I have used unisom melts and midnite herbal sleep tablets, both with good results the midnite can be taken in the middle of the night without groginess in the morning.
My question is 'what is causing your insomnia?' Is it pain, spasms or does your mind run rampant? If it is pain or spasms you need some kind of medication to control it. If you can't relax your mind, you should try mindfulness. If that doesn't work take note of what vintage says. She is a mine of information where alternative medicines are concerned. Sleeping pills and relaxants like Valium or diazepam are addictive, so I wouldn't recommend them, but maybe as a last resort if nothing else works. I'm trying to cut down on medications myself. I reckon I get around 4 to 5 hours sleep. Pain and spasms keep me awake, as well as my own self destructive mind which just cannot relax. I used to be a musician. I have my own songs and music going around my head when I'm relaxing. I try to fit chords, melodies and harmonies to words. I have a few unfinished songs left over from the days before my accident that keep going round my brain. Sometimes I think the music is going to drive me mad. It would be okay if I could pick up a guitar or play a few chords on a piano but I can't, and so I lay awake at night trying to fit music to the melody and the words. I've only got to hear an advertising jingle on the television or radio and I start to build harmonies around it. It is a curse. I have started to regurgitate Shakespearean soliloquies in order to sleep. I even memorised the King's speech broadcast when the Second World War broke out. I watched Pulp Fiction and heard Samuel L Jackson speaking lines from the Bible before he shot somebody and thought I'd memorise that. The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. That sort of thing. I go over these memories to try and block the music. But then the Shakespearean soliloquies and all the stored memories, the poems go round my head. I am a sorry case. Yes, sometimes I think I will go mad.
mikeq, a few times I’ve had a jingle or a repetitive, annoying tune stuck in my head. That was bad enough. It sounds like you have that ‘on steroids’. My condolences.
If I had the musical ability to be your surrogate, I would try to help that way,...but I don’t.
I have used unisom melts and midnite herbal sleep tablets, both with good results the midnite can be taken in the middle of the night without groginess in the morning.
thanks Lavender..
unisom Contains diphenhydramine, this isn't the right choice for me.
MidNite contains a patented blend of natural sleep ingredients, These words were written in Amazon, But what exactly were the ingredients???
My question is 'what is causing your insomnia?' Is it pain, spasms or does your mind run rampant? If it is pain or spasms you need some kind of medication to control it. If you can't relax your mind, you should try mindfulness. If that doesn't work take note of what vintage says. She is a mine of information where alternative medicines are concerned. Sleeping pills and relaxants like Valium or diazepam are addictive, so I wouldn't recommend them, but maybe as a last resort if nothing else works. I'm trying to cut down on medications myself. I reckon I get around 4 to 5 hours sleep. Pain and spasms keep me awake, as well as my own self destructive mind which just cannot relax. I used to be a musician. I have my own songs and music going around my head when I'm relaxing. I try to fit chords, melodies and harmonies to words. I have a few unfinished songs left over from the days before my accident that keep going round my brain. Sometimes I think the music is going to drive me mad. It would be okay if I could pick up a guitar or play a few chords on a piano but I can't, and so I lay awake at night trying to fit music to the melody and the words. I've only got to hear an advertising jingle on the television or radio and I start to build harmonies around it. It is a curse. I have started to regurgitate Shakespearean soliloquies in order to sleep. I even memorised the King's speech broadcast when the Second World War broke out. I watched Pulp Fiction and heard Samuel L Jackson speaking lines from the Bible before he shot somebody and thought I'd memorise that. The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. That sort of thing. I go over these memories to try and block the music. But then the Shakespearean soliloquies and all the stored memories, the poems go round my head. I am a sorry case. Yes, sometimes I think I will go mad.
I had a prescription to anxiety drugs, like Valium and zolam, taking them for long time.. Currently thinking about other options that are not harmful.
my problem is my mind does not stop thinking even for a second before sleep.
Seems like we both have same problem, You with music,. I with novel... It is a curse.
Midnite has Lavender,lemon balm and chamomile so all natural. Melatonin can give me crazy dreams. Another good one is metagenics myocalm plus, which has calcium,magnesium,passion flower,valerian hops and lemon balm, it also helps with some of my body ache. There is a regular myocalm for daytime muscle relaxant but the plus is for the pm. About 45.00 for 180 pills and I take 2 to 3 once in awhile when I have issues falling asleep. I partially chew one to help me fall asleep faster and swallow the others. This is my preferred one just a little more expensive than the others and you need water or something to swallow it where the other 2 simply melt in your mouth and go to work a little faster, so If I wake in the middle of the night I take one of those.
What you describe is common to composers whether handicapped or not. The thing is, that if you allow creative work in, it is like gestation. It has a life of its own. Like a foetus growing inside you.
Personally, I would stay up all night and ruin my health with this stuff. I have to deliberately turn it off. But as you say it doesn't stop. Keeps coming out in dreams too.
So you just go with it. Standard meditation strategy. Don't try to stop, but don't invest in the outcome (except when you want too). Actually this is very good for the music, too, because you see it from the exterior, and may have really good ideas you can apply later.
you say your mind is fixated on a novel. I presume you mean a book? What are you writing at the moment.
hello vintage
Thank you for the link but that just writes the score. It's the chords I'm interested in. Not being able to play any instruments is the cruellest of predicaments.
Oh, the chords. Yes, you said you like to build harmonies. I can only begin to imagine the mental complexities of being able to do that. And that had been one of your most fascinating and satisfying ways of using your mind. I’ve gone through stages in my life where I used my special mental gifts that way,...not in music, of course,...but in what I’m innately good at. I’d designed a travel trailer once. My early aptitude tests had shown a high score in “space relation” and “mechanical reasoning”. I loved to solve spatial problems mentally, and then get the measuring tools and hardware and actually fabricate what I had envisioned. It didn’t always worked as I’d thought it would. There would be something that didn’t slide, or something that had to be thicker for strength. But that was part of the fun if it. And now, I have to beg a kind neighbor just to get two nails driven into the far side of a table for me, so as to secure a rack. Being paralyzed has sure clipped my wings.
Here is a great notation program I have used a lot.
The instruments sound pretty good, and it is (relatively) easy to enter whatever you want directly from the computer keyboard.
It is free open source with a very active forum-based community. If you try it out and share your experience, I bet someone would take up the challenge of improving the accessibility.
Maybe you have already seen this. If not, here you go :
hello Gordon. I have checked out music score. Vintage recommended a similar program. Thanks. I'm trying to shut music out of my mind at the moment. Giving my brain a rest for a change. I'm enjoying painting at the moment. That is taking up most of my time. Music maker is an excellent program. I have it on my computer and I have used it extensively. It's still not spontaneous like picking up a guitar. You cannot beat reaching out and picking up an insrument and then playing it. Attached are a couple of tunes written with music maker -
I can't play any of the instruments I used before. I Tried multiple recording tracks and step input from a midi keyboard. But it was no use.
Now, I just score direct. It is hard, particularly trying to get fluid solos, which are just so easy with the instrument. On the other hand, you quickly come up with really nice chord voicings that you could never play.
Here is a short string quartet progression that I wrote a couple of years ago.
I think the pdf is pretty much up to date with the mp3