I Slept!

Thanks to help from my Dad and from lots of research (both of which are only the result of me admitting my problems -- guess admitting really is a good thing!) I think I've figured out how to sleep.

My doctor put me on a low dose of melatonin, that didn't do the trick. He added 5-htp, and that worked sometimes, because I have too much dopamine naturally. But there are still times, averaging about three times a week, throughout the past few years, that I was easily up till 2:30 or 3:30am.

Ever since that 2-week cold I had (ending one week ago), my sleep schedule is really off, since my congestion kept me up at night, and sometimes I napped during the day. Wednesday night this past week I didn't get to sleep till 5:30am, and Friday night, until 9:00am. This has been a hard thing to go through.

That second night reminded me of prom night, in which a group of us hung out at my house after prom and listened to music and danced and watched movies until sunrise so that we could all go have breakfast together. It was a tradition. (Don't worry, no alcohol, drugs, or sex occurred that night.) Anyway, I remember watching the sunrise that morning and thinking how odd it felt. Same thing this week. The sun came up, but it was like I couldn't figure out why.

One fun thing, though... around 6am (Saturday morning now) I went outside and the stars were so beautiful in the cool winter air (the cold air and less humidity makes the stars look really clear and sparkly -- check it out!). I saw Orion on the West horizon, about to set. I'd never seen Orion set before. Only on a winter's morning can you see that. It was so pretty. And Mars was there too. Then, the next evening, I saw Orion come up in the East sky, about 11 hours later. That's the cool part of being awake all night. The rest of it, not cool, so I don't recommend it just for the stars. :-)

Anyway, I figured out that if I add Taurine (an amino acid) and GABA (Gamma-aminobutyric acid) to the other things I was taking in the evening, it works! It totally removes all the "bugs" or feelings of not being able to rest in my nervous system. It is perfect. Now that I solved the actual problem, I expect to get off the melatonin once my circadian rhythm adjusts.

GABA is an inhibitory neurotransmitter, which is exactly what I needed: something to calm my brain down so that I could rest. Don't worry, it doesn't make me stupid or stop thinking or anything, just calms down the excess nerves, so that I'm like other people when they lay down to sleep. :-)

So, to sum up, I just got a full night's sleep TWO nights in a row! :-) I slept almost a full night Saturday night, and slept eight whole hours last night. Hooray!

To match with the theme of this blog entry, I'll leave you with another song from the Barenaked Ladies: "Who Needs Sleep?". This is Ed Robertson again, in his bathroom. This song helped me get through years of insomnia, just knowing I wasn't alone. :-)