Calling out to all ex insomniacs!!

[Kala24]

If anyone used to be a terrible sleeper and has now gotten better with it, PLEASE share what has worked for you!

I have always been a bad sleeper but since having my own home and my own bed it did get better. However for the past month or two it's been really bad. I always wake up once in the night anyway, always have done so I am usually always tired because I never just sleep through. However at the minute I can't get back to sleep once I've woken up at like 2am!

Things I have tried:
Benadryl - this made me sleep until 9:30am which is unlike me but I still woke up once or twice in the night. Can't take it if I'm at work the next morning

Melatonin - I've used this loads in the hopes that one day it will work but it hasn't as of yet.

Magnesium - not sure which type these are. It just says "magnesium" on the box. I've only taken it for the past three nights though and last night was one of the worst sleeps I've ever had. Don't know if I managed more than an hour and even that was broken up.

People's advice is always a hot drink and a bath before bed or listening to a podcast. But a hot bath at 8pm or whatever time isn't going to help me go back to sleep at 2am. I need something that will help me sleep straight through, or at least fall back to sleep very quickly. Doctors won't seem to give me anything stronger than antihistamines.

Please help!

quit drinking, and now I sleep all night

Half a Stugeron tablet helps me get a good nights sleep and I'm not left feeling drowsy the next day. A whole tablet works the same but leaves me feeling eugh for the next day. Appreciate this is probably not a long term solution but when I'm desperate it really helps me re-set.

Night nurse

To the people saying to not eat after dinner, what effect does this have on sleep please? I always have a bowl of cereal before bed lol. I eat dinner between 5 and 6 and then at 9:30 I feel a bit peckish and fancy something sweet so I have a bowl of cereal and have done this for as long as I can remember. Is there some sort of correlation?

I admire the people who can still go out and exercise when you've only had a few hours sleep and feel awful. Last night was horrendous for me and I've felt quite ill all day because of it and I really can't even imagine exercising right now... I might just go for a little walk maybe but the thought of it seems like climbing Everest

Also if melatonin works for you, which one do you use? Is there a difference between gummies and tablets etc? Or does that not matter? I take 10mg of fast dissolve ones that you just pop under the tongue. They really don't help at all

I have some amitriptyline in the drawer but I am really reluctant to take it because I want a long term safe solution

I am sleeping better since I completely cut out caffeine.

I put myself on “wind down” for the hour before I go to bed, so I don’t do anything except read or watch tv. No phone calls or messages, no big in-depth conversations (my husband has a dreadful habit of wanting to discuss complicated financial things just before bed. I’ve explained often enough that now I just say no). Nothing that might make my brain start churning.

And then I listen to the Nothing Much Happens podcast. I only discovered it a couple of weeks ago following a recommendation here, so I can’t say it has completely fixed me yet, but I’m definitely on the way. I actually look forward to hearing her say she’ll be watching over me while I sleep, it’s so comforting 😀

Depending on your age it could be peri menopause. For years I’d got to sleep ok but wake at 4am then it started moving to 3am, when a week of 2am wake ups happened I finally went to the drs. I’m on HRT now and sleep until my alarm goes off at 7am and wakes me up. It’s been a complete game changer for me although I realise it’s not something everyone can take.

Sugar is a stimulant and takes a while for effects to leave your body. Can definitely cause restlessness and keep you awake too.

Sertraline did it for me

If you are having a milky drink before bed, don't have a biscuit with it.

I have been a terrible sleeper most of my life. It came to a head about 4 years ago and I have been under NHS specialist insomnia care since. And they basically fixed me!

Insomnia is all about the mind. You don't actually need any pills, weighted blankets, blinds ya da ya da. Those are bandaids to help regular people sleep better for a short time. People with real, suicide inducing insomnia need to totally reset their relationship with sleep.

There is an app called Sleepio which the NHS uses. It's based on a therapy called CBTi (CBT insomnia). I have not found CBT helpful in the past but this was much better. The programme is tailored to you and your specific sleep issues. It will tell you exactly what to do each week. The main premise is you start restricting your sleep windows and training your brain to associate bed only with deep sleep. It also helps you feel much calmer about not sleeping, which helps too.

If you can't get the app through the NHS you can pay for it yourself. Don't quote me on this but I think it's around £150 for the programme.

You can also read up on CBTi. There are books about it too if that's more accessible for you.

I found raising the head of the bed up slightly by putting a pillow under the mattress and then on top having a very flat pillow lower down under my ribs and a normal pillow for my head. The gap between the two top pillows is where my shoulder and arm goes, and then I go into the recovery position! Honestly I was 50 before I discovered this and still can't quite work out how I got to it but it's changed my nights.

Nytol helps me. Also a Spotify Get Sleepy podcast helps me drift off. Weirdly, doing low carb has also helped, think it releases some chemical that helps with sleep. Not being able to sleep sucks, I've had problems with it my whole life.

