Trouble Sleeping

Thanks for the update Pleasant Purple!

Hope the walking helps you. I walked a lot yesterday at the Mall looking for support panties that would fit and thought I would sleep really well last night since I was so tired, wrong
I was still awake when my DH got up for work at 4am. I know my bio. clock is all messed up and I'm so grateful I don't have to work yet.

Hope we all can get some sleep at night soon.

For the first two weeks my doctor prescribed ambien medication for sleep but I had to quit due to great dizziness. The doctor recommended melatonin for sleep which I got at the health food store. It didn't take effect until the third night (after taking one a night for 3 nights). I also read that some of the hystersisters take melatonin and it worked for them too. My girlfriend said she fell asleep after taking one on the very first night. Turns out from what I read that with the hystectomy we don't produce enough of this. I also read darkness such as using an eye mask helps to produce this as well in the body but only in small amounts which I use during the day for a short nap if needed. Hope this helps, I was staying up all night until 5am and then would be a complete wreck having more pain until trying this melatonin (one-two hours before sleep).

A hostess just told me about drinking Ovaltine. I read on another post that it contains tryptophan (like turkey) so it makes you sleepy. I don't know if it will work for me, but I'm going to try it tonight. It's hard to imagine our poor bodies healing properly when we can't sleep!

Thanks MurphyBrown and Pinkee!

I'm going to try both of those suggestions tonight.

s

Tryptophan is a wonderful natural sleep inducer. Think how conked out we all feel after Thanksgiving dinner!

There are also non-narcotic relaxation teas out there that can help... "Sweet Dreams" and "Sleepytime" to name two.

Be careful about how late into the evening you are drinking caffeine.. in the form of pop, tea, etc...chocolate also contains a bit of caffeine so even your late evening bowl of ice cream can work against you if you are sensitive to it.

It's very easy to get out of synch because you don't have a deadline for being up in the morning every day, and therefore you're missing the rhythm that you had before. One thing I did to try to get to sleep without medication was to be sure that my last nap ended several hours before bed time - I would set the alarm clock for 5 pm even if I didn't feel sleepy yet, so that if I drifted off while watching TV in the late afternoon I would still get myself awake and visit with family a while in the evening.

Establishing a bed time ritual, like you do for little kids, is helpful too. Maybe switch to having a warm shower in the late evening to help make you sleepy, or listen to quiet music instead of watching television those last few hours before turning out the lights.

Here's hoping you can get some Zzzz's soon... it can be very frustrating!