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[Naturegirl1999]

I can't sleep. I feel tired, but when I try sleeping, my brain is so active that I'm forced to stay awake. Now I'm just stuck in this hell of desperately wanting sleep, but not being able to do so. Help.

I have this problem too. Try thinking of a story and playing out the story. Eventually you should drift to sleep when nit thinking about the need to sleep. It helps me. Also, try getting melatonin tablets. Melatonin is what the brain produces to sleep, but if you aren’t producing enough, the tablets will help. Another way to try to sleep is to imagine falling into darkness, which should work to help blanken your thoughts.

[dragdeler]

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[Yoink]

I couldn't sleep last night either, but that was because of the nasty, dry cough I have developed.    

[Iduno]

Focus on your breathing when you’re trying to sleep. Breathe in, breathe out. If you find your mind wandering, bring it back to your breathing.

If you find you’re not dropping off after say half an hour, get up and find something relaxing to do which doesn’t involve a screen for ten or fifteen minutes, and try again.

For longer term stuff, avoid drinking caffeine later in the day, alcohol is also not that great, don’t eat a large meal close to bed time, try going to bed and getting up at the same time every day (every day) and try to keep the same routine before bed so your body knows it’s sleepy time, and avoid anything energetic or stressful in the hour or so before bed (don’t exercise, watch tv, that kind of thing). A warm shower is good, I think.

Napping during the day is a weird one. I personally can’t do it, and it’s best to limit it to around 20 minutes, but that can also have a huge influence on how sleep.

Keeping your bedroom cool (but not cold) will probably help. I can’t sleep if it’s too warm, and wake up many times if I do manage to fall asleep. Also don’t drink too much liquid, else you’ll wake up to pee.

This is all good advice.

[Telgin]

Speaking of not being able to sleep, one of my cats has recently started meowing pitifully and very loudly at the door at night, which means he keeps waking me up.  Last night I resorted to locking him in the far side of the house so it wouldn't keep me awake, but I'm not sure what his deal is.  He's 7 years old, so why did he start doing this suddenly?  Today when I got up and let him out, he was following me around and meowing more, then occasionally going to my bathroom to meow at nothing.

I don't know what to do about it.  Is he sick?  Did he have a nightmare where I abandoned him and he can't separate that from reality?  Is he just being needy?  Why is he meowing in the bathroom?  I don't want to have to resort to locking him up in a single room every night for the rest of time, but it's the only solution I know will work to let me sleep.

I might need to take him to a vet to make sure he's not in pain somehow, but I'm a little loathe to do it because when he was a kitten he had a bad nasal infection and has had permanent sniffles ever since.  I spent months taking him to a vet to get every treatment imaginable to no effect and he's been fine for 7 years despite it.  But, if I take him to a vet, I know that's what they're going to focus on...

[scriver]

If you're in the northern hemisphere I'd suggest it being rat activity in the building because of winter weather.

[Telgin]

That's a possibility I hadn't considered.  I've never seen mice or rats in the house, and it's been warmer lately, but some nights have been getting quite cold up until recently.

I don't think this is it, but it's at least conceivable.  I'm starting to think it's because he likes to drink out of the toilet and is upset he can't get to it at night, but I don't know why he'd start doing that recently either.  He's got a water bowl he can get to that the other cats are perfectly happy with and he drinks out of it, so... I don't know.

[Egan_BW]

I'm pretty sure that cats can see ghosts.

[scriver]

That's a possibility I hadn't considered.  I've never seen mice or rats in the house, and it's been warmer lately, but some nights have been getting quite cold up until recently.

I don't think this is it, but it's at least conceivable.  I'm starting to think it's because he likes to drink out of the toilet and is upset he can't get to it at night, but I don't know why he'd start doing that recently either.  He's got a water bowl he can get to that the other cats are perfectly happy with and he drinks out of it, so... I don't know.

About water -- many cats dislike drinking from the same place that they eat (something something instincts). My cat refused to drink when her water was next to her food bowl. I had to move it across the room for her to drink from it on a regular basis.

[Kagus]

My friend's cats have a great big bowl of water (in a different room from the food bowls) that gets switched out multiple times throughout the day, and they make a point of digging around it so they can get to the fresher water at the bottom...

Still gotta keep the bathroom door closed to keep them from drinking out of the toilet.

[Telgin]

I was wondering if he disliked the water bowl because it was "stagnant", so I got one of those circulating waterfall water bowls for them, and he does seem to like it better.  He still meowed in the bathroom at a ghost a couple of times yesterday, but less than the day before.  Surprisingly, he didn't meow at the bedroom door at all last night, so that's a relief.

I don't think it was the water bowl though, and I think he's just calming down some.  Based on some other behavior, like waking up and immediately turning around to look for me, I think he just had a weird bout of separation anxiety and thinks I'm going to disappear if he can't see me.  Maybe that's getting better.  I did leave the house for Thanksgiving, but that's not really that unusual since I'm also gone on most weekends.  I don't really see why that would trigger it.

Cats do weird things.

[Iduno]

I was wondering if he disliked the water bowl because it was "stagnant", so I got one of those circulating waterfall water bowls for them, and he does seem to like it better.  He still meowed in the bathroom at a ghost a couple of times yesterday, but less than the day before.  Surprisingly, he didn't meow at the bedroom door at all last night, so that's a relief.

I don't think it was the water bowl though, and I think he's just calming down some.  Based on some other behavior, like waking up and immediately turning around to look for me, I think he just had a weird bout of separation anxiety and thinks I'm going to disappear if he can't see me.  Maybe that's getting better.  I did leave the house for Thanksgiving, but that's not really that unusual since I'm also gone on most weekends.  I don't really see why that would trigger it.

Cats do weird things.

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[itisnotlogical]

I'm so bored, I just want to sleep so that I can end today and get tomorrow started. No such luck though, I can't sleep because a) wide awake, not even a little relaxed, b) can't stop thinking about things that don't matter.

[TD1]

Meanwhile I slept 11 hours...

[Imic]

Day 7 of toothache town. I’m running out of painkillers and the bloody dentist is still being obtuse.