[Closed] Tips for Beating Insomnia

Stella?

Yep tried that......didnt work......along with leffe, kronenberg ha ha

6 month old baby. I can sleep anywhere, anytime I get an opportunity...

realise that worrying about stuff does not help.

Easier said than done, for sure.

Vigorous sex.

Lager is no good, you need a good quality spirit, Vodka works for me straight with 2 lumps of ice.

Tips for [b]beating[/b] insomnia

You have your answer right there.

look on the bright side ...only 4 sleeps to Christmas

1. search religion on the STW chat forum.
2. attempt to read a whole thread.
3. zzzzzzzzzzzzz

Try Nytol. It may not make you sleep any longer, but your mind won't be on overdrive when you do wake and you have more chance of getting back off. I have had a similar sleep pattern for the past 18 years. Does not matter what time I go to sleep, I will wake after 5 hours or so. Sometimes with mind racing with thoughts, sometimes wake and doze untill alarm. Would love to give you a solution but I seem to have tried everything without any improvement.

Stop stressing about it.

One day you'll be 40 something and you'll see sleep as something you get when you can, not when you should.

Try having 3 kids, try existing on 3 hours sleep a night.
Try working nights and existing on 5 then 4 then 3 hours sleep during the day.

You'll survive.

Buy a road bike and ride it a lot.

It's underlying fear, the more you worry about it the more you'll experience it. When adrenaline is squirted into your body your mind races with questioning thoughts and your body is primed for fleeing or fighting. The last thing you'll be able to do is sleep.

Accept you have it for a while, it's only temporary if you stop worrying about it.

I was told to have pen/paper next to the bed. When you wake up you can write down the important guff that has woken you up, this is supposed to solve the anxiety of having to remember it and you get back to sleep quicker.

What jambo said!
Honestly though, prior to being married and a dad..
Routine, exercise and relaxation. Oh aye, lay off the fizzy juice/coffee etc in the evening..
I was pretty bad for sleeping when I was younger, going to sleep really late, sometimes not going to sleep at all before work. Then knackered all day, sleep all day if not at work, then repeat.
Had to force myself not to go to bed when I got home from work so that I wouldn't be up at 2am.
Was drinking a lot of fizzy juice, too much stuff going through my head, not enough exercise for the old endorphins to relax me..
You
Get the idea.

Zopiclone from the dr works a treat for me..

MP3 player with audio books worked for me. Alistair Cambell is particularly soporific...

If you're waking up suddenly - like being ejected from your sleep, then it's likely the cause if anxiety / depression, so you need to figure out what the cause is and how to deal with it.

In terms of drugs, sleeping pills eg Zoplicone tend to be habit forming and rapidly diminish in effectiveness as you build up a tolerance to them (often within a few days). Personally I found anti-depressants removed my anxiety and I went from 1 hours sleep a night back to 8 over a matter of a few weeks.

Often have the same problem, notepad idea works.
You'll be amazed at the rubbish that keeps you awake at 3am when read in the cold light of day!

agree 100% with footflaps

gwaelod - Member

look on the bright side ...only 4 sleeps to Christmas

😀

read a book before you climb into bed and then listen to the radio (radio4 is recommended).

I can usually get off to sleep ok but often wake at 1.00-2.00 am with my mind on overdrve and cant get back to sleep

I suffer from this on and off and even when I'm not, I'm wide awake by 5:30

Anyway, what often works for me when it's obvious that I'm not going to go back off is .......

Don't fight it , accept it, the anxiety of not being able to sleep is fuelling the fire.
Get up, have a cup of tea and read something for an hour
I can usually go back to bed and fall asleep then

The best tip is to STOP WORRYING about it. We have been brainwashed into believing that we should be able to achieve a full undisturbed night's sleep but there is a growing body of medical opinion that thinks the natural human way is to sleep in two goes; there's even a tribe in Nigeria called the Tif people who don't talk about sleep; they talk about "first sleep" and "second sleep". In some societies it's considered normal to get up in the night, wander round, have a wazz, drink a bit of water, smoke, gaze at the stars then go back for a second session.

Lying awake fretting about it is probably making you more tired and upset.

Booze doesn't work, it actually wakes you up when the effects wear off. Try putting e.g. the World Service on very low on the wireless. This can work to counteract the cortical interference that's keeping you awake.

I often need to stop worrying about not falling asleep. Audio books and podcasts (e.g. The Naked Scientist) are very good for this.
Also the obvious, cut down caffine and booze.

get up early - same time each day regardless of when and how much you sleep.

get up half an hour early. it works.

I read a little in bed and wait until I feel myself drifting off, then lights out (or booklight...)

A friend recommended Phenergan, an antihistamine, but if I really am having a problem then I found Sominex good. It is not helpful at getting you to sleep, but good at getting you back to sleep if you wake up for a trip to the john, or something. To avoid feeling groggy in the morning I only take 1/4 tablet.

Sometimes though, it'll just get you. I must have tried a hundred different suggestions, many variations on those above. When it's home, it's home and you may as well just get up and do something.

I started drawing. 😉 It didn't help me sleep any better but it did make me feel like I'd done something useful with my tiome. Another popular pastime is reading.

The only regularly useful thing I've found is recording a motor race and saving it till I can't sleep. Now I actually like motor racing but for some reason it really does help me drift off once I've woken up.