(no subject)

[relevancedenied.livejournal.com]

I've suffered from insomnia- varying degrees of it- for 5+ years now. Most of the time I can't sleep unless I'm completely exhausted, and this generally takes 20 or more hours of being awake. At one point it was so bad that I was awake for eleven days. Well, something occurred to me recently. I've read in the past that multiples tend to have an excess of energy, even when they should be exhausted. Do you suppose this is related? Do a lot of you suffer from insomnia?

(This is crossposted, sorry if you're seeing it twice!)

Comments

[inner-chatter.livejournal.com]

We have horrible insomnia too. Some of us have a whole lot of energy and others not much at all. But even those of us without a lot of energy can't relax to sleep.

[komotomo.livejournal.com]

Hrm. Never heard that before. But, in a way, I suppose it does make sense with our system. We don't have insomnia, but we're pretty much energetic most of the time we're awake, and we have to go through little rituals (putting on some music and focussing on it, taking deep calming breaths, etc) to calm down enough to get to sleep without spending two or three hours awake in bed.

I wondered too.. but..Nah I don't think its a multiple thing

[vanna-in-middle.livejournal.com]

My Mom is part of a multiple group. I have always known whoever I see out, to be awake really long periods of time. She also has bounds of energy, when others would seem to tire with her schedule, or health conditions. When she finally does sleep, its after very long times of staying awake. I asked about this to other multiples too. I wondered if maybe one or two people in a group could be manic, or hyper,and it affect them all, but No.

I think its a individual thing now, just like some singlets have lots of energy, or trouble sleeping, and maybe not a multiple thing at all. I say this cause I was in College with another "group", and they slept really extra long hours. It seemed they slept to escape being out mostly and just loved sleep too, at times. So I have come to think its individual, and has to do with the people s lives, and whats happening in their personal life. I think the way their put together genetically, matters too. My Mom and her group, I have been told, is very much like my Great Grandma was when young, just very energetic, and not needing much sleep.
I hope you get some sleep , if you need it though. Its hard to sleep when your room is hot, so maybe keep it cool, and I hear if you make a bedtime and stick to it, you can train yourself to sleep better - Good Luck

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

We have never experienced such a thing. Generally we sleep fine unless kept awake by back pain, noise or excessive heat. I doubt it has anything to do with being multiple -- everything vanna_in_middle says about her mother's group, as she points out, could be said about singlets, our birth grandmother was a perfect example.

Jason suggests passion flower tea, and/or take a bath with "aromatherapy" scent, turn lights down, tv & computer off, put on some space music (http://www.hos.com) or any kind of relaxing music.

[freakshownia.livejournal.com]

I have the opposite problem - hypersomnia. I can easily sleep for over 20 hours, wake up for one or two, and then go back to sleep for another 20. Quite often I wish I had insomnia instead!

[weirdiguess.livejournal.com]

We have to stay awake late at night until we're really tired (and occassional insomnia seperate from that). Unfortunately because we also have depression, once we're asleep we can be out for the count for at least 10-12 hours, and unable to get up unless we're completely recharged. Which tends to mean when we get tired tends to be a little later every night. It's a difficult balance. I'm not sure it's because we're multiple though, as I seem to remember that this problem has always been here.

[relevancedenied.livejournal.com]

That's almost exactly how I am, minus the depression. I have to stay up until I'm completely tired, and then I can sleep for up to 14 hours.

[weirdiguess.livejournal.com]

Tbh it might not be the depression that's causing us to sleep so much, I just tended to assume it was. Depression makes it *worse* certainly, often enough effort will get us up before we're ready, while if the depression is being a pain then trying to do that just results in crying and generally feeling terrible (if we even manage)

I'm glad to hear it's not just us that does it. I have no idea what causes it. Playing around with our caffiene and sugar intakes hasn't helped, and getting up early just makes us tired all day instead of helping us sleep at night. But like I said, it happened to 'us' before we were a group, so I'm assuming that for us at least, it's just coincidence. I'd give my right arm for it to be different though. Working and day classes have always been hellish because of it.

[relevancedenied.livejournal.com]

I was talking to a friend of mine about being tired all the time, even when I've slept enough. She asked if I'm anemic, and I am. For some reason it never occurred to me that my anemia could be making me fatigued, but I'm going to start taking iron and see if it helps.

[weirdiguess.livejournal.com]

Ouch, yes. That's one of the reasons they test for it before giving anti-depressants sometimes (so unfortunately anemia has been ruled out for us, another dead end). It's something to try at least, so good luck.

[krystale.livejournal.com]

There's something called fluridex. It vegetarian plant based iron, it's digested by yeast and it's a liquid and unlike pills it's nearly impossible to toxify with. Take care if taking drugstore sorts of iron. I tend anemic, and it did wonders for me.

[gryphons.livejournal.com]

we have lots of trouble falling to sleep.. not sure how much of it is being a household.. and in a stressy situation, how much is just messed up stuff from other junk.. and how much is just us always thinking we're missing something..

try to make sleeping a ritual.. of sorts.. same place, (that you make as safe and comfortable as possible), same process (brush teeth, meds, shower, music, check alarm.. whatever) and try to keep to roughly the same time.. that's helped us in the past..

just our two pence..
-Gryphons

[ex-casteylan314.livejournal.com]

On the whole, no we don't suffer from insomnia. Although there's one member of our household who does, and if he's fronting a lot then we do have temporary insomnia.

Insomnia.

[brandon2431.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, we know about insomnia!
We've got two 'protectors' (over-simplistic, but that's what they do) who never sleep at the same time, they take shifts. Sometimes they're both awake at the same time, but they haven't both slept at the same time in years, even while on sleep meds.
(We no longer try to increase the sleep meds. We work around these two and their schedules. It's not always a bad thing, after all, having somebody on guard duty.)