Using Technology to Deepen Democracy, Using Democracy to Ensure Technology Benefits Us All

Saturday, January 13, 2018

Insomnia

Sleeplessness has become a real problem for me again. I think insomnia is more definitive, more deeply a part of my self and life these days than my queerness is. Is there an Insomniac Pride Parade for me to march (I suppose it would be more a stumble) in? I have dealt with occasional sleeplessness all my life, but since a health crisis and hospitalization back in 2016 insomnia has been a chronic and acute condition, what feels like the central struggle of my existence. Given that these happen to be the Trump Republican years that means there feel like two ongoing and urgent central struggles of my existence more or less all the time. It's not a particularly good feeling -- indeed, at the moment it doesn't always seem entirely survivable. For a time last year I was able to manage my onset-insomnia a bit with the use of cannabis -- but this now seems to me a temporary measure with costs to match the benefits (real though they are, and everybody reacts differently, granted), the effectiveness diminishes and for me there can be dependency issues and worries about vestigial fogginess interfering with teaching. Losing that briefly effective crutch has been pretty demoralizing, I must say, and the daily news isn't helping. As at once the nation drifts, apparently irresistibly, into authoritarian cruelty and self-defeating stupidity so too I have lost the once natural, once easy, once blissful gift of the ability to drift into restorative sleep. Black out curtains, an ebb-tide recording, earplugs, a sleep mask, passionflower tea, yoga, diet and exercise, long baths, stimulus control (segregation of sleep from work space, etc.), relaxation techniques via meditation and auto-hypnosis scripts, and anything else I can find in the arsenal of behavioral and cognitive psychology are the tools I have at hand to carve out a liveable space in the midst of this distress. Wish me luck!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Reading a post from your blog months ago, you appear to have the health condition of Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP).
Unfortunately, the condition of ITP has the side effect of insomnia. A lack of Serotonin is the cause. Serotonin is produced in the gut. Your platelets will transport the Serotonin to the cells and to the brain. Since you have lower platelets, smaller amounts of serotonin can be transported. Because Serotonin is important for sleep, patients with ITP suffer from Insomnia. Best thing to do is search on natural ways to increase your Serotonin level. There are ITP blogs on the web that can be of help. Above all, stay away from sugar. Check out this link: https://bodyecology.com/article/boost_serotonin_happiness_heals_brain.php My best to you.

Dale Carrico said...

Thanks for the advice -- I've been vegetarian for thirty years and the dietary recommendations aren't too far afield from where I am now -- I've been itching to get more amaranth and fermented stuff in my everyday diet so I'll give some of this a try... and tho my sugar is quite a bit down from where it was at the time of my bleeding crisis in 2016 I do think I could and likely should restrict that still more. Wouldn't like to think of life in Trump's America without my jordan almonds tho.

Daniel said...

Feel better, Dale! Your voice is needed in this World of Techbros and Trump!