I've developed insomnia. Please help!

[isthatstrange]

For the past 2 weeks I have been waking up at some ridiculously early hour, then lying in bed awake until it is time to get up. When i am awake i can't stop thinking of small problems and worrying about them - really silly things that don't seem important during the day. I am then tired all day and fall asleep at bedtime, but then the cycle continues. Please help me snap out of this.

[SarryB]

I suffer from insomnia during stressful times. I must have slept only 8 hours a week when I was about 14!

I found and still find that writing stuff down before I go to bed, and writing again if I wake up in the night helped a lot. Sometimes I would write down the things I was thinking, but sometimes I just write nonsense or a little made-up story.

[TotallyEggFlipped]

Keep a pen & paper by the bed to write things down, so you don keep yourself awake remembering them.

Make sure there are no mobile phones in the room.

If you can't get back to sleep, get up and go and sit quietly in a chair and read for a short while, so you're not just lying awake in bed.

Avoid caffeine and alcohol.

[Jane7]

Hi isthatstrange
I've had this intermittently since my first ds was born. The best advice I can offer is to try to imagine that it doesn't matter if you get back to sleep or not. Insomnia often comes about when you're caught up with how much you need to sleep. The more you want it, the more it evades you. If I wake early, I tell myself how nice it is just to lie in bed and relax, and how nice it is that my children are still asleep and I don't have to do anything except lie here and I tell myself that just lying still and resting is incredibly good for my body, almost as good as sleeping, and that I need to just stay still and relax and let my body get as much rest as possible even if I'm not asleep. By which point...zzzz. i'm usally asleep. But I do sympthaise = it's a pain in arse. But all these things seem to happen in cycles and I find I'll have it for a bit - and I just accept it and do as above - and then it'll pass and I'll start sleeping realy well after my 5am pee. I think having dodgy sleep patterns and intermittent insomina can come hand in hand with children.