Pregnancy insomnia

[Strong Mama]

UGH help me please!!! Gone is the exhaustion. I was in the bed for 7 weeks due to sickness. I am better now, since Saturday. All of sudden, sickness is gone!!! Yay~but now I cannot sleep. I do not sleep in the day. I get up at 6am and finally fall asleep at 1am. I wake up 5 times during this time to pee. Repeat cycle. I am active in the day. I do not have caffeine. I take a warm bath. I read. I watch TV. I take unisom.
I am so tired but I lay there and toss and turn. Then my body is a boiling hot furnace, tho the AC is set on 68 and a fan is on me, I am sooooo hot, then cold. So I cover and uncover. Then my nose is stuffy so I can breathe. Then I lay on my sides and oops gotta pee again. I am so tired of not sleeping. Ideas?

[sexysisam]

I'm sorry you're not sleeping well. That totally sucks.

With my all-the-time insomnia, I've developed a few things that work for me:

I take sleeping pills every night. Lately Source Naturals sublingual melatonin tablets have been working awesome. When things get really bad or I'm having an "eff the world" day, I'll take 25 mg Seroquel.

I do a nightly routine that I stick to - wash my face, brush my teeth, blow my nose, use saline spray in my nose, read a chapter in a book, lights out, etc.

When things were at their worst I was quite extreme. I would sleep with earplugs in, turn my clock around so I wouldn't worry about the time, blackout shades on my window, a towel stuffed under my door for exterior lights, etc.

Also, when you go to the bathroom, don't turn on any lights because it will shock your system back awake. I also try not to do anything stimulating to my eyes/brain 1 hour before bed - no TV, no computer screens, etc. Yoga zone also makes a 20 minute wind down from the day yoga video...very nice.

Hope some of that helps for you. But if nothing works, I highly recommend seroquel for a week or 2 to get yourself back in the swing of things. Just take it early or you'll be sleeping til noon.

[shellbell76]

I've always had pregnancy insomnia... I've learned to just go with. It usually gets better for the second trimester before rearing it's ugly head again half way thru the third. I've googled "food that helps you sleep" before and tried focusing on that for the latter part of the day...

Hope you get some real sleep soon.

[Lousli]

Horrible insomnia for me too. I can fall asleep fine, but I can't stay asleep all night. I wake up to pee and can't fall back asleep or I toss and turn or think about stuff. Last night, I had a nightmare about my older dd getting attacked by a bear (I have no idea why) and then I couldn't fall back asleep for about an hour!

[AnnieA]

I woke up at 2:30 AM this morning to pee and never went back to sleep. Of course, I was already planning to get up at 4 AM because I took the younger three to DC today but still...that last 1 1/2 of sleep would have been nice. Sometimes it happens when I get up at 5 AM to take my thyroid med. I barely fall back asleep before it's time to wake up again. Hopefully this will pass soon for all of us!

[umpquafish]

The only difference between now and my pre-pregnancy sleep patterns is that now I have to pee when I wake up in the middle of the night. I woke up at three this morning, having gone to sleep at 12:30. The night before, I slept from midnight until one. Great.
I have taken 5-HTP in the past with some success, and will ask my midwife (when I choose one) if it is safe to use during pregnancy.
Oooh, sun is coming up, maybe I'll finally be able to sleep for another hour.

[lilangelmelanie]

i have it too. major insomnia and then i'm exhausted all day and WANT to sleep but can't my body is quickly exhausting itself!

[Family4Christ]

Me too! It's driving me nuts! I get up 3 times to pee and dream constantly. If I wake up too much, then I'm fully awake for about 1.5 hours. This is not at all like me.

My hubby used to sleep awful before I started giving him a tea with catnip, chamomile, lemon balm and passion flower. For the first time since we've been married (going on 10 years), he's sleeping awesome! So, if you're open to herbs, give it a try! I would take it, but I react to one of the herbs.

[Virginia884]

Originally Posted by Family4Christ

Me too! It's driving me nuts! I get up 3 times to pee and dream constantly. If I wake up too much, then I'm fully awake for about 1.5 hours. This is not at all like me.

That is me, too. Peeing constantly and dreaming CRAZY dreams. I did neither before this pregnancy. At least DH understands when I head off to bed at 8p.

[Family4Christ]

That is me, too. Peeing constantly and dreaming CRAZY dreams. I did neither before this pregnancy. At least DH understands when I head off to bed at 8p.

It's crazy, isn't it?? Wow, 8!? What time do you need to get up in the AM? My dd lets me sleep until 9:30 most days, so I'l able to stay up until around 11. I remember when I was pregnant with her, I would sleep 12 hours a night, but I don't seem to need as much sleep this time, thankfully!

[Grayson's Mom]

I am having the same problems as mentioned above. Sometimes I fall right asleep but only sleep an hour or two before I am wide awake... wishing I were sleeping.
Sometimes I just can't fall asleep to begin with, no matter how tired I was all day.
Here's what has been working for me when I finally decide that I need help to fall asleep. Young Living brand Lavendar oil. (NO other brand has works like Young Living in my opinion... they are VERY high quality.) I drop a drop on the back of my neck and rub it in, then around to my temples. Basically just all around my head. I also take an entire dropper of Bach's Rescue Rhemedy.
I swear that within 15 minutes of doing this I am asleep. Lavendar Oil is my miracle oil. <3 it!

[Virginia884]

Insomnia has kicked in, hard core, this week. Before I would wake to pee and then fall back asleep. Now I wake to pee and then lie awake in bed for awhile, usually ending up on the couch watching infomercials.

[Sandrine]

I think it's starting here too.

Yesterday afternoon, I couldn't function so I went for a nap. What a bad idea!!! I couldn't fall sleep before 2am when dh came in bed and then a couple had a fight at 4 am outside. (a rare occurence). had a hard time going back to sleep. Then I just slept on and off until my neighbor decided to do more renovation and using his hammer.

So today will be another hard day to function. ugh