How can I stop waking In the night?

[Wonderingwhyme]

I don’t sleep well due to poor health with dcs so Iv had broken sleep for over 13 years. I’m a light sleeper and struggle to fall asleep so I take low melatonin and I can fall asleep fine. Trouble is I wake in the night and can’t go back to sleep. Twice this week I have got up at 3am. Last night I woke at 3am, I thought it must be 6am so I could get up... but it wasn’t. I tried meditating, just resting, reading etc etc so I ended up getting up.

Sleep hygiene is fine, no screens, don’t drink caffeine after 2pm, eat healthily, drink mainly water, eat dinner at 530/6pm and don’t eat after.

I go to bed after the dc, so In bed by 9pm and asleep by 930pm. I’m an early riser and that’s ok but 3am is not! I have such a headache today and feel like shit.

When I take things like piriton or night nurse, they help but next day I have headache and feel a little hung over. I do tend to take one or the other on a Friday night just so I have a good sleep once a week.

Can anyone suggest anything? I wake often in the night, most of the time I can go back to sleep but it’s getting worse now and I can’t.

Please help?!

What a nightmare I am. I don’t read books twice because I know how it ends so I don’t like to, I’d rather read a new one!! Before anyone has a go, no I don’t waste brand new books!

Try magnesium spray or cream. I use these as well.

Are the sprays as effective as the tablets?

I’m the same. Someone told me it’s just a perimenopause thing, and eventually it passes. I bloody hope so.

Try magnesium spray OP. It absorbs better - you just rub it into skin.

Oh bloody hell I thought I had a few years before I start worrying about anything to do with the menopause!

Thank you I will try the spray.

I quite often wake up in the middle of the night, but usually do manage to go back to sleep - even though my sleep hygiene stuff is awful before bed! I second audiobooks (I’ve been falling asleep to Harry Potter since I was about 6 - 20 years later and it still cues my brain to sleep. I also now sleep with an eye mask which is mostly because we don’t have blackout curtains in our bedroom and it’s unbearably bright in summer but has a knock on effect of preventing the light from my Fitbit getting to my eyes if I wake up.

When I do have bad nights where I can’t get back to sleep, I usually get up and lie down somewhere else - the spare bed or the sofa - and take my audiobook with me.

I notice when I wake up a lot (last night for example) it’s because I’m thirsty and need to drink through the night. Have you managed to pinpoint if there’s anything that wakes you or if it’s just no rhyme or reason?

I second going to the loo in the dark if you need to.

I've had this a lot recently.
I'm going to look into the weighted blanket.
I've recently bought magnesium oil to rub into my restless legs from Holland and Barrett. They do a smaller bottle which is great to try it.

I think it’s my body clock is shot. My kids have SN and both on melatonin from paediatrician, so they’ve started to sleep so much better yet my body is used to waking up. Neighbour is schizophrenic and is up at night and sleeps in day and maybe once a week bangs on the walls and wakes me. Yes Iv spoken to them and no it won’t change. Normally I know when he’s woken me though. It wasn’t him this week. I get that sleep paralysis too, so my sleep is screwed up!

I don’t know what wakes me. Good idea about eye mask.. or I could tape something over the screen. To be fair I take the fitbit off in my sleep.

Helpful things about ce found:
Warm shower before bed
Warm milk
Keeping hair up so don't get hot
Right balance of clothing/ duvet tog weight so dont get hot
Eye mask
Sleeping alone
never checking the time when i wake/ no visible clock. if the alarm hasn't gone off i just lie there and get back to sleep more easily then i do if i know what time is
No caffeine/ alcohol
Going to bed later than i think i should
Exercise

Random, but white noise? I can fall asleep to that quite easily now.

Yes I have white noise apps. Haven’t fallen asleep with it on for a while though. May try that tonight too.

I’ve found ear plugs and keeping the bedroom quite cold help. Also no caffeine after noon.

I used to be like this. My best advice (like others) is just not to stress. Your body is still resting if you are lying down in bed so try to see it as a treat that you get to read a few chapters of your book. When it is time to get up try to think 'I am not tired after all that rest!'.

Gradually my stress about my insomnia faded and I now rarely wake up in the night. If I do I fall asleep fairly quickly after reading.

I think the type of book is important - not too complex/hard-hitting and not too exciting. I go for bestseller 'women's fiction' of the crappy variety for my night time wakings even though I normally read sterner stuff...

I call that ‘fluff’ reading. that’s the sort of reading I do as I don’t have the brain space for anything more thrilling! You’re right about trying to see it as a good thing having the chance to read.

I love earplugs but one of the dc is a sleep walker so sadly they aren’t an option.

Take magnesium and zinc supplements. Life changing