Insomnia bad sleep - fed up

[Deadsouls]

So I don't know if I'm just having a moan or asking for tips, or wondering if anyone else's suffers from this. I guess my problem is not full blown insomnia as I do get some hours, but take a long time to drop off and then because of years of children and 6 year old waking early, usually wake at 6-6.30am. So I probably average around 5/6 hours sleep a night. This wouldn't be so bad if it was an occasional thing but this is every night now. It's not enough sleep. I'm so frustrated at not getting a good nights sleep.

Insomnia is brutal. I've had a bad stretch recently with some nights of no sleep at all. I got to a point where I felt like I was going mad and have had to call in sick to work a couple of days as I could barely string a sentence together.

Managed to get 8 blissful hours last night with the help of temazepam. Not a long term solution but I'm hoping it gets me back into some sort of sleep routine.

If one more person says to me 'you'll sleep if you're tired enough' I'll scream!

bluetongue that's awful. Poor you, I really hope it works out on the sleep front. I had another night of only about 4 hours last night.

Deadsouls I feel your pain. Sleep pattern always was 10.00 ish until about 6.30 but for the last few weeks its been a nightmare. I don't remember what they are called but I asked the pharmacist in Boots for something to enable me to sleep and she recommended their own make. You take one about 30 minutes before going to bed. I only use them sparingly, like last night cos I had been up most of the night before heading for the bathroom with a serious case of cystitis. Not much fun.
Hope it soon improves for you.

I recommend The Sleep Book by Guy Meadows. An unusual method but worked for me

Thank you! snowdrop I'll check it out

I bought some lavender sleep balm recently to put on my wrists at night and am definitely sleeping longer and deeper. Didn't expect it to work so don't think it was the power of suggestion. Might be worth a try.

I suffer with this. I've always been an early riser but sometimes I find it hard to drop off too, coupled with ds waking at least once every night and it results in 5-6 hours a night. I decided about a year ago not to take tablets any more as they made me so groggy after a few nights. These are my tips:
You can manage on zero sleep for one day, so I tell myself it doesn't matter if I don't sleep at all. Sounds weird but it relieves the pressure of 'I must get to sleep'
Remove the clock from the bedroom if you can
Remove electronics from the bedroom even if they are off.
Go to bed when you're tired, not when you 'should' even if that's 8pm.
Read a very boring book. I have one about budgeting that I read, it's factual but dull. No gripping crime novels!
Sleep hygiene is the biggest factor for me. Temperature, light, noise all affect my sleep.
Drink sleep tea (pukka do one) and use lavender.

Pay McKenna does a hypnosis cd /book which I found was really useful.

It's largely psychological I think, and mind over matter will help. Good luck op, it really is horrible. My dh can fall asleep in seconds and cannot understand the torture of being so tired but unable to sleep.