May 17 2008
Grinding Teeth
I was going to title this post… grind or clench.. then thought that might sound a bit sexual, so decided against it. 
So this is a more conservative title, I think!
Anyway.. at night, I don’t grind my teeth, but I do clench them. Sometimes I wake up and not only are my teeth clenched, but my whole body is tense. It’s odd, and I don’t like it, and I think it is a sign of my fairly regularly stressed state that I live in. I really want to relax, but doing relaxation exercises also makes me anxious, and so I avoid them.
I tried an air humidifier when I sleep, but it didn’t seem to help. Maybe a purifier like IQAir would help.. but I dunno. I like the idea, especially with our dogs, the air in our house is probably pretty dirty.
But the humidifier didn’t really help me breathe at night and almost seemed like it gave me a headache, so I stopped using it. Plus, it was just so dang loud.
It’s hard to control one’s muscle and jaw tension when sleeping… I don’t know how, but I want to!
I'm amazed that you remember so many of your dreams….I only seem to remember maybe one every month or two. I tried a humidifier in my room when I slept because I kept getting dried out, but it seems bad for my lungs and my asthma and I end up with a nasty cough from it. How can I get better at remembering my dreams? I know keeping a journal is one technique when you first wake up, but what are some others?
I know what you are talking about, I sometimes wake up amidst night feeling I have my jaw and muscles of my body writhed. It is usually I have something I think of very hard, some task or problem… I started drinking chamomile tea or warm milk before going to bed to relax a bit. It did help:)
Hi Patrick, thanks for your comment. I'm not sure how to go about remember dreams, except for writing them down right when you wake up. My husband hardly ever remembers his dreams, unfortunately.
Hi Polina thanks for your comment. Mmm I love chamomile tea… I should try that too and see if it helps me relax!