Please help - poor sleep

[SmallHoulding]

I am in my mid 30's and my sleep is just getting progressively worse.

Most nights I go to sleep at about 11pm and wake up at 2 or 3am snd then I can't get back to sleep, or if I do it's maybe for an hour right before I have to get up. After a few nights of this I maybe get one full night's sleep and then it's back to being poor again.

I know and do fhe sleep hygiene. I try to have a tired body but a rested mind, use loop ear plugs, limit caffine, have blackout blinds etc.

It's awful. One night last week I literally got a single hour of sleep.

I've tried staying in bed once I've woken up, ive tried getting up and having a drink of warm milk or herbal tea or sitting downstairs for a bit. I just don't know what to do any more. There are some nights I get so frustrated I have a drink of something alcoholic just to help me get back over, but I inevitably wake up feeling groggy and I'm not really a big drinker usually. It seems ridiculous to resort to alcohol as some sort of 3am medicine, but that does happen a few times a month just because I need to get to sleep.

I'm looking for any advice or suggestions.

No advice just sympathy! 4/5 hours is a good nights sleep for me. Hence me still being awake at 3am and my alarm is going to go off at 7!
I’ve tried it all and not found a “cure”
the best night sleep I had was when I had a really bad whiplash injury and was prescribed diazepam, slept like the dead for one single solitary night never to be repeated.
ps I don’t recommend drugging yourself jut to get a sleep!

Sympathy here too. I used to struggle to fall asleep, but melatonin helps that now. Sadly I wake multiple times a night needing a wee now, sometimes as much as every single hour. I don’t know why as I don’t even drink that much! I suffer with chronic back pain, so sometimes that wakes me, or makes it impossible to fall back to sleep. Weirdly, when I had the flu in December, I wasn’t waking at all during the night, so I know my body can go longer without needing the loo!

Hoping I fall back to sleep soon as I got an early night because I felt so exhausted….. I might as well have not bothered.

Did your GP prescribe melatonin? I haven't discussed with a GP yet.

No, I bought it online after seeing people on here talking about it. I’m on a waiting list for ADHD diagnosis and apparently it’s very common with that to struggle with insomnia.

Sadly the company I used have just stopped shipping to the UK so not sure what I’m going to do once I run out. Apparently GP’s can prescribe it if you’re over 55, but only for a set time frame. I’m not old enough for that so can’t see them prescribing it to me. And when I was paying less than £9 for 200 tablets (1 per day), anyone who has to pay for a prescription would be getting a pretty shit deal.

I'd recommend an inexpensive smart/sports watch.

Something like fitbit, but you can get a lower generation cheaper version. They all track sleep. Ignore the sports stuff if that's not your thing.

It allows you to put numeric values in different aspects of your sleep. Not just "sleep" as a whole, but the different factors of sleep. That helps you focus in on improving it.

Definitely speak with your GP. I would ask for a referral to an NHS sleep clinic and also look into private pay. Short term sleep meds could help get you into a sleeping pattern. Also, anti depressants could be a good option.
Ensure underlying causes are ruled out as well, hence a referral to a sleep clinic.
I Googled Sleep Clinics London to get you started. Screen shots attached.

I type this at 5:26am having been awake since 4am, and this is a good night’s sleep for me these days!

What I find helps is 2 x magnesium glycinate tablets an hour before bed, and no caffeine after lunch.

I don’t recommend melatonin. It’s prescription only in the U.K. for a reason. My son is prescribed it for his ADHD and I’m very sparing with giving him it.

I tried hypnotherapy twice (for different issues) and it worked like magic. It wasn't a lot of money, a few hundred pounds for 5 sessions.

I spoke to a few hypnotherapists over the phone and chose someone I liked the sound of.

Hypnotherapy has been recognised by the British Medical Association since 1965

I'm 42 and 4 months deep into chronic insomnia. A bad night has been 1 hour of sleep, and a good night is 5 broken hours. I've tried every prescription sleep medication under the sun, and antidepressants, and nothing has the slightest impact on me. Neither does HRT.
So I'm doing CBTi, with some Guy Meadows (The Sleep School) concepts mixed in. And I think I'm slowly starting to see results.
The main component is a reduced sleep window - every night until you see things improve. So I'm going to bed at 11.30pm with my alarm set for 5am to build up "sleep drive".
I also know this is partly caused by stress, so I'm putting a lot of work into bringing down my cortisol levels. That includes doing yoga, reading, journalling, taking sound baths and trying to adopt an attitude at work of "It'll do".
It's scary OP. You have my sympathies.

