Anyone else have problems sleeping?

[Blackrain]

You'd be amazed how much less you have to sacrifice, if you work out regularly, cardio included.
Once you get your metabolism up to a higher level, you can eat just about anything you want, in moderation of course.

I hear you brother my joints are just pretty beat up at this point . I'm 55 and have pretty much beat myself up between work and sports . I still work out but in moderation . My joints wont take heavy weight anymore with out a lot of pain .

I just cant get the taste of bread in my mouth again or I will crave it and fall completely of the wagon . I feel like my metabolism has dropped anchor after 50 . In my 30s and 40s I could eat anything . We would lift weights and play basketball after work then eat pizza and milk shakes at 10 pm at night never gained weight. I was ripped at 205lbs and would compete in bench press competitions at 198. Now if I look at Pizza or Ice cream it attaches itself to me somehow LOLOL

I have been staying at 180 lbs eating this way . I eat a lot of wild game venison is very lean and pheasant is good too . In the spring I try to sustain myself on trout as I have a stream close to my house and cabin but a Pizza would be wonderful once in a while if I could handle it .

 

[Runwildboys]

Ya know, he and Quick, osf, bengone and NYC, and others I am probably forgetting, never really made it all the way to the dark side. We kept pulling them back and ksk was the easiest because he made the mistake of trusting us. He never could break free, some outlaws just can't do the straight and narrow.

I just wish osf would get his buns over here so I can forgive him for giving me that warning point. I know that was something he didn't want to do but the set up I fell for from the guy pretending to be the chick, and pretending to be her brother, forced him too. I never told him that I understood and it was no problem at all.

Yeah, I really wish he'd get over here. Great guy, with good points to offer.

 

[Runwildboys]

I hear you brother my joints are just pretty beat up at this point . I'm 55 and have pretty much beat myself up between work and sports . I still work out but in moderation . My joints wont take heavy weight anymore with out a lot of pain .

I just cant get the taste of bread in my mouth again or I will crave it and fall completely of the wagon . I feel like my metabolism has dropped anchor after 50 . In my 30s and 40s I could eat anything . We would lift weights and play basketball after work then eat pizza and milk shakes at 10 pm at night never gained weight. I was ripped at 205lbs and would compete in bench press competitions at 198. Now if I look at Pizza or Ice cream it attaches itself to me somehow LOLOL

I have been staying at 180 lbs eating this way . I eat a lot of wild game venison is very lean and pheasant is good too . In the spring I try to sustain myself on trout as I have a stream close to my house and cabin but a Pizza would be wonderful once in a while if I could handle it .

I'm 53, for a little while longer, so I know the joint pain. I can't work out shoulders at all anymore, but I do what I can with the rest.

 

[Melonfeud]

That WAS part of it. That is what I had a problem initially with sleep apnea,

However I am passed that issue. That is not what is waking me up multiple times a night like it did originally. It is no longer sleep apena waking me up. It is having to use the bathroom combined with drooling due to sleeping with my mouth open because I don't get enough air through my nose.

I am to get scheduled to get my deviated septum fixed sometime this spring and I hope that opens up my nasal cavaties a little more.

The weight issue is not going to go away anytime soon. I do not delude myself into thinking it will nor lie about it.

A few years ago when I quit smoking I gained a good deal of weight (40-50 lbs) but then later the wife and I went on an extreme diet and I lost 50-60 pounds.
Problem is the wife went from making salads every day to making everything under the sun (one extreme to the other) to now almost only take out food.
I am the type of old school person that eats what is given to me ( no dirty jokes).

Even when asking for salads from take out places, it is not doing much good. So I am over weight with not realistic chance of that changing in the near future.

That is not something that is going to change so no harping on it...just like the doctor continuing to talk about a Cpap machine...just is not going to go right now.

