Well been waking up about 3 in the morning feeling like the world is coming to an end! Its my worst time when I feel completely depressed and my mind runs all the horrible drama. Worried my daughter will fall off her horse and break her neck, my son will lose his business and starve, the world will fall into world war 3 etc.

But then a short 12 hours later its the complete opposite!! Full of optimism, everthing is OKAY and un-folding as it should!

Do other people have good and bad times of the day or am I just gettin old and should drag my butt outta the woods!...LOL....Kirk

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

Answers

Yeah, those early morning hours of wakefulness when you just can't get back to sleep can lead the mind down some sorry paths to be sure.

Another hour or two of sleep, a hot shower and some daylight usually cures me of the pre-dawn blues.

.......Alan.

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

Try holding out until sunrise. Two cups of coffee and the sun over the trees and I feel like its anew start, a chance to do right every thing I have done wrong, my spirits soar. Then I pour my third cup and look at my itinerary for the day and I'm back to feeling normal...like a discarded surgical glove in a proctologists office :>)

Seriously, the sunrise ritual helps.

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

Well Kirk, I can identify a little. I don't usually wake up in the night. But depending on what I've been exposed to, I can get a little worried or anxious. For instance I was out the other day and saw a news broadcast(I try not to watch much news) about the trouble in Israel. Then I started thinking about the potential for world wide trouble over this whole situation and how it could affect us all in a very personal way. Another example was yesterday my husband decided we should go to a movie. We saw Changing Lanes. I felt it was a good movie but a very ugly view of people's ethics and of how people sometimes treat each other in this day and age. It was very depressing to me and had my stomach tied up in knots for awhile. Then I worry about my kids and how they'll get along in this world. I worry about this world and how it will all turn out too! Maybe we're too sensitive. But then I think that maybe society as a whole isn't sensitive enough. Who knows? It all seems very overwhelming when I really think about it very much.

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

What ever you do Kirk...........stay off the forums when you are feeling like that.LOL It happens to me sometime, up in the middle of the night and really depressed and some little thing on one of the forums will really piss me off and then I say mean things. I have finally learned to just get busy with something constructive around the house, water plants etc., watch the fish, go to jigzone.com and work a puzzle and sure enough............sleep either comes or morning and I just get in to the day. How's the house coming?? Is your back still bothering you?? hugs

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

Kirk, it could be a warning sign that you've got clinical depression. I hope not, as it's no fun.

On the other hand, I found out that the reason I was waking up and "worrying everything to death" in my mind (and this was almost every night at 3:30 or 4:00 a.m.) was coffee I consumed in the evening. I never have trouble getting to sleep, but my doctor told me that the effect of caffeine can take place hours after drinking it.

I now almost never drink coffee after noon or so, and almost never have the problem anymore. Every now and then, though, I'lll have a cup or two in the evening, and the same thing happens. Yech!

good luck!

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2002

Well its a comfort to know I'm not the only one up during the dismal hours! The daylight time is fine but boy that late night is stuff can get to ya huh? Diane I know what ya mean about staying off the computer! Ha! Good advice.......Kirk

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2002

Similar things happen to me . . . I will be in bed, ready to conk out, when a stray thought hits me. No matter how hard I try, that thought stays there and lets the wheels turn.

I just get out of bed, read a book for a while to get my mind on other things, then go back to bed. Usually works well.

Kids have basically trained me to function on 5 - 6 hours of sleep now. Sometimes I'm not 'all there', but I get to where I need to be. Nights are my bad times for stray thoughts. Daytime, I'm usually too busy.

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2002

Oh Kirk I can identify!The next few months are going to be a real test for me.We don't know where we will be living,or building.The doctors are giving me the ""you are a fool"" look,because our last child was born with a severe birth defect.My son is going to move home,go to college and getting married,and because I am trying to but out, I don't know in which order.I think if I spent too much time on it I would go crazy.I have a wonderful husband who keeps telling me...one day at a time ,take it one day at a time.I wasn't going to tell anyone I was pregnant ,cuz I was sure the doctors were right and I would lose it,but today I am pregnant and I will celebrate today,if I need to grieve it won't be today.Don't forget Kirk that you have been through a lot lately and sometimes we don't count that into the equation.I have found that when I go through something big I tend to be introspective for a season and I will pop in and out of the ""land of what if"" I guess its normal to worry some,but don't let it rob you of today.

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2002

Kirk,

It could also be a sunlight related vitamin deficiency. I forget which vitamins require UV to be of maximum benifit but if theres a problem with them, the "winter blues" and night terrors can occur. My past employment constantly kept me on second or third shifts and I resorted to UV light panels to minimize the jekyl/hyde syndrome for me.Thats one of the reasons I am no longer actively trying for re- employment in my field and opting for homestead based work.... plenty of sunshine.

