I can't sleep and it's driving me crazy! please help

[Carole803]

I am just coming up to 16 weeks and other then my week at Glastonbury where I slept 7 hours a night, with no disruption (bliss), I cannot sleep more than three and half hours a night, four if I am lucky.

This includes the whole time I was on holiday in France too!

I am not uncomfortable, I am not having temperature problems, particilarly with the lovely with weather we are currently having, as I have a fan if it gets too hot.

The problem is that I am nearly always tired, I am getting unfairly grumpy with these around me, which dilutes when I genuinly have something to whinge about, and dc I can't function properly enough to start my day at 4:30 am (just check out the basic typos in this post!

Has anyone else experienced this? Does anyone have any advice om how I can I, improve my sleep. This is really starting to get me down.

It might be worth adding that so far I have had a relatively smooth pregnancy with everything going as the books say it should.I am healthy and fit, although slightly overweight (pre-pregnancy), but everything works as it should.

Please help

Sorry to hear you are suffering with insomnia. I've had it both pregnancies, and haven't really got any solutions but can def offer my sympathy! It's horribly lying awake for hours thinking about how tired you're going to be tomorrow.

Someone in another post suggested magnesium might help (a doctor friend suggested eating a banana before bed). I also find walking during the day helps a bit. It really does suck and as you say, makes it hard to function and stay patient. Leave a book by your bed and have stuff on TV to watch if necessary! Hope it improves soon.

Big sympathy to you Carole - insomnia, regardless of cause, totally sucks.

Some things I've tried over the years:

1. Boots sell some accupressure bands that are supposed to help insomnia.
2. (Can pregnant women use lavender oil? A few drops on my pillow used to help me when I had stress-related insomnia a few years back.)
3. Is DH/DP any good at massage? A back/shoulder rub also used to help.
4. Make sure you're hydrated - dehydration makes insomnia worse.

Hope that helps :-)

Carole are you having problems getting off to sleep, or is it that you keep waking up?

If you're having problems getting to sleep in the first place, I found that not watching TV / net-surfing in the last hour or so before bed really helped. I would go get a long, warm bath, then go upstairs and read a book. That helped me get off to sleep.

I also agree about keeping hydrated. I'm 38 weeks now but around your time I would wake up in the night feeling very thirsty, so always had a glass of water next to the bed - although too much water and you're up all night running to the loo so be careful of that ;)

Thank you so much for your support, sympathy and advice. I will take a visit to boots to find out about the pressure bands. I keep water next to the bed and always have a book, but I am quite often too tired to read! but I will maybe try to make myself wake up more, read a bit and then go back to sleep all over again. and I will stock up on Bananas, although I usually eat them for an energy boosting snack in the morning or after the gym, so I hope it doesn't make me do laps of the house (LOL)!

I generally get quite bored in baths, but I am willing to try anything, so watch out Radox.

DP is great at massages, but works with his hands and by the end of the day, they really hurt him and I need him to be a happy bunny. So I bought a little massage thing which is kinda ok, but nothing like the real thing.

He has been really supportive with everything else, even hanging out laundry after washing it! so I will give him some slack with physically being in pain to help me! even though he does it when he can see I am really wound up.

moominmaiden - my problem is waking up in the night and not getting back to sleep. When I initially go to bed, I practically pass out! but it only lasts a couple of hours and then I lie in that state of awake, but not enough to do much of use.

I generally listen to my body and trust the messages I receive, so I even tried to convince myself for a while it might be prematurely preparing me for the restless nights ahead of me when the little one arrives! but that is me grabbing onto little teeny straws!

It is reassuring that I am not alone in suffering and I take some solace in knowing that I might get some relief after the pregnancy and initial newborn stages.

Thank you

I haven't slept through since I got pregnant. To begin with it was all kinds of factors - jet lag, worry about phantom pregnancy, noisy neighbours, excitement and planning about the baby, worry about scans, and now kicking and discomfort. Like you, I tend to conk out immediately on going to bed, but then I wake up later on. I have tried to stop worrying about being awake and tired as it seems it's just one of those things, so I try to take my mind off it by reading for a bit and then put a podcast on - Today In Parliament is sufficiently dull - and eventually doze off. I am lucky that my boyfriend sleeps like a log so I can do this without disturbing him.

I have got some great hypnobirthing apps on my phone which I find really relaxing and nearly always send me to sleep after...my favourite one is iHypnoBirth, think it was a couple of pounds, it's not everyone's cup of tea though. I have also seen pregnancy relaxation music which may also help but I've not listened to it personally.

Also if you can get to a pregnancy yoga class too I find that helps, I go to an NCT one once a week and I'm always very relaxed and sleepy after!

I am steadily makimg my way through your avice. I did speak to my doc who told me possiblyctocavoid the banana before bed, and tovbe incredibly careful if I wanted to go down the acupuncture route.

I have startedto try forcing myself awake before 3am and forcing myself to read for 20minutes and that seemed to help the only time I have tried it so far.

Thanks again for you advice

I have this problem too! I drop off fine for the first couple of hours (feeling shattered) then keep waking up. I either need a drink of water, or the loo, or I'm too hot/cold or the crazy pregnancy dreams wake me up! My usual failsafes such as a warm bath are just not appealing in this hot weather, wine is obviously not an option, and I'm sleeping much more lightly too. I'm sure I've read somewhere that if you wake up and aren't asleep again within 20 minutes you should get up out of bed, but I'm reluctant to do so in case sleep was just around the corner.

I'll definitely try some of these tips though. I've also seen a sleep range of aromatherapy bath products by sanctuary spa at boots, does anyone know if these are safe to use in pregnancy? I'm going to try some prenatal yoga stretching too.