Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

American History and Black History Cannot Be Separated

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Everybody saw this coming.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

I really should read my own blog.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Oh, Joy. Insomina.

Reader Interactions

111Comments

  2. 2.

    suzanne

    Read a good book. I’m whippin’ through Franzen’s “Freedom” and am very much enjoying it.

  4. 4.

    Ross Hershberger

    I keep a couple of ‘popular’ volumes about quantum physics on hand for those occasions. I recommend Lisa Randall or Brian Greene. Both start out interesting, then about 10 pages in it’s like a wet sandbag to the back of the head.
    You
    Are
    Asleep.

  5. 5.

    Arclite

    I’ll stay up with you John.

    Okay, full disclosure: I live in Hawaii and am 6 hours behind you.

    Have you tried throwing back a couple of mojitos?

    Also, I find I get sleepy on days I exercise. Works best if I do it in the morning or afternoon, as exercise tends to wake me up for a few hours after I’m done.

  6. 6.

    Davebo

    Tylenol PM helps, or so my wife tells me.

    Me, Scotch helps… And forgetting about the worries.

  7. 7.

    Bnut

    You know John, when your blog starts 3 open threads in the span of a few hours it becomes hard to concentrate on my beer drinking and general internet gold mining until the release of Fallout 3:New Vegas at 3am.

  8. 8.

    Violet

    Sleep hygiene tips:

    Read something mindless or boring with the lights dim. Do not read in bed. Get out of bed and read in a chair in another room.

    If you don’t want to read, try doing some mindless activity. Don’t watch TV, play on the computer or do anything that engages your mind too much.

    Try drinking a glass of warm milk or having a light snack.

  10. 10.

    morzer

    Try reading Gayatri Spivak. Marvellously soporific stuff. Her preface to her translation of Of Grammatology is a perfect place to begin.

  13. 13.

    Ross Hershberger

    Often when I can’t sleep it’s because I’m uncomfortable from soreness and I’m not aware of it. You get accustomed to it and block it out but it keeps you from relaxing. Sometimes just aspirin or Ibuprofen will take the edge off & I can sleep.
    Booze helps me drop off but too much makes me wake up early or un-rested.

  14. 14.

    bob in sj

    Eh, I have a 10:30 am flight to Portland, OR for a Renewable Energy Conference. I hate flying so I’m trying to drink myself to sleep. Not that that’s a great idea…

  15. 15.

    That's Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN)

    I’m listening to the bobbleheads on ESPN vent and vent about how suspending players for making “devastating hits” is the worst thing since the Fall of Man. Yeah, it’s going to ruin football. Then again, so will half the players in the league getting concussions every year. For fuck’s sake, they’re talking about the possibility that DeSean Jackson might play this week. This league is fucking insane.

    Trent Dilfer went on about how football is a gladitorial contest played by warriors. No, it’s not. It’s a sport played by athletes. I understand that human nature hasn’t evolved much in 2000 years, but has civilization really not advanced beyond the idea that it is morally acceptable to watch people give each other brain damage for our entertainment?

    Matt Millen and multiple others have proclaimed that these weren’t illegal hits. Not dirty. That’s my point. Hockey can change to deal with it’s injury issues. (Can. Not necessarily will.) No check is a great game. I don’t think football can. Players are now so big and so fast that there isn’t any way to provide adequate player safety and leave anything resembling football.

    And just because the players know the risks, Steve Young, isn’t a good reason for us to let them take those risks.

  16. 16.

    Dead Ernest

    @Angry Black Lady: Your not alone ABL. I’ve been having cycles of that (well, ‘this’ since I’m in one again now). I don’t know if hearing that makes you feel any better but seeing your comment made me feel a little better about my lot.
    Worrisome thing about it, for me anyway, is that it gets self-perpetuating; stay up late – sleep late – not tired until later – and on and on.
    Nothing better for insomnia than another thing to worry about.

  18. 18.

    That's Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN)

    Oh, and insomnia sucks. Sucks, sucks, sucks. The last time I switched medications for it, I had to go five days without to let the old one get out of my system. I was awake for 85 straight hours. I was sobbing by the end.

