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[ladybug50]

Hallo ladies...just thought I would add my Tuppence worth.
Am now dousing my self in Magnesium Oil spray and my Bed in Lavender Linen spray. Seems to do the trick.
Have had probs with Restless legs, so I rub the Mag Oil onto them too before bed.
Don't know why it works.. but it seems to.
 

[purplenanny]

Thanks Ladybug, think I will give it a try. PN x

[orrla]

Hi

In haste, with no time to read the whole thread but wonder what is it GPs recommend now days for poor sleep to ladies like us? Can someone brief me, please?

I am asking because I've just received a letter from my surgery, from the Practice Support Pharmacist, calling me in, saying that because I've been taking zopiclone for awhile it will not be prescribed to me anymore. They call me to review all of my medicines!! I am on high dose HRT.  Apparently the Scottish Executive is worried that I might be experiencing addiction, memory loss and falls. Considering that I've just completed my Masters Degree course (full-time, high grades), with me such is clearly not a case but... it smells to me that because I am 58 ... that's it!

Thus I wonder - can they just say 'you will no longer get HRT and sleeping tablets' and send me to misery demanding I'll go dry?  I will not be able to work! What GPs offer, other than chamomile tea, for sleeping problems?

Many thanks!

[purplenanny]

Hi Orrla
First of all, many congrats on your Masters - wow, amazing!

I am 58 in December and have been prescribed Zoplicone for sleeping. It works so well. I only take one tablet and never for more than 4 days in a row. My GP is worried I will be addicted and suggested Piriton as an alternative but it did not work.
I am currently trying Nytol, which is an over the counter herbal remedy and this does seem quite good. I hate the smell of them (hops I think) but will persevere.
I revert to Zoplicone if I have had a few rough nights with pain.

I am in the South East so prob different from Scotland maybe? But, I don't think it is right that you should suddenly be declined the medication

[orrla]

Thank you Purplenanny! I don't think I would be able to cope if I had no tablets. Although I can manage without there come situations when taking one is the best way of assuring full night sleep. I can't think straight without sleeping enough, am more stressed and become erratic. Why can't I be helped?

I'll try Nytol, and see what happens. But, if zopiclone causes momory loss and falls, why can't I be prescribed any other which doesn't? We are in 21st century - why there are no appropriate remedies available to us yet?!!  Was developing Viagra more important?! Wrrrr

[Rowan]

Makes me laugh when they say you will become addicted, surely if Piriton works for you and you keep taking it for sleep, then why is that not classed as an addiction!

Surly an addiction is if you have to take more and more of a bigger dose to get decreasing effects, zopiclone does not work like that.

Personally Piriton makes me feel awful and irritable the times I have taken if for allergies and a feeling of being drugged. They gave it to OH in hospital for a rash he developed and he was like a zombie.

They reason they say zopiclone effects memory is because it can interefere with REM sleep, the trick is to take it only when needed and at the smallest dose that works for you. Older people should take care with Zopiclone as it can effect them differently.

[CLKD]

I have bad nights.  Last night ........ bed by 9.45 after a lovely bath, chat with DH before he went to sleep ....... he was 'fishing' i.e. throwing his casting arm in my direction so I had to keep ducking out of the way of his elbow  ..... so from dozey ready to sleep I was wide awake, plus having a cold ....... at 2.30 up for a cuppa and Nurofen ; again at 6.30 ........ usually I read, do NintendoDS, used to watch TV but the flashing screen makes him jump .......... magazines to catch up on but those rattle as I turn the pages 

Other nights I seem to go through th enight, even if up for a bathroom visit I go straight back to sleep.  Usually I can accept that 'this is a non-sleepy night' .........

Nytol    ...... I use antii-sea sickness tablets if I need  a good night's sleep.  One night I can accept, but more than that and I get irritable and my head feels woozy .

[orrla]

Yes Silverlady. And it makes me currious why there seem to be no concerns about addiction to ADs.

[Rowan]

Orria when I said older people I meant e.g. people in their eighties, that's when you begin to get older

I agree about other drugs.

Sleep is so important it can make or break you, lets hope they do come up with a sleeping pill that we are allowed to take!

We women are all doomed anyway we've been swallowing ibuprofen for years now for period pain ext. they have not cleared the supermarket shelves!

