as well?

[taurean]

I was ok re sleep last night but my wife woke me from a - benign - dream again.

Before that - lucid dream - night which exhausted me, we had had a - temporary - disagreement with her sister, and I was distressed.

A connection methinks?

[taurean]

I could do perhaps with not sleeping so long now - I definitely seem to schedule a long REM dream sequence for early morning, as my wife has been waking me from deep

dreams!!

[taurean]

So how am I doing now?

I have made some changes.

Whilst I don't like to use an alarm clock now (for 44 years I had to when I was working), I am gradually - aided and encouraged by my wife - getting up earlier and going to sleep later.

I am using some very soporific, sleep-inducing CDs to play from the bedside player as I drift off to sleep.

I went back to the little independent bookshop and bought another today; SPA - DREAMING, from the Global Journey company.

I make sure I read a very enjoyable and relaxing novel for at least 20 minutes before attempting sleep.

And if I don't feel sleepy, I eat a couple of bland biscuits and take two Nytol herbal sleep remedy tablets.

Result - sleeping pretty well. Still sometimes wake around 02.00 hrs, but then just read for a while or come on here, then drop off nicely again.

Edited September 4, 2015 by taurean

[Guest David green]

Sometimes I suffer from insomnia. I've been sleeping alright lately though.

When I fall asleep feeling anxious I have the most intricate nightmares, I feel like my brain, when it's asleep is a horror/thriller master mind, it even comes up with the most amazing twists right before I wake up. I used to like scary movies, before my OCD got really bad.

I never wake up feeling refreshed either, it takes me at least an hour before I'm ready to face the day.

I feel exactly the same nightmares just the same as yours and it does take me the same about an hour to feel ready for the day.

[taurean]

I had another very powerful realistic dream two nights ago. I only started to feel calm again in the evening.

[Guest David green]

I know its terrible it can stay with you its like i cope in the day feel stable enough but when i sleep its unstable.in my nightmware im shouting and swearing my throat seems rough when i wake up so that tells me i was shouting then i feel so embarrased.

[whitebeam]

Roy - I have trouble going to sleep - generally once I do sleep, I sleep well. Does Nytol help? I've never tried.....

[taurean]

Nytol or Kalms sleep - similar products - help me when I don't feel sleepy or I am a little stressed or anxious.

Usually I will drop off after taking them.

Edited September 8, 2015 by taurean

[Guest David green]

Phenergan recomended for me from the cmht works a treat great it your really anxous too.25mg tabs do me you can get 10mg tabs to without perscription.I remember taking kalms tabs for so long when i needed it but i think phenergran do the trick.

[Guest Chickpea]

Are these supplements (if that's what they are?) safe to take with other medication?

[taurean]

I generally sleep ok but having occasional bad dreams from which I emerge distressed and debillitated.

Hoping to sleep well here at my Mum-in-law's flat - we have stayed here many times, and my sleep experience is not bad here, although I have had the occasional intellectual discussion with mum-in-law during the early hours, as we would both sometimes surface at that time!

[taurean]

Are these supplements (if that's what they are?) safe to take with other medication?

Kalms and Nytol are herbal extracts, but if in any doubt refer your doctor.