  19. 19.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Dead Ernest: Seems to me insomnia is pretty common. I can’t believe how many people I know who take pills or regularly don’t sleep through the night. I’m lucky, it only hits me about once every few months.

  22. 22.

    thefncrow

    @That’s Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN): And then on top of that, you had that piece of shit Steve Levy. Between the Millen segment and the Dilfer segment, they did some sort of sponsored “Power Player of the Night” segment on Cliff Lee, which Levy lead off by saying “Our power player of the night is not gonna be an NFL defensive player, because if you’re a power player you could get suspended.”

  23. 23.

    jl

    @asiangrrlMN: MNAsiangrrl is correct. Posting Tunchpics is a guaranteed insomnia cure. Nine out of ten scientists polled agree. Studies have been published on it in World News Weekly.

    I liked the pic where Tunch was in orbit out in restful black outerspace. Do you have pic of a Tuncheclipse?

  24. 24.

    BombIranForChrist

    My understanding is that alcohol impairs sleep, so it’s probably not a good idea to have a stiff drink or 5, but it’s fun.

  25. 25.

    asiangrrlMN

    @That’s Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN): Man. That would really suck. I once stayed up for sixty-plus hours (on purpose. It’s supposed to be good for depression), and I could barely think after about fifty. My sympathies.

    @morzer: Or Jay Cutler being treed by Tunchie!

    ETA after your last comment: Was that directed at moi?

    @jl: Ha! You are on a roll today. I would fall asleep if I had a video of Tunchie grooming himself and purring. It would be sooo comforting.

    Insomnia: Another word for life as I know it.

  26. 26.

    Gina

    I’ve fallen back into reversing night/day again. This summer, I tried chronotherapy – moving bedtime 2-3 hours later every night (morning) til we (my kids tag along with the insomnia fun, the joys of a homeschooling schedule) were on a pretty spiffy 6-7am rising, 9-10pm bedtime. It was necessary because they both had summer camps and other activities that were all at cursedly early hours most of the summer.

    One or two late work nights from my husband knocked us off kilter once the summer was finished, and we’re back to struggling to get into bed before 5am. We may have to take another week and reset our clocks again before the end of November. Hopefully it will last for another few months and get us through til DH starts with the krazy late hours again this spring.

    I was surprised at how well it did work, but it takes about a week to get all the way around the clock, and it can be pretty gnarly about day 4 or so. It’s a good trick to have for anyone who’s a night owl naturally and who never had luck with trying to rise early, despite a late bedtime, to reset their clock.

  30. 30.

    James E. Powell

    My latest response to (not cure for) insomnia is the many college lectures available online. For anyone interested, I’d recommend academicearth.org for starters.

  32. 32.

    morzer

    @asiangrrlMN:

    Hmmm… Jay Cutler only annoys me at most once per week when I have to see him on the TV at the gym bouncing off the turf under a succession of large men. Dilfer, however, is a much more pervasive force of turpitudinous cretinosity.

  35. 35.

    Amir_Khalid

    @Ross Hershberger: I found Greene’s Fabric of the Cosmos so hard to put down that I read it through twice, footnotes and all. So if John Cole finds the subject at all interesting, that might not work for him.

    Boring myself to sleep doesn’t work for me, except when I need to stay awake. I’d just wind up bored senseless and yet still awake.

    Just go to bed. You might not get to sleep, but at least you’ll be rested.

  37. 37.

    jl

    @asiangrrlMN: Hi. how are you doing? Haven’t seen you around for awhile.

    But I have become an early bird (which is something I never thought could ever happen). I probably wake up as you are making your last comment for the night.

    I do not have insomnia. I am falling asleep as I type.

    But, a commenter said my fellow fake internet husband in law, Yutsano, is a gummit revenooer? Izzat true? Is that his secret new job? No wonder he was secretive about it, on a miserable rightly blog like this un here. I mean, the idea that Cole, and Dougj buy their rotgut, er, booze, er, fine adult beverages with that gummint money is an obvious fiction, am I right?

