Insomnia and poor sleep patterns

[jaybird2001wi]

Hello all. I just woke up at 8am and don't even know why. I still feel tired but can't even fall asleep anymore, so now I am awake and drinking a Rockstar Energy Drink so I can actually function today. I work every Saturday from 3pm until Sunday at 7am and then every Sunday/Monday from 11pm til 3pm Monday, so I pull back-to-back doubles every week so my sleeping pattern is way off. It doesn't help when I go out and have a few once or twice a week and I can't even function the next day nevertheless. I tried Benadryl to get myself asleep, but it doesn't work and I wake up the next day feeling like a mack truck hit me because I am still drowsy. I tried waking up extra early some days and then drink coffee to stay awake without even taking a nap the whole day (which does work most of the time, but I get all wiry by 11pm even when I wake up at 7am.)

Any suggestions to make myself feel consistent?

[davebobn]

I just clicked on your profile and is said your occupation is "caregiver." Any chance you work at a group home or a juvenile treatment facility? I used to do the same thing. I actually did both while I was in college and a little after. From my experience I'd say you're never going to be on a regular sleeping schedule until you get a new job or some seniority. The 9-5 life is cake compared to that schedule.

[jaybird2001wi]

Yes dave, I am a caregiver. I work in Milwaukee county at a group home for adults with mental illness and developmental disabilities. It is a tough job and I am essentially a slave to my residents (pass meds, wash all the dishes, cook for them and do all of the housecleaning and do their laundry every day.)

Once in awhile I have to contact the local police for emergency detentions when residents become unruly (I got sent to the ER back in November after a resident smashed me in the forehead with a frying pan). I also had to drag a resident out of a ditch in snowy weather in February which was not fun. I have worked with the same company for almost 3 years.

I live in Racine now and have no car since my car accident in January which opened up a whole can of worms as far as my legal record (take that for what its worth) so my parents have to drive me to work every weekend. I am trying to get a job in Racine with a county-based company specializing in teen runaways called Safe Haven. I prefer to work with juveniles over adults sometimes. I went to UW-Whitewater as a journalism major and had a lot of success in my major (two internships, stringer for the Beloit Daily News for parts of 3 years).

Sometimes I get so stressed I go through almost 2 packs of cigarettes in a 16-hour shift.

[dadofandrew]

You'll never be happy or healthy working odd shifts like that. I have not had a cold since early December, which I credit almost entirely to getting enough sleep and not bouncing all over the clock.

[samwise]

Jaybird, I must say that your job, much like nurses etc., is very undervalued, and I am glad that someone does it, because for all I know in a few years that could be me or someone I care about. Anyways without a sleep schedule you in trouble. You should just set up a sleep schedule and try to get as much of it per day as you can. Even when you go out, try to do it so that it only takes you out of your schedule for a little bit.

 

I struggled all through college with sleep problems, sleeping too much, not enough, always being tired despite a bunch of sleep, it only changed when I started to get up at the same time every day, regardless of the amount of sleep I had the night before. Once I started getting up at 8 every day, my body began working backwards, (falling asleep earlier) and soon my schedule was set. So even if I go to bed way late, I am still getting up at 8 and then adjusting for it the next day. I know that advice is totally applicable to your situation, but thats what I did.

 

Also this is just an observation I made yesterday. I woke up about 3 minutes before my alarm and just sat there waiting for the alarm to go off. I was wide awake and alert all day and had a very productive day. On Monday the alarm woke me up and it took me until 11:00 to get the fog out of my head. So when I awoke on my own I was far more awake than when I was forced awake.

 

P.S. Insomnia by Stephen King is one of my favortie books. I highly reccomend it.

[HebrewHammer]

It sounds like you use a lot of substance. You've mentioned Caffeine (from multiple sources), Alcohol, Nicotine and Diphenhydramine.

 

These things (among many others), if used regularly as it sounds they are, can really mess up your physiology. You have a couple uppers and a couple downers in there and it sounds like they're being used almost daily. Nicotine is a stimulant and is going to keep you on edge. It also has the effect of creating a roller coaster in your head of dopamine. Caffeine is obviously a stimulant and has long residual effects. I for one can feel the effects of Caffeine long after I use it if I try and sleep sometimes.

 

Alcohol, usually drank before bed I'm guessing, will make you tired and groggy but not a good tired. You won't sleep well after drinking. Same with the Diphenhydramine since you're using it to in effect knock yourself out. This doesn't lead to a good nights rest either.

 

Also, 2 of these are highly addictive. I'm not saying you have a problem with anything, but a lot of people have Caffeine addictions and Nicotine. So when you wake up early, you're tired (because you didn't sleep well because you sedated yourself) but can't fall asleep because the muscles are rested but the brain isn't so it isn't comfortable to rest any longer. And now you're craving Caffeine and Nicotine, stimulants. So you take these it sounds like and you're off. And the pattern repeats. And before long you're chemistry is out of wack, your brain is confused and all you have are uppers to get up downers to go to bed. But since you're never really rested you're sleep walking through your day, hooked on stimulants.

 

And then you have a very hard schedule with work that doesn't help at all.

 

I'd recommend going to a doctor and telling them everything you use and how often you use it. Also, quit smoking.

 

Good luck!

[Chio151]

Agreed, as diffiicult as it may be, many of those substances cause anxiety which can lead to insomnia. Try scaling back at least one or two and eating healthy for a few weeks. I've heard some people have success with certain types of exercise as well.

[Schlitz001]

I'm going to third the two posts above me. You may not think that sleeping pills or caffeine are all that bad, but they really screw up you sleep pattern by confusing your body. I used to always be sleepy during the day and awake at weird hours of the night. Solving this was difficult, but effective. Cut out all caffeine drinks or pills, even coffee in the morning, try to get exercise at least once a day and establish the same sleep pattern for every night to get 8 hours of sleep a night. It's also helpful to eat at roughly the same time every night. I am so much happier during the day now that I'm on this program.

 

I used to think that I had to drink 3 or 4 energy drinks a day in order to stay awake, but I realized that they were just making me more drowsy. I do bend the rules sometimes on the weekends, but I always revert back to my established patterns. Now if I could only quit smoking.......http://static.yuku.com/v2//domainskins/bypass/img/smileys/smokin.gif

 

EDIT for spelling