You really ought to try out that CPAP machine, I've got an old drinking buddy who quit smoking & drinking just as soon as the V.A. put him on morphine (heavy) him& his wife both have one,he said he's out like a light within seconds of hitting the pillow.
Yes,I always had sleep issues myself,I'd even meditate on totally relaxing,starting with my toes,mentally focusing on just that specific location and then work up the body, you'd be surprised just how much muscle tension your body unconsciously exerts ,by the time I'd move up to my neck& head area ,I could actually feel the head roll slightly to a natural resting position,you first gotta' envision yourself in a calm& soothing place,like next to a small stream laying down in the grass on a warm spring day,,,but now I just drink enough Kentucky Bourbon & chew up several Diphenhydramine 25mg.tablets, that works pretty good too.

 

[Juggernaut]

Peeing that many times could be a prostrate issue or a a pre-diabetic warning.

Watch your sugar intake, including alcohol, before trying to go to sleep. If I drink white wine after 8 or without enough food, I will pop awake in the middle of the night and I mean pop.

Correct, it's one of the three major symptoms of diabetes:

1. Polyuria: the need to urinate frequently.
2. Polydipsia: increased thirst & fluid intake.
3. Polyphagia: increased appetite.

 

[Melonfeud]

One other thing I have not talked about and I believe it is the Zyrtec.

On rare occasions I would wake up talking to myself, laughing, or the occasional waking yourself up fighting enemies, zombies or animals. But kind of rare.

However since taking Zyrtec it is pretty common for me waking myself up talking and especially laughing. I have always had very vivid and crazy dreams but Now I wake up a good deal talking to myself and many times laughing about whatever I was talking about. It's so often that some of the co workers will ask If I have had any good dreams lately just to hear a story or two.

I honestly don't mind waking up like that. I will break out into some really good laughs while waking up and shortly after being awake.

I don't think I have talked in my sleep or did something like this as much as when I was in basic training and a LOT of people did it in basic training...yelling out Yes Drill Sgt. Attention officer on deck. Make a whole and other crazy military stuff. If you were on fire guard duty you would hear 2-3 people in that hour or so yelling something out. I think it was also the only time I ever had a case of sleep walking. Woke up in full BDU (the camo uniforms for those that dont know) even with my boots laced all the way up and standing at attention lol.

man,I had an ol' lady that would talk in her sleep & I'd be laying there asking her all kinds of off the wall questions & get about the same 'off the wall' answers it was kinda hilarious,then she'd either start snoring or wake up.

 

[visionary]

Appreciate your opinion but there seems to be some kind of misunderstanding along the way in this thread.

I am NOT denying I need to lose weight. I know that already. However I also am not going to delude myself into thinking it is going to happen anytime soon due to the very reasons I described already.
Kind of hard to lose weight when the only food you get is pretty much junk food from take out. Although even then I get salads a couple times a week from take out. The only other thing to do diet wise would be to completely stop eating I guess.

I am NOT opposed to diets. As I have also stated before, but did not go into details, was that the wife and I DID go on a diet a few years ago and I lost 50-60 pounds doing so in the winter months. We boiled it down to pure calorie counting and for a couple of months we made it so extreme that we did not reach over 40 calories per day.

When that ended, or when the wife just got tired of it, I was still game. I told her we just needed to have regular food again but in smaller amounts while having a salad with it to make us feel full. We could triple our calorie intake and still be in good shape diet wise as we would be burning it off doing things outside now that it was getting warmer. However instead of doing that she started cooking huge meals and not taking into account any calories or even remotely trying to be any kind of diet and after a few years of that not wanting to cook at all and started doing daily take out foods 5 out of the 7 days of the week. I don't care who you are, it is hard to be realistic about a diet when your only source of daily intake is take out foot from fast food joints. It is just not realistic. It is not a matter of wanting to diet. I have done it before as noted above.

As far as having sleep apnea or not...maybe I still do. However I will say when I am on some kind of pill that gives me dry mouth...I sleep well.
As a matter of fact last night I only drooled once and only got up to pee once...it was the best night of sleep I have had in a long time.
The less I drool, the less I have to use the bathroom...the better I sleep.

When I was in full blown sleep apnea...I would wake up breathing heavy as if someone was trying to suffocate me due to my oxygen being cut off.

A few other things of note.

I have a doctor apt in a month or so to set up a date to correct my deviated septum. My deviated septum has been a problem for years. I have one nose hole that is pretty much cut off compared to the other one. I think that is part of the reason I only sleep on one side with also an ear problem that forced me to change my sleeping style some what.

