Just wondering if there are any insomnia sufferers amongst us? Since October ish last year I have been having problems with my sleeping and it's driving me a bit mad!
I just cannot seem to get to sleep until after 4am no matter what I try. I've tried excercising during the day (swimming), establishing a good sleep routine with guidance from medical professionals, milky drinks at bedtime, keeping the bedroom just for sleeping as much as possible... what ever I do I just can't sleep! I take Piriton 4 times a day for allergies and even that seems to have lost its ability to send me to sleep!
Even when I've had very little sleep I try to make myself get up between 8 and 9am and not nap in the day time. I struggle to keep awake at about 7pm but when it gets to after 11pm I seem to go wide awake again. My cons has checked my theo level and it was 11.5 and cannot come up with any other explanation than stress of uni work, I've never had this problem before tho!
Does anyone have any suggestions or tips, they would be much appreciated.
Check out the number of AUK users online in the wee small hours and I think you may be surprised. The poets seem to do best then.
How about taking up Yoga?
If not, I have to say that 2 glasses of Southern Comfort works a treat for me.
LOL
Alan
Hi sparkle fairy
I have had insomnia since last november and I started a post on insomniaa couple of months ago, I will bump it up for you
Lejaya
I have insomnia for various reasons, I had it when i was younger, then it went away for a while, and then it came back last year, then went away for a bit, then came back again this summer and hasnt changed.. It sucks a lot! I would strongly advice agaisnt sleeping pills though (at least from my own experience) because it doesnt actually rest your body and mind (at least it doesnt feel like it), and it is sort of an artificial sleep i would say. I dont know about you, but whenever i take one, i stay asleep for waaayy too long (18 hours if no one wakes me up). I completely stopped drinking coffee (as of new years), and i try not to sleep during the day (though it is quite difficult, especially on wednesdays). If you have to drink coffee, try drinking it only in the morning, and then force yourself to stay up until you get to the point right before you feel wide awake again. So try to go to bed really early some days (like 7, if time allows you to). What i tend to do (unwillingly, on wednesdays...) is to just come home from school, and fall asleep on the sofa and then sleep until midnight, then i wake up (i guess i interrupt the middle of the sleeping cycle, so i wake up and i am still tired) then i do my work in like two hours (not as thoroughly as i wish i did), and then i go to sleep at 2AM. The rest of the week i cant get to bed before 3 at all, and sometimes even 4 or 5, and i have to get up at 6 AM monday-friday. It really affects my school work, or i think my schoolwork might affect my sleep as well ( i guess it is an evil circle). This is just my personal experience with it. Im no expert though. I hope this somewhat helps... if not i am afraid i am in the same position as you. Feel free to PM me!
Take Care =)
Haagz
Thank you for all the suggestions and pm's about sleep and insomnia. It really helps to know that I'm not alone with it. Nothing I seem to try works at the moment but I'm wondering if the added stress of writing my dissertation has made things worse at the moment?
Last night I slept for a maximum of an hour and it was the kind of vivid dream half awake sort of sleep if that makes sense. I slept between 4 and 5am and then after lying awake for another hour and a half I got up just after 6.30, I was due to get up at 7 and couldn't face being awake in bed when my alarm went off.
I saw my GP this afternoon and she decided on the short term solution of sleeping tablets to allow me some rest if only for a couple of nights. I didn't like the idea of taking sleeping tablets so I was prescribed the anti-histamine Promethazine initally, but as my GP was unsure that it would be available without colourings which I'm allergic to she gave me a back up script for diazepam. The pharmacy are hunting down a safe version for me and if not available it may have to be the diazepam instead.
Does anyone have experience of taking either of these for insomnia? Did you feel very drowsy the next day too?
I was hoping that after so little sleep last night I would drop off easily tonight but alas it is almost 1.40am and I am still awake.
Sparkly Fairy zzzzzzzzz
have you tryed taking some actifed before you go to bed that makes you drowsy my mum used to give it to my brother and it knocked my brother out within 30mins as he wasnt doing much exp sitting on the bed,lol
i have sleeping problems aswell doesnt matetr what time i go to bed its always after 3am before i fall asleep exp today and yesterday im still up now at 7.30am and cant get to sleep even tho i'm yawning and feel like nodding off i just cant seem to sleep when i try lay down on the bed, i know i'll manage to sleep in a bit tho but the only problem with that is that once i'm asleep i wotn wake up till 6/7pm evne if i put the alarm on i just sleep through anything
My doctor once told me that insomnia wasnt worth losing sleep over.
reaches for coat........
After a long time of having great difficulty sleeping and talking to my doctor about it on various occasions, I then told him that I was trying not to worry about it. Rather unhelpfully he said, 'But you *should* worry about it. It's not normal!' Hmm ...
Hi Sparkly,
There is also another point to consider, and that is that some people don't need the normal quota of sleep. Margaret Thatcher for instance thrived on just five hours when she was in office. There are some in our family that can get by on less than the 'normal' eight hours. Winston Churchill was notorious for working through the night with military chiefs during WW2, but he always had an hours sleep during the day!
It's true that if you havn't slept much at night you might like to do the same and have a mid-day nap, but others will warn you against this because you then become bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at your bed time! But infact it is quite healthy to have a mid-day nap, and in warmer climates it is known as siesta.
If I am laying awake at night and can't sleep, my trick that usually works is to try to induce a dream. I do this by closing my eyes, but at the same time looking if you understand. I make the decision that I am not going to think or work out problems etc, but focus my eyes and enjoy the dark screen. Most of the time all I see is in my mind's eye is black speckled with faint lights a bit like the stary night sky (These lights could be faint electro-chemical impulses at the back of the eye), but from time to time, and I don't know how this happens, I see little sparks and flashes of colour. It's the imagination I suppose. These flashes of colour usually start off abstact but evolve into shapes and forms that I soon recognise....I don't try to influence this process because that would keep the concious mind awake. I just try to watch and 'enjoy the show' (!) and the more time goes by the more it takes hold before the subconscious has me lost in a dream that I will not remember when I wake up in the morning!
If you have ever thought I was mad, you now have the proof!!
All the best with your sleeping!!
Twizzle
PS Please note that the only drug taken late before bedtime is Singulair (Montelukast Sodium) - which apparently does seem to add more dreams to the night!!
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