I had chronic insomnia from around age 8 until I started taking antidepressants when I was 40. ADs knocked me out like a brick to the head every night, all night. My favorite side effect ever. When I went off them last spring I was worried that my insomnia would come back, but by and large it hasn't. There've been a couple of nights, but no where near what it use to be. Maybe the ADs helped me retrain my sleep habits or something.

That's a very nice side-effect!

Effexor (which I took for a while in the '90s) had the side-effect of making me frisky. Which was great because I'd had a real problem being up for much in my first relationship. My second relationship had much better sex due to the Effexor. Which is funny because a usual complaint about ADs is that they depress your sex drive.

It seems sadly on topic to announce that I am awake, and seem to be staying that way.

Brad Cooper, otoh, I mostly knew as "that guy S has a completely ridiculous thing for and says she sometimes sleeps with him when he and his gf are broken up but we don't believe her, and make fun of him for his gay gay Versace pants"

Ha! So the gossip about him has been consistent, anyway...

You people made me wake up in the night. I do not appreciate that. OK maybe it wasn't actually your fault.

I was reading an article the other day about a woman who had the malormation and didn't know about it, then she had a fall which moved it slightly so it was putting pressure on her brain/spine which led to ten years of chronic migraines before someone figured it out. Apparently you need to do a sideways MRI for them to show up, or something.

Are you sure you weren't watching Private Practice??? (I think that was the issue last week.)

Aw, Perkins, it's so early. I'm sorry.

I don't have insomnia unless I'm really really super-stressed about something, but I do have a big problem with restless legs. I've convinced myself (placebo effect?) that three ibuprofen before bed helps, and I usually supplement with some, um, herbal substances, too. Which has been working for a while now.

I used to be in tears with the restless legs, because I *don't* have trouble falling asleep, and they would wake me up repeatedly, needing to move or change position. One night a few years ago it was three, I think, and I just sat on the edge of the bed and cried.

Are you sure you weren't watching Private Practice??? (I think that was the issue last week.)

Weird! Nope, have never watched it. I think it was an aticle in the Observer on Sunday. Maybe it will be the new lupus. Countdown to a House episode starts now.

Aw Perkins, i'm sorry you are awake. I am too but it's a little after my usual wake up time. Why am I tired all the time again?

Amy, do you have fibro? my mom's fibro causes her restless leg all the time.

I'm not sure, msbelle. I've had some problems with all-over muscle fatigue and I'm beginning to think I'm developing arthritis, especially in my hands -- my mom has lupus and fibro and arthritis (hat trick!), so I pay attention. The restless legs have gotten bad just in the last few years.

One of my cousins recently had surgery for chiari malformation. His mother asked me if I had been tested for it, since it sometimes happens along with EDS or hypermobility. I haven't been tested, but I don't really have any symptoms, so there's really no reason to test me. (I used to get migraines right around the time I got my period at least a few times a year, but since I started taking Yaz, that's completely stopped.)