  38. 38.

    morzer

    @Cliff:

    I suppose it depends on who is playing doggie… I have heard that excitement can be derived therefrom, but I suppose everyone has their own… position?

  41. 41.

    jl

    @morzer: That is because you dare not stare into the Tunchgaze.

    Which reminds me of the Mozart was poor debate awhile ago, for some reason. I went back and read a biography. Mozart apparently was not that poor, certainly not impoverished. He made enough from his chamber music sales and what commissions he could get. He should have been able to live like a modestly successful composer, except…

    he liked to live high. Thought he needed to have lotta nice things, in order to travel with the swells. So he spent on extravagant stuff, and wrote begging letters when he needed money.

    At least that is what the biography said.

    Mystery solved, in my book.

  42. 42.

    Dead Ernest

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Hi JFL, I’m bet you’re right about the population at large.
    There’s a decided irony in the case of your comment and me; I’m a physician and specialize in chronic pain. Nearly all my patients have significant problems with sleep. Since lack of rest worsens pain, helping them optimize their sleep is one of the things we work on. While it isn’t the ideal long-term solution, I’m one of the reasons so many sleep meds get prescribed.
    …why yes, I do worry about that – keeps me up at night.

  44. 44.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Cliff: Squeeeee! Molly looks so healthy and happy and adorable! That perked me right up!

    @jl: Heh. Someone has to be an early bird. Might as well be you. I have been bouncing all over the place for the past couple of weeks (sleep pattern REALLY fucked up), so it’s been hit-or-miss as to when I will actually comment. And, yeah, Yutsy now works #looks both ways# for the gubmint. Shhhhhh!

    @morzer: Snort. SNORT!

    El Cid, you crack me the fuck up!

  46. 46.

    Luthe

    @John Bird:

    Seconded. That stuff really works.

    On an entirely different note, why am I seeing ads for SarahPAC here? I could put up with the “buy conservative T-shirts on Cafepress” ads, but Snowbilly Snooki is a bridge too far. Especially when she is grifting for cash (as always).

  47. 47.

    That's Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN)

    @John Bird: Trazadone is good. Unfortunately, 100mg isn’t enough to put me to sleep, 200mg keeps me from waking up, and 150mg has both problems.

    Of course, Seroquel was worse. Then again, as I told my doctor, I have to be the only person on the planet who can take 300mg of Seroquel and 3 oz of bourbon and then lie awake for three hours.

  48. 48.

    Ross Hershberger

    The one thing that always knocks me out is tons of exercise. I spend my work day on my feet now, walking about 30 miles/week on average. It’s brutal, but I sleep like a log at the bottom of a lake and weigh 20% less than the average American male my height.
    Downsides: I’ve had 2 toenails fall right off and good shoes aren’t cheap.
    When I travel my bio-clock gets out of whack and I need help sleeping. A combo of melatonin and valerian does the trick for me, but this is situational, not chronic.

  50. 50.

    Ross Hershberger

    I’m off to bed. Reading Lisa Randall before sleeping. Up to the part about the Higgs Mechanism and (something) Bosons (something, something) field. It’s wonderfully soporific but I have very strange dreams.

  54. 54.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Ross Hershberger: Melatonin does nothing for me and valerian makes me suicidal. Yeah, not so good.

    @El Cid: You are just that damn good. Better take your Ommunis(TM)!

    I can’t wake up from sleeping pills at all–so no go. I haven’t tried the new breed, though. Am bi an and such.

    ETA: I cannot believe I am about to buy a pink apron. Seriously. This is earth-shattering.

  56. 56.

    That's Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN)

    @asiangrrlMN: Ambien might as well be candy for me. That’s what they gave me to tide me over for those five days. Yeah, that was a success.

  57. 57.

    That's Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN)

    @asiangrrlMN: Am bi an might as well be candy for me. That’s what they gave me to tide me over for those five days. Yeah, that was a success.

  60. 60.