This is me.

I don't have caffeine anyway.
I exercise daily (mostly walking)

I've tried
Melatonin
Magnesium
Phenergan (worked for a short while)
Night nurse.

I do also work nights and I am also peri menopausal. Plus I just get used to sharing a bed with dp after 8 weeks then he goes back to sea and I have to get used to sleeping alone.

I also do pillow between my legs

The only thing that makes me sleep a full night is naproxen and cocodomol and a Phenergan. Which probably isn't safe. But sometimes I get to the point where I'm so bloody desperate!

If you take more than 2mg of melatonin it has the opposite effect. The amount shown on the package and the amount in the actual tablet have been proven to be drastically different as well. All melatonin can do is help you regulate your sleep cycle. It won't help at 2am.

I have used: strong prescriptions, valerian, passion flower, lemon balm, diffusing essential oils, and addressing the issues that are waking me up or keeping me awake. Are you on high alert or having anxiety? It helps me to check all the doors before I go to bed, and keeping blackout curtains on my windows, it makes me feel more secure. Are you breathing well? What's the catalyst for waking?

Let us know what you tried & if anything changed, OP.

Having babies ruined my sleep. Not that my sleep was ever great. Babies meant that I had to learn to wake up quickly & be functional. I couldn't undo that programming. My youngest baby is almost 16yo, btw.

Placemarking

I would like to have a baby at some point but my sleep and tiredness puts me off. I feel like if I'm this sleep deprived and tired and struggle this much in the night without any children, I cant even imagine how much worse this would be if I had even more wake ups in the night and instead of lying there trying to go back to sleep I had to get up and deal with a baby. Plus looking after them through the day when you're so exhausted. It puts me off because I genuinely don't think I'd be able to cope and it would be a miserable existence.

I actually didn't sleep too badly last night. I had magnesium again and managed to sleep a bit longer but still woke up early with a massive headache

When I wake I do this exercise that sometimes helps get me back to sleep.

Lie on back in comfortable position. Start at toes working your way up. Tense toes and feet as hard as possible for 2-3 seconds then let it go, move up to calves, then thighs then, bum, then hands, arms, shoulders, face, tongue, eyelids.

It can help. Sometimes. I also do visualisations of calming things to quite my busy head. Like lying in the warm sun and I imagine feeling the warm sun on differ parts of my body in turn.

But when it got too bad I went in HRT and that works a treat 😬

Yes that sweet cereal will cause your blood sugar levels to crash later and is likely a cause of you waking up and staying awake.

i only found this our when pregnant but it applies generally.

it’s sounds like you need to overhaul your approach to health more widely.

eat better - home made from scratch protein and fat rich carb light meals. Cut our all processed sugar and reduce white carbs (which our bodies metabolise into blood sugars).

no caffeine or alcohol. Plenty of water.

yes exercise. A walk everyday but also proper exercise which raises your pulse rate several times a week. Find something you enjoy if running or the gym don’t do it for you. A proper yoga class will get your pulse going unless you are v fit already and is good for relaxation too.

It shouldn’t be controversial it’s well known for helping sleep!

OP I sympathise, I’ve had insomnia all my adult life. I have a medical marijuana prescription now & take prescription sleeping pills to regulate me a few times a week, but I’m chronically ill now so it’s the least of my problems in a way. I just sleep when I can.

When I was well the only thing that worked, particularly post-menopause was, unfortunately, hard exercise. Used to swim a lot. Annoying but worked. Getting out in the daylight too. Not napping - incredibly hard if you’re so tired but once you’ve got through the day you’ll normally be knackered enough to sleep better that night.

second black out blinds, eye masks, and ear plugs for night wakings. I don’t look at clock and phone so don’t get wound up about the time. Podcast / audio book on and can usually drift back off. Count backwards from 100. Meditation or body scan. Breathing exercises.

As for the magnesium yes there’s a good kind that relaxes you that has worked for me - I was surprised. It’s not citrate - stay away from that, as that can upset your stomach. Can’t remember the sort off hand but have a research online or go to a good health food store and ask them.

good luck. There’s not much worse!

Slow release 5mg Melotonin - might wake up feeling a bit groggy/overly relaxed but keeps me sleeping all night.

Perhaps try slow release 3mg melatonin first. For me it didn't stop the night waking insomnia completely but worked to a degree.

I got to an impossible state.

My dd made me try a sleep hypnosis on Spotify. She says it always works.

Now I start breathing deep and slow. Start yawning and I'm gone. I'm furious I didn't try it earlier!

I agree that health needs looking at but sometimes you need the sleep so you can think straight and start putting in positive change. You can get into a vicious cycle. A few nights of decent sleep can turn a tired, confused and "always on edge" brain into one which can help you start to think about improvements and logically start to put these into practice.