To ask for your sleep remedies

[HerRoyalHappiness]

Had a very useless appointment with the GP today who was more interested In how I parent as a disabled mother than the issue at hand. Which is my lack of sleep.
I haven't slept more than 3 hours in a month. I go to he'd at 10, drift off after 11 and I'm awake by 2am without fail then I can't get back to sleep.
I don't have screens in my room. I use a smart alarm clock to play rain sounds and wake me up in a morning.
It's not too hot or too cold.
I have a weighted blanket
I do need a new mattress and it's on my list to buy but I can't get one until the end of August as I don't have £200 spare right now.
I've tried chamomile tea
I've tried meditation
I've tried sleep pillow sprays
I've tried crystals (I know but I'm desperate)
I've tried hypnosis
I've tried counting sheep
I've tried everything. I don't even read in bed any more in case it was over stimulating my brain. I just lie there and try to sleep.
Please give me tips, hacks, anything at all to help me to sleep. I'm so exhausted 😩

I'm physically tired too. I do as many steps a day as I can. I try my best to play in the garden each day with the kids, we don't watch TV very often and I tend to Potter about doing housework to the point my body aches more than usual.

Thank you for the websites. I'll definitely take a look.

Melatonin is available online or if you know anyone going to the states it is on the shelf in pharmacies there.

For me:

White noise machine
Calm app
Melatonin
Magnesium
Vitamin D
HIIT/other exercise. I have read that resistance training is particularly good.
To do lists/writing things down

It doesn't always work and my sleep cycle is massively disrupted anyway by shifts. I am trying to reframe the situation in my mind and have had some success with that, that it will pass and is just a short term thing. Another poster mentioned rest being almost as good as sleep and again I've read somewhere that meditation is pretty much just as good as sleep so that might be worth a shot.

Insomnia can have lots of causes and I don't know what causes yours but personally I find its horrible to lie in bed not sleeping so I've gotten on quite well at times with getting up watching netflix drinking (caffeine free) tea and not worrying about the fact I'm awake iyswim, then usually I can get another couple of hours.

e.g. if you went to bed at 10 dropped off at 11 woke at 2am got up went downstairs snuggled drank warm milk watched relaxing tv and then (maybe hopefully) started to feel sleepier by 4 4.30 -> go back to bed and sleep 5 til 7 (or later if it's a weekend). It doesn't always work but I find it helps me and it helps me not feel quite so bad about the fact I can't sleep.

I've just had my bloods done today so hopefully anything like b12/aneamia will show on that.

It's not a standard blood test, so unless you have a fantastic & knowledgeable GP, or ask, it's unlikely to be done. NHS tests can throw up a false negative up to 50% of the time too & to many doctors don't understand the test results or deficiency.

I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia & ME before I was ever tested by my GP. Even though it turned out they had picked up I was deficient when I was in hospital when I had DD & they even kept me in for a week... they made it sound like iron deficiency & I was told to eat more greens & given no treatment & my low result was ignored by my GP too. I went on to be diagnosed with EDS & pernicious anaemia, which were the true cause of my symptoms, though B12 injections massively improved EDS & POTs symptoms too. I recommend you look properly at tge link I've added as it explains it all in full 👍🏻

I feel your pain. It's absolutely fucking shit, isn't it.

What time do you have to get up in the morning? Depending on that there may be some strategies. Do you have any particular worries at the moment? As a disabled parent, I'm guessing the answer may be yes (I am speaking from experience there!) I think those two questions make a difference to useful advice.

Have you tried the zoplicone? Depending on the answers above as it's a bit of a last resort, it may be worth a go. I find a short course, even 5 days or so, can "reset" your sleep and even a couple of nights without that awful feeling of being unable to sleep, takes the pressure off and helps you relax. Knowing you can sleep funnily enough makes it easier to relax. Diazepam can work too for that if you can take it.

I don't want to imply it's "all in the mind" as I don't mean that at all. But it's undeniable our mental health affects physical health (stress and blood pressure for example) and sorting any underlying issues before trying the zoplicone etc may help. I know it can be quite annoying when people say stuff like that when you're at the stage of give me the fucking drugs. Sorry if it's irritating.

In the last seven days I've had about 20 hours sleep in total. I have a particular worry I can't do anything about and there is just nothing I can do about it. I actually fell asleep for about 15 mins at 3am and my fucking cat woke me up.

Yeah, I took the zopiclone but it made no difference. My care coordinator is speaking to the psychiatric now for me to see what she suggests.
My blood tests are a full scale test of everything as I have to have them done each year. I'll buy a b12 test kit once I get paid though just in case. It's worth a try and you can buy them in super drug.

