If you have insomnia...

[anythinginapinch]

Does getting pissed help? I'm so tired, and tired of the nightly fight that goes on for hours to get to sleep.

I'm thinking a few too many glasses of wine might help?

Yes but you don't want to become reliant

You have every sympathy from me. Even from a child I haven't slept well. I wake at all peculiar hours.

Yes I can sleep after alcohol but then I pay for it when I don't drink.

I dread going to bed not knowing what sort of night I have. Sometimes I wake at the exact time every night... like 3.58am. To the minute. Not 4am, not 3.30am but 3.58am

The only way I can get over that after night after night with waking at a ridiculous hour and basically not sleeping again, is to take half a sleeping tablet (over the counter Sominex) and that resets my sleep again for a few days/weeks.

Good luck @anythinginapinch I have battled for all my life with lack of sleep, if I can help with anything else, let me know.

Doesn't work for me. It gets me to sleep yes, but I then wake throughout the night and have a really horrible restless night.

I take sleeping tablets to help me, Nytol or Sleepeze.

On the fence. I struggle with sleeping

Have tried it all. In my opinion alcohol can help, (but you don’t want to rely on it). It can also take you the other way and keep you awake.
Never feel like I’ve had a proper, restful sleep either.

I tend to blitz the house or garden for hours, and I’m talking hours! Today I’ve been to DM, blitzed her garden and conservatory from 9.30-6pm. Home, bath, food, I have a glass of wine and then bed.

I watched a 'BBC documentary on sleep and they looked at various remedies for insomnia and the one that came out on top was prebiotics. Not probiotics, prebiotics. So I ordered some. It's a powder that you mix with a bit of water and drink before bed. It is, without doubt, the most disgusting thing I have ever consumed. So bad that I hoped it wouldn't work. But it did. I slept like a baby for the first time in my adult life. So now I take the vile concoction every night.

It doesn't help me; even if I get to sleep, the quality of my sleep when I've been drinking is so poor that I feel just as tired the next day with the added bonus of feeling hungover.

Is it helping every night? I'm willing to eat mud it if worked at this point? How long have you been using it?

Can I ask which prebiotic ?

Wine helps me go to sleep, but I still wake up in the middle of the night and can't go back to sleep. So I have two strategies - I have half a ripe banana, that usually puts me back to sleep quite quickly. Secondly, I try to recall happy scenes from my childhood e.g. coming home from school (walk, train, walk) and my mother (or grandmother who lived with us) has a cool drink and something to eat waiting for me on the kitchen bench. I play with my dog in the garden etc. It's very relaxing!
I tried drugs from my GP but they had side effects. All the best to you.

Sominex for me as well. Interested in the Prebiotics though. Menopause sucks.

I think the second you are medicating with alcohol you are getting in to risky territory and when I've spoken to folk with problematic drinking they often say that they began drinking after a tough day or drank more when they were having a tough time.

I follow all the sleep hygiene, bath before bed, no phones in bedroom, fresh sheets as much as possible, cold bedroom and warm bed, audiobook, sleep spray, blackout curtains, eyemask. But in all reality when I get into a loop of poor sleep I make sure DH is ready to sort kids and take a phenergan. I don't want to need to take them but it just resets my sleep.

I want to know about the Prebiotics. I'll try anything.

I only take Sominex infrequently, I have a complete dread of being hooked on something or finding I have taken it too much and it doesn;t work. So half a tablet for me is when I am really desperate.

Back at the beginning of the year, because it being winter and dark, I had a two week time where I slept like everyone else I know does. 7 full hours, no waking, solid sleep.
It was just glorious. I just imagined that everyone I know sleeps like this and I was so envious.
It didn't last. It was a blip. I'd love it again

Not really. It's not real sleep and you wake up needing the toilet.

Best thing is honestly to get off screens. It's hard.

Another insomnia sufferer here. I'm bloody sick of it. Worse since menopause!

What prebiotic works? I would eat or drink anything right now, if ur meant I could sleep like a normal human being !

I'm interested in the prebiotics too.

I have severe insomnia and nothing over the counter will touch it now. Tried CBD drops last couple of nights but they haven't stopped the constant waking.

Been to the GP but no help at all.

No. Piriton works and if I wake up I listen to a boring Podcast

I made peace with my insomnia (22 years and counting!) when I read about how humans are actually programmed to sleep in 4 hour windows.

So in the dark ages you might go to bed around 8pm and sleep until 1am. Then wake up at 1am and do things around the house such as bake bread. Then go back to sleep at 3am and wake around 7am.

I have to accept my early morning wakings or they would drive me mad, read quietly or listen to a podcast. I usually go to bed at 10.30, wake at 3 and go to the loo, aim to be back to sleep at 5 and my alarm gets me up at 7.30. That gives me 7 hours sleep which is good.

Doesn’t help me because staying asleep is my issue, not getting to sleep.

Only thing that helps me is otc sleepaid Kirkland tablets bought online. It’s doxylamine and I think it comes from abroad. Feels slightly dodgy buying them but they really work and I use one on a Sunday night when I’m working so I get a good nights sleep for the week ahead.

They do make me feel a little groggy the next morning but it’s generally wearing off by 9am when I start work and a good nights sleep is worth it.

Most other nights I’m awake a couple of hours and listen to audiobooks.

No, it makes it much worse! It's harder to get to sleep when pissed and the sleep quality is terrible.
sleeping pills or weed are the ones.

@MaireadMcSweeney oh god...weed! I did buy some weed and MCT oil. 1 drop and I was not feeling too clever at all 🙄

Argh. It's all too much. I used to lay head on pillow and the magic happened. Now I fight, try calm memories, try Audible, rain-noise, meditate, get up, try again... until the small hours. Trying wine tonight

Drinking only makes me sleep worse.

My doc prescribes enough sleeping pills for me to take two weeks out of every four, which prevents me getting addicted to them. I don't find that alcohol helps (on the nights I'm not taking pills, obvs) - booze helps me get to sleep, but I inevitably wake up around 2 or 3 am feeling a bit rough, in need of the bathroom, and then struggle to doze off again. My nights after a glass of wine or two are far worse than my nights drug and booze free. I've just started vaping CBD, and that actually seems to help, making me more relaxed, but it could be a placebo effect of course. If I still smoked (and I'm glad I don't) a spliff would send me off for the night, but I'd be coughing in the morning!

I've heard magnesium is good.

Of it you have a friend in the EU who could buy and send you otc Melatonin?

I can't sleep at all without a white noise machine. It has helped me over decades.

Still dont sleep well but better than I used to.

If I could pick something in my life I couldn;t do without, that would be it.