Desperation...

There comes a time in life that I find I do actually have limits. I can listen to someone play the same shit song over and over and over, I can bare the kids rewinding the same movie constantly all day, or playing the same game, or eating the same food...

There are limits, and occasionally, those limits are reached. Today, I have officially reached a limit in regards to my sleep.

Or, rather, my lack thereof.

For as long as I can remember, I've had sleeping problems. Sometimes, they come and go, but for the last year or so, they have been near-constant. Most nights, I struggle to sleep. Most nights, I find myself tossing and turning, glancing at the clock what feels like every few hours, when in fact, it is every ten minutes.

I have tried so much in order to get to sleep and stay asleep. I've tried the hot bath/shower before bed. Warm milk, while nice, doesn't induce sleep. White noise sometimes help me drift off. I've tried eliminating every electrical item in the bedroom - including mobile phones - to no avail. I've changed the colour of screens from blue to red as blue light stimulates wakefulness. I've limited the amount of time I use a screen before bed. I've laid in bed reading till I start dozing. I've forcefully stayed awake all day/night in order to sleep the following night, but again, no luck.

Everything I've tried has failed.

I don't know if it's pain levels or if it's just random "I Can't Sleep" but I do not sleep properly. Two or Three hours maximum if I am lucky. And that's despite taking my pain meds at bed time to boot which "should" help.

And no, I do not want to take medication for the sole purpose of making me sleep.

So, from tonight, I am going to start Sleep Restriction Therapy. It does exactly what it says on the tin, in that every night for the next two weeks, I am only allowed in bed in order to sleep. For four hours each night. Either 1-5 or 2-6. If I sleep, great, if not, tough - I have to get out of bed at that time and carry on about my business. I'm not allowed to sleep during the day either.

After two weeks, I increase it to six hours per night, and eventually, my body should realise that going to bed and laying down means SLEEP DAMMIT! and not, "lay there for hours bored out your skull"

I'm hopeful this is going to work. We saw the technique on a program about insomniacs a while ago, and this was how they "fixed" a couple of the people that suffered from it like I do.

I'm sure after a few days I will either crash and burn, or just sit in the corner rocking to and fro, but I don't see how that's going to be much different to normal. We shall see.