If you had sleep problems but now you don't please tell me what worked

[Lugol]

I can't do another week like this.
Since December I wake up at 2 am and then barely sleep till 6 am when I get up for work.
I've tried:
Epsom salt baths which are great for dozing off but I still wake up.

Sleep podcasts which were good but I don't use bluetooth headphones so I haven't found a good corded option that won't disturb DH.

Melatonin 3 mg good for getting to sleep, still woke up, 10 mg and felt zonked all the next day.

I just need some sleep and I just want to sleep all night through 😩

Weighted blanket helped for me

Ditto. Works like a dream for me too.

Better you magnesium lotion rubbed onto my legs. This works deep sleep spray. Also Phenergan, I find it very strong so I break a 20mg tablet into four, I’m still irritable the next day though. Good luck.

I take 1/2 tab when I have a run of bad nights and it works very well, no grogginess the day after. 1 tab is too much for me

I have amitryptaline every night and lorazepam for bad nights.

CBD oil - I got Trip - few drops under tongue hour before bedtime

or Yogi Bedtime herbal tea - it has valerian root in (where valium derived from) one or two cups hour/two hours before bed

Oh that's a shame. Sorry to hear that. I also tried Piping Rock melatonin drops. They worked but I didn't want use them long term. Good luck OP

Nutrition Geek 3 x magnesium
Apigenin
Ashwaganda
Melatonin which I know you've tried.

Amytriptyline

I lve had years and years of waking and being unable to get back off. I’ve recently started lifting weights and resistance training and honestly I’m so tired the wake ups are so much better now / i find I am
able to get back off so much more quickly now.

I hadn’t slept for decades. Developed chronic pain. I have recently started sleeping 7 hours. I take magnesium, 2 gabaentin (prescribed for fibromyalgia), 1 amitriptyline (take it before 9pm), melatonin 10mg. I now sleep like a normal person.

I got cancer and now I’m exhausted all the time. 😂 I wouldn’t recommend it, but I’ve slept better in the past few years than I have in the 20 previous.

A couple obvious things: don’t drink alcohol (like at all). Don’t drink caffeine in the afternoon (I am guilty of having a coffee at 5pm and then wondering why I’m not sleeping well).

Look into the Sleep Charity. I think it is literally called the Sleep Charity. I thought I was a poor sleeper until I learned a bit from them about sleep. It turns out my sleep is normal. We are meant to wake during the night. It’s completely normal to get up and do things during the night. In fact, if you can’t sleep, after 20 minutes, get up and do something. Go back to bed in an hour when you’re tired. This is how we are designed to sleep.

If you still need more support than that, look into hypnotherapy. I don’t mean just some track you listen to to fall asleep. I mean sessions with a trained hypnotherapist.

It’s not really the done thing to admit it but I take 12.5mg of diphenhydramine a night (half of one of the weaker strength Sleepeze). It’s enough to make me sleep through without making me groggy in the morning and has completely cured my nighttime anxiety, which used to be pretty debilitating.

You can buy an equivalent over the counter at the chemist. I get it on prescription though and it was dead easy for me to get.

Slept really badly through teens and early twenties. Started running, eating much healthier and paying attention to anxiety levels inlcuding using breathing techniques (a PP mentioned box breathing which is what I do because it's the easiest one to remember!).

If I do wake in the night, usually because of anxiety related to work, I put an audiobook on (with a timer) to distract my mind. It has to be someone with a relaxing voice and a book you've listened to a lot so you don't get too interested. Harry Potter series, Lord of the Rings, Hobbit and all the (newly recorded) Terry Pratchetts work for me :D

I guess it depends on the cause of your lack of sleep - for me it was poor health and anxiety.

Forgot to add that "LTB" worked for me - now I'm single I sleep a lot better on my own in bed 😁😂

Escitalopram. After a lifetime of insomnia I now sleep like a baby.

Zero alcohol
Magnesium threonate
Something gentle and happy to think about

I can fall asleep but always wake up about 2-3am. The thing that helps me get back to sleep is counting backwards from 10,000.

Drink loads of water (at least 2L) during the day but nothing after 8pm - I tend to go to bed at 10pm.
Only drink decaf tea and decaf soft drinks - caffeine is the devil at keeping me awake!
Reading in bed until my Kindle is almost falling out of my hands, then put it down and go to sleep - I count backwards from 100 and repeat.
Keep my mobile phone in the kitchen - too distracting.
Wear ear plugs - DH snores.

Switched to Decaf coffee.
magnesium glycinate before bed 1000mg,
Sleep tea and a weighted blanket. The weighted blanket makes a huge difference.
Also sleep better if I read before bed than if I don’t read.
Also get your Thyroid checked as it’s one of the symptoms x

The Sleep Book by Guy Meadows

Menopause. My body does everything back to front so I had insomnia all the way through my life until I hit peri, then suddenly I started to sleep.

My doc thinks I react weirdly to progesterone.

Magnesium at bedtime. No alcohol. Same bedtime and getting up time 7 days a week.

I expect it depends on why you can't sleep.
I've had awful sleep over the years, been in a doctors office crying because I was so desperate to sleep many a time.

I wake up about 3am and my brain starts instantly, singing songs, having conversations, thinking of 5 different things at the same time. I can lie in bed for hours trying to get back to sleep but all that works for me is if I go downstairs, set up to sleep on the couch and put a youtube video on and I'm asleep in minutes.
I try the meditation type youtube videos but they don't work, my brain thinks over the top of the music. I need to listen to someone talking about something pretty boring.
All else fails putting Ben Fogle on the tele. I love his programmes but for some reason they make me sleep instantly.

One particularly bad spell I was given a couple of diazipam from the doctor, they were the best thing ever, just a clear, unthinking mind but they just won't prescribe them generally. Good luck x