It’s been at least a month or more since I last wrote about my battle with insomnia.  And I’ve been holding off on writing this post for a few days now, because I didn’t want to jinx myself.

But it’s over, and I’m pretty sure I won.

Some backstory, in case you’re new to my tale of woe: I hadn’t had a good night’s sleep since December 30th. Sure, some life changes contributed to it.  Sure, the fact that I wake up at 3:45 to go to my job as a morning radio DJ contributed to it (although that’s been my job for more than 20 years).  But something had changed, and I couldn’t put my finger on it.  As a result, I tried everything.  Foods that were supposed to help.  Meditation.  Melatonin.  You name it, I tried it.  Nothing was working.

Then, work delivered a solution to me.  Or, more precisely, I was delivered to the solution.

Let me assure you (in writing) that I am receiving no compensation for what you are about to read. But my life has been changed in a way I simply had to share.

Part of what I do at EZ Rock is called “The EZ Perk At Work”.  We go to businesses all over town once a week, and spend a couple of hours with a contest winner pampering them and providing a welcome break.  In return, we get to see some of the cool places people work, and connect one-to-one with the people we try to entertain every morning; their feedback is the most valuable tool I have as I continue to learn and grow as a broadcaster.

A couple of weeks ago, we went to the Cuddle Down factory in Ottawa.

The company that might well have saved my life.

Since 1975, they’ve been making pretty much every kind of bedding stuff you can imagine. (Don’t confuse them with the similarly-named company in the States. Whole different enchilada.)  We toured the factory and learned everything we could ever want to know about pillows, comforters, duvets, feather beds, you name it.  We watched them being made – BY HAND – in the factory, then sent off to the high-end retailers who sell them (usually under their own private labels).

So I found out from the people at Cuddle Down where I could buy their products (because they don’t sell to the public), and picked up a feather bed.  This thing is a good couple of inches thick and basically feels like a queen size pillow.

My insomnia?  Gone.  It’s been a week now since I put the feather bed on top of my mattress (and overtop of my fitted sheet), and I haven’t had trouble falling asleep once.  Is fluffing and flipping it once a day a little more work than my plain old mattress was?  Tell you what: I’ll spend the 40 seconds a day it takes me to fluff and flip, over three months of sleepless nights anytime.

Any questions?  Pop ‘em into the comments, I’ll be happy to answer.  I’m not saying this solution will work for you necessarily. But it’s the only one that worked for me after three months of trying everything but the surface I was sleeping on. And that was the first place I should have looked.

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Frankly, it’s just been too frustrating.

December 30th was the last time I got measurable restful restorative sleep. And the last time I remember going to bed without tossing and turning for over an hour.

So this weekend, it’s time for the new bed, and a completely different approach.  Still loving the comments, emails and DM’s on Twitter.

Details coming – the bed swap happens either today or tomorrow (and should probably get renamed…)

Two months now without a good night’s sleep.

It’s gotten bad enough that after the Oscar broadcast last night, The Academy called and asked if they should send James Franco over to bore me to sleep.

Here’s what my Sleep Cycle app for my iPhone says about it:

My Sleep Cycle Stats for Feb 27/28

Nope, you’re not misreading the graph.  I got less than an hour, between midnight and about 1am. Drifted off again briefly around 3.

I’m not worried about this one though.

Last night was supposed to be a “reset” night. The only thing I did was to avoid caffeine after noon.  Tonight, the plan is to go back to an earlier dinner, melatonin, and the meditation CD’s.

As always, open to suggestion, and grateful you’re keeping track with me.

You’re not gonna believe this.

Last night, on the way to the “Soul Mates” lecture I attended and blogged about last night, I wanted to make sure I stayed awake through the scheduled two hours. Not because I anticipated boring subject matter, just knew that having been awake since 3:30am might make it challenging.

So at 7 o’clock last night… I had an extra large Tim Horton’s coffee.  Ready to see what it did to my sleep?  Here’s what Sleep Cycle says happened after I hit the hay.

My Sleep Cycle Stats for Feb 25/26

And those spikes at 4:30 and 6:30? I think they’re actually email notices coming to my vibrating iPhone.  I don’t recall waking up after I finally fell asleep around 2.

So not only do sleeping pills have absolutely no effect on me, apparently caffeine helps me sleep.  This may be the craziest little experiment ever.

So starting Sunday night / Monday morning, I’m going back to Square One (no, not the mall).  I’m going to just reset and do a week with the three things that people have recommended most strongly: no caffeine after noon, melatonin, and falling asleep to meditation CD’s.

As always, comments and suggestions are welcomed. And I can’t express how grateful I am that you’re following along.

Here’s the Sleep Cycle graph from last night:

My Sleep Cycle Stats for Feb 24/25

The difference last night (one which I’m not ready to give up on yet) is that I switched sides of the bed.  It’s a double bed, with the headboard against a wall, and one side next to a bookcase that doubles as a nightstand, and the other against a wall with a rather large window.

When this became my bed as well, I opted for the nightstand side. It’s always been “my side”.  Last night, I switched.

I have no recollection of being awake (until that lovely spike you see at 3am), although the activity level registered by my Sleep Cycle app suggests a higher amount of movement than usual.  Two things at play here: Perhaps the app needs to be recalibrated now that I’ve switched sides of the bed; maybe the readings are off. On the other hand, Tatiana tells me that I was very much asleep, but was tossing and turning like mad.

This would explain why I woke up less frustrated than usual, but also not feeling any more rested.