I know a CPAP would be a waste of my time as I sleep now. It is a flat out fact. Someone mentioned it earlier about trying breath right strips. I bought a pack of them. the pack had 30 in it. I tried it for 30 nights. I never made it the first 15 or so days without taking them off in the middle of the night as they were agitating me so much. Then after that I would force myself to keep them on but I kept messing (touching) it throughout the night. I guess I would go to sleep and think it was something was on my nose like a bug or something. So I would continually wake myself up grabbing or scratching my nose. I could only imagine what I would be doing with a CPAP on my full face.

ALSO...IF I could learn to sleep on my back...and get a pillow or something that would prevent me from getting a headache. Right now if I sleep on my back I wake up with a killer headache for some reason. So I would first have to try one of those sculpted pillows to see if it would prevent a headache and if it did...I would give the cpap a shot. But there is no damn way I am going to try wearing a CPAP when I am sleeping on side with my one arm under the pillow and me with my head on the pillow that is on my arm. That is just not realistic at this point. At the very least if I slept on my back and did not move around so much it would not get the CPAP tangled and irritating me even more than it already would.

Many of us would like to believe that all things in the world are black and white and that everyone fits into a specific box. Problem is that line of thinking is often unrealistic due to many different circumstances.
Often the truth is that most things have gray areas that can change the circumstances, that does not allow things to just be black or white like many think.

I know a diet is a good thing to help in my situation to lose weight and help...however as noted above I would pretty much have to quit eating right now as that would be about the only way to lose weight. Although I guess I could just eat salads from any take out joint...it would not be the first time I ate salads for months.

I imagine a CPAP would help, but I would have to completely alter how I lay at night and that would only be if a different pillow would prevent me from getting a headache. And then I would have to hope that if I could not get used to a simple breath right strip after a month that I would eventually get used to a CPAP machine. Maybe I would, Maybe I would not...I just know that being honest and realistic it would take a great deal of change right now. But if that is what it takes down the road...so be it. Another advantage to sleeping on my back would be I would not be drooling.

Now with all of that out of the way...it would be so much simpler just to have a pill that had a side effect of dry mouth. It worked before when I had a bottle of pills that did that for me. But that prescription was not my own and I could not get it for me when I asked for it because I was being honest. Told them why I wanted it and they said no. I guess I could lie and make up a reason why I needed a pill but that is not in my nature.

So I will continue to see if I can find a pill that will help with dry mouth.

I am also going to look at getting a different pillow, the sculpted (for lack of a better term) kind that might allow me to sleep on my back without getting a headache. And also hoping that getting my deviated septum corrected will help.

If the surgery helps cure the problem...Good for me.
IF I can get a pill to quit drooling...good for me.
If I can get a pillow to help me sleep on my back and the other things do not work..I will give the Cpap an honest try.

If I can get my wife to start cooking again and making healthy meals with salads with it...better for both of us for a multitude of reasons...however that might be harder than pulling teeth from a rabid wolverine lol.

BPA, pills won't help.
Try sleeping on a recliner
The headache is because of repeated awakenings and low oxygen from the sleep
apnea and only cpap will help no matter how tough it now seems.

Don't diet
Change your lifestyle
No fast food
No soda
Bake things dont fry them
Smaller portions
Sounds a lot harder than it is

Try it

 

[Juggernaut]

I usually don't have a problem getting asleep and staying asleep, besides getting up once a night to urinate, usually after my first four hours of sleep.

What works for me is keeping the bedroom cool and using white noise. I get both of those conditions from turning on this fan before going to bed:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Lasko-20-Wind-Machine-Air-Circulator-Gray-A20301/22614934

 

[Melonfeud]

I could have used a good deal of this advice when I used to have trouble getting to sleep when my mind would be on hyperspeed when I laid down each night. Was so frustrating.

Thankfully, as I said before, the Zyrtec really has changed that and I only started taking it on a regular basis because my allergies got so bad I was having attacks once every two weeks or more. I really am thankful that it took care of the allergies and without knowing it going in...the taking forever to get to sleep.

