Cannot sleep. Cannot fucking sleep.

Yesterday. Bed 10pm. Woke 2am. Couldn't go back to sleep.
Tonight. Bed 9pm. Woke 1am. Can't go back to sleep. Despite really strong sleeping pills.

This is insane. Working off a massive sleep deficit in the workdays. Turning into a zombie.

Yeah it's me. Know how I haven't like posted here in years but w/e. Been busy turning my life around. 180d. Industrial technician. Workdays 6am-4pm. Usually overtime.

This isn't sustainable. Not by a long shot.

Insane frustration about things on workplace. Good job. Like it a lot. But the workplace diplomacy. I fucking suck at it. I get by. Somehow. Somehow people think I'm pretty normal. I'm anything but normal.

Contacted the regional Communist Party section yesterday. Tired of doing nothing politically but for the longest time all my energy has gone into education and then work. No social life. No girls. Nothing but work. And writing. Writing reviews. Programming. Thinking of making music but I have only theory and no creativity. Awesome theory but without the "zing", nothing sounds good.

Hi to all. I may actually stay and engage now. /end rant

Hello!!

I'm going through the same thing, can't sleep. I go through cycles of it. Something that has helped in the past, trying sleeping in a different area of the house. It's worked for me on occasion.

I hope you will stay and engage!

What do you do when you wake up at night? Waking up isn't so bad if you could go back to sleep. Do you have the patience and a routine for that?

'ello. Happy to see you posting.

What pills have you tried? After trying Tylenol pm, ambien, etc. with no luck, what ended up working for me was a mild muscle relaxer. Helps me to not grind my teeth, too.

go for a nice relaxing drive - it works every time!

I often have insomnia. It’s not unusual to see me posting in the middle of the night UK time. Then on another day I’ll get home from work, pass out early and sleep for ten hours.

I have found that it is mostly stress that causes it. While I don’t always take my own advice I have noticed I sleep better when I avoid any kind of stimulants such as sugar, caffeine or alcohol and eat light meals a good few hours before bed. Generally the rule seems to be the less crap my system has to process when I lay my head down the better I sleep. Cardio vascular excercise also helps when I can be bothered, as does staying hydrated with plenty of water.

I had the same problem about 25 years ago - only a couple of hours sleep per night for 2 weeks straight. It was job stress. Ativan helped calm me down a little, Ambien helped me sleep a little, but not much. It's something you have to work out in your brain. They tell you that to eliminate stress you should get yourself out of the stressful situation, but you can't do that when it's your damn job. I had a few sessions with a social worker who helped me get a grip. I was on the ativan for a full year (mostly it had become a habit) before I could work myself off of it. I still don't sleep a full night, but I've come to accept that, and I manage maybe 5-6 hours a night. If I wake up I just lay there and wait to see if I go back to sleep. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. It helps having a warm wife to cuddle with. On weekends, when I know I don't have to get up for work, I actually manage about 9-10 hours!

1 - Alcohol is a depressant, not a stimulant.
2 - Laying there waiting to see if you go back to sleep means you're not going back to sleep.

What I've found helpful is just simple meditation. Slow down your breathing, clear your mind of conscious thought, maybe focus on a calming image of some kind. Don't think about how you're not sleeping.

Wrong. It is both.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21560041

Huh. Learn sumpin' new every day. Guess my high school health class understanding is outdated.

I alternate between thinking about how I'm not sleeping, worrying about what's going to happen at work, and thinking about how angry the shit that did happen at work makes me. It's really hard to turn off the parts of the brain that need turning off to stop stressing. Some people (raises hand) have a very hard time doing it.

Diphenhydramine Hydrochloride based sleeping pills work for me. Theoretically not habit forming but that is not the case. Yeah "take yourself out of the stressful situation" is easier said than done when a lot high paying jobs are the stressful jobs.

I have Rohypnol. I'm an old boy now. Taken every sleeping and anti-anxiety pill known to man over the last thirty years.

Slept okay tonight, sorta. Adjusting to new life and new routines. I'll probably be fine. Drinking too much, though, but I have excellent blood results (DESPITE being flagged for overconsumption.)

It's been a wild ride, to put it mildly. Gone to hell and back.

Time enough for sleep in the grave.

You don't turn off your brain when meditating. You just let your mind generate whatever thoughts it will and let them pass over you. You remain impartial to and detached from your thoughts during the process. Counting in cycles from 10 down to 1 helps keep you centered. Anytime you engage a thought, start counting down from 10 again. If you do this while laying down and for long enough, you can cause your brain wave patterns to shift and drift off into sleep.

Of course you do.

The exact name here is Flunitrazepam Mylan. Rohypnol by Roche is no longer sold in Sweden because it became too stigmatized as a "rape drug" (which is really silly) but they still prescribe the exact same thing under a different name.

Yikes - alcohol and potent benzodiazepines are a scary combo! So sorry you can't seem to find something that works for you. .

Hoping the hell is behind you now.


What exactly does an industrial technician do?

Technical stuff.

of an industrial nature?

But of course.

First time I was prescribed Valium I was 2 years old. To help with constant nightmares. Was a different time. Then I got it again when I was 16 to combat the onset of my panic syndrome, and I've had benzodiazepines since then. (My medical history really is far too long to go into in depth.) But I'm that rare guy who's been on those kinds of pills for 30 years and never developed an addiction. I'm very restrictive when it comes to taking them; it's a last resort. I'm grateful those pills exist, without them I wouldn't be alive today. That's no exaggeration.

I'm a CNC operator/technician/programmer. Right now I operate a rather simple 3-axis computerized mill (Fanuc 21i powered Doosan Mynx.) I, well, make stuff. Things with real life value. Things that build my country. It's gratifying work to me. Especially after spending close to 20 years on-and-off with very little capacity for work. Right now I feel stronger than I ever have, but there's some stress involved, mostly coming from my life situation changing so rapidly.

Thanks for the hug!

a job where you actually produce and or service something necessary? Last of a dying breed it seems. I do the same except on much simpler equipment. I have to take a week long training session on new equipment in about a week. Not looking forward to that! I'm a slow learner and I will most likely barely pass the final test.

I want a CnC machine. I made something similar one time with some stepper motors, a PLC and a drill, but it didn't last very long.

What equipment are you supposed to learn, exactly?

some new air traffic control system. And one of the class days I'll be sleep deprived from picking up my son at the airport. Yes I have the chemical means to keep myself alert but my brain won't be working at 100 percent that day.

Yes, it's a work day, so I woke up at 4AM to pee and never got back to sleep. This is pretty much the way it goes most nights now.

Time, 2:25AM, awake.

Well, for one thing, stay off the phone or computer if you can't sleep. They say the light of the screen makes your brain think it's daytime, and you'll never get to sleep.