Please help me with insomnia

[Mumof381]

I'm desperate. It's making my life very difficult. I need to be able to sleep to get through my day at work and to look after my children.

Last night was horrendous and I can barely function today. Went to bed tired at 11. I was still awake at 4am. Up at 8. I am prescribed zopiclone, but only 7 tablets per month, I allowed myself half of one at about 1am, but it didn't help.

I'm waiting to see a psychiatrist as I've struggled for years with depression and anxiety. I also self-harm and the exhaustion makes this worse. I'm not proud.

Please, if you have any tips, send them my way. I'm desperate. Thanks.

Hi @Mumof381 ,

I feel you because insomnia is so horrible. It completely fucks with you.

• Are you on any medication for other things? Make sure you are taking in the morning if so.
• Dont eat or exercise too late in the evening
• stop drinking caffeine by lunchtime - move onto decaf after that
• Are there any triggers? Going through the menopause? Life stress etc?

Have you tried melatonin? This is meant to be good - I think you can get it from the pharmacy.

i find putting on a sleep story really helps. There’s lots on mind app or YouTube/spotify. Just let it play out loud if you can.

Doing a few ‘cobra’ style stretches - lie on front, onto elbows & arch you back upwards, tip your head back and open your jaw wide. Do 3 times
Meant to help release something (don’t ask me what!)

Stay away from phones and screens in the evening. Have a wind down where you read before bed or similar.

If you can sleep get up and do something mundane like folding laundry.

i know it’s shit OP and hope some of the above helps!

The stress of insomnia releases cortisol, the hormone thats in charge of wakefulness (it's the reason some people describe a jolt of anxiety when they wake up) which means relaxing enough to drop off is nigh on impossible.

When you think about it, we very seldom in our daily lives get the opportunity to lie around doing nothing. This is why we love holidays so much - we get to spend the day on a sun lounger doing nothing, completely free of guilt and without perceiving that as being lazy.

So try approaching it from that angle. When you go to bed just accept that you are NOT going to sleep but what you ARE going to do is lie down and do absolutely nothing but relax for several hours, that your body is still going to rest and repair itself while you let your eyes close and not worry about sleeping.

Thank you both for taking the time to reply.

I've just had an hour's sleep. Not ideal, I know it'll make tonight harder, but there's no way I could get through the day otherwise.

I'm confident that I have good habits. I don't drink alcohol, have very little caffeine, I exercise in the morning. I take an antidepressant each morning.

There are triggers. One child is neuro-divergent. Her behaviour can be challenging. I can't blame last night on her. I did go to the cinema. I wonder if that over stimulated me? Whilst I'm used to having poor sleep, last night was exceptionally poor.

I'd really like to try melatonin, but it's not available here to buy.

I'll try some of the suggestions mentioned above, thank you. I'm open to anything currently. I need to sort this. It's torture.

@Mumof381 insomnia is the worst, I sympathise.

If I can’t sleep, after a while I get up and go through my bedtime routine again, so I go downstairs and have a drink, relax for 10’mins, go back upstairs, brush teeth, toilet etc. I know it sounds strange but it often works for me - it tricks my brain into thinking it’s sleep time again.

I think it sounds like for you the stress of not sleeping is probably a huge factor. Agree you were probably overstimulated post cinema and then the anxiety took over.

Thats why I find putting on a story can be useful and keep bringing your mind back to listening to it as you will naturally start to relax.

I have had periods of very bad insomnia. The medication that has really helped me was mirtazipine, which your GP can prescribe. However, it made me put on a lot of weight. For me it has been worth it and I am about to start to taper off it.

Short of medication, avoiding screens before bed and having a gentle audiobook in the background also definitely help.

I feel your pain, insomnia is incredibly debilitating

Read 'the effortless sleep method' by Sasha stephens . It was a game changer for me. Any adrenaline sets me off too if near bedtime so try to avoid arguments or stress before you go to bed.
Good luck!