I would give anything for sleep right now.
My routine is
Up at 5.30, I'm bed at 10
But I'm just not sleeping. I just wish there was a.magic cure for it.

Klams one a night work quite well. A boring book to read (rather than lying awake trying to sleep). Some people swear by sleep restricting, and making sure that you get out of bed when not sleeping. However if you are genuinely only sleeping 3 hours a night you need something more than over the counter remedies.

Whiskey on the rocks when it gets really bad. Not a nightly habit but sometimes it’s all that works x

Care coordinator just called back
Psychiatrist is prescribing promethazine to see if that helps any. I don't know if snoozes tried it but apparently it can work quite well and they can prescribe a longer course of it to get me back sleeping.

I'll buy a b12 test kit once I get paid though just in case

I'm not sure about Superdrug B12 tests, but don't think I'd trust them. If it's an "Active B12 test" though, it will be better than the NHS serum B12 test.

Your doctor can do an active B12 test & the tests go off to the main & best testing facility, but I got nowhere until I decided to pay for it. We rang the hospital "private medical" department to arrange to have this test done & we paid under £50 for it at the time (a few years ago) so I'd suggest maybe going that route.

You can have low B12 & ALL tests be negative, this happened with our DD. This is also why NICE guidelines etc recommend a "therapeutic trial" of B12 injections as this is a diagnostic tool too. We had a fight to get that for our DD as doctors were adamant that kids can't have PA, but we got there in the end & it was life changing for her. Her official diagnosis is "functional B12 deficiency" which the nhs site explains is deficiency, with normal blood results.

Hope that helps & you get to the bottom of it all & get help. Lack of sleep really wrecks you, I remember it too well. Tbh the only thing that worked for me prior to starting on B12 injections was cannabis before bed. & I tried everything too

Thanks I'll definitely look into going private if I need to. It's so frustrating that we have to figure this stuff out for ourselves instead of GPs doing it.

Don't lie I bed if you're not sleeping. Give it ten minutes and then get up.

I used to take promethazine as phenergan for travel sickness, and it does have a sedative effect - lovely stuff! It’s basically an antihistamine. just be careful if you need to drive etc - if you’re on anything else (including OTC meds) with drowsiness as a potential side effect you might not be safe.

Tapping therapy?

Sympathy, lack of sleep is the worst,

Thanks I'll definitely look into going private if I need to. It's so frustrating that we have to figure this stuff out for ourselves instead of GPs doing it.

Tell me about it, we had it to a ridiculous degree with our DDs diagnosis, I was even accused of munchausens by proxy by one awful consultant for pushing for more tests & answers when this same consultant had written her off to a life in a wheelchair 😡 thankfully our GP knew me better

Good luck getting help

Lettuce.

Thank you everyone. Please keep your tips and remedies coming because I will be trying them. Insomnia sucks.

They wear off eventually and they prescribe them forever.

I woke up again 30 minutes or so ago so I'm up and cleaning my kitchen. Yep. Cleaning. In the middle of the night. Figured I may as well do something useful if I'm up anyway.

Eye mask makes a world of difference. Black, well padded with adjustable strap.. Not those small satin things.Do try it.

White noise

Audiobooks, nothing exciting but more like Miss Marple or Poirot, with timer set for 30 minutes. I'm always asleep before it shuts off. Can play on iPhone via Amazon purchase.

Sounds weird but I've known several insomniacs who got relief wearing cozy socks to bed. There's something about it that works.

Agree that weed helps immensely with no hangover. Two drags on a joint and I'm out for seven hours.

Melatonin ok but leaves one groggy.

Good luck!

If you don't subscribe to audiobooks you often can find old radio dramas or story narrations free on YouTube

Fresh air in the room

Have a look at the Matt Walker podcast - he's a sleep researcher (not a medic) & has lots of tips about improving your sleep.

I used melatonin (bought online) to train my sleep for a while but his tips have helped more than anything (tonight is an anomaly & I know what caused it whereas being up this late it was standard previously)

I use melatonin from Rolling Rocks, I take 12 mg & am asleep within 30-45 minutes of taking it.

Up now so you have my sympathy! The things that work best for me are muscle relaxation techniques (the sort where you go through each muscle group in turn clenching them, holding and then relaxing), sex (or maybe that's just because I'm not lying there cursing because I'm awake) , taking a paracetamol if it's because I've got an unacknowledged physical pain somewhere(to his is an occasional one not an everyday remedy), lying in bed enjoying the sensation of restfulness and not getting worked up about being awake (this one works best for me if the weather's bad outside and I'm not too hot or cold in bed, so I can lie there listening to the wind and the rain from a position of comfort) or just recognising that I'm awake so getting up and reading in a different room for a bit. I think there's also something in the theories about it being normal historically for sleep to have a wakeful period in the middle.