I had that problem even as a younger person. I remember I would get yelled at all the time for sneaking and taking nyquil (the nasty liquid at the time before the pills) to help get to sleep.

The ironic thing about it was It used to take forever to get to sleep but once I did I slept well.

Now it is the other way around, easy to get to sleep but wake up multiple times for various reasons.

That is my life...I once heard a saying that I will never forget as it fits me well.

I'ts a dog eat dog world out there and I am wearing milk bone underwear lol.

NYQUIL



I drank that stuff to help get to sleep when I was pulling new mobile homes in 11 Western States,,,you could only roll daylight till dark and sometimes around dusk state troopers would chime in on the CB radio wanting to know, just what I was doing?
I'd tell them " that very next wide spot off the road up ahead",,,ya,I'd drink a half bottle of that stuff at nite,,, there's some 'creepy' spots in NEW MEXICO that's always gave me bad vibes , especially at night.

 

[Runwildboys]

You really ought to try out that CPAP machine, I've got an old drinking buddy who quit smoking & drinking just as soon as the V.A. put him on morphine (heavy) him& his wife both have one,he said he's out like a light within seconds of hitting the pillow.
Yes,I always had sleep issues myself,I'd even meditate on totally relaxing,starting with my toes,mentally focusing on just that specific location and then work up the body, you'd be surprised just how much muscle tension your body unconsciously exerts ,by the time I'd move up to my neck& head area ,I could actually feel the head roll slightly to a natural resting position,you first gotta' envision yourself in a calm& soothing place,like next to a small stream laying down in the grass on a warm spring day,,,but now I just drink enough Kentucky Bourbon & chew up several Diphenhydramine 25mg.tablets, that works pretty good too.

My nephew uses a CPAP machine, and every time I see him (which is usually late afternoon at the earliest) he has a mark across his forehead, like some type of inbred Darryl Strawberry on steroids thing.

 

[Runwildboys]

Peeing that many times could be a prostrate issue or a a pre-diabetic warning.

Watch your sugar intake, including alcohol, before trying to go to sleep. If I drink white wine after 8 or without enough food, I will pop awake in the middle of the night and I mean pop.

I doubt it's a prostrate issue, since he says he can't sleep on his back.

 

[Melonfeud]

My nephew uses a CPAP machine, and every time I see him (which is usually late afternoon at the earliest) he has a mark across his forehead, like some type of inbred Darryl Strawberry on steroids thing.

Well, I don't see all that much of my friend anymore,he lives prolly 3-4 miles down the road,too!,,,he's the racehorse owning buddy I've mentioned in the past&that Creek Indian also.

 

[Runwildboys]

Well, I don't see all that much of my friend anymore,he lives prolly 3-4 miles down the road,too!,,,he's the racehorse owning buddy I've mentioned in the past&that Creek Indian also.

I don't think I've been here long enough to have read any of those posts..........but I'll commit that to memory.........(Okay, Melon's racehorse lives in a creek with an Indian buddy of his.) Got it!

 

[nobody]

Oh don't discount the value of a really good quality True HEPA air filter in your room. The air quality in houses tends to be a lot worse than outside unless you frequently air it out or use air filters. (Not just ones that go in your AC unit)

 

[Blackrain]

I'm 53, for a little while longer, so I know the joint pain. I can't work out shoulders at all anymore, but I do what I can with the rest.

Its tough getting old . My elbows are the weak link on me and like you say I work around it and do what I can .

 

[Point-of-the-Star]

Wow, lots of good info in this thread. Yeah, I read most of it. Good info on the pre-diabetes. Have the doc check your A1C.

About 13 years ago I was having difficulty sleeping (I am a charge nurse in a trauma ICU ... lots of adrenaline in my system). I talked with my physician and started on Ambien. I break 10 mg tabs into 2-3 pcs so never take the big dose. These even come in time release. I sleep pretty wello about 6-7 hours a night with usually one 3AM trip to empty the bladder.

Because sleep is so sound I don't recommend this to anyone with sleep apnea but for others this might help. Some people can;t take Ambien though because of its hypnotic effects. They sleep walk and other crazy stuff. Small doses are better.