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2002

In order to get to my Yahoo mailbox this morning I had to see the ugly headlines of turmoil in the world. Then I found this and thought that this might be the best place to share it.

" Facts are what we must completely let go of if we want to be happy. We must decide to fly above the turmoil if we really want to fly above it. We must ignore, maturely not immaturely, a whole realm of so-called meaning. As long as our self-identification centers around what we call the real world, no profound happiness is possible. Happiness requires that we give up a worldly orientation—not worldly things but a worldly attachment to things. We have to surrender all outcomes. We have to live here but appreciate the joke. "

--Marianne Williamson

From page 88 of her book: Illuminata

hugs

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2002

There must be some reason that many of us have active minds at night. Is there a psycological reason for it?? I can fall right asleep when I when hit the sack. But, about 2 or 3 hours later...that's it. I'm wide awake and everything goes through my mind!! I envision the worst case scenarios for all our personal problems here at home. I never worry about the livestock or the garden as they're most always happy, healthy and productive! I've finally convinced myself not to watch the national news...just our local news. We're at a point in our lives too, that we have to wonder if there will be any social security left for Harry's early retirement. I know we can live cheaply enough...but the thought always runs through my mind at 2 a.m. And...in the meantime...there's Harry, snoring away!!! Grrrr! That's when I wake him up to find out whether or not he's sleeping :-)!! Maybe, Kirk, you should drag your butt further INTO the woods!!

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2002

BTW, Teri. Your mind must be going like a whirligig constantly with all that's going on in your life!! You go girl :-)!!

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2002

Yep count me in to that group. My oldest son too! He is only fifteen and has his bouts of insommnia with the anxiety mixed in. I find if I get out of bed and stop trying to fight it I feel much better. I will come downstairs and read a book while I drink a cup of sleepytime tea, or tension tamer, or some other soothing tea. I can usually get back to sleep about an hour later. If I lay in bed and try and try to get to sleep I never will until just before the alarm goes off, UGGG, that is worse.

There is a tea made by Traditional Medicinals it is called Nighty Night, it will knock you out but you can still get up to pee and get back to sleep. Also Kava works well. Both before bed have helped me a lot. There are also some Homeopathic remidies specifically for the type of waking situation you may be having at the time. They have also worked for me. Hot bubble baths by candlelight is a good relaxing way to start before bed, heavy excercise is the worse thing to do just before bed, but very light stretching is good.

Some ideas I have used with success.

Susan

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2002

Kirk,

Try Susan's tea. I think it works. Ask her about my last bout of bad insomnia. She will probably use the sentence "24/7 internet talk show" in her description. :>)

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2002

Okay Jay here goes.

Susan tell me about Jay's last bout with insomnia?? Yikes your 15 year old has trouble sleeping?.......kirk

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2002

Yah, me too, only it doesn't come at certain times of the day, more just every now and again, I loose all motivation. It's like I have a thousand and one things I could be doing but have no interest at all in doing any of it. I feel like what does it all matter for anyhows! And then my hubby comes home after work and gets more done then I did all daY. aND that makes me feel terribly guilty!

The best thing that I have found for me, is to get out of myself! Yes, I go someplace, see people. somtimes the people drive me crazy and I appreciate so much being home again, away from them. :) But often I think it is bringing something to someone else, cheers ME up. Really liked that quote from Marianne williamson, thanks Di.

Will be thinking about you Kirk, when I wake up in the mornings, sending warm comforting thoughts your way.

Teri, Blessings!

Love TREn

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2002

Kirk,

I was thinking about you this morning for the hour and a half that I was awake between 2:00-3:30 a.m. Don't know why I woke up, and the aggravating thing is that we had actually gone to bed a half hour early to get some extra sleep.

My bedroom ceiling fan has an odd hum that I eliminated when I turned the glass lamp globe underneath it.

The chickens in the pens outside occasionally talk to each other in the dark.

The wind shifted direction about 3:00 and started blowing out of the east.

The dogs have a barking telegraph because I could hear a dog that sounded like he was well over a mile away start barking then a dog nearer start after he did then a closer dog and finally my dog and then dogs to the west started up one by one progressively further away. I wondered for a while what it was they were communicating to one another.

I was tired and aggravated and my thought stream kept tending to dark and dismal paths which I had to consciously channel back into more innocuous paths such as chicken raising which eventually was dull enough to lull me back to sleep.

Maybe it's just the season? Seems like a lot of us are having more trouble with this than usual lately.

.......Alan.

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2002

Good grief......what's with the awake between 2:OO and 3:30 thing?? I was awake then also Alan. There was a strong wind and some lightening off in the distance, but so far away that there was no rumble even. Never stormed here but with this terribly unseasonable warmth, everyone is really uneasy over the tornado thing.

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2002