Insomnia - does anything work?

[ValancyRedfern]

Feeling completely at the end of my tether. Can anyone recommend anything they've done which has actually helped with insomnia?

Have you tried magnesium glycinate? It isn't as good as mirtazapine but you can buy it without a prescription.

Get enough exercise in the day.
Swimming is good.
Magnesium and moonmilk at bedtime.
Listen to a podcast to drift off. Put it back on if you wake up.
Have your window open a bit.

https://www.easycookingwithmolly.com/2019/08/ashwagandha-turmeric-moon-milk-recipe/

I am taking magnesium glycinate in the evening now and it is helping a lot

Magnesium supplements. I take 2 capsules an hour before bed.

Thanks everyone for the tips. I'm on 40mg Citalopram for depression which should work for anxiety but clearly isn't right now. I'll look into magnesium. Off to bed now and terrified....

Have you tried listening to anything at bedtime?

I bought soft head phones and listen to the anxiety guy at night. I hate bedtime - I don’t know why. I can’t pinpoint what it is I hate about it but I feel so unsettled and uneasy. Listening to him or similar really settles me down and I often fall asleep midway through it

Magnesium made a massive difference to me.

After a few days I slept like a child in primary school and the sleep was sweet.

I have also found exercise in the night and having a hot bath afterwards makes me tired.

Go shocked to the GP and ask for something stronger. Over the counter isn't going to cut it. I've had lots of different ones as I become immune to them. It's the worst thing being as tired as you must be now OP-just awful.

A very strict bedtime routine. Proper blue light glasses, phones away for an hour, chamomile tea, lavender spray, two word searches to wind down (or some embroidery).

I sleep with a fan, black out eye mask and have the choice of four pillows which I swap as needed. Blackout blinds and gap blackouts for the edges.

If I feel not tired I take an antihistamine before bed. I also have a number of counting/meditations.

If I can't sleep after an hour I get up and go read a book for 20 minutes.

If that hasn't worked after an hour then I'm up until my alarm goes off in the hellscape of insomnia.

Luckily it's not too often now.

Thought I was sleeping better then woke up after an hour and now in a total panic. I can't take tomorrow off work but I can't face it either. I don't know how I'm going to get through the next 6 hours till morning

I have a problem with sleeping…my GP prescribed Zopiclone …it has really worked..I take it very occasionally and it really does help me ..people worry about addiction but a good sleep really does help with MH !!

Also white noise helps ..I often have the fan on or use grandchild white machine..waves ,rain ,thunderstorms..all helps to switch brain off !💐

Sertraline was amazing for mine.

@ValancyRedfern I'm still awake too. Thinking of going for a drive to pass the time. What worries you about not getting to sleep? Is it that you will be too tired to work tomorrow? (today!)

@Yumyumicedbuns

Yes really works for drifting off.

Forget drugs try the podcast really!!

Thanks everyone. Managed 2 hours in 2 one hour chunks. I'm a teacher and working on no sleep is not pretty. I'm panicking because I don't know how to get through this.

I will try the podcast and have requested stronger drugs from the Dr. Herbal Nytol and magnesium I've both tried but don't do anything for me.

I'm retired so have time to meditate through the day.
You aren't supposed to fall asleep when meditating but if I've had a worse than normal night I lie and do a body scan med and probably sleep for most of it, about half an hour. Which means I'm ok for the rest of the day.
I think worrying about it is part of what makes sleepessness exhausting. It's a vicious circle. If you can try to be more accepting of it it might help. I listen to audio books, usually something unexciting so wildlife or similar and I read a book.
I used to get Zopiclone - maybe 8 every month - and would take a half in the night to get me back to sleep (If I took as prescribed at bedtime I would only get an extra hour or so). Used it for years. That worked but when I complained to Doc about memory problems she took me off as it can be contributory. But perhaps you could take that for a few months and then be sure of a couple of goodish nights a week. I had 3.5mg.
Mirtazapine made me like a feeble rag doll, though did make me sleep.

You absolutely should not be on your phone or laptop in the middle of the night if you cannot sleep.

Sleepstation will help you deal with the anxiety around not sleeping. It is CBTI - CBT for insomnia. You can learn how to sleep properly.

www.sleepstation.org.uk

I could not sleep last night - probably due to the full moon (Science shows this has an effect) - so I got out of bed and read for 20 minutes.

I know it's bad to be on my phone, but that's where the sleep meditations and white noise comes from! I ended up getting up to do a couple of hours work then managed to sleep 4-5. Have taken the day off sick as was too panicked to drive this morning. Trying to walk in the woods to calm me down. I have a book I'm trying to follow where you follow CBT to get to sleep. You have to get up if you've been awake for 15 minutes. But if I do that every time I don't get any sleep at all.

I really feel for you OP. It's really tough.

Sounds like you are doing the right things. I know it's hard to say this but you really need to commit to the routine for it to be effective. Getting up at the same time every morning - even though it's really tempting to lie in at weekends to 'catch-up' - is critical.

I hope you get somewhere with the dr OP. I have some over the counter sleeping pills that I got in America. They work most of the time but I only dare used them once a month or so when I'm really desperate as I don't want to become immune to them. Took one last night and still woke up at 4am (4am is the witchjng hour for me if I've managed to get to sleep at all that's when I will wake up almost on the dot) but was able to drift off after another hour and a half or so. So about 6 hours sleep in total which represents a good night for me.

You're talking about panic because you're scared of no sleep, and inability to function due to the panic, rather than no sleep making it impossible to function.

Need to separate out the panic from the actual effects of very little sleep.

It reads like the panic is the biggest problem, not the lack of sleep.

Sounds like you are trapped in a cycle of worry about the lack of sleep. Solve that and the sleep issues will resolve (I know it's not that easy).

Consider a worry list, gets the issues out of your brain before bed. Also the 15 min thing does work, lying in bed fretting does not help you sleep. Get up and do something soothing in a different room with low or no lights, go back to bed and try again. I would definitely recommend a sleep workshop

I have a cpap maching for sleep apnea.
Like you i had insomnia for years.
I got the machine and now i sleep like a log.
I still get the odd sleepness night,but they are few and far between now.

Ask your GP for a referral to a sleep clinic.
They should be able to get to your root cause.