Insomnia?/Tips for good sleep

olestoepoke

wally1990 wrote: »

Can you simply buy it over the counter?

No not in iireland im afraid. Otc in the USA and a few other countries but not here.

olestoepoke

Word of warning I've heard that melatonin works wonders for some and does nothing for others. Been absolutely brilliant for me

meggiemegmeg

I bought melatonin (abroad) but it didn’t help at all. I use valerian-from a herbalist. I find it fantastic. Stress is my biggest trigger for disturbed sleep. I try to walk everyday and write stuff down about what’s stressing me out.

Fathom

meggiemegmeg wrote: »

Stress is my biggest trigger for disturbed sleep. I try to walk everyday and write stuff down about what’s stressing me out.

It may be interesting to note 2 types of stress. The Hans Selye Theory suggests that distress is bad, but eustress is good. The former drags us down and can adversely affect sleep. The last is positive and gets us up in the morning to take on the days challenges. Of course, this is an simplification of his theory. Didn't want to stress us all out with heavy conceptualizations.

Airyfairy12

My favorite thing about lockdowns is I can sleep to my own body clock and dont have to force myself out of bed at 7am.

olestoepoke wrote: »

Word of warning I've heard that melatonin works wonders for some and does nothing for others. Been absolutely brilliant for me

I was prescribed this, the first night it worked wonders, I had the best nights sleep, the second night and every other night after that, it did nothing. So annoying.

Not to give medical advice but antihistamines work great, not sure if this is just me but if I take them for a few nights a weeks I get a rash that spreads from under my chin and gradually spreads across my entire face. Besides this, I generally get a good nights sleep with them.

Yyhhuuu

Stop eating junk food to help sleep

olestoepoke

Yyhhuuu wrote: »

Stop eating junk food to help sleep

Wouldn't it be just wonderful if it was as easy as that?

Fathom

Airyfairy12 wrote: »

Not to give medical advice but antihistamines work great, not sure if this is just me but if I take them for a few nights a weeks I get a rash that spreads from under my chin and gradually spreads across my entire face. Besides this, I generally get a good nights sleep with them.

Let's just say that it would be best to consult your GP about "antihistamines" rather than us here.

corks finest

olestoepoke wrote: »

Wouldn't it be just wonderful if it was as easy as that?

I went through years of it, stress a lot of it, trued herbal sleeping tablets, ordinary ones, etc etc, found I got back into reading big time, it helped, also meditation definitely was also good, but my reading nightly did it, now I'm not brilliant but get about 5/6 hours which for me is great

80j2lc5y7u6qs9

meggiemegmeg wrote: »

. I use valerian-from a herbalist. I find it fantastic. Stress is my biggest trigger for disturbed sleep. I try to walk everyday and write stuff down about what’s stressing me out.

any side effects with the valerian and is that like the valerian from the health food shop? I read it works like valium on the GABA system but while valium works immediately I have read valerian takes a few night to build up.

Fathom

Massage by significant other. Puts me out every time.

Yyhhuuu

olestoepoke wrote: »

Wouldn't it be just wonderful if it was as easy as that?

It's one step

80j2lc5y7u6qs9

olestoepoke wrote: »

Wouldn't it be just wonderful if it was as easy as that?

I often could not sleep and had no junk food eaten

olestoepoke

Kristopher Cool Redneck wrote: »

I often could not sleep and had no junk food eaten

I think the poster was correct in that if you incorporated health eating and exercise into your life it 100% will help with sleep but not an instant cure by any means.

arex93

I don't know if I have insomnia or just bad habits, every night I am struggling to fall asleep. I'm feeling anxious, so it could be the cause. I try to avoid my phone, I put some relaxing music, drink chamomile tea before bed but with no results. I go to bed around 11pm to fall asleep at 4am. Yesterday I took valerian, It made me feel very relaxed but I slept only around 2h30am. I will try today again, but this time I will take one during the evening and one before going to bed. I'm looking for a job, I'm felling a useless person… and these habits won't help me.

