Insomnia & Restricted Sleeping

[ZaraW]

I went to my doctor as I am suffering from Insomnia. She gave me some low dosage anti depressants which I wasn't too happy about taking as one of the side effects of coming off them was insomnia. I didn't like them as they made my mouth dry and felt dizzy. I stopped taking them as if there is a natural alternative I would prefer to do it that way. I was also increasing the dosage as they were not as effective as when I first started taking them.

I started restricted sleeping last week and I can see an improvement I am now getting around 5 hours sleep. I wake up at 7 am for work which means I go to bed at 1 am but it still takes me an hour to get to sleep but a big improvement on before. Does anyone know how long it will take to get back to my usual pattern of 8 hours? I am not stressed and always slept really well so not sure why this has been happening for the last 4 months.

TIA

I suffer from not being able to get off to sleep. I don't want to take pills although Co-Codamol obtained without a prescription will help make you drowsy but it is addictive, but could help short term)

So what do I do? I have ear phones plugged into Radio 4 extra, or audio books that are free on my IPAD. I start listening and ' Bingo' I am asleep before I am half way through a programme.

I put my fully charged dab radio under my pillow and the ear phones in my ear, they will pull out if I turn too violently. So if I wake during the night, say three pm I can plug myself back in to the radio. There is always some thing interesting on. I never travel without it now.
I have to use earphones as my DH is beside me.