I wholeheartedly sympathise and hope something works for you soon. I got on very badly with zopiclone - it didn't make me sleep yet I still got the awful drowsy hangover effect the next day so it was a sort of double whammy of exhaustion!
Anyway, I wanted to say a) it can absolutely get better, b) it will likely only do so if you stop worrying about it (yes, I know, that sounds ridiculous) and c) have you tried any sort of meditation close to bed time? I find it a hard thing to do and it's usually the last thing I actually want to do but it has helped me with insomnia, for sure. Also, listening to something moderately interesting on BBC sounds (so that I don't completely zone it out and start thinking about something else which happens if it's too dull!) but not too stimulating often helps me to drop off.

Insomnia is absolutely hell so you have my sympathies. I find the longer it goes on the more I worry about not sleeping so I don't sleep! its a vicious cycle.

Sleep stories sometimes help calm me down or white noise apps. A few times I've gone downstairs and put the classical radio station on low as they play calm classics after a certain time, it sometimes helps me relax and drift off. Only time I listen to it lol

Trazodone has worked really well for me both as an antidepressant and as a sedative at night.

How old are you? I suddenly started not sleeping the second peri started. It was really grim. All my mundane anxieties turned into screaming banshees. I was almost suicidal at times. Lack of sleep is the pits.
Things that helped: antidepressants, HRT, Kirkland's Sleep Aid, facing my fears head on.
I'm sorry about your mental health struggles. X

I was also going to say melatonin, I brought a stash back from the US. I saw someone a couple weeks ago saying you could buy it online but can't remember the website now

You can get melatonin on Biovea

I've had insomnia for a few years. I'll get a total of, maybe, three hours broken sleep a night. I even take amtriptyline and melatonin but they make no difference tbh.

I feel exhausted, come to bed, then I just can't switch off.

Like others have suggested, I have an audio book running quietly in the background. Nothing too testing! I doze on and off to that. If not, at least in bed and relaxing.

That was it!

I am same as you have tried everything, my brain just doesn’t switch off at night. I’m on setraline which does help slightly. My GP has just prescribed melatonin but can’t say it’s made any difference

Melatonin has helped me

I’m getting restless legs and painful shins at night, it’s driving me mad. Last night I got 3 hours sleep, I rarely get more than 5 nowadays.
I’m waiting for the surgery to give me an appointment to see the doctor, it could be weeks before I get one. I am going to try magnesium supplements, Epsom salts baths and magnesium spray, something surely must work!

Audio books have worked for me! I just think to myself ok if I can't sleep I'll just lay here & listen to this story!

I have to set a timer on it now because I always fall asleep!

It has changed my life! Great for if you wake up early too - I restart the book again & I'm off again for another couple of hours!

I joined the Library on line & use the Borrow Box App!

Don't choose anything too exciting obviously!

Zipp Magnesium spray works a treat!

Nothing works for me. I think I've tried everything. I think it might be the thing that drives me to suicide. Sylvia Plath's poem Insomniac sums it up for me. It's horrible living in a 'lidless world'.

@MsGoodenough please don't do that, try and find a way through. Talk to someone.

I was going to say audio books have helped me, also hot bath and milky drink.

And an orgasm, seriously!

Have you tried the antihistamine Phenergan?

Hope you get some relief soon! Try a long hot shower before bed. When you get out the drop in your body temperature triggers the sleep hormones. 15 mins bright light first thing in the morning (either walk in the sun or SAD lamp) and no caffeine in first 1.5 hours of waking or after noon. All of this should help to reset your body clock.

I have tried many things and the things that seem to work (unless I’m too wound up) are sedating anti histamines such as Nytol, a high dose of valerian, melatonin mixed with valerian. Obviously you shouldn’t mix Nytol with valerian.

One of the most useful resources I have found is the ‘sleep coach school’ on YouTube. It’s well worth a watch and has been a godsend when I have been in a pit of despair with insomnia.