“Also, I could finally sleep. And this was the real gift, because when you cannot sleep, you cannot get yourself out of the ditch–there’s not a chance.” –Elizabeth Gilbert
The Greek god of sleep is Hypnos. It was said that near his cave were poppies and other hypnotic plants. His mother was Nyx the goddess of the night. Do you remember in the Wizard of Oz when the wicked witch put Dorothy and her friends to sleep with a field of poppies? Opium is a narcotic made from the Opium poppy.
I am a “light” sleeper and I am easily disturbed by my husband if he has a restless night or is stressed over something and not sleeping well. When my children were little I slept with my senses on alert to any disturbance coming from their rooms. I wake up if there is an earthquake. My husband, once he was asleep, could sleep through the kids crying and earthquakes.
Menopause made me more sensitive to stress and insomnia. For many years I think I had a sleep disorder and seldom got a good night’s sleep. There were periods where I would go through cycles of insomnia with a few nights of normal in between.
Thankfully, I have been improving in this area lately. I attribute it to the fact that my hormones are stable and I am no longer under a lot of stress with my work or life. My children are grown and out of the house. I am sleeping better.
I have not gotten to the stage of taking my improved sleeping pattern for granted. I can still feel gratitude for sleeping well.
It can be a vicious cycle if I have poor quality sleep. It leads to decreased ability to cope with stress. Then the increase stress leads to another night of poor sleep. I have read that not getting adequate sleep can cause us to have trouble maintaining a healthy weight. It can lead to obesity. I have had trouble with losing weight as well.
So I will have to see if this theory holds true. If I continue to sleep well and lose weight that would be great.
Now when I occasionally have difficulty staying asleep I do not fight it but get up or turn on a light and read for a while. Eventually I become drowsy again and can get back to sleep.
Do you have a remedy for insomnia? What do you do if you have trouble sleeping?
Notes Tied On The Sagebrush 
I think sleep becomes more elusive as we get older, Deborah. Sorry. 😦
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I think we do require less sleep as we get older but I am sleeping much better.
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i am fortunate (so far!) in that I don’t usually have a hard time sleeping. I do know, though, that when I don’t get enough sleep, the next day is brutally difficult. I hope you can continue to sleep well!
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I wish I did, Deborah, I wish I did! I share your problem and can thus empathise.
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My husband breathing on me keeps me awake. lol Gosh, our sleep history is very similar! I have no cure for my insomniac nights- I try to read and then get back to sleep.
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Funny 😀 Your husband breathing on you. It is true, I have to turn the other way or reposition myself if my husband is breathing in my face.
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And he always thought I was joking when I said it!
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After enduring bad sleep over a year because of an injured shoulder, i just couldn’t sleep well anymore. Yin yoga was the solution.
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I have had an injured shoulder in the past and I know just what you are talking about. That deep aching pain that comes up at night and I couldn’t get a comfortable position. I finally had physical therapy and that helped. I am glad your pain has gotten better with yoga.
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Oh yes, sisters in shoulder pain. Only who has can understand how much it hurts and disturbs sleeps. Actually the hero was acupuncture and yoga helped much later when I had developed an erratic sleeping pattern. A physiotherapist recommended yin yoga, especially, to help me relax and develop a new sleep habit.
It worked.
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Thank goodness and here’s to no more shoulder pain!
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I generally don’t have much trouble falling asleep. My issue is staying asleep. I often wake up between 3 and 4 in the morning and my mind is going full speed ahead. Sometimes I am able to fall back to sleep, but that is becoming the exception lately and it’s frustrating as hell to lay in bed for a few hours trying desperately to fall back to sleep and failing until there’s no point in trying any futher. Ugh.
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I know exactly what you are talking about. It reminds me of those commercials for sleeping pills where the person falls asleep and then you see a lamp light up and they are wide awake in the middle of the night. I have had this same problem before myself. Things that helped me were not watching any disturbing TV before going to bed. Another thing is to go to bed later and then I usually slept in a sold block. Stress definitely will impact your sleep. If I had a lot on my mind I would wake up in the middle of the night and start thinking about it. So it is best not to fight it and get up and read something relaxing, have some warm milk or chamomile tea. But I know it is very frustrating and can snowball into a cycle.
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blrgh. For the past few weeks I’ve had a horrible time with sleep. It could be any number of things and all of the fixes I could try fell flat. I’ve been staying up too late, which means getting up too late and that throws me off for the rest of the day…repeat. Hm…perhaps reading blogs at 11:30 pm might not be the best solution. 😀 Seriously though, I’m not even close to being sleepy, and I should be.
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I have done that a lot. Stayed up late and then my sleep schedule changes and I get up late too. Right now I usually do not have to be up early for work so it does not impact me too badly. I think if you had to be up early your sleep schedule would adjust.
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I too have found sleeping easier apparently since my hormones have leveled out. When I was in my 40’s I used to wake up almost every morning at 4AM with my mind racing or a hot flash. When I decided I would practice my meditation (mindfulness, breathing exercises, imagery, etc.) without caring if I fell back to sleep or not, I tended to fall back to sleep with that passive attitude. I started sleeping better after getting firmly into my 50’s. If I could just put this computer away at a reasonable hour! Your info on weight loss and sleep may help. Love the photo of the floating couple. Sweet Dreams!
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Thanks, JoAnne. Sounds like we have some things in common. The meditation sounds like a good idea.
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Mine is part the way I have always been, part anxiety. I wish I had a good answer, or any answer, on how to deal with it.
Most times, I write or read. Real original, right? 😉
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Whatever works other than drugs is fine I think. I think it is good that you write or read. I read too.
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