night waking..can't sleep..me not DS

[katierocket]

any advice would be very gratefully accepted. for last few weeks (maybe months) I've been waking up aprox 3/4am and find it impossible to get back to sleep. It's really starting to get me down. needless to say when ds gets upat 6am I'm knackered.

I'm so tired and fed up - I'm longing for a night when I go to sleep and the next time I look at the clock its morning instead of the middle of the night.
just don't know how to stop it

oh please help, I'm desperate
sleeping tablets?

i cant help u but can understand how u feel. i go thro bouts of insomnia and have somehow coped. i tried bytol a few times but found i was so drowsey when it was time to wake up that i gave up. somehow i have boped. on nights i could possibly sleep thro u can guarentee one of the klids will wake up.

Perhaps when you wake up in the middle of the night you shouldn't try so hard to get back to sleep. I find that I just lie there and get more and more angry and irritated at the fact I'm awake!
Go get a glass of water, or read a couple of pages of a particularly mind numbing book. ANYTHING is better than just lying there willing yourself desperately to sleep.

Is there something worrying you? Or playing on your mind that you lie awake thinking about?

Katierocket, I have massive problems sleeping too. To help me: I don't drink caffeine after luchtime (camomile tea, which I LOATH, but drink), don't eat too late, have a bath to try and relax and exercise during the day. If desperate I take herbal tablets/sleeping aid from the chemist/doctor's - helps to create a pattern and sometimes, with me, it's phsychological - ie, I think I can't sleep so I don't. Also, read a lot. Relaxation tapes helped a friend of mine.

I think it has become an issue and that when I wake up I think "oh no, I'm awake, I need to go back to sleep" and this probably makes it worse.
I hate that time of night and find it hard to think rationally.

Katie, have you got things on your mind ATM? If so, can you talk about them with your dp, or on here? I always find it difficult to sleep if I'm worrying about things.
I would take something to help you sleep, but a herbal remedy or a 'natural aid' from Boots, rather than 'proper' sleeping tablets.

well relationship with DP is not great and hasn't been for a while although we are really working at it. Also, we are both freelance now which means there is some money worries, I don't really worry about those things when I wake up but maybe subconsciously it is affecting me.

I've always been a real worrywort and anxious. maybe the herbal tablets are an idea.

There's a book I find helpful 'Say Goodnight to Insomnia' by Greg someone I think. Got mine through Amazon. There's all sorts of good stuff in there. Hope you slept better last night.

I am having treatment for depression and have been told that waking in the early hours is a sympton of it. Are you having any treatment? Maybe you should go to your gp. Lots of sympathy to you though. I know how awful it is.

I would agree with Mimm - as I was in the same boat with the same symptoms...

Maybe you could discuss with your doctor.