Bed phobias

[FidgetBoy]

Oh how I hate my bed! I'll do anything, I mean ANYTHING else but go near the stupid thing. It just sits there and taunts me. I wonder if it's possible to have a bed phobia? I take my meds at 8pm-- by 10 pm I feel sleepy, but I know if I quietly attempt to go to bed-- it sees me coming and begins to make ready for my thrashing and kicking. I'm too hot.... then I'm too cold.... my mind wanders to what else I could be doing. Stupid bed! Like a venus flytrap- it waits for me to come near, and in 5 minutes flat, my legs are trapped in a mountain of balled-up sheets. I think my wife is in on the trap, as she prefers to cuddle- thus adding to the heat that makes my legs much worse. So now when I walk by the damn thing, I wait-- wait for 1 am, 2 am, 3 am ... when sweet dopamine returns and the bed becomes less powerful.... just in time for the alarm to go off! ARGH!

[brandy]

Oh, Josh - I feel your pain. I've noticed that after I take my meds I start finding things to do around the house just so I don't have to think about the fact that it's nearing bedtime because I know that the torture is not far behind. I've often wondered if I've developed some kind of psychological block where my bed and nighttime are concerned and how much of my difficulty sleeping results from the fact that I've had trouble sleeping for so long. I'm sure that at least part of the time I just psyche myself out and RLS is not the culprit. I think we should get hypnotized or try one of the other phobia treatments. If you find a way to get past your mental block, let me know!

[Neco]

I have a love-hate relationship with my bed when my RLS is at its worse.

[jumpy]

Josh, that was poetic...and sad but true...my husband moved to another room so that he could get some sleep...Pat

[becat]

Hi Ya'll,
I love this topic, no one but the people here understand this when I want to talk about it.
Maybe insomniacs, but......
For years before and after I started having severe symptoms and was not on any treatment plan I HATED MY BEDROOM.
It was only good to hold my clothing and for "hmmmmm, well" .......you know I'm married right?
Anyway, I refuse to try to decorate it, go near it, and like most I would never ever look at the bed that I didn't throw IT a few choice words. Any bed for that fact, but it became personal for mine at home.
That should be a place of rest and joy, not the torture of fighting with the bed or the endless torture of staring at the clock. I even changed clocks thinking that was the problem.
It was the mental fact that bed was a war zone. I tried my best to go into to battle bravely every night and failed 99% of the time.
With a positive treatment plan and a couple of months of working on a bedtime routine I now have decided it's a room I can relax in, but I had to reset my thoughts to match the results. Make sense? With my bedtime routine I took 9-10 years of bad thoughts and threw them out, started over. I can remember as a child never wanting to go to bed. The dark meant pain, it still does, but I have my own weapons now. Thankfully meds, acupuncture (for the pain), and the routine has helped.
It can be a good place, it can.
Hugs to all

[sugbrendas]

Well, when i'm sleepy but can't just go to bed i take a shot or half of shot of Niquil. It seems to work for me.

Room temp should be cool but not cold. personally i keep my room real cool and sleep on a heated mattress cover. I put it on high a hour before i want to go to bed and when i go to bed i put the setting way down to low or 2-3. It has helped me alot.

[ViewsAskew]

I'm with most of you - it's nothing to do with being sleepy. . .it's the years of ^$%# I associate with going to sleep. After a couple of years on methadone and not having much difficulty, I'd still rather stay up, even if exhausted. I wonder if it's not because I still get better sleep from 3 or 4 AM until noon. If I go to bed earlier, I still am tired when I wake up.

Whatever it is, it is a problem. I am so grateful I am not on a regular schedule and don't need to be most times.

[jan3213]

Josh

I know just what you mean. I look at my bed and dread getting into it.

After my back surgery in September, I slept like a baby for awhile---well, after the initial month or so of pain. I thought maybe my RLS was better, instead of worse.

Well, now, I know that was short lived. My nerves is "waking up" and RLS has come back worse than before. I can't even sit and watch TV with my husband anymore. And, I'm on 2 mg. Mirapex nightly, plus .5 mg. Clonazepam (which my neuro wants me to wean off of).

I'm at my wit's end. I get sleepy at night--no problem. But, if I manage to fall alseep (didn't last night), I never stay asleep. I wake up every night anywhere between 1:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. and am up for at least a couple of hours. Yesterday, I woke up at 3:00 a.m. and never was able to go back to sleep. You'd think, because of that, I could have slept longer last night, but no. I woke up at 12:30 a.m. and had to come downstairs to our family room.

I know this isn't good for my recuperation from the back surgery. I need sleep. I'm trying to lose weight for my daughter's wedding in just two months, I'm walking every day and on a diet, but if I don't get sleep, it's awful.

So, yes, my bed is a battle ground. My husband, who should know better (lol), always asks me why I woke up. Oh geeze, if I could just get him to live inside my body for one night, he'd understand. Maybe! LOL

Sorry, I've off on a tangent. I know bedtime rituals are good. I keep my room very cool. Try to do all of the above-mentioned things. But, right now, ARGHHHHH, nothing works. And, I just move around in a daze.

Jan

[Hos]

I wish I could find an email response by Dr. B, but one of the things I asked him about was why I can sleep easier on the couch then in my bed. He mainly said that it was psychological if I recall.

As Lynne said, a good routine and a new outlook on the bed is the best start. Of course, changing meds so they are the most potent exactly at bedtime is important. I need to start liking boring books better, since I would read Clancy before bed and then be too excited to sleep.

[Neco]

This is largely true. On days when its driving me nuts in bed, I can likely go sit on the couch, maybe even fall asleep sitting upright

[brandy]

I find the bed phobia the worst directly after running out of a sleep med that your doctor gave you for a brief reprieve. For some reason, my doctor refuses to prescribe me long term sleeping pills such as Lunesta. She will give me a month at a time of Ambien CR and then I have to wait several months to ask for more. It's like having your security blanket taken away. It is such a great feeling to know that you are going to sleep each nigth. But, when you take that last pill and you know you are on your own again - well it just leaves you feeling depressed. If you can't tell, this is where I am right now. 5:00 AM and I still have not been to sleep. Luckily I don't have to be anywhere tonirriwm so I can sleep when I can, but I'm still pretty bummed about it. Sorry for the long whine.

[SquirmingSusan]

I've had some success with hypnosis. It helps ease some of those subconscious issues and negative associations with going to bed. It only works for me, though, when the RLS is under control. Here are some links to some good hypnosis CDs:

This first one is my favorite. Tom's voice is relaxing, the music is nice, and the background noises are very realistic. Carol's voice is a bit grating, but she's a pro - her father was Milton Erickson, founder of Ericksonian hypnosis. It's "double induction" meaning they both talk at once. It's kind of disorienting, which is good when it comes to getting to sleep.

http://thechangeworks.com/cwproducts/deepsleep.html

Kristin has a nice voice, and her tapes are also quite good.
http://www.newhealthvisions.com/catalog ... 0ane7aa7i3

Susan

[Phoebe]

I totally understand. I just joined this group, after reading the postings for months, and can't tell you all how grateful I am that you are here. I absolutely hate my bed. My husband has also ran for safer quarters in another room - totally understandable. Sometimes I don't understand how people can function on so little sleep. I get alot done during the night hours, but it still doesn't make up for a few hours of uninterrupted sleep.