Does anybody have weird sleep patterns? There are days where I can't go to sleep till 2 sometimes 4am. I then sleep till 2 or 3pm the next day. I feel so tired even when I wake up. I try to go to bed early, but I'm tossing and turning for hours. I've tried music or nature sounds like rain or ocean waves. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. I hate this. There are days, I feel I can't live like this the rest of my life. Ughhhhh! I hate this.

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I used to try to stay awake as long as i could because then i couldn't have dreams. Seems like if you sleep for shorter periods the dreams don't come. or at least that's what i thought. I got into a bad habit of staying awake too late and having a hard time getting up and being tired the next day. Never had the problem of not being able to sleep - just wishing i didn't have to...

now that i am working with lots of focus and purpose on my issues, i get very tired much more easily and fade much earlier. i'm getting more sleep and having more dreams - but not the bad ones like before - weird - but manageable. Also more energy the next day. I think the more regular schedule is helping.

There is something i take called melatonin that is not a sleeping pill or tranquilizer but helps me relax and get good sleep. There are side-effects and one is possible depression - but i haven't noticed a increase in that area. You might want to read up on it and ask a doc or T about it. It is non-pre>

Yes. Mine is from Bipolar and Anxiety. I take drugs (have a>

My sleep patterns are all over the place as well. I have a hard time sleeping more than four hours at a time, but i make up for it with frequents naps during the day (an advantage of working from home). Some of my sleep is very deep, but more often it has bizarre dreams with all sorts of people from my past, good and bad.

I've had them off and on for as long as I remember. I swore insomnia was my middle name. I also go through periods of time where I just have horrid nightmares and don't want to sleep.

It is usually due to PTSD which for those who survive CSA it's complex PTSD and we've usually had it off and on since the abuse started occuring, which for too many of us it was incredibly young.

If you have a health care provider ask what you might be able to take to help that is not addictive. I take melatonin off and on but I'm a diabetic (type 1A) and it drastically raises my blood sugar levels. Also it is not a good idea to take it long term because you can get too much melatonin in your body and that can add to depression if you have it. So it is highly recommended to talk with a medical provider or even a good pharmacist can help you.

One thing that seems to really be helping me lately is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (you can even learn it yourself by getting the book "CBT for Dummies"). I still am not getting really restful sleep (I rarely have ever had that) but it so far has really helped with my PTSD and life in general, including not having nightmares for over a month, which is rare for me to go that long.

Best wishes on your healing journey brother. I hope you can find restfull sleep.

Alex

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My habits have been all over the board in thr past.

My inputs into healthy sleep are thr following:

I've settled on living without stimulants-adrenine, caffeine, drugs, or mindless channel or Internet surfing. This makes my evenings calmer so I naturally fall asleep. I exercise 4-5 a week first thing in thr morning and get a 25 minute yoga style "corpse pose" nap 2-3 times a week in the afternoon.

I occasionally wake up in the middle of the night and can't fall back to sleep-it's best when I stay in bed and leave thr lights off rather than get up and get online.

I paid a T $150 n hour once and got this nugget-"if you need 8 hours of sleep and need to get up at 6 am, do the math. Get to sleep by 10 pm"

I've also learned from having kids that preparation to a calm night is important- turning down the lights, getting ready for bed by reading an hour before i Need to sleep. This all sounds boring, especially when I was young. But it helps me feel stable, energized, and able to face the day better. Now I feel like crap when I revert to the old habits.

Ugh, sleep is a difficult thing for me. I haven't gone to sleep before midnight in months. Usually I pass out around 2 am and on days when I don't have to work I wake at around 10:30 - 11. What I hate the most is when I take a half hour or hour nap during the mid-afternoon and then can't get to sleep that night. I end up wandering around the house until 4 in the morning. Sleeping sucks ass.

it comes and goes. when the memories started to come back several years ago I went through a year of little of no sleep. I would awake constantly because of the images and feelings I had. I did not want to close my eyes to see the images. It was the abuse I had tried for a lifetime to bury--then I went into a period of on and off again sleep. Once I started therapy my sleep really went haywire--memories would keep coming, flashbacks so vivid and real. Now I am working through everything and I am finally accepting the abuse and other things that happened to me in my life as well as not longer holding myself at fault for the CSA and other torments in the home--I am now in a period of being able to sleep without intense nightmares or flashbacks--everything seems better controlled. So my sleep is improving with healing. I know there will be periods of anxiety as I uncover more of my life, but I think I can better handle the reality better than before--but I will let you know.