Hi,

In the last few weeks I’ve been having trouble getting to sleep hence why I’m up now… Wide awake I can go to bed at 9 and ill still be awake at 2-3 am and quite easily get up at 8 and do a full days work I’ve tried different beds,tiring my self out during the day etc.. But nothing’s worked so far any tips?

I’ve lived like that for the past 20 odd years 🙂

It wouldn’t be as bad if there was something to do

Booze, try taking a huge quantity of it in the run up to bed time. It may impinge slightly on your quality of sleep but nodding off should be a cinch.
Also going to bed a 9pm is really only for people that have to get up postman early or if you’re over 80.
Google tips for a good nights sleep if booze or m’ingtfu isn’t your thing

I was given this by my gp… Did me no good at all but apparently it’s generally good advice

http://www.npc.nhs.uk/merec/cns/insomnia/resources/merec_briefing_no17_suppl.pdf

Also if you wake early, try knocking one off, as this may help you drift back off. Smart phones, also mean you have access to instant grot without having to move to far, which can assist a tired brain that might be struggling to drum up a suitablty saucey scenario.

smell_it – Member
Booze, try taking a huge quantity of it in the run up to bed time. It may impinge slightly on your quality of sleep but nodding off should be a cinch.
Also going to bed a 9pm is really only for people that have to get up postman early or if you’re over 80.
Google tips for a good nights sleep if booze or m’ingtfu isn’t your thing

POSTED 14 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST
So basically your saying get pissed and have a w*nk?

Stupid question, but if you’re able to work at 9am after going to sleep at 2, do you need to get to sleep earlier? Can you just live with it for a while?

I don’t need the sleep just nice to go to bed and go to sleep at a reasonable time. I don’t go to bed at 9 all the time btw just been trying different times over the last few weeks, it is better to have a good nights sleep for me though as my job is pretty labour intensive (coal man)

Do you use the internet etc before bed right up to trying to sleep? Always seeing loads of Facebook status comments saying ‘I can’t sleep’ at 4 in the morning or something. Probably because many folks now get straight on the internet or whatever as soon as they can’t sleep. Your thread on here suggests that’s what you do too.
It’s probably far better to go old school and read or something or maybe play some very mellow and quiet music…….or, get wasted and knock one out of course.. 🙂

A coal man ! ……..well shiver me timbers, I would class a coal man as a fully paid up member of the real man club andtherefore not someone concerned about the inability to sleep, unless of course you’re not a real coalman and your masquerading as one is causing the insomnia.
What sort of coal wagon have you got ?

Probably that modern boutique coal for the new-fire classes…

😉

Try sticking the radio on really quiet (probably the lowest setting it goes)

I go through similar phases, can go to bed at 10, still be awake at 2am. I’m not stressed, but a very light sleeper and start to notice every noise outside, security light coming on, a door tapping against its catch due to a draft.

The radio masks these noises and lets me switch off. Sometimes I’ll still be awake but at least I’m not listening. I’ll read my kindle until I can hardly keep my eyes open, then give in to sleep, only to start feeling awake again, 30 minutes later I’m back reading to get tired again!

I get up at six and its not unusual to feel tired in the day so I don’t think 10 is too early.

I’d say alcohol is good for breaking the cycle but not as a long term cure.

I’m a chronic insomniac. A good nights sleep for me for the last twenty years is 5 hours. Normal is about 3 hours, I’ve gone 4 days without sleeping once. That was a very bad time. The problem is you get more and more anxious about not sleeping which just makes things worse.

Some white noise as suggested above sometimes works, try earplugs if noise is the problem too.
Stuff I’ve found that sometimes helps.

Avoid any electronic screens a few hours before sleepy time
Don’t go to bed at 9. Stay up till you’re almost falling asleep in the chair, then go.
‘Park’ issues long before you go to bed. So if you’re dwelling on something that’s making you think a lot, mentally create a plan for dealing with it the next day.

The best one for me though is meditation. You don’t have to cross your legs or anything. It’s about emptying your mind of crap. So a good thing to try is counting from one to ten slowly. Then do it again, and again. Focus on the numbers, visualise then in your mind.

Hope this helps.

These are what (quite strangely in some cases) have worked for me:

– Separate home time in the evening from work time (I was going to say stay off your Blackberry but that may not apply in your case);
– Use your journey home (if you have one) to switch your mind onto other things;
– Alcohol is a big no for me. I always wake around 2am if I’ve had a drink in the evening – staying off it really helped;
– Most bizarrely, I started this ***** diet 3 weeks ago which is at last becoming bearable, but one of the unexpected upsides has been that I’ve slept like a baby every single night since literally the day I started. Really, really weird but very welcome; my mood etc has been so much better, Mrs O commented on it last night. No idea what has caused it, my best theory is that I was mildly allergic to something which was disturbing me. Would thoroughly recommend it (if you can stand the hunger pangs) but again may not be appropriate for you.

