Am I alone in that getting up before this time is more difficult? Can function perfectly well before then on phone and email but those early hours I am always more anxious and easily stressed.
Or perhaps I am just a cold blooded mammal that needs to warm up to the day? 🙄
(Also very good at waking at 03:20 for similar reasons. A drink of milk and sometimes a snack help. I see others here have similar “midnight feasts”).
Any suggestions?
All I can say Shreds is, unless there are pressing reasons to change your habits, or you're unhappy ..........do what comes naturally, especially during these strange times.
I'm a night owl so any time before 10am is a struggle. Today at 4.30am (after 2&1/2 hours of failing to sleep) I had tea, toast and banana then slept 'til 11am. There's only so much staying home doing chores anyone can do anyway !
The mindfulness, self hypnosis or counting sheep has never worked for me ; I'm basically nocturnal. And now I no longer have to be up for work or children I can finally revert to my natural type !
Maybe others will come up with more useful tips ; I hope so m'dear ! 🥴 x
Cat, you echo just what my Working Win consultant said. Problem is the idiots who think I should be available and work a 9-5 day. I cant. Sometimes I am better at 03:20 in the morning working through the night, but cannot guarantee that at any time. I have to go with the flow of how I am feeling which varies.
Sometimes I achieve more between 04:00 and 11:00 than some people achieve in their 9-5, but still they expect me to adhere to their norm after that. Cant be done.
Trouble is with TBI that I have 100% sign off as fully recovered from three very, very good & high level neurosurgeons. I dont look or act disabled yet do get discriminated against.
The only person who truly understands or seems to, is a client who had a major RTA ten years ago and who often writes in the middle of the night. At first I found his emails difficult to follow but have grown used to the lack of punctuation and long explanations. I now look forward to receiving them.
Sometimes these take me days to read and ratify, but I am so glad I do because when you talk to him or fully digest the emails, he is a seriously intelligent guy. Even if his disability from his accident is immediately apparent and obvious to those meeting him for the first time.
I also think back to Prof Stephen Hawking. Obvious disability but beyond the machine voice, a mischievous sense of humour too. Not bad for one of, if not the most, intelligent bloke on the planet in his day.
I slept from just 5am to 10:50 am this morning. After being wide awake all night, and a cup of tea with a ( homemade) sausage roll at about 4:00 am...
Sleep is my New Year's resolution - thought I'd cracked the insomnia at the end of November, but evidently not.... Except I think there's a connection between being cognitively or physically fatigued (either one, because apparently it's bi-directional anyway) during the day that makes it harder for me to sleep at night - which would make sense, given my sleep pattern worsened as I navigated the additional demands of Christmas prep.
You can apparently get a GP referral for minimally an NHS sleep app and possibly a sleep course - it's been posted about before here.
Just found this. livi.co.uk/your-health/nhs-...
Have you tried all the sleep hygiene stuff?
Jen 🌸
Jen
Brilliant sharing concerns. Seems those who have and continue to be beset with such things can best relate solutions.
Working Win consultant did give me the task of keeping a sleep diary, suggested breathing exercises and wanted to do CBT which I also rejected having studied it as a managenent technique years before.
(In hospital I was so convinced they were experimenting on me, I refused a lot of things they gave me, including sleeping tablets. I just hid them or threw them away!)
As they all discovered, TBI or not, I am strong willed and determined. Something my neuro put down as to why I made a swift and good recovery.
(No, I just wanted to get out of hospital, daily getting my few possessions together ready to leave. I even threatened to walk out and go to the train station to get home. No wonder they wanted to discharge me!)
Not a model patient then... Wonder how many drugs aren't taken in hospitals? 😃 I can remember stopping taking them years ago after a caesarian delivery - but now with hindsight that seems a batty thing to have done! Must have been horrible thinking they were experimenting on you at the time.
I've found CBT useful in the past, it can be a useful technique.
A few of us here were talking about insomnia a while ago, and the NHS Sleepstation course came up as useful, by the way.
nhs.uk/apps-library/sleepst...
