INSOMNIA and pushing the limits

[Sophia3]

The exercise dichotomy for ME anyway.

If I do regular exercise (weights on my lower body and some walking) that can worsen my insomnia though on other days I don't exercise, it's just as bad. Other times, exercise like gentle walking "appear to help" OR is it coincidence?

BUT if I over do things, it can trigger fatigue and a late day nap or an early sleep for the night, In other words, in MY CASE, there is NO RHYME or reason to the insomnia that is always there except some things worsen it....exercise, PMS, my period, etc.

BUT this week, in this NASTY OHIO humid weather, I was thrilled to be able to plant 3 hosta plants and another plant, in the shade. before noon. I took many breaks to do this and drank Gatorade in a glass full of ice, and wore my abdominal support and as little clothes as possible. I also had to take a pick ax to pull out roots from an old Wintercreeper plant!! VERY EXHAUSTING. I would come in to A/C house (set at 80 degrees) lie down with feet over head and relax for 10 minutes or more and work another 5-10 minutes outside.

Well, I WAS THRILLED to get this major accomplishment for me (it's mid cycle so I can sometimes PUSH myself this time of month) but then that night, I fell asleep early (midnight!) but the next day, I started getting really sore in the shoulders and achy all over. That night, my sister drove me to pick up some ornamental grasses from a friends garden (Her garden is magazine worthy with HUGE plants and trees and grasses and flowers and stepping stones and ponds! She is 70 and made this garden oasis from scratch, bare yard, 5 years ago but I digress!) We were outside in the early evening in this dreadful heat and humidity for about an hour. By the time we got home, I was sick with fatigue and light headed (But I feel asleep by 11:30) and the next day I was even ACHIER than before.

What I am trying to say, if I do insane stuff to push the limits, I do fall asleep earlier, exhausted. Kind of the way I fall asleep when severely sleep deprived. but the fibro pain, and neck stuff and bilateral carpal tunner/ulner pain wasn't worth it...but I DID do something more physical. and upper body stuff ALWAYS DOES ME IN!! but I thought I had beaten the odds....until the delayed exercise intolerance hit me the next day... I have often had payback from exercise but this is the worst. Plus, even tho inside, this horrible constant heat and humidity gets to me. So while I don't recommend pushing one to one's limits to fall asleep, I DID DO IT!

I didn't know if this fit under this insomnia thread, and I didn't want to hijack it and make this about ME, ME, ME!! just giving an example that after 15 years of no physical UPPER BODY WORK, I pushed, I won (temporarily) but paid for it...though I have been to sleep earlier in the last three nights than I have been in a long time.

Course if by typing this and jinxing myself and am awake until 3Am tonight..will let you all know. But I am not a fainter or I would NEVER have attempted to push myself.....it's all a long story (you mean longer than this?? Sophia???) but I have had to suddenly move into a friends home with my cats and am trying to help him spruce up a great house in a great neighborhood with curb appeal!! for his rescuing me from a crazy, mentally off but sometimes lucid elderly mother. My siblings support my leaving and agree my pathological lying mother is passive aggressive and mean and alternately nice. But I could take it no more. We built on an addition to her house and I expected to liver there permanently but she was to hateful and moody. I am stuck on my tiny income paying on the loan addtion even though I am no longer there, but that's the price I pay for getting sanity back.

Thank God for my good friend who I have known for years and a fellow cat lover...letting me live here for nothing but pennies. So hence, my motivation to help him around the house...but also understands my physical limiationas.

Anyway, this move has been the most traumatic thing in my life (my divorce years ago was very cordial!) but I am adapting and talking to my mom on the phone. she is "sick" this week, or pretending to be and my other two siblings are checking on her as they understand I am healing from the verbal abuse (I never lived with abuse and at my age, I aint going to) But gardening and LEARNING about gardening is VERY THERAPEUTIC though I don't recommend it in this heat.

Sorry to ramble on so but needed to get this off my chest I guess.