AIBU to accept insomnia and give up trying

[Castiron12]

I can’t sleep and I know I won’t sleep until I need to be up at 06:45am for work.

This is longstanding and partly due to me being on-call for advice for work one evening a week and having to work varying shift patterns sometimes earlier starts than others. (I don’t think this will be sustainable for me)
I am such a sensitive sleeper and have always suffered with this, even the thought of an early alarm sets me off and I’m awake all night.
I have tried everything under the sun - if one more person tells me to listen to music or “deep breathe” I may scream!
These days if I can tell it’s going to be a sleepless night due, I just get comfortable with drinks / snacks and either read most of a book or watch several films then spend the next day nackered and a zombie at work. Ironically come around 6:30-7:00am I can sleep fine (just when I need to get up). AIBU for giving up on trying? Sometimes it feels more exhausting laying in silence awake than accepting it.
Thought I’d hop on mumsnet to hopefully chat on some threads to not feel like the only person on the planet!

I find listening to audio books helps when I can't sleep. Overall I just accept it. Tonight it is because I ate too late. Get older is rubbish!!

Still awake here too. Watching a film called Wanderlust it’s funny

I have a license for medical marijuana for neuropathy and insomnia (I’m in the US). I get a minimum of 5.5 hours on it, and sometimes as much as 8. Sleep isn’t an optional activity for me, as I’m autoimmune and will flare. It has been an utter godsend, as even things like Ambien only give me an hour of sleep.

I feel for you. I have always been a light sleeper, too. I’ve never, ever nodded off in front of the tv, on a plane etc. I consider such people in possession of special powers. For the last ten years I’ve had terrible insomnia. I work out, eat clean, drink lots of water, no alcohol, plenty of fresh air etc. so often it isn’t down to lifestyle choices, but maybe you need to look at those?

@GarlandsinGreece
I work out, eat clean, drink lots of water, no alcohol, plenty of fresh air etc

wow! I wish I did even two of those things!

@Forgiveitall Ha. I’ve always said I’ll drink cat pee it it would give me a solid night of sleep.

Maybe that’s where I’m going wrong 😑 🐱 ☺️

@GarlandsinGreece I could do with some of that now! In all seriousness I think I need to change jobs or ask for my duties to be changed as I do think the on call aspect of my job has severely impacted my sleep full time now. I’ve lost that ability to switch off even on nights I’m not on call. That’s definitely where it all started anyway. However the rest of my colleagues manage to sleep soundly only to be awoken in the event of a call so I’ll probably be told I’m kicking up a fuss

@Castiron12 worth a shot

@Castiron12 , absolutely. My alarm being set for 6.15am sometimes makes me panic. Being on-call for my job would send me into insomnia free fall.

Dropping in to say hi.

I've just had a hot drink, read a bit, getting to the point where I may drop off soon.

I've had sleep problems since my teens, I'm 57 now. Sometimes it's worse than others. I also used to experience sleep paralysis and still have very weird dreams.
I don't work on Fridays so at least I don't need to be up too early.

thanks all. Nice to know there’s more of us out there!
out of interest how does everyone manage in work the next day if they do need to work?

I have suffered for years and working 2 x nights a week makes it even worse. I need to be really really busy throughout the day to sleep. Sleep hygiene is a massive thing for me, tidy bedroom, bath before bed, it works sleep spray, clean pjs and an audiobook no screen time. Then if I get into a bad loop of poor sleep and catching up with naps I take a sleeping tablets to get back into my normal sleeping routine.

Awake over here ...

I sleep from 5am to midday. It's interfering with my life and I hate this pattern.

If I get to sleep by 2am I think I've done really well. Tonight it'll be about 4:30am. I now just go with it and then I don't get that panic of counting how many hours I'm going to get before the alarm goes off and end up not sleeping at all!
I hate feeling so tired and lacking in energy the next day and can't understand how I can be so tired but when it's time for bed I'm wide awake again! Arghhh!

I've just been googling about insomnia (I have it too) after hearing about cognitive shuffling. Has anyone tried it? I'm in a different time zone so it's not night time yet, but I'm planning on giving it a shot after my ridiculous 4am sleep time last night
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/jul/15/shuffle-thoughts-sleep-oliver-burkeman

@StillHereChoosing that’s really interesting! I can see why it would work as there’s no chance of making my head less busy but maybe if it’s full of white noise..

Yes I'm hoping it might be a bit of game changer. Fingers crossed!! Would love to hear how you get on if you try it

I am awake too - DS (age 3!!!) refusing to sleep. I’m exhausted and have a busy day tomorrow, thankfully off tomorrow but working all weekend. DS wants ‘toast, yogurts, the cat and dinosaurs’. Refusing to put the TV on but he’s delighted 1 out of the 3 cats are sitting with us. Although I have a feeling he’s only sitting with us because we’ve took his sleeping space on the couch.

I hope you all manage some sleep soon!!!

Vitamin C helps with sleep.

I didn’t know vitamin C helped with sleep! I B and D would be the ones . I guess all the vits help!

Ooh, what time should it be taken for sleep?

I also don't know how anyone can sleep on a plane.

i have been asleep for two hours since I posted btw.

Had a brief nap around 4:15 and woke up again just now haha

Oh no, what a pain
what time are you up

just done Wordle. Got it in two. Not a way to kill time, lol.

Oh no you were too good for the wordle!
I’m up in a few mins… I feel like a zombie