Pregnant safe sleep aids - insomnia is unbearable

[Cosmogirl86]

Is there anything I can take? My insomnia is debilitating. It affects me at work, I'm cranky with everyone.

I am 14 weeks with twins and I haven't slept through the night in months. In fact my insomnia was my first pregnancy symptom at about 3 weeks and its continued every since.

I fall asleep no problem, and wake up at 4am every night and it's almost impossible to fall back asleep. To be clear, it isn't nausea or full bladder or any physical symptom that awakes me, it just happens

I need to sleep. Can I take anything? Is there some miracle cure?

Could it be hunger OP? Have you tried having a couple of biscuits and a glass of milk? Guided meditation works for me if I really can't sleep. I use an app called insight timer. There of loads of meditations for sleep on there. It might be worth trying before you go down the drug route

Definitely not hunger. Its truly not physical symptoms causing things.

I have tried mindfulness, meditation, establishing wake up and sleep times, I have cut out all caffeine and obviously alcohol.

I just don't know what to do anymore. It'll only get worse when they kick and headbutt my bladder

Melatonin works really well for me. I've suffered from insomnia my whole life and only some prescription sleeping pills work but I try not to take them often. I discovered melatonin before getting pregnant and 4-6mg works well for me. I asked my doctor if it was safe during pregnancy and she looked it up on the system and said it was. Still, I try to only take it when desperate.

I live abroad and I can buy it over the counter but I think in the UK it's prescription only.

I love that 4am Insomnia! Not.
Eye mask, ear plugs. They helped. But honestly nothing fixed it.
It stopped for a little while, then changed time to 5am for a while then came back with vengeance at 3am.
Working out helped a little. Sometimes just getting up and sleeping on the sofa...

Good luck op!

Mine lasted throughout the 2nd trimester but cleared up sometime in the 3rd. I had restless legs so tried to increase magnesium in my diet. So sorry for you, it's awful and I remember it well!

I’d suggest going to your GP. I believe that as a first-generation antihistamine diphenhydramine is considered safe in pregnancy as a hay fever remedy but I don’t know what the guidance is for use as a sedative. Equally melatonin may be an option. See what they say.

I've been prescribed phenergan to use to help with pregnancy insomnia. It's an antihistamine which has a side effect of knocking you out. I was the same as you except my wake up time is 2am. It made me feel like I was losing my mind in the end. The first night I took the phenergan I slept for 8 hours straight and felt like a new woman. I try to use it sparingly now, but it's been such a help.

The issue is that my gp is absolutely rubbish. When I call up for an appointment I'm told they are too busy for me and to call back next week. This has happened several times. I want to change doctor but I'm afraid to during pregnancy

@Cosmogirl86 Change gp now if you're not happy with them. Imagine how much worse it'll be when the twins come along....
As long as you are happy with the midwife team, that's more important during pregnancy-from my experience.

The issue is that I haven't lived in this area long, and I just chose the gp closest to my house as I didn't know which to pick. I still don't!

I tried camomile tea again tonight as I've heard it's safe in ierhn, but I miss nytol so much!

Safe in pregnancy *

I wrote upthread recommending melatonin. I just wanted to add that for years I took a antihistamine sleep aid which knocked me out but left me so groggy the next day. The good things about melatonin is that you wake up fresh as a daisy. Also, it works in 20 minutes so you could pop a pill when you wake up in the night and you'd probably still wake up bright and fresh the next day.

I think you should change surgery now and get an appointment asap. That's awful that they keep telling you to just call back in a week!