Insomniac

I think I remember a time in my life when I used to sleep well.  As far as I know, I think that  sleep still came pretty easily through college and maybe even through my first years of medical school.  I remember when my old roommate would suffer from insomnia, and I just couldn't understand how that could happen.

Maybe it was when my sleep started to be interrupted by overnight call that my nights and days started to get mixed up.  Who knows.  But now, sleep doesn't come easily, it certainly doesn't last long, it's very interrupted, and I often see the sun come up.  

But I like to blame my mother.  I'd often thought that I perfected the art of being quiet when getting ready for bed.  Flush the toilet downstairs.  Run the faucet super slow, and leave it running, no on and off stuff.  Turn on as few lights as possible and only after shutting the door without a sound... All this only to be told that I woke her up getting ready for bed.  Just another way I'm turning out like my mother.  (Not all bad.)

Well, I've tried everything.  I sleep with earplugs (this helps, but takes some getting used to).  I tried sleeping with eye shades, since the littlest bit of light wakes me, but this is more annoying than anything else.  Benadryl gives a hangover in the morning, and often doesn't help with sleep anyway.  Melatonin seems to help sometimes, but others seems to not make any difference.  There's not a whole lot of evidence behind it that it really works either.  Ambien definitely works, but is addicting.  And the rebound insomnia is a bitch.

And yes, I've done all the "sleep hygiene" stuff, like go to bed on time, avoid caffeine, don't exercise too close to bed time, don't watch TV bed, etc.

So I'm left with poor sleep and blaming my mother.  But if anyone has any brilliant ideas, I'm willing try about anything.