Lack of Sleep

[Melissaxoanne1]

Hi all,

I graduated in Dec, passed my boards in Jan, and started working in the ICU last month. I'm having a huge problem sleeping the night before a shift. I don't sleep at ALL the night before, which means I'm awake for 36-40 hours by the time I get home and in bed. I just lay there and start to get frustrated about how much sleep I'm missing out on and how miserable I'm going to be the next day. I've tried melatonin and Unisom. If anyone has any advice or tips/tricks I'd really appreciate it!

[maxthecat]

I second Davy Do's phosphenes. I never knew what they were called, but they work great for getting me to relax and slip off to slumberland.

[Davey Do]

I second Davy Do's phosphenes. I never knew what they were called, but they work great for getting me to relax and slip off to slumberland.

That's great if you can just use phosphine focusing for falling asleep, maxthecat. I believe my method evolved due to the fact that 1) when under stress I, like many people, tend to shallow breathe and 2) my mind has to be doing something and the mantra keeps it occupied.

Just this past morning when I got off of work, I knew that I would probably have a difficult time falling to sleep, so I focused on the phosphenes. The morning after my first 12 hour shift is usually the most difficult for me to sleep.

I lay there in bed, doing regular breathing, saying my mantra, and focusing on phosphenes when I thought of what I had posted here. "Oh great", I thought, "I'm going to make a liar out of myself!"

But then I thought, "No, Dave, focus on the phosphenes!" I fell to sleep shortly thereafter and got seven good hours of it!

BTW: I found out that I didn't have to use something religious or spiritual to use as a mantra. One morning, while driving home, I was listening to an A.M. oldies radio station out of St. Louis when Melanie's "Brand New Key" came on. I love that song and hadn't heard it in many years. "Brand New Key" was used as my mantra for falling to sleep that morning!

[blondy2061h, MSN, RN]

I would advise against benadryl. I used to use it until learning from a pharmacist at work how badly it effects your sleep cycle. We don't use it for patients any more and I won't use it for myself.

You've already received some excellent advice about sleep hygiene. I just want to add (and I'm sorry if this was repeated) to establish a set length bed time routine. Probably about 45 min long. Mine includes taking my meds, a snack, shower, turning on my bedroom fan and heated blanket, closing curtains, getting Alexa to play my Delta waves sounds, playing with the cat a bit, lotioning up, praying, using my tens unit, and spraying my pillow with lavender essential oil.

When you establish this routine you turn yourself into a regular old Pavlov's dog. I can do my routine when I think I'm not tired and *bam* half way through my brain is like "Oh, bedtime, let's sleep."