    El Cid

    @asiangrrlMN:

    You are just that damn good. Better take your Ommunis™!

    Don’t want to breed resistance.

    Anyone try sonata? They work pretty well. Take the recommended does or you’ll get the weird night calling and all that.

  61. 61.

    That's Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN)

    @asiangrrlMN: Haven’t tried it. It wasn’t covered by my insurance the last time I messed around with stuff. At this point, I take 100mg of trazadone, 50mg of Benadryl, 6mg of melatonin and hope for the best. It’s a crapshoot.

  62. 62.

    Suck It Up!

    Watching Family Ties on the hub channel – didn’t know it existed until today. Apparently its a kids channel and has a few familiar shows like fraggle rock, my little pony and pound puppies, Doogie Howser M.D., the Wonder Years, etc. – oh, good times, good times.

    I have sleep problems also. Can’t do pills because they make me paranoid. I will jump out of my sleep in two hours wondering why there’s a vicious dog in my room – I kid you not. I’ve been thinking of checking into a sleep clinic/study. Its that ridiculous.

  66. 66.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Suck It Up!: I found the channel whilst babysitting. A Family Ties episode was on. That was a good show. And, I have several friends pushing me to do the sleep study, too. You do it first and let me know what happens!

    @Zuzu’s Petals: Fascinating. I haven’t heard of them. Have you tried either?

    @Yutsano: Awwwww! Sooo cute! But, aren’t you missing a ‘not’ in your sentence?

  68. 68.

    asiangrrlMN

    @morzer: Sorry. I just went from Hello Tunchie to Hello Kitty to Margaret Cho. To answer your question, no. No Tunchie. It has a pocket with hearts on it. Oh. Mah. Gawd.

    I just bought it! I cannot believe it.

  69. 69.

    Angry Black Lady

    @El Cid: it took all my will power to let “insomina” slide. if you knew how annoying i am about spelling and grammar, you’d be high fiving me right now.

    instead, i’ll just high five myself.

    ::high five::

  70. 70.

    Martin

    Sex works every time. And I always wake up happy. Y’all can keep your Stuffatonin and Junkadone.

  72. 72.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: I really want to know how they got a parrot to talk so much and interact so well. That and ME. WANT.

    And fine, no more typos around you Miss Pedant. Ooh there’s your 50’s housewife name!

  73. 73.

    Angry Black Lady

    after being weaned off teh ambienz, i now take restoril, along with more.. um… “organic” sleep aids.

    i’m glad i’m off the ambien. now i actually remember what i do between 11 and 2 am.

  74. 74.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Angry Black Lady: Me, too. I was trying to be nice to Cole because he has insomina and all. I hear that’s worse than insomnia.

    @morzer: Can I take three? Man. All I need are the stripper shoes, and I’m good to go for Halloween!

    @Yutsano: How about Miss Indy Pedant? And, you know I do it with love.

    Martin, sex doesn’t work for me. It makes me happy and content, yes, but it doesn’t help me actually sleep.

  75. 75.

    That's Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN)

    @asiangrrlMN:

    Don’t the meds interfere with each other?

    Dunno. It’s the best combination I’ve found, though. With most meds I’ve tried, I have exactly the problem you describe with Am bi an. By the time I’m taking enough of it to get to sleep, I can’t wake up. With this combo, I can almost always get to sleep eventually. I usually have to lie there for a half hour, but it works.

    @Martin: The difference is that the doctor can write me a prescription for the drugs.

  76. 76.

    Zuzu's Petals

    @asiangrrlMN:

    Yes. GABA is supposed to be especially good for slowing down the ol’ racing mind.

    But mostly I go with melatonin. Knocks me right out, usually.

    I also find meditation to be helpful. Lying there and counting my breaths…up to ten and then starting over. Surprising how well that works, for me at least.

  78. 78.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Zuzu’s Petals: Damn. Melatonin does squat for me. What happened with these other two?

    ETA: I will have to do more research on them. Unfortunately, meditation is not a good thing for me right now.

