Sleep routines

[Shevek]

For me, "bed sitting up" and "bed laying down" are different places. Sometimes, I'm just there to stay warm. In the sitting up phase, I'm away from the 'net and slowing down with a book or meditation. Laying down, I plan to sleep, and usually do. If not, I start over. Sometimes I just need to write a short note to myself, or do something I forgot like water the sprouts.

 

[MildredHubble]

I really do wonder if my current sleep issues are related to taking SSRIs again a few years back. I have bipolar disorder and Ive always had quite unpleasant responses to various SSRIs, which apparently is par for the course.

I had been off and on SSRIs for years until my GP put two and two together and sent me to be assessed for bipolar. Looking back, there's always been a correlation between my unpredictable sleep patterns, rapid cycling moods, anxiety and taking SSRIs. I had vowed never to take them again after my diagnosis and the horrible symptoms I experienced.

I had been doing very well taking a mood stabilizer for years, but after a period of stress and awful luck, I started to get bad anxiety and depression again. Eventually I went to see my doctor and was referred to a psychiatrist who suggested I try SSRIs again. Naively, I thought that taking them with my mood stabilizer might prevent me from having any undesirable symptoms but that was very silly in hindsight.

I took SSRIs for over year, waiting for the improvement it was supposed to bring, constantly being told by the psychiatrist that I just needed to wait and everything would get better. My sleep pattern had been mostly very good from 2008 until 2018. Now its utterly ruined. This last week I have actually managed to stick to a fairly normal sleep schedule and sleep at night and wake up in the morning, but its like my sleep pattern is like a precariously balanced jenga tower and it can collapse at any time.

Now I will absolutely, never, ever, ever again, take SSRIs again. I'm sure they have altered how my body responds to my mood stabilizer and alternative options are limited.

I've never really had issues using the bed as a place to lounge about while I read or watch YouTube etc. Like @Shevek said, my mind treats sitting up in bed and laying in bed as "two different places". My issues with sleep are related to aches and pains, racing thoughts/anxiety. The really weird thing is that I often feel more comfortable standing when I'm struggling to sleep due to pain. Standing feels better but then I start to fall asleep on my feet.

I've always needed a little sound in the background when I sleep. I have (I presume) mild tinnitus and complete silence causes it to become just too much, it feels like the walls are ringing! Not great for a good nights sleep.

Hopefully my current run of a "normal" day wake sleep cycle will last a while

 

[AuAL]

I've always needed a little sound in the background when I sleep. I have (I presume) mild tinnitus and complete silence causes it to become just too much, it feels like the walls are ringing! Not great for a good nights sleep.

Hopefully my current run of a "normal" day wake sleep cycle will last a while

Silent environments are not restful for me. I remember going into a well-known “silent” crypt in Bremen cathedral. I couldn’t stand it - had to get out of there. (As an aside, the penal colony at Port Arthur, near Hobart in Tasmania, had a “deaf & blind” punishment cell - complete darkness and no sound, with the gaolers wearing sacking on their feet. There was an insane asylum constructed next to the gaol. Coincidence, I don’t think so.)

Yes, in the “quiet” of the night, my tinnitus ramps up - for those of you who can still remember the high-pitched whine of some of the old CRT TVs, think of that with the volume turned up to the max. That’s why, on advice from my GP, I now take a very small dose of doxylamine at bedtime, just enough to let me calm down and get to sleep despite the racket.

 

[MildredHubble]

those of you who can still remember the high-pitched whine of some of the old CRT TVs, think of that with the volume turned up to the max.

That's how I'd describe my tinnitus. I always assumed it was normal, I remember sitting in our living room when I was maybe 3 years old and putting my ear up to to the wall to hear where the rininging was coming from. I can still just about hear a CRT despite being old enough that I shouldn't be able to, but its subtle. I seem less troubled by CRT whine than other people who ive seen covering their ears in the vicinity of a powered up CRT

 

[Outdated]

That's how I'd describe my tinnitus.

