04-18-2023, 12:33 PM | #1101 |
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Three, hurt hand making sleep difficult but things are improving. I can now bend middle finger well enough to flip people off.
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05-17-2023, 07:27 AM | #1102 |
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Who knows? 4 or maybe 5 or maybe 3. Nighttime sleep is a mutha for me these days. That's the worst part of the knee replacement surgery. I stay tossin' and turnin'.
At its worst, the knees are numb, hurting, stiff, twinging (that's the best way to describe it), and itching—all at the same time and it happens the most at night. It's healing and I get it, but it ain't easy. Still, I feel a gazillion times better than I did before surgery. And I take a nap on most days. That helps.
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08-16-2023, 05:24 AM | #1103 |
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7 good hours. Took 5 mg of melatonin and it did the trick. Haven't been taking any sleeping aid while I'm on a new medication for a slowly degenerating spine. The meds make me a little tired and I thought they may help me sleep. Nope. Not at all. Was waking up at 1 am and falling back asleep at 3 am.
I prefer the cannabis more than the melatonin, but I need to make a new canna oil batch. Will get to that soon. Hoping everyone is getting a good night's rest.
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08-16-2023, 08:11 PM | #1104 |
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17, with a break for breakfast somewhere in there. I must have been exhausted. I haven't been sleeping over about 10 for awhile.
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08-16-2023, 08:15 PM | #1105 |
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Not much lately …. But at least 6 and a half hours.
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08-20-2023, 05:48 AM | #1106 |
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Overthinking at night? 6 strategies for better sleep.
Overthinking at night? 6 strategies for better sleep.
Use a soothing distractor, schedule worry time and examine buried feelings — these and other tools can help settle your mind Advice by Lisa Strauss August 18, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EDT (Celia Jacobs for The Washington Post) Overthinking at night — about insomnia and other matters — is a common problem for many of my patients with sleep disorders. It interferes with falling asleep or going back to sleep, and prevents peaceful rest when they can’t sleep anyway. Overthinking usually refers to thought processes such as racing thoughts or perseveration. The content — such as worries or the next day’s demands — may also be maladaptive. It may be fueled by a diagnosable condition such as depression, generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or hypomania. It can also be stimulated by intense experiences such as stress, exciting plans, perfectionism, insecurity, caffeine use or a painful or worrisome life event. There are many psychological tools to help with overthinking, but two people with comparable struggles may not benefit from or prefer the same tools. We insomnia specialists try to have available sizable and diverse tool kits that address cause or manifestation without sacrificing specificity. Irrespective of tools, there are some general principles that may help with overthinking:
The thinking was unconstructive and interfered with rest and sleep. Talking through her feelings of helplessness and fear was important. I also offered her some strategies that helped. Here are some of them: Use a soothing distractor During periods of insomnia, turn to more soothing thoughts to compete with your default thoughts. The human mind cannot entertain two narratives simultaneously. Listen to peaceful audio books, podcasts or conversational radio programs, or read calming stories or books (with the light very dim and blue-blocked). Each time the unwanted thoughts arise, don’t push them away. Let them recede into the background and gently return your attention to your soothing distractor. If interior techniques such as visualizations last long enough for you (they don’t for many people), walk through a calming and pleasant memory such as a vacation or the rooms of your grandmother’s house. Don’t choose a distractor that would keep you up, and don’t focus on sleep as a goal while using it. Schedule worry time This is, at most, a 30-minute technique that should be used in the early evening, after the stressful part of the day but hours before sleep in case it leaves some residue of stress or worry. By facing problems constructively, they are less likely to plague us at night. This technique also teaches us to tolerate not acting or ruminating when it isn’t time. List all your worries and stressors. For each one, ask yourself: Is there anything I can do about this in the next two weeks (even if I can’t completely resolve the issue)? If yes, what can you do and precisely when will you do it? Action steps should mitigate either the problem itself, such as working out a payment plan for an overdue bill, or its emotional effect, such as reminding oneself that more income-generating work is forthcoming. Update the list each evening and continue with the action steps until you no longer need the technique. Give yourself a few optional minutes each evening to think any way you’d like about the items on the list. The rest of the day and night, when the thoughts arise, say, “Not now; I’ll get to you during my scheduled worry time.” If you have determined that there is nothing to be done about a certain problem, when thoughts about it arise, remind yourself that there is nothing to do. Try exposure therapy for thoughts This is a daytime technique. Variants are used for the thoughts that can accompany OCD, but I teach it for preoccupying thoughts more generally.
Examine overlooked feelings This is a technique for getting in touch with buried feelings. I suggest it especially to those who are preternaturally competent and stoical, rarely letting themselves feel vulnerable. The feelings may catch up with them at night in the form of distress and overthinking. Early morning is a nice, quiet time for getting in touch with underattended feelings. It is a listening task, not a thinking task. Prompt yourself with half sentences such as: “What I’m scared of is” or “What I’m sad about is” or “What I’m disappointed by is” or “What I feel ashamed about is” or “What I regret is” or “What I’ve been most traumatized by is.” Pick a few half-sentences per sitting. Commit to thoughtfully addressing what arises at a later time (not at night). Think rationally Cognitive-therapy techniques invite us to bring rational thinking — for instance, evidence for and against, and correction of cognitive distortions — to bear on our assumptions. These can be excellent tools during the day for reappraising our worries and other upsetting thoughts. For example, if you are worrying about something, ask yourself what are the worst, best and most likely outcomes, in that order. Self-soothe Underneath the rational layer, there can be a primally frightened part of us. Children don’t ask their parents for proof of their soothing assertions or ask what qualifies them to make those assertions; they bask in the soothing. Cultivate more soothing language and a kinder tone toward yourself (day and night), and try to believe yourself. There are many other strategies for self-soothing as well. I have written previously about repeatedly observing one’s own overthinking to cultivate self-awareness and establish a competing habit of mind. There are many other useful techniques — from meditation to journaling to wind-down time to relaxation techniques such as breathing to slow your thoughts and Yoga Nidra to keeping a pad of paper bedside (to be used very sparingly) for jotting down things you want to remember tomorrow to worry exposure. I hope some of my suggested techniques offer you a great start and help you reduce or eliminate overthinking and get restful sleep. Lisa Strauss, PhD, is a clinical psychologist in private practice in the Boston area. She specializes in sleep disorders. We welcome your comments on this column at OnYourMind@washpost.com. https://www.washingtonpost.com/welln...ep-strategies/
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08-20-2023, 04:21 PM | #1107 |
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Eight hours
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08-29-2023, 07:06 PM | #1108 |
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three ....
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08-31-2023, 06:31 PM | #1109 |
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Fourteen. I was so tired when I woke up at the regular time, I couldn't keep my eyes open and fell back asleep.
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09-07-2023, 01:53 PM | #1110 |
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I got nearly 8 in and then lounged in bed for another hour or so, just enjoying not being upright.
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12-31-2023, 06:20 AM | #1111 |
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Crazy thing...I won a fitbit a few weeks ago. At this point the most valuable thing on it is my sleep patterns and times. I average 4.5 to 5 hrs a night.
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