    @Joseph Nobles: I’m waffling over whether I want to do it this year or not (I’ve done it three years in a row). I am very verbose (if you can believe it), so I don’t really need that push. The only goal I can think about setting for myself is to edit and shop the book I write during NaNoWriMo during December.

    ETA: Good for you, though for getting a new laptop. That’s cool no matter what.

    @Mnemosyne: Aw! Sorry to hear that. Sleep well and better luck tomorrow.

  79. 79.

    Mnemosyne

    Started knitting a hat for my father-in-law last night.

    Finished it tonight.

    Turned out to be about 26″ around.

    F-I-L does not have freakishly large head, so hat will not fit.

    Just spent 30 minutes unraveling the whole goddamned thing.

    Will restart with smaller needles and fewer stitches tomorrow, but right now NOT HAPPY.

    Sleep now.

  80. 80.

    suzanne

    @Martin: S E X wakes me up. Golf or poker on television knocks me out, though.

    Although the number-one thing that makes me all relaxed is watching my cat sleep. God, cat sleep is the most restful thing. I love drifting off while a kitty snuggles me.

  81. 81.

    Zuzu's Petals

    @asiangrrlMN:

    Well, mostly I tried GABA in the daytime when I found myself stressing…the under-the-tongue tablet takes effect faster than the regular capsules, etc., but then again you like having a certain level in your bloodstream. Seemed to help me sleep too.

    You can find these supplements in most natural food stores. I’d suggest going that route rather than using the drugstore variety, which can have all kindsa fillers and crap.

  82. 82.

    Mnemosyne

    @Joseph Nobles:

    I’m trying to psych myself up for it and not chicken out again this year. I was talking to my new shrink about it and she essentially said, “Lighten up, Francis!” As in, geez, it’s just a fun competition, don’t take it so goddamned seriously, just give it a try and see how it goes.

    That helped, actually. And now I really am going to go to sleep.

  83. 83.

    Zuzu's Petals

    @asiangrrlMN:

    Oh yeah, on the meditation. Counting breaths is a zen practice, but it’s really just counting breaths…I find a combination of the deep breathing and the non-thinking really helps. Of course, it’s not for everybody.

    I sure hope you find something that works for you. I know how frustrating it is to not be able to sleep when you need to.

    When I took the bar exam all those years ago, I did not get a single minute’s sleep the night before. I actually thought about falling down the stairs so I’d have an excuse not to take the exam and flunk it. As it turned out, I passed, so I guess exhaustion agrees with me.

  84. 84.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Zuzu’s Petals: I do meditation in tai chi. It’s been…not good. My teacher has me skipping it or doing one from another martial art (which goes much better). I will check out the supplements you suggested. My problem is falling asleep, staying asleep, and sleeping enough.

    And, maybe being too tired to take the bar worked because you couldn’t think too hard about the answers (and fuck yourself up).

  86. 86.

    Angry Black Lady

    aack! my comment is in moderation because i said am bi enzzz.

    which i used to take but i don’t any longer because it made me a little crazy. ok, crazier.

    i take resto ril now. i don’t get those warm and fuzzies like i did with the a mmbienz, but i’m less crazy and i actually remember what i’ve done between 11 and 2.

  87. 87.

    Angry Black Lady

    @Zuzu’s Petals: oh me too! in fact, i barely slept the entire summer i was studying for the damn thing.

    that was the worst summer of my life. it was made worserest by my a-hole friends who called me after the second day to gloat that they were done. stupid 3 day california bar.

    ::Shakes fist::

  88. 88.

    DPirate

    Got the voter book for AK. Some interesting blurbs in it for the politicians. I can’t decide which ones wrote it themselves.

    Scott McAdams’ should not have chosen a picture that makes him look so obese. He ought to shave that moustache, too. It reminds me of the fat gangster from Miller’s Crossing. You know the guy that smacked his kid then comforts him “Whatsamatta, whatsamatta?!?”

