Rubbish sleep recently. What helped you?

[katieloves]

I’m not sure if it’s my age (47), or everything that’s going on at the moment but I’m constantly tired because my sleep is so rubbish. I tend to fall asleep ok but wake up after a few hours and either stay awake from then or have patchy sleep until the alarm goes off. I find myself worrying about things that don’t seem so important during the day. I’ve tried magnesium citrate tablets and if anything slept worse. I haven’t got the facilities to listen to a podcast if I wake up and don’t want to disturb my dh. Is there anything I can try that helped you?

Ugh, sympathies. I'm a bit younger than you but have been struggling with this over the last year. The only thing that works consistently is tiring myself out physically (and I mean, not just getting my heart rate up for a bit but really properly tired out - like a 5km run without stopping, a 2 hour's walk in the cold, or an exercise video until my legs and arms are like jelly), no caffeine after 3pm, and no screens within an hour of bed. I sleep a lot better on the weekends because I've been going for really long walks seeing friends one on one.

I find if I'm tired mentally but not physically I wake up around 3am ruminating, get back to sleep around 5am and then wake up with the alarm feeling absolutely shattered. I think the physical tiredness is necessary to keep me asleep when my brain tries to wake me up!

Is it linked to your cycle? I get this the week before my period. I have been waking too with anxiety and negative thoughts but I know it will pass soon.

Magnesium Citrate isn't the best form for sleep. It's worth reading about the benefits of the different forms but Magnesium Glycinate is the form recommended for sleep and it does help me. I still wake but usually can fall back to sleep more quickly. The other thing that helps is listening to an audible book through Alexa - or ask Alexa to tell me a bedtime story. They are enough to engage my brain enough to stop the rumination but not exciting enough to stop me sleeping. Music played through Alexa can also help - again ask for 'relaxing music' so you get a slowish steady tempo. You can tell her to stop after 10/15 mins or however long you find it takes you to drop off.

Ear plugs. I buy quies wax ones. I think the noise of pipes clanking / house creaking etc wakes me up sometimes and the ear plugs help with that.

Not looking at the clock when I wake up. It's the worst thing to be ticking down the minutes.

The council just changed the streetlights outside my house to go off at midnight. Now it’s much darker in my bedroom I find my sleep less disturbed and when I do wake for a wee I fall back asleep quicker. So I’d suggest some form of blackout if you haven’t got them already.

Melatonin is amazing, I take it an hour before bed on nights I feel I’m going to struggle. Fall into a lovely deep sleep, and wake up feeling refreshed. It’s not like a sleeping tablet, you don’t feel drowsy, just relaxed and sleepy.

a weighted blanket