Help, any suggestions for sleep?

[Mystruggleisreal]

I’ve been under a lot of stress, I was downsized from my job two months ago. I can’t turn my mind off especially at night, making it impossible to sleep. Melatonin doesn’t work, I lost my health insurance so I’m basically on my own. It’s so bad I actually started forgetting words in the middle of sentences. Certainly not going to help me land another job. Any suggestions?

[BlessedLady]

Look for a Federally Qualified Health Center in your area. They charge based on income.

[Billybostin]

perimenopause is an absolute horror for ND women. At 48 I started to fall apart - a few years later I was really unwell with burnout. Here I now a few years later diagnosed with autism and ADHD.

Peri made everything really difficult. Certainly hormone therapy tackled a lot of the symptoms related to oestrogen fluctuations and I find sleep is a key strategy for being able to cope/function/thrive depending on the length and quality. And my HRT.

[Mamamichl]

heavy aerobic exercises, some people take cold showers, and journaling works for some people. None of that worked for me, so I love my trazodone, but some clinics give out samples.

[TakingControl4me]

What works for me is to lie on my bed and put up my feet at a 45 degree angle for 10 to 15 minutes. Once in position, take a few, long, deep breaths in through your nose and fill up your belly with air. Then, exhale each time very slowly and all the way until there is no breath left within you. Focus on the breathing and nothing else until you've done three deep breaths.

Another thing I do is to listen to guided meditations on YouTube. There are some great ones for sleep by Wayne Dyer, Rising Higher Meditation, and Tansy Forest. You could also listen to pink noise, which helps drown out distractions of my mind. Meditation is medication (in my opinion).

One more thing I do is lie still on my bed and focus on all the blessings God has given me. There are so many more good things than the few that worry me. Gratitude is very powerful, but it has to become a part of your thinking, not just when you can't sleep or feel desperate.

Happiness and gratitude are choices in every circumstance. A Priest I know had visited Mother Theresa a few decades ago and what he witnessed surprised him tremendously. Here was a village of orphaned children living in a very humble setting. They had been abandoned for whatever reason. Yet, here they were, joyfully living each moment of each day. Simple lives lived with joy.

Realize that what you focus on is magnified in your life, so focus on solutions, accepting your next job offer, meeting the love of your life, eating well and exercising regularly. Choose your thoughts to direct your actions. I'm working on all of this as I write this.

I hope this helps! Happy to continue the conversation and please let me know how your life progresses! God be with you!!

[STEM_Dad]

In addition to melatonin, I take a GABA supplement (which is available in the US, but I don't know about elsewhere).

GABA is a natural neurochemical that can help to calm down the brain and nervous system. I've found that it can even help calm down intrusive thoughts, which was making it hard for me to fall asleep for a long time when I was dealing with a bad work situation.

A magnesium supplement can help the brain the produce more of its own GABA.

[Note: the research on GABA helping with sleep is very limited; I found out about it mostly from product reviews.

~~~~~

Besides that, I've found that mindfulness helps me to calm my brain down.

Being aware of what automatic negative thoughts (ANTs) keep popping into my head, I try to come to with positive truths to counter them. I will then counter the negative fears with positive evidence to the contrary. --- It takes practice and persistence.

[Queen_of_Tara]

File for medicaid asap.

[Soton4ever]

Airpods when I go to sleep, I fall asleep within minutes.