INSOMNIA --need help desparate

[Hansonhouse]

I really feel for you, insomnia is very cruel. I have been suffering from the 'stress' type, i.e. I go to sleep quickly and deeply but the slightest thing wakes me after 4 hours and then I spend hours trying to get back to sleep because my mind has woken up and has gone immediately into busy mode.

I have tried all of the following and genuinely sometimes they work and sometimes they don't but anything is worth a try:

Lavender and/or Rosemary - drops of essential oil in a bath before bed and on your pillow

Drink of milk (unless you have a weak bladder) warm or cold doesn't matter, just makes your body feel full and content

Read a few pages of an enjoyable book, whatever rocks your boat, until your eyes become sleepy, this really helps to put your busy thoughts to the back of your mind. Also helpful to have a book for reading a chapter in the night if you wake up.

Have a dual control electric blanket so that you can put your half on whatever the time of night, my toes have to be warm before I can nod off to sleep.

Use the relaxation techniques that they taught you when you had your babies a) lie flat on your back and starting from your toes, imagine that that part of your body has gone to sleep and is heavy as lead, gradually move up your body, bit at a time and in theory by the time you get to the head, you will feel totally relaxed and more likely to nod off b) get into your most comfortable position possible and then imagine yourself to be in a beautiful warm place, i.e. on a sunkissed beach, the sun shining on you, listening to the gentle lap of waves, feeling the soft sand underneath your body, imagine feeling sleepy and drift off

Don't know if any of these help but just wanted you to know that I feel for you and it will pass but the situation you are in, waiting for everything to be completed is responsible for most of it and it ill get better

Roz

[caoimhe]

I really feel for you, insomnia is very cruel. I have been suffering from the 'stress' type, i.e. I go to sleep quickly and deeply but the slightest thing wakes me after 4 hours and then I spend hours trying to get back to sleep because my mind has woken up and has gone immediately into busy mode.

I have tried all of the following and genuinely sometimes they work and sometimes they don't but anything is worth a try:

Lavender and/or Rosemary - drops of essential oil in a bath before bed and on your pillow

Drink of milk (unless you have a weak bladder) warm or cold doesn't matter, just makes your body feel full and content

Read a few pages of an enjoyable book, whatever rocks your boat, until your eyes become sleepy, this really helps to put your busy thoughts to the back of your mind. Also helpful to have a book for reading a chapter in the night if you wake up.

Have a dual control electric blanket so that you can put your half on whatever the time of night, my toes have to be warm before I can nod off to sleep.

Use the relaxation techniques that they taught you when you had your babies a) lie flat on your back and starting from your toes, imagine that that part of your body has gone to sleep and is heavy as lead, gradually move up your body, bit at a time and in theory by the time you get to the head, you will feel totally relaxed and more likely to nod off b) get into your most comfortable position possible and then imagine yourself to be in a beautiful warm place, i.e. on a sunkissed beach, the sun shining on you, listening to the gentle lap of waves, feeling the soft sand underneath your body, imagine feeling sleepy and drift off

Don't know if any of these help but just wanted you to know that I feel for you and it will pass but the situation you are in, waiting for everything to be completed is responsible for most of it and it ill get better

Roz

Thanks for the thoughts but unfortunately my insomnia has been a problem for 5 years and not just to do with the migration progress, some nights are really bad like a few nights ago.
I have done the lavender oil, book by the bed to write my thoughts in so they don't whirl around in my head, relaxation techniques, herbal and non herbal sleeping tablet, dose's of 'night nurse' and have even paid a 'hypnotherapist' £300 for sessions and all I came away with is another relaxation cd. I am now trying to exercise in the early evening to see if that helps. Funny thing is I used to be able to fall asleep anywhere and anytime

[Alipally]

Only have the usual ideas that you've probably already tried before, but if you do them all consistently it may help over time....

1. Set a regular bedtime and waking up time... no matter what happens stick to them!
2. Wind down for 2 hours before hand
3. have a warm bath shower
4. Warm milk (I find a 1/2 tsp of vanilla and a spoon of sugar makes it more pleasant) and a slice of bread.... no cheese or butter. Apparently the combination has a relaxing effect.
5 regular exercise but not after 6pm
6. Cut out alcohol and caffeine (easier said than done, but at least try to reduce them)
7. Make sure you get enough water everyday
8. Take fish oil supplements and try to eat some pumpkin or sunflower seeds everyday.
9. Use the relaxation techniques EVERY NIGHT!
10. If you wake up try not to get up and 'do stuff' it will only waken you further. The suggestion is that you remain in bed and and enjoy the feeling of warmth and comfort, tell yourself that even if you're not asleep, you are at least relaxing.....
11. Contrary to popular belief you only need 5 hours of unbroken sleep every night, so long as it's of good quality ie deep sleep.... so don't stress about not getting 8 hours....

I hope that some of these strategies work, but for anything to be effective you have to practice it repeatedly.

Ali x

[Bee]

I really feel for you!!

