Insomnia, jet lag, male menopause, whatever?

[King Herald]

I work offshore five weeks at a time, and I'm 12 hours time difference from home. It usually takes about a week to settle in, but the last four weeks I've been here I've been hitting the hay at 10pm, sleeping fairly quickly, then waking up around about midnight, and can't get to sleep for hours some nights.

I feel hot, so I kick the covers off, then feel cold, so drag them back on. My feet feel cold sometimes, but the rest of me feels hot. I throw a blanket over my feet, which works sometimes, but every night is slightly different. Cold sweats, hot sweats, and general wide-awake-and-not-going-to-sleep-soon type stuff

Tried cutting down the caffeine. I exercise for 45 minutes most days before dinner. Nothing else in my routine has changed, been the same for several years.

All I want to do is but I just feel

I can't go taking any strong drugs as I am on call all night if ever anything goes wrong with the machinery I operate, and I'm the only guy on the ship who does my job.

Any suggestions?

[grumbledoak]

King Herald said:

I feel hot, so I kick the covers off, then feel cold, so drag them back on. My feet feel cold sometimes, but the rest of me feels hot. I throw a blanket over my feet, which works sometimes, but every night is slightly different. Cold sweats, hot sweats, and general wide-awake-and-not-going-to-sleep-soon type stuff

Not sure about suggestions but I had that recently, so your aren't alone. I think it was related to the horrid snot disease that my little one brought back from nursery. It seems to have stopped now. Paracetamol or the GP, I'd say.

[King Herald]

grumbledoak said:

Not sure about suggestions but I had that recently, so your aren't alone. I think it was related to the horrid snot disease that my little one brought back from nursery. It seems to have stopped now. Paracetamol or the GP, I'd say.

I'm offshore USA right now, but fly back to the Philippines on Thursday, so I'll see how it goes when I'm home and maybe a visit to the GP. Not sure witchdoctor sorry, which doctor to go to over there though.

[BlackVanDyke]

Someone on board will have paracetamol, right? I'd try taking some at bedtime for a few nights, that and stick some really soothing/boring classical music on... is it possible that there's some process starting up at midnight that's waking you that you're not really noticing?