What keeps you awake at night?

[GaryS]

Now that I no longer practice law, nothing keeps me up. I sleep like a baby, until my bladder says it is full or the dogs tell me it's time for their breakfast, whichever comes first.

In my case it's the cats. Because there is no "snooze" button on a hungry cat.

We got a new Tempurpedic matttress last week, and if anything, I sleep even better.

To the OP, I'm sorry that you have trouble sleeping and I'm not making light of your problems. If not the VA, then maybe you can find a social worker or therapist that can help you.

 

[mickeyblueyes]

I suffer the same fate as you,horrific nightmares. I am afraid to go to sleep for fear of them. I also wake up many time during the night. I have a CPAP mask but that does not seem to help. I suffer from chronic pain also so depending on which way I move I can be up. don't fight it any more. If I am tired in the after noon I take a nap, I sleep late what ever it takes. I am not positive but I think drugs like Motrin can cause nightmares. I know pain killers do,and also Ambien. YMMV

 

[Mule Packer]

The only thing that keeps me awake now is when some critter comes into the ranch yard and my dogs sound off. One is a Border collie and the other is a Plott hound. When the hound lets loose, there is no doubt that something is sniffing around the henhouse.

Other than that, I'm pretty darn lucky and can go to sleep just about whenever I want to...and sometimes when I don't want to.

 

[BigBill]

I suffer the same fate as you,horrific nightmares. I am afraid to go to sleep for fear of them. I also wake up many time during the night. I have a CPAP mask but that does not seem to help. I suffer from chronic pain also so depending on which way I move I can be up. don't fight it any more. If I am tired in the after noon I take a nap, I sleep late what ever it takes. I am not positive but I think drugs like Motrin can cause nightmares. I know pain killers do,and also Ambien. YMMV

I suffer from knee pain and diabetes pain in my lower legs. Putting a pillow between my legs does help at night.

 

[doublesharp]

afternoon naps.

 

[Smoke]

I don't have an answer for what keeps me up at night but I can tell you that if I turn on the local Christian station on the radio and play it at night I sleep much better.

I worked in a group home several years ago and some of those kids had lives that made mine look like paradise in comparison and a lot of them had night terrors and nightmares and I found that when I played the local Christian station on the radio (quietly) after lights out the nightmares stopped.

Call me crazy if you want but it won't cost you a dime to try it

 

[Wyatt Burp]

I have the most boring dreams. What a waste. Someone mentioned Sharon Stone. Why can't I have Morissa Tomei dreams? Sometimes I dream about holsters. Not because of a leather fetish but I'm always thinking about the next project for someone and how to solve certain problems. So, even when you do sleep it can be pretty boring.

 

[USMCHEROS]

Arthritis at times or when someone comes over next door and they honk the horn when they come and visit.

 

[Hack]

So what keeps you awake at night?

Mostly Sleep Apnea. Even though I have a CPAP, it doesn't seem to help. I just stop breathing during sleep. Inherited it from my mother. Did all during childhood, and still do it. Had a sleep study done, which is a whole 'nother story....

I haven't had any recurring nightmares in a number of years. Long before Vietnam (I wasn't there), I had a recurring nightmare of being in the military and being chased through the jungle. Strange, but it never changed. At last occurrence I was still getting away...

Another dream, I thought my pillow was a giant BLT, and awoke taking a bite out of it (yummmmm).

Almost punched the wife out one morning, I was in a dream fight and damn near cold cocked her. I still hear about that one.

 

[steveno]

when I was stationed at Rhein Main AB , our flight line was about 1/3 mile from our barracks. the main runways and the flight line for Frankfurt was within 1 1/2 miles. this was back before there was any such thing as quiet jet engines so it really got noisy trying to sleep. I found that if I played the radio when I went to sleep that helped a lot and even now I can't go to sleep without playing the radio. if the station goes off during the night I usually wake up within a couple of minutes. after a couple of weeks home I finally did get over not being able to smell the JP-4.

 

[kennyb]

i go to sleep with two tylenol pm and a good book...works for me

 

[LVSteve]

I have the most boring dreams. What a waste. Someone mentioned Sharon Stone. Why can't I have Morissa Tomei dreams? Sometimes I dream about holsters. Not because of a leather fetish but I'm always thinking about the next project for someone and how to solve certain problems. So, even when you do sleep it can be pretty boring.

When your dreams have Marissa Tomei wearing just holsters, get back to us.

 

[vito]

I've been plagued with disturbing dreams all of my life, as was my father before me. I guess its genetic. Not nightmares, but just unpleasant and stressful dreams that wake me up. Once up, my bladder calls to me. I go through this several times a night. But in two more days I will be retired, and I am hopeful that I will be able to sleep better, or at least if I am up for several hours it won't matter since I will not have to be anywhere in the morning.

The times that I can't fall asleep at all is because I am worried about the situation facing one of my children, or because I've been through heart bypass and multiple melanomas, and my late night brain can start to play games with me convincing me that I probably have little time to still live.

In the big scheme of things, however, this is not a big deal. I have a great wife, I'm in reasonably good health (I think), I have a motorcycle, guns, a decent pension and as mentioned above, will be really retired by this weekend! So all in all I have it pretty good.

 

[finesse_r]

The current state of this nation and the direction in which it is headed are all that keep me awake at night.

 

[W.E.G.]

I re-organize my ammo can collection.

 

[timn8er]

Labworm: DIRTY BOY! DIRTY, DIRTY, DIRTY BOY!

Big Billo you also like the Celtic Women? The lady that plays fiddle(Maeve?)keeps me up at night, or I wish she would!

Pretty ironic that this thread was posted today. For months now I've had trouble sleeping more than an hour or two at a time. No matter how tired I am. Its like a switch gets thrown around two or three AM, & I know I might as well get up, because I won't go back to sleep. So I go to the living room couch & watch TV till it bores me to sleep. I'll doze on & off for three hours & then give up. Of course, in the afternoon I'm crashing big time, but if I take a nap then I'll get even less sleep that night. Out of desperation I started using that ZZZQuil. I've been using it for about four days now, & the first few days it didn't seem to help. Last night, though, I fell asleep a little after twelve, slept till four, answered "the call", & went BACK to sleep till about six. I sure hope this is a trend!

 

[shouldazagged]

Except for physical pain (pretty much head-to-toe arthritis) and routine trips to the bathroom I sleep quite well.

I'm not that pessimistic about the future of the country. I've seen it weather hellacious storms for 75 years, and the banner yet waves. I am concerned for the whole planet now that we have seven billion people living on it.

All manner of catastrophic natural events--failure of the San Andreas Fault, or the New Madrid (which would cause terrible damage in my city), volcanic eruptions, etc., are possible and in some cases overdue. And there is not one damn thing I can do to prevent them. All I can do is try to be reasonably prepared, and I'm not into bunker building.

If I'm worried about something late at night I ask myself, "What can I do about it this very minute?" If the answer is "Nothing," I put it on the back burner and generally go to sleep.

A friend of mine had a policy I liked so well I named it "___'s Rule". He said, "I make no major decisions after five P.M. And after ten P.M. I don't believe a damn thing I tell myself."

 

[the ringo kid]

Snakes, broccolli, and wasps. (oh my)

Add: Cabbage to that list.

 

[the ringo kid]

For me-its mostly the dopers who speed through the neighborhood at 3Am with their radios on top volume and bass at full blast. Other than that--the only thing keeping me up at night is from between 4-6 bladder trips to the restroom. Im thinking of trying that "free" bottle thay advertise--of Super Beta,

 

[chief38]

A good movie with Bogie, Gable, Edward G., Cagney, Stewart, etc.

A gun that I am in the middle of Smithing.

A good conversation or debate over a drink & a good Cigar with friends.