So basically your saying get pissed and have a w*nk?

Plus one

So basically your saying get pissed and have a w*nk?

This is of course, the answer to every problem you might have with anything.

Don’t get too drunk though, brewers droop and all that.

Like samurai, I suffered from varying degrees of insomnia for most of my adult life. I am now sleeping 7 hours decent sleep per night and haven’t had a prescription in 2 years.

Most advice is quite subjective, but worth trying anyway. For me, it was a combination of:

CBT – helped break the cycle of drugs/sleep/drugs/sleep more than anything else, but was also massively beneficial from a mental control and general self awareness perspective

Moving everything out of my bedroom – no books, no tv, no clocks. The alarm on my mobile phone is now face down on the other side of the room. If I can’t see the time, I’m less likely to worry about it.

Booze – any alcohol midweek was detrimental to good sleep for me, so it had to go, but has returned to an extent now.

Perspective – as samurai pointed out, one of the key things for me was the cycle your brain goes into when you are aware that it’s 3am and you’re still awake and catching a train in 4 hours. It took a long time, but now I just think “who cares, I’ve managed with less sleep plenty of times, i’ll be fine tomorrow”

If this is a short term problem, I can wholeheartedly recommend Zopiclone as a drug to help you sleep. After years on benzos, it was a welcome relief to have something which wouldn’t leave me feeling like i’d been hit by a train in the morning. Avoid drugs entirely if this seems like something that will not go away in a couple of weeks. If you think trying to get to sleep now is bad, just wait until you try to get to sleep after weeks/months/years of taking benzos. And believe me, your GP will happily prescribe them.

What exercise do you do? and do you watch TV/computer/ipad before bed?

Over the last year or so i have been doing heavy weights sessions twice a week, mixed up with martial arts twice a week. No problem with sleeping now, also take ZMA after heavy sessions and I am dead to the world.

EDIT: oh and herbal Nytol also worked for me.

On the bright side you should be really good at 24hr racing 😀

the question to ask is..”is this having an impact on your daytime energy and wakefullness”?
If not, then really don’t worry about it. You’re getting enough sleep, it’s just less than ‘the norm’.

DrP

Organic – I do lots of weights during the day and Aldo workout an hour or so before I go o bed

I do feel tired sometimes through the day but not bad enough to drift off

+1 for Zopiclone.

Insomnia always comes in cycles for me. After a couple of bad nights take a Zopiclone to knock me out of it. Feel fine in the morning too!

RE Zopiclone..The statement:

And believe me, your GP will happily prescribe them

Is unfortunately too true.

Insomnia, or in fact perceived insomnia, is a particular favourite of mine (I’ve given plenty of seminars and teaching sessions on it, don’t you know!), and although BZDs and ‘Z’ drugs can have a role in short term insomnia, the overall benefit isn’t that great, and I fear my colleagues are creating an addicted culture rather than addressing the underlying issues..

As an example of something that really helps:

CBT – helped break the cycle of drugs/sleep/drugs/sleep more than anything else, but was also massively beneficial from a mental control and general self awareness perspective

Yet most health care professionals are not aware this is in the guideline for managing long term insomnia, and that sedatives aren’t!

DrP

I would say booze is actually the worst thing for insomnia. It helps to put me to sleep initally but then I have a broken and restless night with any sleep being very low quality.

Zopiclone is amazingly effective. Also addictive and a slippery slope…

Loads of stuff you can do before going down that route:

– Try avoiding bright lights + screens for 2 hours before bed. Looking at a smart phone or tv in bed is lethal.
– Blackout blinds are great. Sleeping in absolute darkness is loads better. Check out ebay for cheap and effective options.
– In fact go a stage further. Banish any light from the bedroom, LED clock displays, standby leds, plug socket LEDs, etc.
– Go to bed earlier. Read, have fun, talk about rubbish. Give sleep a run up.
– Caffeine has a really long half life. Try and avoid from the afternoon on. Booze is great self medication initially but gives poor sleep and you pay for it later.
– Before taking prescription med’s, why don’t you try something like ZMA. Gives you funky dreams but helps my sleep cycles.
– I also prefer to have some kind of sound in the room otherwise my over active mind will fill the silence with random thoughts from the day and I can’t switch off. Random podcasts like Gardeners Question Time do the trick nicely! Pleasent to listen to but I have no real interest. It’s like listening to the sea go in and out, in and out, in andzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Did I mention: Darkness, darkness, darkness.

Good luck. Lack of sleep has major health implications. It should be taken as seriously as something like stopping smoking in my humble opinion.