Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Sleeplessness

For a few months now,
I don't remember when it started,
April maybe March,
I have not been able to sleep all night.
I have tried herbal remedies, lavender and chamomile teas and blooms.
Still I wake up.
We turned the mattress and bought new sheets.
I lowered the thermostat. Sometimes I woke sweaty.
I do not like to be sweaty.
My husband thinks it is cold in our house.
I fall asleep just fine.
I think of butterflies and dream of beautiful gardens.
After a couple of hours I am awake.
I stay in bed, with my eyes closed.
I try to go back to sleep. It takes an hour or longer before I am drifting again.
Some nights I get back asleep; some I do not.
I figured it was because I was upset over the lost Spring.
My fatigue during the day I thought was from the upsets.
I was resting at night; just not sleeping.
My lack of enthusiasm for gardening I thought was because of all the plants that died.
I would engage a wee bit but I could not sustain the energy.
I was tired.
I was and am always tired.

My friend called last week. She has known me since kindergarten.
She asked me how I was doing.
I told her how I was not so despondent but still seemed to be so very tired.
I told her about mulching and seeds and how I was once again trying to find the connection to my plants.
I told her how I was not sleeping very well.

She said, "Oh yes, the change."
I thought she meant the change in the energies of planet Earth.
The climate change, the way the energies of the third dimension were giving way to the fourth. I went on and on about the density of the third dimension.
She is kind. She listened.
She responded, "Hormones."



I have read "Our Bodies Ourselves" first and second editions. I have looked at my "Wall Chart" of the human body. I have read "Gray's Anatomy". It is rather tedious.
Never did I read that when your hormones change, menopause, one quits sleeping.
In Webster's I read, "hormone--- a substance formed in some organ of the body and carried to another part, where it takes effect."
Oh, that explains it!
All this time I thought it had to do with having babies. I have done that and am happy I did. Also I am happy I am not having babies now. I am too tired to have babies.

My friend told me the body takes awhile to adjust. She assured me I would sleep again.
All this time I thought my sleeplessness was from an emotional disorder or a spiritual, dark night of the soul. Here it was, the body. The last place I would look.
I guess the sleep hormone is changing.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Sherry -
I think there are lots of good things to learn in the night during the change. You're in a good place.
Love, Sandi

Q said...

Dear Sandi,
I agree! I have done lots of thinking in the middle of the night!
I find I am very tired during the day!
Hopefully this will pass and I will be back on my sleep schedule soon. I am letting myself nap when necessary. I also am not pushing during the day too much.
It is interesting to me that I did not know sleeplessness was part of menopause.
I also thought all of the "hot" was from being outside. I thought I had absorbed the day's heat. I never have a hot flash, I just am very warm!
Being in the body is a learning thing for me.
I am very good on drinking water!
I like having my water near me at all times.
With good friends like you I will learn about the body and will walk gracefully into my older years, my Grandmother times.
Thank you for your support.
Love,
Sherry

Mary said...

Sherry, this is the first time I visited Walking in Beauty. I have already had sleeplessness. For a few years, I would wake at 2 or 3 am and stay awake. Flashes of heat drenched me in sweat, so much that I would stand outside in the middle of winter wearing only a flimsy nightgown. Ooooo, it felt so good. It caused me to be very tired during the day. I still enjoy feeling the cold ceramic floor under my bare feet in the middle of the night.


I don't menstruate anymore, I stopped three years ago. But I still get hot at night. I sleep well, though :o)

You will be OK. Take a nap during the day if you can.

Q said...

Dear Mary,
Walking in Beauty is all about aging gracefully! Maybe you can share some of your ways? I know I need to develope some good tricks!
I do a "put the legs up" whenever I sit down. My legs grow tired.
Years ago I was a two o'clock rest period person. I laid down! It was nap time. I did sleep too. I stopped when the camera came into my life and I was always taking pics! Now I know I can get a couple of hundred photos in about 15 minutes!
I guess the hormones do a lot of regulating. I am still very warm most of the time. The heat bothers me more then ever before. I love the feel of the ac blowing on my legs and the cool of the floors too. I will stand on the tile in the bathroom just for refreshment.
I am very unhappy about the weight gain. I eat so little!
Will have to work on this.
Sherry