I go through stages where I find it really hard to get to sleep. I'll go to bed at 10 pm and not fall asleep until around 4am. Then other days I will have slept okish (waking up a few times but other than that slept enough) but cannot keep my eyes open in the morning and end up sleeping really late.

Thinking about it, I should probably go to the doctor and ask if there's a reason for this!!!

There's only one technique that has seemed to work for me and thats to imagine a really good dream until eventually you just drop off. Unfortunately it doesn't always work :(

[cornish Busdriver]

Have you tried going to a bottle bank.
Invest in a case of VB, worked for me. :)

[0405delboy]

Hello,
I too am an imsomniac. You may be in the best place in the world because Uni of SA has a sleep clinic here in Adelaide. I saw a doco on it and the people are cured (almost) by being woken up at 15 minute intervals over 2-3 day period. It drives the person mad but re-programs their brain to a degree.

It also said that you should always get up and out of bed if you cant sleep and not lay there so that your mind associates your bedroom with only sleep ( and other activities...ahem:Randy-git:). I've followed that advice and I stay up late and ONLY go to bed when I'm actually sleepy and it works for me. Maybe it would pay to contact the Adelaide Uni and find out more. Sleep deprivation is torture!!!! Good luck buddy!!

0405delboy

[Moosh]

My Dad has been suffering badly from insomnia and anxiety for a couple of years and slowly it's been getting worse. Four months ago, he was diagnosed with Parkinsons Disease. At least we now know what it is.

[ozzieclare2be]

My dad had a top tip for getting to sleep which involved a hat and a bottle of brandy (it was for when you had a cold but could work anyway). You hang the hat at the end of the bed and start to drink the brandy. When you see two hats close your eyes and you go to sleep. Never tried it meself but he said it worked .

Seriously though - I work days / nights on a shift-roster and have developed my own system for switching between day / night mode. Sometimes I only have one day off between working a night and a day shift. I stay up as long as I can bear night time telly for the night before a night shift so that I sleep as long as possible the day after, before having to get up for work. I use a blindfold - coincidentally it's the complimentary one I got from Singapore airlines when we were on our recce last October - and we have blackout curtains which work well.

When I finish a stint of nights I sleep for a few hours then force myself to get up (that is sometimes very difficult) but it pays off because I am then ready for a decent sleep come the night time. As mentioned above it is all about getting into a routine. Takes practice but is possible. Also, if there are things going around in your head try and excercise control over them or you will never get any sleep - that still happens to me on nights but you have to just physically (mentally :GEEK: )say to yourself 'I'm not thinking about that now'. Try and divert your thoughts to something less volatile / thought provoking.

Or there is always counting sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

lol i do exactly same thing on nights works though!!!

I agree with Halt a regular bedtime routine , no stimulants eg coffee and alchohol (even though alc may make you feel sleepy it actually makes it worse). Are there any reasons you can think of why you might not be sleeping such as worrying about something? Not being able to get to sleep and then waking up after a few hours can also be a symptom of depression, not sure if this is something that may be happenening but it often one of th symptoms that sends people to a gp. Can i ask what sleeping pills have been prescribed?

sorry posted this before i read last reply, maybe give the sleep clinic a go if its been happening so long x

[Pies]

Your sleep rythms mean your average round of sleep lasts around 1 hour 30 minutes. So, if you are awake at 6 am and you need to get up at 7, you nod back off to sleep, wake back up at 7 and feel crap!!

Solution to that is not to go back to sleep, or get up at 7.30!!

Suspect you need to have a chat with some sleep professionals if this has been happening for 5 years.....or adopt the mental attitude of 7 hours in 24....go to sleep in the afternoon, embrace and accept you will have a broken nights sleep and remind yourself that if you had 3 hours during the day and 4 at night, you have still had 7 hours over the piece!!

Drugs for sleep are bad. Some worse than others. Avoid if at all possible. Getting a routine that works for you is important. I note that you have 4 kids and I am sure that is not easy either....

Hope you get a solution.....I have had 6 months broken sleep and can vouch for the solutions above: but I know that sleep will return when I sort out my own head and my attitude towards the stresses that life brings - they will not go away, just change, so embrace and enjoy.........that said, I am looking forwards to the day when Visa is in, money in place, debts paid, flights booked, serious house problem fixed, house rented, contents packed and off to shipper, new job sorted....rant over.

I think they call it resilience!

[sjs]

Thanks for the thoughts but unfortunately my insomnia has been a problem for 5 years and not just to do with the migration progress, some nights are really bad like a few nights ago.
I have done the lavender oil, book by the bed to write my thoughts in so they don't whirl around in my head, relaxation techniques, herbal and non herbal sleeping tablet, dose's of 'night nurse' and have even paid a 'hypnotherapist' £300 for sessions and all I came away with is another relaxation cd. I am now trying to exercise in the early evening to see if that helps. Funny thing is I used to be able to fall asleep anywhere and anytime

OMG would hate to suffer from this i in fact suffer from the opposite ! i wnat to sleep all day but cant as have 2 kids to see to. but seriously that must be awfull has it gotten any better since you have arrived in adelaide ? given the fact its been going on so long i suppose not but interested anyway

sjs