    I quote: “I worked as a tireless advocate for Alaska’s kids at the community, state and national levels. Today I am mayor of Sitka.” So, he was a self-avowed tireless advocate! Never got tired even once in all that advocating for TEH CHILDREN. Didn’t even suffer jetlag on all those flights to the national level. Further on he says he knows what is best for Alaska’s children, and that he “will never forget that the middle class are America’s greatest natural resource.” He also says that Alaskan fish are the green choice and must stay that way. I assume he means it’s worth a lot of money.

    This is the best he can do: Vote for me because I think you are great and I like kids. Come on, didn’t he get any help with this stuff?

    Tim Carter, age 70, non-affiliated, is a retired optometrist who enjoys flying his personal plane and states that “I am the working man’s candidate”. Uh huh. He’s from Tampa and has been here 3 years now. Living “my lifelong dream” now. Senator must be on his bucket list.

    Ted Gianoutsos, only 68, non-affiliated, has been here for 11 wonderful years. I was leaning toward him when I read “How much has the deliberate father-daughter ANWR failure cost Alaska and America? … Father-daughter won big-time for 30-years blaming everyone but themselves…” But then I saw he likes opera. I like opera, too, but I don’t admit to it until I go on vacation.

    Joe Miller, republican, actually has the most professional looking profile. He is “deeply concerned about the path our nation is on”. Of course, he blames it entirely on Obama, so he’s out, but it will play up here. The most troubling thing is that he and his wife, Kathleen, who are from Kansas, named their kids Kelsey, Katy, Joe, Jacob, Joshua, Kassia, James, and Kristiana. Oh, and he’s a lawyer… I don’t care if he did live in Tok; he’s a lawyer.

    However, what has decided me in my vote (so far) is the following, courtesy of Frederick “David” Haase, 67 years young, Libertarian and professional “problem solver”:

    Special Interests: Current events, History, Fishing, Hunting, Rocks and Birds
    Other: Thousands of hours flying my aircraft, driving my 18 wheelers, riding my horses, boating and a tractor going in circles

    I fucking LOVE rocks! The bird thing, well, he probably likes to smash them with a good rock, which he discovers by driving in circles on a tractor (any tractor will do). Plus, he’s got eighteen wheelers. Courtesy of medicare, I presume. He’s 67. You never know when you’ll need a wheeler at that age. He thinks ahead.

    Lol. Seriously, though, I’m voting for him.

  90. 90.

    Anne Laurie

    For some of us, hand to goddess, the cure for insomnia is… speed. Well, prescription methylphenidate, aka ritalin. It fixes the brain-racing for us non-neurotypicals. (Idiots who prattle about how ‘ADD is not a real disease’ should be forced to live with it for a few weeks.) Not recommending experimenting with street supplies, but now that nicotine has lost so much favor, the medical profession is getting much better about diagnosing ADD in adults.

  91. 91.

    Zuzu's Petals

    @Angry Black Lady:

    Tell me about it. I remember sitting on the lawn with a particularly smart friend during the lunch break on the first day (I’m Calif. too) and he asked me what I thought about that real property question. I thought it was a contract question. Talk about a confidence builder.

    On the third day, my typewriter ribbon broke so I had to continue by hand. Then I ran out of time and so just outlined the remainder of the last question.

    When I got the letter saying I’d passed, I came waiting for them to call up and explain there’d been a mistake.

  92. 92.

    DPirate

    Wanted to add that, in all seriousness, I am generally voting libertarian for very simple reasons. Their number one thing is auditing (well, destroying, in the end) the FED, and our financial system has a dire need of being aired out. The effects of their penchant for deregulation of business will make no difference since that’s what the dems and reps are into already. They are also strong on civil liberties and constitutional controls. That is enough for me, at this time.

  93. 93.

    freelancer (itouch)

    Wow, the latter plurality of this thread could be referred to as “One Flew Over the BJ Nest”. It seems we are, all of us, insane, but we are also the center. How about that?

    freelancer +fuck I lost count, erm, 8 maybe?

  96. 96.

