insomnia.

Have you ever had a sleepless night... maybe lasted a week or so. Try 4 months. And it just isn't getting better... actually, it's been getting worse.

I'm so annoyed by all of this. I go to bed around 11-11:30PM +/-, then I wake up around 3AM. And lay there. Sometimes till morning. I'm exhausted.

Basically, I've going through periods of insomnia in the past, but it would always correct itself. This time it's not... especially since I got sick for the holidays. So, I finally brought it up to my Dr. I explained that I've always been an anxious person... so that's nothing... but I'm under a big pile of stress at the moment with us entering a recession and keeping my teenie tiny jewelry business from going under.

The first thing she wanted to do was put me on meds. I didn't want to try them... they are addictive and just mask the problem. I have been doing a great deal of reading on practicing good 'sleep hygiene.'

No caffeine, no naps (no matter how exhausted), waking up at the same time every day (no matter how exhausted or how little sleep I get), the bed is only for sleeping and sex, no tv an hour before bed, no computer an hour before bed, no physical activities 4 hours before bed, no alcohol, blah blah blah blah blah. It's not working.

So, I broke down and tried the sleeping pill... Ambien. My Dr. explained it as something to break my bad sleeping cycle... just try it for 2 or 3 nights. Just 5mg. I think it's the smallest dose possible. It worked the first night, but then on the 2nd night I feel asleep for a bit... then was wide awake for hours! I tried it for a 3rd night... and I woke up again. So with that, I decided I'm done with it.

I'm trying to exercise more in hope that it clears my head. I'll keep you posted!

OH! And there will finally be some sketches for new jewelry ASAP... MAYBE TONIGHT! So, keep checking back. Back to work!