Jen 🌸
Model patient.....’course I am. 😀
Didnt cost them a bean for years then when they had me in, I couldnt wait to get out.
So grateful for what they did though.
Real life savers when needed, not everyone so lucky. Really makes me appreciate health issues so much more now.
After my Husbsnds TBI he absconded from hospital even though he was on a DOL which denied him going on to a rehab unit as an in patient. He was absolutely paranoid, believed I had set it all up to be there which continued from home. Sadly he may well have had more in depth help had things been different. My Husband also struggles to get up before midday.
I can unfortunately relate to all of that, having been there myself, except they failed on the DOLS front because I knew what it meant and threatened them with the BBC and media.
(My Mum had been given one previously because of dementia and totally stupid and incorrect, ignorant council social workers).
My suggestion at this stage is go with the flow, give him love and support. The last thing he needs is anxiety and stress.
That will hold back his recovery. It will be probably slow and difficult for you, but small steps turn into long term giant leaps. Just dont force it now or in the future. The brain has an amazing ability to repair itself given the right conditions. (My neuro was correct!)
I'm sorry to hear this HC, very hard for you.
So his lack of insight (triggered by his injury?) meant he didn't get the help he needed.
Thank you for posting this x
Pretty much. He isn't under London neurology now as there isn't anything they can add. Am speaking to GP as mild ADHD has magnified so very childlike and attention seeking. Cant work or drive now. I have given up my business to become his carer. Lockdown is making things very hard. A lovely lady from Headway is giving me online councilling once a week, it's good to let it all spill out. Hope you are ok. HC
Hi HC, really hard for you - glad you are getting that support from Headway - someone to listen is something.
I'm ok, fatigue is a bit rubbish, but went out for walks over the holiday with a long term friend who is a teacher. So company and exercise 😊
Take care
Jen x
I basically have absolutely no 'sleeping pattern' at all. I genuinely can't remember the last time I woke up after 5:00 and the concept of a lay-in is about as elusive as the bloody Yeti.
But still, hey ho, I just make the best of it. I caught up with a film I'd never seen at 2:00 last week and prepared some T shirt designs at 3:30 the day after. Living with it is all part of the acceptance of living with brain injury really. I can't change it, so I have to make the best of it.
Yes Baron, while I'd like to believe that a sleep regime could fix my sleep, am beginning to worry it's something I'm stuck with. Particularly when the neuropsychiatrist mentioned 'just going with the flow' as an option on sleep at my last appointment....Yes, it has its compensations for me too. Oddly enough, while I struggle to read novels during the day, I can read for hours at night - which seems really odd (wondering if it is to do with a darker, calmer, quieter environment?) The not falling asleep thing pre TBI was a once in a while thing, now it's every week 😱
Jen 🌸
Not falling asleep as almost a daily event in my house. Trying to switch off your brain while you have a washing machine of crap in your mind churning over and over for hours on end is, frankly, impossible.
Time for another 02:00 film, I think I'll try a thriller tonight...
I often try to exercise quite intensively in the evenings, then a warm bath to relax in. Seems to be all about clearing the mind.
I have tried Kalms as a way of settling the mind, apparently it contains Valerian and Hop extracts, so the latter like having a drink of unpasteurised beer but without the hangover!
Happy to try anything that my doc assures are ok and non addictive. (Kalms cheaper in the supermarket than on prescription. Also an observation from my doctor too!)
So you get to sleep initially S, but wake in the night, and then struggle getting up before 11, have I got that right?
J
Jen,
Just about, yes. Sometimes getting off to sleep can be more difficult in which case I cut to the chase and grab the Kalms after an hour or so.
I firmly believe that having a settled mind as well as fatigued / tired body is the way forward.
Often have a blank note book and pen to jot down things that are bothering me in bullet point form so I can then promptly forget about them till morning.
Strangely they never seem so important next day.
Sounds like a plan... 😊
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