Posted by utopizen on May 12, 2004, at 12:02:30
In reply to Re: Improving sleep w/o medication, posted by finelinebob on May 12, 2004, at 11:50:23
After not sleeping for like a week during last finals week, and having to deal with stims and my erratic dosing of it during such times, and having insomnia outside of med issues, and having insomnia basically mess my entire last semester up during finals week, I realized relying on Ambien scripts from docs who may or may not feel like giving you monthly supplies of the stuff, which may or may not always work even if you take it, and after "wasting" my day's supply of Klonopin many nights simply to get to sleep, please listen to me as I say I tried resorting to almost everything med-wise, and found THIS DOESN'T always work, and even if it does, you don't want to feel like your sleep is dependent upon pills, docs to give you scripts for them, etc., etc.
So to feel actual control in your life, it's simple:
1) Get a self-hypnosis tape. Any tape. They all do the "8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1" countdown, so it doesn't need to say "for insomnia" on it.
2) Use it everynight. Even when it doesn't work. Don't give up. Your body gets better and better the more you use it. For me, after a semester of sticking with it, it's like guaranteed sleep inducement. Use it for months even if you don't notice any benefit.
3) Use it along with some Ambien or something if it's not working immediately.
4) It includes, at least mine does, breathing exercise instructions in it, so it doubles as a hypnosis/breathing exercises tape.
5) Ambien wouldn't work on me, and this does. I had to use Ambien for a couple of months while getting use to it, but trust me, after awhile, it trains your brain to relax out of even the most stressful situtations, even stimulant-induced onces!
6) Make sure you don't have any nasal congestion, deviated septum, nasal allergy, or anything like that, since these are only possibly to detect through a doctor looking up your nose with a device. If so, try Flonase or something along with a Nasal Irrigator. I use both. (My irrigator is called "Hydro Pulse")
poster:utopizen
thread:346112
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040512/msgs/346153.html