Nothing unusual from a dietary standpoint. Might completely throw caution to the wind tomorrow and see what happens.  I think that at some point soon, I’m just going to do a “reset”on this whole project and go with the most popular or sensible suggestions.

As always, thank you for following along.

Seriously, don’t try this at home.

When I left you last night, I was considering taking a sleeping pill.  I did.  Took one just after 9pm and was lying there waiting for it to “kick in”.

Here’s what Sleep Cycle says transpired:

My Sleep Cycle Stats for Feb 23/24

There I am, awake until around 11:30. But I’m not sleeping at 11:30. That’s when, more than two hours after taking my sleeping pill, I went down to the kitchen to take a second one.

This is where the disclaimer comes in handy: Like it says on the package, do not exceed the recommended dosage.  There is sufficient medication in a bottle of sleeping pills to kill you.  The reason I did it was because after a great deal of research online I found that for this particular sleep aid, what is considered the “recommended dosage” in North America is, for some reason, about half the recommended dosage in Europe and most of the rest of the world. So I put on my best fake British accent and took the British max, which was two pills.

So I come back to bed, toss and turn some more, until almost 1.  What actually happened next is that I returned to my kitchen for two bowls of Raisin Bran, and fell asleep on the living room sofa until 2:45, when I returned to bed and continued to not sleep.

Sleeping pills were supposed to be my last resort.  Now I find that the OTC sleep aid I took is pretty much useless.

Where to turn from here?  Where, indeed.

Thanks for following along. I’ll keep you posted. I think it’s time to take this to somebody more qualified than I.

May end up biting the bullet and taking a sleeping pill tonight.

Here’s what Sleep Cycle says about last night (Tuesday night into Wednesday morning):

My Sleep Cycle Stats for Feb 22/23

Again with the NyQuil (yup, the cold continues), and again early to bed. 9:30 was when I wrapped up watching the Michael Jackson “This Is It” video for the umpteenth time. As you can see from the graph, there might have been a brief doze around 11:30 – I have no memory of that, so I may simply have been lying still for an extended period – and then no prolonged sleep until about 12:30am. However, it’s having impact in other areas.

Tatiana, the person who sleeps beside me, is now telling me that my tossing and turning is starting to keep her awake as well. That’s unacceptable to me, so rather than continue messing around nailing Jell-O to the wall, I might do a couple of nights with a 50mg dose of Diphenhydramine Hydrochloride (standard for extra-strength sleep aids like Sominex and Nytol).

However, in case I end up trying to do it the hard way again, here’s my dietary and activity day so far:

One 16-ounce coffee today (at 4:30 this morning), and a can of Coke right before noon. Since then, nothing to drink although I’ll likely go for a glass of milk shortly.  To eat, there was the leftover sausage rav from Milestone’s, and for dinner a plate of bowtie pasta with shallots, garlic, artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes, chicken breast and heavy cream. Might add a piece of the mango cheesecake Tati made me for my birthday.

Now that I look back on my day of food, it doesn’t look like nearly enough. It’s probably time I addressed that as well.

Activity for the day was pretty low, aside from getting stuff ready for garbage day. Was sent home early from work to recuperate, felt like I should heed that advice.

Once again – thanks so much for following along. If I end up going for the sleeping pill, I’ll update you. And relax, it’ll only be for a night or two, then I’ll start next week with pretty much a free-for-all of your suggestions.

Here’s Sleep Cycle’s report for last night:

My Sleep Cycle Stats for Feb 21/22

Now that I look at this graph, it makes sense to me that I ended up taking a sick day today. No sleep at all, NyQuil notwithstanding.  Nothing unusual from a food perspective; it was my birthday yesterday, so I ended up eating out (sausage ravioli at Milestone’s, yum). But outside that, no difference. In fact, stayed welded to the bed from about 4 o’clock yesterday afternoon, and am still bed-bound as I write this.

Starting to think that for the sake of more accurate tracking, I should be providing more detail. So starting tonight, I’ll do exactly that. Detail as it relates to food, activity levels, and whatever else I end up trying.

Thanks again for following along.

Here’s Sunday night into this (Monday) morning, according to Sleep Cycle:

My Sleep Cycle Stats for Feb 20/21

 
The graph reflects that even though our morning show wouldn’t start until 10am on Monday (holiday here), I was in bed by 10:30 the night before. Good boy.

But even more tossing and turning than usual had me awake until about 1 in the morning, and awake by 5:30.  And nothing unusual to report diet or activity-wise, either. Baffled as to what’s going on.

I think this was also the first of several NyQuil nights, so while the alleged 3-4 hours of sleep I got was more than usual, NyQuil isn’t a realistic solution in the long term.

Worst night so far.

Was on the radio hosting my live disco party from 8 until midnight, then home and in bed around 1.

My Sleep Cycle Stats for Feb 19/20

Yeah, that’s what I thought too. Ugh. Awake until around 5:30. Wish I could tell you that it was for fun reasons.

Differences here include no warm milk, no melatonin, and uh…

…well… yeah, there’s the energy drink at 7:45. Don’t know if that was a factor…even caffeine is supposed to be out of your system after 8 hours, so I don’t know how to explain 5:30 in the morning.

Tonight, quite sick with a cold, after having seen a couple of movies. 9:35 now, and about to eat some soup and try to catch some sleep before tomorrow’s alarm goes off around 7.

Thanks again for following along. Tomorrow includes some stuff that has nothing to do with insomnia, an interview with a health expert about insomnia, and my apology to Justin Bieber.

No, seriously.