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How to come over insomnia?
Any proven ideas?

Does it help if you sleep with your partner rather than alone?

{grooooooaaaan}
Sleeping with my husband does NOT help, because he is such a bad snorer!

I have horrible insomnia, have for several years now. My doctor started me on Ambien a while back, and I am on it daily, because it is the only way I can sleep!

However, I do not take it if my husband is out of town, because it does cause some sleep-walking and other weird stuff. The thungs I do are pretty funny after the fact; but would not be so funny if I were here alone with the kids! They wouldn't notice if I tried to go for a drive.

Michelle,

Can you tell me about the situation when the partner does not snore?

Michelle,

You are suffering from insomnia for long.
what reasons did your doctor give?

They believe my insomnia, depression, and migraines are all tied in together.

It is kind of a toss-up as to which is the "root" problem, though. Probably the depression. My migraines started after I had my first child, and the insomnia began after the divorce from my 1st husband (9 yrs ago)



I do sleep better when my husband is in the house, so if he did not snore so bad, I would imagine it would be easier to sleep with him there.

The time I sleep the best is on like a Saturday mid-afternoon. I think because Hubby is home and totally in control of the kids, and I can just let go of all the worries for a while. My daughter used to have horrible asthma (she's pretty much outgrown it now). But some of her worst attacks happened in the middle of the night, so I got used to waking up at the least little noise. I think in the back of my head I am always worried somebody is going to get sick or hurt, and I can't relax.

Any treatment for migraine?
I have found none till now.

More-

Is insomnia one of the sure signs of depression?

Does Insomnia become permanent or it runs over its course?

Sorry, I've been off this topic...

As in so masny cases of medicine, it completely depends on the person. The medication Topamax works great as a preventative measure for lots of people. It worked pretty well for me for a while, too. Also, figuring out what your triggers are is a good way to fend off migraines - I can't eat smoked cheese for instance. However my biggest migraine trigger is weather- which I can't do anything about!

Insomnia is one of the major signs of depression - especially if it comes on suddenly. But not all people who suffer from insomnia have depression. However a person who does go without sleep for a long time is more prone to being depressed, just because we don't have the energy reserves to deal with things.

And one again, how long a person has insomnia is different fro every person. Some people have it because of stressors that they eventually lern to manage. Others suffer from it because of health problems (other than depression). Often if that root cause is DX then the insomnia goes away as well.

Thanks Michelle.

My insomnia stems from the night terrors. I simply don't, sometimes, wish to go asleep, and am not able to convince myself to try until i'm exhausted. Most people who have insomnia wish to sleep but can't.

From what i learned from the websites on nightmares and night terrors that cdmohatta and i linked (where was that thread?)... there are different causes of insomnia, and because of that, sometimes different treatments are recommended. One of the sites said that sleep and ...oh what do you call it? ...like Prozac... medication is not recommended for people with night terrors. I don't want to take any anyway. I have talked to people who have taken it... and they have liked it for them... but their situation is a little different from mine, and my body is very sensitive to medications, too, and often i get quite serious health side effects. For example, anti-biotics tend to shut my kidneys down and can even be life-threatening to me. I think in my case, i need to work on the night terrors issue, and then the insomnia will disappear as consequence.

I do have a couple of suggestions for migraines, though. I used to suffer from them regularly, and i've had several friends who suffer. I've found a way of greatly reducing mine. I did some reading about them which was very helpful (just Google "migraines" to learn about treatments and trigger foods) and i learned that in a regular headache, your blood vessles contract, but in a migraine, they expand... which may be why we become disturbingly oversensitive to light and sound and motion. Obviously, this means some treatments for headaches will not work for migraines. The most common trigger common to all sufferers of migraines is sinus congestion. I found that my migraines were often partly triggered by a cold weather front which exaserbates sinus infections. But they wouldn't occur if a sinus infection and a cold front were the only thing present. For me, i also almost always was premenstral or had just begun menstrating at the time, i was overtired, stressed, dehydrated, and had eaten trigger foods... for me the trigger foods are food preservatives, coffee, chocolate, and avocados. Now, if i see some of my triggers lining up, and can avoid trigger foods, get rest, and drink LOTS of water, and that will allow me to avoid a migraine. Now i only get a migraine if i fail to take care of myself when i see the triggers lining up.

It will be somewhat different for other people, but the most common triggers include sinus congestion, stress, and trigger foods. If after your migraine passes you keep a journal record of what you had eaten and other factors leading up to your migraine, you will soon be able to learn what situations you need to avoid. I think in most cases it is cummulative. For example... i don't always need to avoid coffee, chocolate, avocados and preservatives... only when i have a sinus headache beginning. Thank God! What would i do without chocolate???? hahaha

The Wikipedia article on migraines is very interesting, and has a lot of information i had not previously known:

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Holly,

You are so afraid of nightmares, that you do not want to sleep. right?