    TrishB

    @Zuzu’s Petals: I have to laugh now every time I see melatonin mentioned lately. My dog went through $2000 worth of tests with a veterinary endocrinologist, and Pepper’s prescription turned out to be melatonin and lignans. Lignans translates to flax seed hulls. Yes, I am incredibly grateful that there’s not much out there cheaper than this regimen, but to be quite honest, if I hadn’t read it on a vet research site before hand, I might not have taken it seriously.

  97. 97.

    Nicole

    Hmm… last post was at 4:30. I hope everyone’s been able to get some shut-eye!

    Though now I’m up and there’s nobody to play with. Bored now.

  99. 99.

    ed_finnerty

    melatonin – seriously it works

    take some about 30 minutes before you want to sleep

    I had world class insomnia – used to watch animal planet all night – didn’t sleep for 10 days straight at one point – melatonin saved me.

    Also, too. The insomnia scene at the beginning of Fight Club nails insomnia.

  101. 101.

    schrodinger's cat

    My cure for insomnia, reading Electromagnetic Theory by Jackson, works every time.

  102. 102.

    Comrade Darkness

    We are a melatonin household too. And b-12, that seems to make a bigger long-term impact on our sleep quality. If you can get some sun during the day, that makes a difference too, although, mostly for an afternoon nap, but heck, any sleep in a storm . . .

    Hope you get through it quickly. It def sucks.

  103. 103.

    Comrade Darkness

    @asiangrrlMN: I’ve been doing better once I realized that sleeping that night and repairing long term sleep difficulties were two completely separate processes. I can’t tell you how much a difference that mentality has made. I would try something, like exercise, and that wouldn’t help that night, so I’d slack the next day. But in reality, the bigger things were more important, but they take longer to kick in. Now that i get enough b-12 and exercise and sunlight, the problem at night has gradually gotten much better, but it’s a slow climb. Sleeping NOW is a different thing (hot milk, melatonin, hot bath, boring book, classical music played low, etc.)

  104. 104.

    Not J Bean

    You’ve had some powerful drug suggestions, but nobody has asked you about caffeine intake. The second question should be about depression. Alcohol and the other drugs will just further screw up your sleep cycle.

    My suggestion? Eliminate all caffeine for a couple weeks, then introduce a controlled amount in the morning since you enjoy it. Examine your ethanol consumption, too. Mood is a consideration too, but you’ll need local help for that.

    Pay the nice lady in the waiting room.

  105. 105.

    SteveinSC

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    My cure for insomnia, reading Electromagnetic Theory by Jackson, works every time.

    Born and Wolf for me. You have to be careful, though. Read a page or two, then lay it next to your pillow, but no closer. Putting it under your pillow can be fatal.

    OTOH, I suppose Cole has tried the traditional solution for insomnia: Some hot porn and then self-abuse?

  108. 108.

    schrodinger's cat

    @SteveinSC: Well now I am curious and I have to ask, what happens if you put Born and Wolf under your pillow?
    BTW I have text book even more unintelligible than Jackson,
    Advanced Quantum Mechanics by Sakurai

  109. 109.

    John - A Motley Moose

    @Graeme: This.

    I read through the whole thread and didn’t notice one mention of the best insomnia medicine available. A good indica taken an hour or so before bedtime will help you sleep and leave no aftereffect the next morning. It’s far better than any pill out there.

  110. 110.

    Ruckus

    You guys make it sound like you’re supposed to get more than 3-5 hours of sleep per night. And actually sleep that long continuously. How’s that work? I think my current schedule comes from my youth when I could sleep like a log for 10-12 hrs per night. Front loading as it were. Now it’s caught up and the law of averages has attacked.

  111. 111.

    Angry Black Lady

    @Zuzu’s Petals: did you take barbri? i just remember them telling us if you don’t remember what the rule is for a particular question, just make one up, and then analyze and answer the question based upon your made-up rule.

    i was shocked as hell that i passed. and to this day, i wonder how i did. did i scrape by? did i rock it?

    i guess it doesn’t matter, but the people want to know! and by “people” i mean “me.”

Comments are closed.