Insomnia Advice

[Halllisa]

Another night of not being able to sleep 😢 I've never been a good sleeper but for the past 6 months my sleep has been so poor, to the point now I'm only getting an hour or so a night.

I have so many factors contributing to this, anxiety, menopausal, deviated septum, and have had a hip replacement in last 3 weeks. Im on sertraline and that's helping anxiety it hasn't helped sleep, I am on HRT but again not helping.

I'm frightened now that I'll never get back to a sleep routine and this is it. It's late and I'm overthinking and stressing about it all clearly as I feel so alone with this. Never know whether to stay in bed or get up or what to do.

Clearly I need to see GP which I'll book next week but for now it's another night watching clock go round. Any advice would be appreciated x

Melatonin and magnesium.
Less screen at night.

I imagine you now spend most of your days worrying about whether you will sleep that night?

I've had insomnia all my life, just saying I know how hard it is

I have started taking magnesium to see if this helps. I do spend my days worrying about going to bed and if I'll sleep it's a vicious circle. I try to leave phone downstairs but then need it for audio books or Spotify to try to help so then I start looking at other stuff.

When mine got all encompassing, magnesium, lavender spray and good sleep hygiene was not going to touch it.

venlafaxine sorted mine out. Even prescription sleeping tablets wouldn’t work at the end.

I have so many factors contributing to this,

They seem to break down into 3 or 4 things, although anxiety & obsessiveness I imagine is what you mean by all of them.

have had a hip replacement in last 3 weeks
hip replacement: are you still in pain, can you only lie down in an awkward position,i is recovery going badly or is it stressful? Why is the hip stopping sleep? Are you traumatised by the previous pain or frustrations of immobility? Can you fail to get active enough to get any physical tiredness all day?

deviated septum,
Does that mean you breathe badly? I struggle to sleep if I mouth breathe, maybe that's what you mean? What changed in recent times to make it worse?

anxiety, menopausal, I spend my days worrying about going to bed
I guess menopause = huge anxiety for many people. So those 3 are exact same things. Could you force yourself to focus on other things instead in the day, a project, volunteering, cleaning? talking to other people, whatever it takes? Funny film or book?

I imagine the hip recovery has challenged you because still so limited in what you can do, you can't distract yourself from fretting. I would have thought any distracting yourself from fretting would be helpful.