For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for September 16, 2009

At least she’s going in with the right mindset….hopefully. Does anyone know how to go to sleep? I cant get to sleep, and before trying, and realizing I couldnt, I was exhausted. Seriously, if anyone has any tips, its greatly appreciated.

OR…. you could have just been a nice supportive friend! Way to go Anne!

mroberts88. here are a few things that work well for me.

Since you have been trying for more than 10 minutes now, do a little reading while sipping on a small glass of warm milk. Make sure the bedroom is the right temp. Dim the lights and NO TV or computer for 2 hours before bed time. If any TV at all, make sure the program is dull with the sound VERY low. Slow the mind down. The hum of a fan running might help. Once in bed, try reciting something like a few Bible verses and contemplate the tranquility of each line. Psalm 23 does it quite well for me.

OK?

Sleep well, my friend!

mroberts88, if you’ll look at yesterday’s installment, you’ll see that I’ve replied to the question you posted.

Regarding your question tonight about how to overcome insomnia:

I’ve found that it’s very helpful to know that scientists have asserted that just by lying still in bed with your eyes closed, your body gets something like 90% of the benefits that it would get from you actually sleeping.

Just keep that in mind as you’re lying there, and you’ll have far less anxiety about whether or not you’re going to be able to fall asleep. This, in turn, will relax you, and you’ll be likelier to actually doze off.

Good suggestions above, to which I would add some melatonin. If you don’t have any on hand, get some tomorrow in the nutritional supplement section of your neighborhood drugstore, and in the meanwhile, try chamomile tea, chicken soup, a small turkey sandwich, or some cottage cheese.

If the specific meditation topic suggested by Earl is not congenial to you, any serene meditation focus will do. Also, consciously tense, then relax, every muscle in your body, starting with your toes and ending with your forehead.

The reason for no screen time before bedtime is that blue light makes your pineal gland think it’s daytime and it stops producing melatonin, messing up your biorhythms. So if you’re still here reading this, STOP! Right now! Shut everything off and go lie down.

But tomorrow (later today), go here: http://www.essortment.com/all/insomniatreatme_rvmt.htm http://www.wikihow.com/Prevent-Insomnia

Believe it or not, eating fried food such as chicken before you go to bed works very well. Not real healthy, but it works……….

I use antihistamine and I take it about 2 hours before I want to be asleep.

Counting backwards from 100, visualizing every single number changing slowly …

or

Reciting the alphabet backwards, slowly …

yawn … zzzzzzz

I wonder what John is gonna pay Elly for working for him. He better not expect her to do it for free. He should pay her what he’s paying the woman she’s replacing.

As for the insomnia I read somewhere what Flight Suit said. Even if you’re not actually asleep, just laying in bed with your eyes closed is giving you some of the same benefits of sleep. When I learned that I stopped fretting about not being asleep yet and how few hours I had til I had to get up.

Well…just to put in my two cents. Laying down still with your eyes closed does not really give you any benefits of sleeping at all…at least not from the brain’s perspective. People with sleep apnea usually get to stage II sleep, thus giving themselves the illusion that they have slept all night long due to not being conscious. However, the brain needs to go through all 4 stages of sleep + REM at least two, preferrably three, times per night. If not, your brain functions as though you’ve been up wide eyed all night. Chronic sleep deprivation is unhealthy and is a risk factor for vascular disease. Occasional insomnia is irritating but relatively harmless.

Non-pharmacologic sleep aids are definitely the right way to start. If you have trouble getting to sleep, sometimes sensory deprivation to avoid distractions can be helpful like counting, meditating, etc. as the nice people here have suggested. Some people can bore themselves to sleep by picking a topic and naming something for every letter of the alphabet for that topic - example: try Countries –> Argentina, Bolivia, China, Dominican Republic…you get the idea. Also, covering your eyes with a sleep mask and/or using ear plugs or background noise can help. Psychiatrists recommend avoiding using your bedroom for anything other than relaxation or sleep - no TV, no eating, no playing games, no computer, etc.

Difficulty staying asleep is a lot harder to treat without medication. Melatonin is definitely a good start. Antihistaimines such as benadryl or vistaril are okay for occasional insomnia, but don’t really give you good sleep (i.e. all four stages + REM) so aren’t a great long term alternative. If all else fails, consider seeing a doctor to make sure you don’t have a sleep disorder and to talk about possibly using a prescription sleep aid such as Lunesta or Rozerem.

How’s that for an over-wordy response?! :)

I do NOT!! recommend melatonin!! I used it (mixed shifts at work…) and ended up triggering all sorts of unknown allergies. My MD told me that this has been well documented; but no one lets you know ahead of time; only when it is too late! SO now I get to deal with a huge list of animal, food & pollen allergies of things I had never had any reactions to before! If I can’t sleep (and its a common occurrence :( for me) I trance down so I am at least semi-conscious. Seems to help. On the odd really restless night i usually resort to benadryl, but I hate the “boggy head” I end up with the next morning.

oops. looks like I stumbled on to the WebMD site! :-D

John will now have a very beautiful assistant.

