How Do You Go Back to Sleep When You Wake Up During the Middle of the Night?

Benadryl. One at bedtime; one when I wake up in the middle of the night.

 

Wake up an hour later

 

800mg of ibuprofen is a large dose, Manny. That might do a number on your stomach lining and/or intestine if you take that much too often, in my opinion. Perhaps you should see a specialist? I have nothing against chiropractors. I've been seeing one for years, but there are limits to what they can do. An MD could suggest a back specialist, who could get you an MRI of the area bothering you to zero in on just what's causing the painful sciatica, possibly give you something to help you get a good night's sleep, and perhaps something better for pain when the pain is at it's worst.

I can relate to back pain and sciatica. I ended up getting major surgery and have a couple of titanium screws in a disc in my lower back, the L5/S1, that are filled with bone marrow that sort of "glued" it all together. The sciatica had gotten so bad that I could barely walk on one of my legs. I was told that if I didn't have surgery, I could eventually lose the use of it. Like you, I couldn't sleep. The pain was terrible. I haven't had sciatica since the surgery. I have chronic lower back pain, likely from scar tissue as a result of the surgery, but it's nothing like I had prior to the procedure. This was well over 20 years ago. They have far more advanced, less invasive surgical techniques today.

Just some suggestions. Good luck.

 

@Jontro

 

Also can relate. Ended up fusing those same discs at 29.
Now I have this knee pain that comes and goes but it will sometimes wake me in the night with about 8/10 level pain. I have to stand up and flex it till the pain goes away.

@Manny Ramirez sounds like you might have similar problems as me, degenerative disc disease. I don’t do myself favors with continuing to play sports.

I will say my foam roller gave me a lot of relief before I had surgery.

 

Have you done any PT? The zero gravity walker thing helped a bit. It’s like a diaper you slip on and it holds most your weight while you walk haha

Hip flexor exercises also helped. But really and truly that foam roller brought the most relief. Didn’t solve it of course but stretching it out reallllly felt good.

 

Check into isochronic and binaural Solfeggio tones and frequencies. There are tons of black screen videos on YouTube for overnight (to find one you like). Play them at near subliminal levels.

Different frequencies affect different parts of the brain. For healing use 174 or 286 hz. Scientific evidence is "squishy" but there is enough anecdotal evidence to support it even if placebo.

 

Get a workout routine. Do yoga. At minimum I do 100 pushups, 100 kettlebell swings, 100 body weight squats, 100 overhead press with free weights a day and walk/jog/run between 2 to 4 miles a day. Can usually knock out body weight stuff in 20 minutes but it took about a year to build up to that and now it's just another part of my routine now to start the day off right. Take up walking. Also I know said do yoga but seriously do yoga. I like to garden and squatting ass to grass to pull weeds or trim dead leaves or harvest food can make my lower back sore. I find yoga helps tremendously. Especially the warrior poses where you're alternating which leg you're lunging with before extending your arms and sometimes twisting with your hips. Point being is, and I understand it's really hard to do with depression, but you gotta move.

The whole losing bone density at 49 tells me you are extremely sedentary. My mom in her 80s still does body weight exercises and doesn't need to take anything for bone density. She moves better than some of my heavier set cousins that are approaching their early 60s and are needing knee and hip replacements while moving around on walkers or mobile wheelchairs.

The whole if you don't use it you lose it is true. I know I've mentioned it before about losing a really really close friend years ago. She would run the greenbelt around Wells Branch area in North Austin often. But when she had seizures that took her ability to walk, that **** was eye opening to me. Likewise for another best friend that passed away in his 30s from stage 4 colon cancer.

When you see **** like that up close and personal, you really begin to value even being able to take a **** everyday without needing a colonoscopy bag or having a tumor caught in your ass that makes it tough to sit down and pass waste.

When you watch someone slowly die over a period of years and lose their ability to walk and end up wheelchair bound, you realize how precious it is to be able to walk everyday without assistance.

Take care of your body. You may think depression is a head thing but it's a whole body thing. If your brain chemistry isn't firing off right as it should, exercise while not the total solution, certainly won't be the problem either.

 

I work from home 5 days a week these days (and not by choice, I don't live near an office). But the best thing for my physical and mental health was buying some weights and making it a point to do a similar routine every day. If I have a long conference call where I'm not going to say anything (or just an extended period of downtime), I just do pushups or other exercises. You just end up with so much energy after you're done. Combine that with scheduled walks and you just feel better every day.