[dulciana]

My favourite way of trying to get back to sleep in the middle of the night, once I've taken a Kalms and doused myself with lavender oil, is to think up alphabetical lists.  I've listed world cities, countries, foods, flowers, birds, animals, surnames - anything I can think of!   I sometimes try to find more than one thing per letter and when I was doing "composers", I found 10 for the letter B.  (Don't worry, I'm not going to list them all here!)  I know this works quite well because I often don't get to the end of a list, as I've fallen asleep!
Also, sometimes I try to make up limericks (with the emphasis on "try"!), which I don't usually remember, except for this one:

A violinist called Locatelli
Was very good friends with Corelli.
They did a recital
Which proved to be vital
'Cos then they were picked for the telly.

(They'd been talking about these people on Radio 3 when I was driving home earlier, not that the bit about the telly could have been right, as it hadn't been invented then.........!)

[scriv]

That's lovely, dulciana!

I seldom go through the night without having to pop to the loo, but most times it does not disturb my sleep.

But when I am having a restless night, I get up rather than toss and turn and make a cup of hot tea. I read or do some activity, even look at my emails or a website like this, something easy but which tires my eyes and brain  after a bit.

I don't wrap up warm or get cosy anywhere - in fact I try to get cold and uncomfortable. So... after about half an hour I am cold and my eyes are feeling tired and I have a nice warm feeling in my tummy.

Then when I go back to bed, I snuggle down in my warm comfy bed and  more often than not, drift off straightway.

It works for me - but you do have to be careful to not get too absorbed in what you are doing so you forget to go back to bed!!!

[SueM]

Ive just skimmed through this thread but never thought my poor sleeping, insomnia and always being tired was related to my hormones 
Im an insomniac often, go to bed ready to drop and 10pm then back up at 3am and back in bed within the hour and feeling like poop when my alarm goes off at 7am for work 

Its nice to know Im not alone though and will definitely be mentioning this to my doctor.

Sue xx

[bev567901]

Having never had a problem sleeping I have been prescibed 7.5mg zopiclone, I have no idea why but I feel a touch of shame taking these tablets. Must be something passed on from my mother who hasn't slept a wink since her menopause. They don't last long though & they have the strange affect of making me feel so calm after 20 mins like I am almost normal & can do stuff again, I plan things for the next day. Then the next minute I am downstairs raiding the fridge as if I haven't had 3 meals a day. My doc said the CBT team would prescibe me something else which I am waiting to hear about, it might be a higher dose or something else? Or I may be going backwards & forwards for a week or two because they are so ineffective before they get around to doing it grrrrrr. Last night I was up at 4am & the night before 1am so they are really doing a good job!!!!  I don't put the tv on but try & read & if that doesn't work I might go on my laptop & do something useful like my accounts or come on here.  Bev x

[manic]

I don't think i am coping! No more than 5 hours sleep a night now for a month or so. I am not plagued by night sweats much, so it isn't that. I am very low, especially at 2am which has become my usual wake up time now. I have learnt to just lie there and concentrate on being still. Sometimes (like now) I get up and sit at the computer and play mindless games to pass the time. I have tried to work but I cannot manage to do anything sensible at the best of times so this hasn't proven successful. I have given up laughing it off and I have stopped moaning as well. Now I just accept it. I have tried Kalms but they don't seem to have any effect.

I feel really empty most of the time, like an out of body experience. I don't feel I have a proper grip on reality but am not sure either - maybe I do but maybe i don't, I cannot tell anymore. I have to say that without this forum I do not know where i would be. I live alone and find the nights particularly bad - I wish i had a partner I could annoy!

Please tell me that it gets better? I do not want this to last for much longer, I want to sleep again, I used to like sleep!

[bev567901]

Manic,  its horrible isn't it night time is so lonely especially 2am. I do think lack of sleep causes problems in itself we need our sleep mind & body.  I think lots of people suffer even without the meno. I see on my FB account lots of people putting can't sleep due to other reasons yet we imagine the whole world is sleeping well.  I am trying a new thing in accepting things like when I am feeling really sick or having a wobble. When this all started out I was actually going out for a drive in the car to tire myself out at 2am, how silly was that! I just couldn't lie there & accept it. Its horrible when you cannot switch your brain off.  Maybe we should all get jobs working night shifts! B x