Re: no sleeping

June 18, 1998

Penny,

I have great sympathy for your problem with sleeping. If I had to name the

worst part of difficulties I have had to live with, it would be lack of

sleep over pain. And there is just no substitute for sleep. I still have

sleeplessness maybe 1/4 of the time, but while I lived in NY, the

combination of cold + very high humidity+ pain left me sleepless a lot. I

used to pray for exhaustion to allow me to sleep. You may have found that

you may get even less understanding for the sleeplessness than pain. People

react something like 'Oh, you just didn't sleep?' That's a pretty big 'just'.

If soothing noises do help you, my wife got me a $15. thing from Radio

Shack called the Sleep Machine, that quite nicely offers a choice of three

very convincing sounds: pouring rain, railroad cars passing in the night,

and Hawaiian surf . It has a continuous mode & also automatic shutoff. The

automatic goes for quite awhile, then tapers down slowly. By no means a

cure, but it has helped. The problem with it is that when it doesn't help,

its hard to keep from throwing it through the window.

Ken

t 12:49 PM 6/18/98 -0400, you wrote:

>From: penny_kjelgaard@...

>

>hi, everyone. I haven't posted in a while because I haven't been

>sleeping very well and generally I just don't care about very much.

>School is out, I am done working, and the days are still getting longer.

>

>I have so much trouble sleeping in the summer time. I have no idea why.

>I have been on Paxil for 3 years and my doctor increased it a couple of

>weeks ago...sure it made me sleepy, groggy, but not sleep. Melatonin

>doesn't hlep like it does for some of you...it just makes me " drift " like

>narcotics do. I am thinking that I will march into his office and aske

>for a change. I am not happy anymore...but the not sleeping is killing

>me....I feel so awful and I have a child that I can't ignore. She's so

>good to not get into much when I'm asleep, but its not fair. My doctor

>talked about FMS, but he seems convinced that I don't have it. Its not

>like I can afford to go to a specialist right now....

>

>Sorry for the rant. I was up alot with lower back ache. I did alot of

>sitting yesterday. Went to see " Godzilla " . What fun!

>

>Anyway, does anyone else have trouble sleeping in summer time? I am not

>seasonally affective for depression at all...at least in the usual sense.

> I love winter...the gray rain and constant drip drip drip (I live near

>Seattle). I at lease sleep a little more then.

>

>Penny

>

>------------------------------------------------------------------------

>

June 18, 1998

Hi Penny;

I'm new to the list but I couldn't help answering your note. Let 'er rip.

Feels good to rant sometimes and from what I've seen on this list, there's a

lot of ears listening in to support you in your down time.

Summer, what a nice season. Green lawns, birds, long days. The best time of

the year for most. For me, it couldn't be worse. I think it's partly due to

the meds I've taken through the years. The way I look at it now is that

winter you can compensate for with more clothing; summer...once you're

butt-naked, there's no more you can do ! The heat makes me nuts. Can't sleep

well, can't function right in the daytime, never want to leave the house,

prefer the shadows. Yeah, I know what you're saying.

I've tried to categorize things a lot in my life since I've had to admit to

myself that things aren't what they used to be. Took me about 10 years

longer than everyone else living around me but I finally got it. (I said got

it, not accepted it I guess). Anyway, summer to me falls in the category

called " Can't do a thing about it, give up now " . As I'm typing this, I've

got 2 fans blowing on me. The same 2 fans will follow me to bed if I can

sleep tonight.

The only thing I do that seems to help is to abandon myself to my

obsessions. One of these is learning. Don't laugh. When I find a subject I'm

interested in, I try to learn as much about it as I can. Right now, my main

occupation is writing databases on the computer. I've got about 2 feet thick

of manuals on each side and I've been pouring over them for the last 3

months. Someone " suggested " that it would be nice to have a database to keep

track on an inventory and I took the word " someone " as " moi " . It started off

as a simple program to manage a few hundred items. Right now, I think it

could run a whole hospital!

But...I am having fun.

Hang in there Penny. Winter is just a few months away.

Mike

> no sleeping

>

> From: penny_kjelgaard@...

>

> hi, everyone. I haven't posted in a while because I haven't been

> sleeping very well and generally I just don't care about very much.

> School is out, I am done working, and the days are still getting longer.

>

> I have so much trouble sleeping in the summer time. I have no idea why.

> I have been on Paxil for 3 years and my doctor increased it a couple of

> weeks ago...sure it made me sleepy, groggy, but not sleep. Melatonin

> doesn't hlep like it does for some of you...it just makes me " drift " like

> narcotics do. I am thinking that I will march into his office and aske

> for a change. I am not happy anymore...but the not sleeping is killing

> me....I feel so awful and I have a child that I can't ignore. She's so

> good to not get into much when I'm asleep, but its not fair. My doctor

> talked about FMS, but he seems convinced that I don't have it. Its not

> like I can afford to go to a specialist right now....

>

> Sorry for the rant. I was up alot with lower back ache. I did alot of

> sitting yesterday. Went to see " Godzilla " . What fun!

>

> Anyway, does anyone else have trouble sleeping in summer time? I am not

> seasonally affective for depression at all...at least in the usual sense.

> I love winter...the gray rain and constant drip drip drip (I live near

> Seattle). I at lease sleep a little more then.

>

> Penny

>

> ------------------------------------------------------------------------

>

June 29, 1998

Penny. have you tried a sleep machime,,,,it can sound like rain, a train

,or the ocean surf. It has an ear phone speaker to put by tour head on the

pillow so it won't bother anyone else. Then I have ceiling fan that is

reversible and I sleep on a bed warmer also.You won't notice a change over

night but you will soon Pandora need our rest for the body Take Care and I

hope

----------

> From: penny_kjelgaard@...

> To: chronic_painonelist

> Subject: no sleeping

> Date: Thursday, June 18, 1998 12:49 PM