I'm stuck in a box every day for work so this type of stuff is required for my mental health. Otherwise I just feel terrible over time.

 

Is this to help with sleep or with pain? I’ve never been able to fall asleep with those noise machines (my sisters entire family uses them religiously). Freshman year of college though I had an awesome playlist of Hans Zimmer that would put me to sleep in seconds without fail, lol.

 

You need to see a physical therapist, ASAP.

 

Both. Different frequencies stimulate different parts of the brain for differing effect. For example, 40 hz has shown some promise for early Alzheimer's mitigation. I find keeping the volume at near subliminal levels less distracting.

 

Do you use a video or program of some sort for the yoga?

 

I haven't been through the whole thread but not being able to sleep sucks. Hope you find some relief @Manny Ramirez

establish a routine, make small changes you can be consistent with, get some exercise right before bed, do yoga daily and clear the mind (bonus if youc an do it right before bed, walk if possible adding more distance as you can or find a pool to walk in if walking is painful. @Rashmon has some good tips regarding sound and vibrational therapy. It's not a cure all but can be another tool to help find healing and relaxation.

I'm a registered yoga teacher and certified sound therapist. A consistent and daily regimen of exercise and meditation will help the body mind and spirt which in time should help you sleep better. Work on it from a wholistic perspective and be mindful about your diet, exercise, body needs and rest.

Consistency is the key with making any kind of self improvement.

 

A really good form of PT especially if you're in a lot of pain is swimming too. It's low to no impact on your joints especially if you're a heavier set dude. And it's just a matter of pushing yourself ever so slightly more than you did the day before and developing a daily routine with it. Usually inside of 4 to 6 weeks, you should notice yourself feeling better in your body. Incrementally building up your cardio, flexibility and strength in a full body way will help so much. And you should be your own PT. Like, you build up your willingness to workout everyday but doing it at your own pace, and pushing yourself everyday just enough to the point where it's uncomfortable and if that's all you can do, then that's all you can do. But you build up from that the next day and before you know it, you'll notice progress to where it won't feel like a chore to workout and you'll start to really look forward to it because it feels good to move and be in your own body again.

You just gotta get in the mindset that exercise can and should be a fun activity that feels good and helps you get centered in your body and gets you in touch with your breathing and your heart rate and really makes you focus on all the parts of your body that are tense and sore. Like some crossfit instructor with some 6 week certification and no medical experience isn't going to know about your underlying health conditions. They don't know that your knees might not have any cartilage. They'll still tell you to do box squats and push through the pain as weeks later you're schedule a knee surgery from all the damage that session did. That's what happened to my oldest sister. Shot knees. She told her PT she had shot knees. Her PT still pushed her. My sister's competitive edge kicked in and she did the damn box squat jumps, ****ed up her knees and then had knee surgery that prevented her from working out for months anyways.

It's hard to manage depression when you're in chronic pain. It's why I really am patient with people who can be curmudgeons because their knees are shot, they got slipped discs and other pains and are just a bit quicker to be more temperamental than someone not in that type of pain everyday.

Honestly, it's the people in chronic pain who still somehow manage to be sweet all the time that really impress me the most. The mental fortitude to somehow not lose it when your body is spazzing out to the point where you know if you were to say anything, it'd sound like a George Carlin bit, and to still exercise restraint is beyond impressive. At the same time though, I think some people just don't know how to be ugly, even when in chronic pain.

I curse like a sailor when i stub my toe.

 

My sleep has been super jacked up lately, so I charge my devices outside my room and take some melatonin around sunset for it to kick in.

I haven't tried tart cherry before sleep but there are studies that support its benefits.


Seconded on PT for back pain. For chronic pain like arthritis or similar, the main ways to mitigate is painkillers (not sustainable, possibly habit forming) or exercise that helps support the joints and help your system get used to the chronic pain. The latter is not settled science, which is why some docs will claim folks will never do xyz again only for the patient to will themselves out of the original problem.

For the latter...Rome wasn't built in a day, and it won't break down in a day either.

 

ASMR on YouTube. I just put my headphones in, turn out lights, sit on couch and listen and I'm out in 10 minutes. Watch out for ads, though.

I've literally never made it past 10 minutes on this video before I'm out: