[blparent] question about insomnia

[Steve Jacobson]

Jo Elizabeth,

I'm not a mom and have not experienced your exact condition, but I gather that your insomnia is more a part of your normal life and thatyou had less of a problem 
when you were pregnant and nursing.  I know that it is common practice to change one's diet during pregnancy and while nursing, so it would make sense to look at 
what you may have changed.  I don't know how deeply you have already investigated your tendency toward insomnia so I don't want to tell you a bunch of things 
you already know, but looking at what you eat and drink when can be very helpful.  I've dealt with it from time to time and have come to learn that certain things very 
definitely affect my ability to sleep.  Be very aware of your caffeine intake as that can play the largest role.  If you are sensitive to caffeine, you could be affected by 
many things besides coffee.  Caffeine can remain in your system for hours, and even a little can affect some people so you have to experiment.  I know people who 
can drink a regular cup of coffee before going to bed and it has no effect.  For myself, I can drink pretty much all the coffee I want before noon without worrying, but 
I have to be careful in the afternoon.  For some people, sugar can be as bad as coffee.  Finally physical exercise too close to bed can leave one wide awake.  
Some recommend that one not do any significant excercise less than five hours before going to sleep.  There can be other patterns that can effect one's ability to 
sleep as well.  The idea, for example, that a small glass of wine will help you sleep doesn't always work.  I figured out, for example, that the bowl of icecream that I 
once enjoyed before bed was a very bad idea for me.  

There is a tendency for many to chalk up insomnia to not seeing light and thereby having your biological clock out of sync with your day.  My experience has been 
that even doctors jump on this idea way too quickly without working through other possibilities.  Whether blind or not, over-the-counter melatonin helps some people.  
it did not seem to help me when I was younger but seems to help now.  For me, a lot of insomnia has been the result of my having a sleepless night or two and then 
starting to expect and even worry about it falling into a pattern.  Breaking the pattern has often been the key.

There is more that could be said, but I'll stop in case this is all old news.

Best regards,

Steve Jacobson


On Tue, 10 Mar 2009 01:10:01 -0600, Jo Elizabeth Pinto wrote:

>Hi.  It's one o'clock in the morning, and I'm dead tired and wide awake--again.  I struggled with insomnia before I got pregnant, but the whole time I was carrying 
and then nursing, it seemed like I could go to sleep if I just stayed still for a moment.  As soon as I stopped nursing, bam!  No more peaceful sleep.  I'm wondering if 
any of you other moms experience anything like that.  I get my best work done at night, but all this wakefulness makes me feel like the walking dead.

>Jo Elizabeth

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