When I have trouble sleeping, I take a very hot bath. Then I relax (unclothed) in the recliner. Once the water has evaporated from my skin, I climb in bed. The hot water relaxes the muscles, and the dropping body temperature makes it feel better to climb in bed, and snuggle under the covers. I’ve heard that a dropping body temperature is conducive to sleep - after all, think about before central heat and a/c, it is warmer in the daytime than at night.

As for the strip: I agree that Elly should get some pay for her work at John’s office.

I like to use Bach’s rescue remedy sleep formula. That does it for me.

I usually listen to the music while I lay on my bed that helps me to sleep real deeply. I end up falling asleep. It works very well.

mroberts: the general thread of suggestions seems to equal what works for me. relaxing in bed with quiet background (i like softly playing classical music (adagio tempo works best)) and no up tempo activities beforehand. i tend to watch PBS (biographies or nature shows, mainly) to unwind. hope you find success.

I want to thank everyone who gave their opinion on the situarion. Susan, I am not however, desperate/crazy enough to snort anything, least of all brandy. If that works for you, good, but I dont like to snort things.

Flight suit, that clarifies things, so I am a Canadian at heart? Hm..interesting.

Hoo boy! The WebMD site indeed. Stop by Shoppers Drug Mart or Zellers and talk to the pharmacist. That resolve the problem, one would think.

i picture myself at the lake looking out over the water at the sunset…. extremely relaxing

at least for me it is

@mroberts88 I once read that thinking of everything you must do works. But that’s unless you’re a type of person that it just makes you want to get up and do it.

Read a boring book. I play solitaire on my iPhone.

I’m also going to suggest a bit of red wine. Not enough to get buzzed, but enough to get you drowsy.

For watching TV, the weather channel worked for me. It’s the only channel I wouldn’t mind falling asleep to. It’s the dullest station ever (as needed as it is for checking weather).

For the food suggestion, I like turkey.

And I know some suggestions may be redundant and if you reject brandy, you may reject red wine, but remember, red wine has some health benefits (as does turkey) so it’s definitely better than sleeping pills or going so far as NyQuil.

I know even as much as one does, it’s not going to help in some situations.

I sleep on the living room couch because my husband snores, plus the new sheets he got for summer attracts cat hair like no one’s business and I can’t sleep on that. For some time this past winter, our upstairs neighbor had his volume up high. Not high enough to call cops, but high enough to where I could hear just an inkling of it. Enough to irk me to the point of being so wound up I couldn’t sleep. Even once when I was very sick and NyQuiled. I am a light sleeper and am pretty uptight about noise, especially noise one can control, but refuses to out of inconsideration.

Are there outside stimulus upsetting your sleep? Or even just plain anxiety? I was sure I was over-reacting to the noise, but I over-react when already in an anxious mood.

Dakabn5 @mroberts88 I once read that thinking of everything you must do works. But that’s unless you’re a type of person that it just makes you want to get up and do it.

Are you trying to say that everyithing works for me? It doesnt.

I’m probably going to read a book or something. I cant keep alcohol in my dorm, the dean doesnt like that. Yes, I agree, the weather channel is boring.

@mroberts88 No. :D I phrased it wrong. Like thinking of the laundry or report at work or whatever you have to do tomorrow. I read that one could get sleepy just by wanting to avoid those things. It’s been awhile since I read that article, but I remember that little bit. I forgot WHY it’s supposed to work.

Oh, then alcohol is a no. Understood.

I meant to list my email since after I move on to the next comic in my list, I won’t be checking here. dakabn@gmail.com

Another trick that works for me is daydreaming that for some reason I SHOULDN’T sleep and acting like I’m drifting off, but trying not to. Somehow that works for me sometimes.

Also try running your fingers over your eyebrows or just gently rubbing your forehead. I told my husband I rubbed my eyebrows once and it was really relaxing and he said there are muscles in our forehead that tense up.

That makes more sense. Like I said, I’m going to try that book thing.

HEY! I thought we were supposed ti be talking about the comic strip not sleeping.

HI! Yeah, we are, but this topic came up in a question I asked. Anne really does need to be more supportive.

shelty, these comic comments never stay on subject. At least this isn’t as bad as Pibgorn. Those people need a forum.

I sleep with a fan running. The motor noise masks other noises so I can sleep. There is a small tabletop machine you can purchase that makes rain sounds, crickets, ocean waves, anything you like best to sleep to.

summerdog, I hope that works for mroberts88, but personally, it can’t be anything other than an AC or fan or heater. Those noise makers have random separate noises (bird chirps, etc) that would disturb me. I like thunderstorms, but thunder would stir me. I’m just a very finicky sleeper. Princess and the pea, really.

A Volunteer: I did not know that about melatonin. For me, it didn’t trigger any allergies, thank goodness. 600 mcg.; get horizontal 30 min. later, out like a light, sleep five hours, get up to pee, and then–this is the important part–go back to sleep for another two or three hours.

I don’t have insomnia. I have BAD HABITS. Like GoComics.

Like I said before, I’ll try the book idea, but the fan one seems promising if the book doesnt work. Its really neat seeing most of the people answer that question, and that ya’ll hope it works for me.