Fathom

Fathom wrote: »

Massage by significant other. Puts me out every time.

Step 1: Find a girlfriend.

olestoepoke

arex93 wrote: »

I don't know if I have insomnia or just bad habits, every night I am struggling to fall asleep. I'm feeling anxious, so it could be the cause. I try to avoid my phone, I put some relaxing music, drink chamomile tea before bed but with no results. I go to bed around 11pm to fall asleep at 4am. Yesterday I took valerian, It made me feel very relaxed but I slept only around 2h30am. I will try today again, but this time I will take one during the evening and one before going to bed. I'm looking for a job, I'm felling a useless person… and these habits won't help me.

One of the biggest mistakes we can make is staying in bed when u can't sleep, tormenting yourself. Brain now associates bed with mental torture. Get up after 30 min when u know u won't sleep, go to another room and do something to calm your mind or boring. Me I go to the livingroom lie down and listen to a richard dawkins audio book, when I feel sleepy i go to bed and usually this works well for me

arex93

olestoepoke wrote: »

One of the biggest mistakes we can make is staying in bed when u can't sleep, tormenting yourself. Brain now associates bed with mental torture. Get up after 30 min when u know u won't sleep, go to another room and do something to calm your mind or boring. Me I go to the livingroom lie down and listen to a richard dawkins audio book, when I feel sleepy i go to bed and usually this works well for me

Jaysus, you are right. I've just realized that in the past I used to go to bed later than today, but usually I fell asleep straight away. I will do something about it. Thank you!

Fathom

olestoepoke wrote: »

One of the biggest mistakes we can make is staying in bed when u can't sleep

I sometimes move from bed to couch. Turn on boring TV. Puts me out.

olestoepoke

Fathom wrote: »

I sometimes move from bed to couch. Turn on boring TV. Puts me out.

Yeah I think you need to find what works for you. I read the book "the effortless sleep method". Some of the advice worked well for me some didn't. I'm back sleeping properly now and here's what I did, Get out of bed after 20 or 30 minutes when you know you're not gonna sleep, staying there only strengthens the association with not being able to sleep.

Started eating healthier than normal, cut right back on caffeine, two cups of coffee in the morning and maybe one cup of tea early afternoon. Also no food after 6pm.

Started walking for about 40 minutes everyday briskly with the dog.

Set my alarm for 7 am every morning 7 days a week and don't go to bed until I'm tired, if I cant sleep I get up go to the couch stick on an audiobook from YouTube on the laptop and when I feel tired go back to bed and I usually drift off.

Fathom

olestoepoke wrote: »

Started walking for about 40 minutes everyday briskly with the dog.

I workout every day. Normally helps.

Thelonious Monk

I am on the 3rd week of the sleepio program. Having kept a sleep diary the previous 2 weeks sleepio came to the conclusion I should go to bed at 0115 and get up at 0630 this week. Sunday night wasn't great but last night I slept right through, so around 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep, which for me is fantastic.
The program is a form of CBT, which aims for you to associate your bed just with sleeping and nothing else. If you wake up and can't get back asleep within 15 minutes you get up and go to a different room until you're sleepy again. It seems to be cutting out the anxiety I had about going to bed as I find nothing worse than lying there writhing try to sleep.
I haven't had any alcohol since New Year's Eve either so that helps, having a few drinks can mess up my sleep for days.

olestoepoke

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

I am on the 3rd week of the sleepio program. Having kept a sleep diary the previous 2 weeks sleepio came to the conclusion I should go to bed at 0115 and get up at 0630 this week. Sunday night wasn't great but last night I slept right through, so around 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep, which for me is fantastic.
The program is a form of CBT, which aims for you to associate your bed just with sleeping and nothing else. If you wake up and can't get back asleep within 15 minutes you get up and go to a different room until you're sleepy again. It seems to be cutting out the anxiety I had about going to bed as I find nothing worse than lying there writhing try to sleep.
I haven't had any alcohol since New Year's Eve either so that helps, having a few drinks can mess up my sleep for days.

