Summertime insomnia
 

Does anyone else get this? I usually have problems with hot flashes, and my 11-year-old son has taken to sleeping with me since his father left us, so it's just too warm to sleep. Third night up late. I may have to turn on the a/c. It's 65 outside, but the air is very still and nothing is cooling down the house tonight. I've got fans strategically located in front of windows.

And then there's that dang bird! All night, every night!

Georgia

I have the same thing! I have found that if I work out for just 20 minutes before bed it tires me out enough to sleep. I do my "hard" routine early in the day then after dinner or about an hour before bed I will jump on the elliptical for 20-30 mins. It has helped tremendously. I have tried 3 of the most common sleeping pills and nothing worked for me except this. Also I know this may sound stupid but taking a hot bubble bath helps me too. I think either tiring your body out or really relaxing it helps a lot. When my Central Air was not working I would take cold showers at night and then lay down I was usually asleep before I started heating up again. :)

Thanks for the tips. I have been working out earlier in the day, but I usually do my weight training in the evenings. However, since I moved I haven't been doing that. It's time to get back to it!

Georgia

My problem isn't being too hot to sleep, it's the freaking sunlight half the night. It's like that movie Insomnia with Robin Williams. The sun doesn't go down until practically midnight, and then comes up again 3-4am. I'll wake up during the night to go to the bathroom, and not know if it is 4am or 10am.

I was in Anchorage once and experienced the same thing. And I have a hard time getting the kids to bed early enough, because every night I hear, "But it's still light outside!"

I've got street lamps shining through my bedroom windows, so I got an eye mask to wear. It works great, and if I haven't been able to get to sleep until past midnight, I can stay asleep into the next morning, well after sunrise.

Georgia

Originally Posted by CatherineM:
My problem isn't being too hot to sleep, it's the freaking sunlight half the night. It's like that movie Insomnia with Robin Williams. The sun doesn't go down until practically midnight, and then comes up again 3-4am. I'll wake up during the night to go to the bathroom, and not know if it is 4am or 10am.

I sleep with a t-shirt over my eyes (so classy I know!) because the light keeps me up too. I also need the air on to stay cool in order to sleep well and unlike the above poster I can't work out too close to bedtime otherwise it keeps me up forever.

Originally Posted by Idealmuse:
I sleep with a t-shirt over my eyes (so classy I know!) because the light keeps me up too. I also need the air on to stay cool in order to sleep well and unlike the above poster I can't work out too close to bedtime otherwise it keeps me up forever.

My husband sleeps with a t-shirt over his eyes. He got into that habit when working in Antarctica, where the sunlight was 24/7 in summer. The women in my family sweat mostly from our foreheads. A t-shirt would suffocate me. I have eye things, the name of which escapes me at the moment. In Oklahoma or Florida, I'd just put foil over the windows when I had to sleep during the day. Here, no air conditioning, so the windows have to stay open. The funny thing is that people worried about me getting Seasonal Affective Disorder because of the dark in winter. We had periods during the summer where it was too hot to go outside during the day, so we came to life at night. I've had less trouble with the dark than I have had with the midnight sun.