Insomnia Stinks!

Two or three times a year I will come down with a bout of insomnia. It usually lasts a week or two and then goes away on its own.

It's so annoying!!!

It's been about two nights now that I haven't been able to sleep for no apparent reason and the effects are starting to hit me. I am tired and have no motivation. If this continues the way it normally does, a couple days from now I will become grumpy and be irritated by little things and be short with my husband and the kids. Then a few days after that, I will just be numb... I won't care if the kids are fighting or if the house needs to be cleaned up... I will just exist and do the bare minimum of what is needed to take care of my family.

Then... a few days after that... I will, for no apparent reason, sleep... all night long... with no trouble. And the next day I will feel like a new person and it will be over. Until next time, anyway...

Why is it that even though I know what's coming (the grumpiness and numbness), I can't stop it? You'd think I'd be able to rationalize through what is happening and talk myself out of snapping at my children. But... no... I know it's coming... and I have every intention of being "better" this time... but to no avail. Grumpiness abounds... yikes!

The crazy thing is that I go through periods of not sleeping when I have babies and I don't get this way. I'm tired, of course, but I don't go to my grumpy place. I suppose that's because I have a sweet little baby to show for it :-) During these bouts of insomnia there is nothing good to show for it... just annoying sleeplessness... lying in bed for hours unable to fall asleep no matter how tired I am.

I've tried all sorts of solutions... changing my schedule and my bedtime, limiting tv, changing my diet, eating certain sleep inducing foods, exercising different times of day, and I could go on and on... I've tried lots of things... but this just seems to be something that has to play out. It never lasts more than two weeks, but always lasts more than a week no matter what I do.

I've also tried medications, but even if they help me sleep they don't help the way I feel the next day. Most of them don't help me sleep and then I feel even worse the next day (not fun!). The ones that do make me sleep... I have a medicated feeling all day the next day and I'm still in my grumpy place. So, it's just not worth it. Not to mention that I am nursing a baby and won't take very many medications while I'm nursing. The only thing that seems to help is an occasional Tylenol PM. But I will only do that every third night if I'm pregnant or nursing. And then there are times that doesn't even work... *sigh*.

So... since this seems to be something that is an inevitable part of my life, I'm trying to learn to make the best of it. If I'm not sleeping I will pray, or get up and go into the other room and read. It seems a waste of time to just lay there.

So... pray for me... I'm two nights in... that means there are somewhere between 6 and 13 nights to go...