I'm So Tired, But I Can't Sleep

You would think that if you're really, really tired, you should have no problem falling asleep, right? Yeah, right. Unfortunately, as soon as I lie down, all the pain that I've been ignoring throughout the day demands attention.

Stabbing pains in my feet. The feeling of needles dipped in jalapeno juice inserted under the nails of my toes and fingers. Twitching muscles in my calves and forearms. Everything hurts.

So many times I think, "If I could just sleep," but most of the time sleeping is not easy. It can take several hours to fall asleep no matter how exhausted I am. Once asleep, I rarely stay asleep for long. If I only wake up 3-4 times during the night, I've slept pretty well most nights.

Nothing I've tried seems to work if I take it multiple nights in a row, so I mix things up. Things that seem to help me either fall asleep or stay asleep include melantonin, magnesium, tulsi tea, valerian tea, and soaking my feet in an epsom salt bath (no bathtub or I'd try soaking my whole body). The melantonin is accompanied by wild dreams. The magnesium can cause diarrhea. The tulsi tea helps me stay asleep, but is no help whatsoever in getting to sleep while the valerian tea helps me get to sleep and sleep deeply for 3-4 hours before I'm wide awake. And the epsom salt soak for my feet relaxes me and relieves the pain in my feet and lower legs so I can get to sleep, but I don't stay asleep. Still a little sleep is better than nothing.

At some point, I'd like to do a self-study and track using the same thing every night for a week and seeing which is better and if any of them have any cumulative affect, but I'm too tired to track anything right now. I think I need some sleep.

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