I had never experienced tinnitus until I lived in the bush. Many nights were truly silent and then I could hear a noise that was so quiet and faint as to be right on the edge of hearing and I was never really sure if I was hearing something or not.

I had never heard the word tinnitus, to me it was like my brain was picking up radio stations but all of them simultaneously, voices and several different types of music all jumbled together. I often fell asleep trying to decipher what I could hear.

 

[MildredHubble]

I had never experienced tinnitus until I lived in the bush. Many nights were truly silent and then I could hear a noise that was so quiet and faint as to be right on the edge of hearing and I was never really sure if I was hearing something or not.

I had never heard the word tinnitus, to me it was like my brain was picking up radio stations but all of them simultaneously, voices and several different types of music all jumbled together. I often fell asleep trying to decipher what I could hear.

Silence certainly seems to bring it to the fore. I'm quite fortunate right now as its "fan season" and we have at least one churning away all day and night. The whirring is nice and I can barely hear the ringing

I'd imagine that it could get a bit tricky psychologically being in near silence on your own in the middle of nowhere with a ringing in your ears. The opportunities for pareidolia are probably many!

I like having a cat around as they usually make some sort of noise and when there's no other human beings around I think it helps keep me from tuning in too much to the walls ringing

 

[Outdated]

I'd imagine that it could get a bit tricky psychologically being in near silence on your own in the middle of nowhere with a ringing in your ears. The opportunities for pareidolia are probably many!

Pareidolia is a new word to me, thanks.

In the tropics the quiet at night is often absolute, early in the evening the insects make a lot of noise but they tend to go quiet within a few hours. No wind, not even a gentle shifting of the air. No Cars, no other homes, no street lights.

It took me quite a while to get used to living in a city again, cities are never silent, never dark.

 

[Jumpinbare]

I had never experienced tinnitus until I lived in the bush. Many nights were truly silent and then I could hear a noise that was so quiet and faint as to be right on the edge of hearing and I was never really sure if I was hearing something or not.

I had never heard the word tinnitus, to me it was like my brain was picking up radio stations but all of them simultaneously, voices and several different types of music all jumbled together. I often fell asleep trying to decipher what I could hear.

That was just the extraterrestrials examining you.

I'd imagine that it could get a bit tricky psychologically being in near silence on your own in the middle of nowhere with a ringing in your ears.

That has always been my experience. I have literally never heard silence.

 

[MildredHubble]

It took me quite a while to get used to living in a city again, cities are never silent, never dark.

This pretty much was my experience getting used to there being no more lockdowns after the covid pandemic started to resolve. It was quite wonderful to rarely hear traffic outside and to rarely hear people making a racket outside. No stupid boy racers with their loud car exhausts and backfiring engines. I should probably move to a remote mountain somewhere!

 

[Outdated]

No stupid boy racers with their loud car exhausts and backfiring engines.

Someone that lives near me has bought themselves a skateboard. I thought that fad died out years ago, I wish it had, I had forgotten just how much noise they make, especially in the early hours of the morning. I think he rides his skateboard to the bus stop going to work in the mornings.

 

[MildredHubble]

Someone that lives near me has bought themselves a skateboard. I thought that fad died out years ago, I wish it had, I had forgotten just how much noise they make, especially in the early hours of the morning. I think he rides his skateboard to the bus stop going to work in the mornings.

Yeah they can be quite loud. I used to skate a little. One night I had to go to my grandma's quite late to help her with something, so I thought I'd go there on my skateboard, but I soon realized that I was probably going to wake up an entire neighborhood. It was after midnight and it was a cost road. It was so quiet with just a little swishing sound coming from the sea. I walked instead, which took quite a while.

That was maybe 7-8 years ago. I'd probably have some kind of terrible injury if I did it now with my balance etc. Funny thing is the instinct to hop on a skateboard is kinda still there. Sometimes I just think "oh I could get to a place on a skateboard." Then I remember all that's changed now.

I wasn't great at it, I couldn't do tricks or anything fancy

 

[Outdated]

I wasn't great at it, I couldn't do tricks or anything fancy

I was hopeless on them so I hated them.