Sounds like a combination of good sleep hygiene (breaking the bad association) and sleep restriction. Definitely the way forward for anyone with problems. Worked for me, although I do still have occasional bad nights.

Thelonious Monk

olestoepoke wrote: »

Sounds like a combination of good sleep hygiene (breaking the bad association) and sleep restriction. Definitely the way forward for anyone with problems. Worked for me, although I do still have occasional bad nights.

yes sleepio.com is worth a look. Hopefully if I keep this up for a while my attitude towards bed and sleep might change. I feel so great after 5 hours solid sleep, I can never understand these people who say they need 8 or 9 hours or they can't function!

olestoepoke

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

yes sleepio.com is worth a look. Hopefully if I keep this up for a while my attitude towards bed and sleep might change. I feel so great after 5 hours solid sleep, I can never understand these people who say they need 8 or 9 hours or they can't function!

Sleep is so important and most take it for granted. I was angry when I came onto several boards threads and posters were making fun of others. One poster actually used the word 'suicidal' and still people belittled the topic and cracked jokes. Some have the odd sleepless night while others have serious problems that aren't one bit funny. The effortless sleep method is worth a read imo a good book.

Thelonious Monk

olestoepoke wrote: »

Sleep is so important and most take it for granted. I was angry when I came onto several boards threads and posters were making fun of others. One poster actually used the word 'suicidal' and still people belittled the topic and cracked jokes. Some have the odd sleepless night while others have serious problems that aren't one bit funny. The effortless sleep method is worth a read imo a good book.

I've read a lot, I can't keep up with them all. I was reading one called the sleep book recently, seems pretty good. I think most of them have the same message, what I like about sleepio is it is making me put it into practice.

weetiepie

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

yes sleepio.com is worth a look. Hopefully if I keep this up for a while my attitude towards bed and sleep might change. I feel so great after 5 hours solid sleep, I can never understand these people who say they need 8 or 9 hours or they can't function!

Because we are all different I suppose we need varying amounts of sleep. It think the younger you are the more sleep.you need..as in 8/9 hrs. I know my parent can survive on 5 hrs and is fine

weetiepie

olestoepoke wrote: »

Sleep is so important and most take it for granted. I was angry when I came onto several boards threads and posters were making fun of others. One poster actually used the word 'suicidal' and still people belittled the topic and cracked jokes. Some have the odd sleepless night while others have serious problems that aren't one bit funny. The effortless sleep method is worth a read imo a good book.

Coundnt agree more with you..sleep is so essential, like eating/drinking. It's amazing how quickly my mental state crumbles after successive nights of little to no sleep. It's a huge effort to keep my sleep hygiene right..but is essential to do so. I have huge empathy for people who are insomniacs. Its soul destroying trying to function on little or no sleep.on a day to day basis

Fathom

Sleep can be entertaining, too. I remember my dreams. Almost every night. Even spooky ones. For those I wake, Whew... just a dream! Now for a good day. Every day.

TP_CM

Anyone have advice for solving sleep maintenance insomnia? I could go to bed at anytime after 8:30pm, and fall asleep within a few minutes. But 5 hours later I wake up, wide awake unable to get back to sleep.

More recently, I've been

- Going to bed at around 10:30pm, sleeping until 3:30am,
- Reading until 5:30am and then sleeping again
- Waking up between 7:30 and 8am (I haven't needed an alarm in the past 5+ years. I always wake up between 7:30 and 8am)

The problem I have is that sometimes, I can't get the 5am-7:30am sleep. I lie there absolutely shattered but not sleepy, if that makes sense? Almost like a jetlag.

The only idea I have is going to bed earlier, say 9:30 and sleeping until 2:30am. Which gives me more time then to get a 2 hour nap in before 7:30. I'm worried about the anti-social hours though. I mean that's over 10 hours in bed, 2-3 of which are spent reading in the middle of the night. I would much rather sleep from 10:30 to 6:30am.