My dh uses the Calm app. It’s taught him him techniques which helps you sleep, plus has various calming music, stories etc which help you relax

Perimenopause ruined my sleep. Magnesium glycinate as mentioned upthread is worth a try. The 3am wake up is due to a cortisol spike so anything that reduces stress can help. I listen to a yoga nidra track before I sleep (never had a problem dropping off at bedtime but being calmer then seems to reduce waking at 3am, and if I do wake I put it back on through headphones. I have occasionally resorted to antihistamine based sleeping tablets but they make me feel very groggy the next day.

Magnesium, there is one specificly for sleeping. You have to take it around 15 minutes before you put your light out.

It makes a huge difference to my sleep. Regardless of sleep hygine, if I don't take it, I have an absolute awful night and crap next day.

It is basically impossible to get Melatonin prescribed in the UK, we tried it for DD with an ASD/ADHD diagnosis and recommendation from her therapist. Waiting list to see a specialist was too long, a GP doesn't prescribe it. We buy it in Germany without any guilt. She is an adult now and it improved her life significantly.

I’ve suffered from insomnia since childhood - I’m 70 now.

I’ve tried all sorts of meds - the only one which helps me is Phenergan. I take 2 every evening. Even using it doesn’t allow me to sleep normally. I wake up and can’t get back to sleep. I get around 3-4 hours a night.

An interesting effect on me when I tried Melatonin and magnesium… I got the opposite outcome than the one I wanted and didn’t sleep at all with either of them. I felt wired. I tried each for a few days and abandoned them. It’s a known issue and affects some people.

@reluctantbrit you can get melatonin prescribed in the U.K. It was prescribed for me last year.

Definitely speak to your doctor. In the past I've been prescribed a short course of sleeping pills to break the cycle and it did work. I did still wake, but got back to sleep much more easily. Stress and menopause are two huge factors for me. At the moment I'm waking in the night because I've got some sort of virus.

Get some help. Sleep deprivation is awful 💐

I buy melatonin very easily in the UK from an online chemist. I dont think it helps me, so may eventually phase it out, but for now it's a bit of a safety blanket for me.

I get mine online from a company called biovea

They’re more than triple the price that I was paying when I looked last week. I have me and 2 of my kids to pay for (although 1 is 18 so hopefully he’ll be buying his own soon) so I really need to keep the cost down.

Luckily I found out a friend is in the US right now and he’s bringing me my usual order back with him - I’ve ordered it to be delivered to where he’s staying. Hopefully that will keep us going for around 2 years.

I’ve been through this and it’s horrible. Peri meno has really fked up my sleep

i also have adhd and sleep has always been a problem for me. I either used to have issues dropping off to sleep and be awake until 3 or 4 am and then up for 7 or the past year, falling asleep quickly and then waking up at 2 or 3 am and then awake for the day. Every night.

melatonin never worked for me, it’s not the magic cure that people think it is. Zopiclone or the no longer prescribed nitrazepam worked like a treat but obviously not long term use.

the only thing that has helped me (and I’m aware hrt is not for everyone) is progesterone tablets and gel taken before bed.

im still waking up but briefly and my watch says im often getting 6 to 7 hours sleep a night instead of 3 or 4. I do sometimes have bad nights though.
I bought phenergan (promethazine) online for when I’m really desperate and I rarely touch those now, they do make me groggy the next day though

yes you can but we found the process extremely difficult for DD and the GP wasn't very confident she would actually get it.

This is from the NHS website:
Melatonin is mainly used to treat short-term sleep problems in people aged 55 and over. It can also sometimes be prescribed by specialists to help with longer-term sleep problems in some children and adults.
Melatonin is available on prescription only. It comes as standard tablets, slow release tablets, capsules and a liquid that you drink.

A word of warning re magnesium tablets. I took a certain brand for ages, all OK. Then I changed to one that had citrate in it I think it was. That is used for the coating of laxatives sometimes but I didn't know that. Months of diarrhea followed, ending up with being investigated for bowel cancer. By then I'd googled the ingredients of the new tablets and found out the link. Once I stopped the new tablets, diarrhoea stopped but the doctor insisted on me still having a colonoscopy, fun times! All OK BTW.

Not everyone has the same effect but please be aware.

I'd recommend magnesium, helps me with sleep, anxiety and achy muscles! Swimming also helps me sleep well.