Old Style Insomnia help!

Rachel021967

Does anybody have any remedies for insomnia? I can go for days with very little sleep followed by days that I sleep for England. This serious effects mine and my family's life. Anybody got any suggestions?

Bitsy_Beans

Eliminate as much stress as possible, avoid caffeine, have a hot milky drink, make sure your bedroom is a nice place to sleep (not too bright, comfy etc) and if all that fails then I'd be going to see my GP.

I did watch a programme about insomniacs and the best advice from the sleep clinic was not to spend all day in bed catching up on sleep. Stick to a rountine, even if you're dog tired, go to bed same time, get up at the same time - the people featured did this and it worked. They started having better night's sleep.

rachbc

I saw the same programme - I followed a 'sleep hygiene' programme - which is basically

moderate exercise to tire you out
avoid stimulation for a couple of hours before bed - tea, coffee, TV, comp games etc
warm bath, milky drink
bedroom only for sleeping (not work etc)
if you can't sleep get up and do something distracting but not stimulating rather that lie there tossing and turning
Don't go to bed early or lie in to catch up or nap as this stops your sleep rythms

When done properly was as affective as tablets

Rachel021967

Thank Bitsybeans and rachbc. Will try sleep hygiene programme. I'm desperate, I'll try anything.

squeaky

I agree with all of the above. I am also a habitual bed time reader, which is not a problem in itself if you set half an hour (or one chapter) as your limit - but I did find that what I read influenced my sleep. So, for instance, thrillers and "dramatic" stuff would end up keeping my mind busy thrashing out the plot... whereas nice gentle comedy type things (P.G.Wodehouse being my favourite) would send me off all warm and relaxed.

Another one was my "to do" list. If you just hold them in your memory they end up going round and round... and round and round... and round and round... so instead of having a nice short "mental" list of six things... you have dozens! By actually writing them down on paper a) you limit them, and b) you are in control.

To a large extent you really need to try and identify just what it is that is keeping you awake, or causing poor quality sleep, and then develop a strategy for dealing with it. All the things mentioned earlier are, in fact, "general" things that can help - but if you have a big issue with something (and you may not even be "telling yourself" what it is...) then these strategies may help to some degree - in fact they will help to some degree - but the real cure is to be found inside yourself, If You See What I Mean?

These days, if I find myself having trouble sleeping I start to look over things that "might" be worrying me. The problem can be that the "back" of your mind is worrying about something while you sleep that the "front" of your mind, while you are awake, is assessing this whatever as not being a problem at all. And your subconscious doesn't take a blind bit of notice about what your waking mind thinks unless you give it a stern talking to ;-)

Penelope_Penguin

There's lots more for you here; I'll merge this later to keep ideas together.

Numptys_lass

Oh dear, it's horrible, isn't it?
One thing I recently read in a book was that the author was told by her Dad to close her eyes and stare into the darkness. I have tried this once or twice and it does seem to work! I would love to know why.
I presume you've tried all the other things like no caffeine and to wind down etc.
Oh I've just remembered another one I read in a magazine- Open your curtains! That one sounds totally unbelievable but it may hopefully help someone

[Deleted User]

make a hop and lavender pillow to put inside your pillow case. Herbs from woodland herbs are good.

I bought a sunrise clock and set it so that it starts to shine at 6,30 every morning, including holidays and full brightness is reached at 7. Now that I am used to waking at that time, I have started to set if 5 mins later week by week so that I get up a bit later in the furure. I used to get up at 5 because I was lying awake

re evening: no caffeine at all after lunchtime. My sunrise clock is the new and more expensive version but it does speaking ralaxations and lots of other sounds. That really helped us to drop off

The important thing is to get into a strict routine

I have started sleeping all through the night and it is magic

Sublime_2

Clipper Sleep Easy Tea.

It works.

building_with_lego

Turn yourself around so that your pillow is at the foot of the bed. It doesn't work for me now as OH would :eek: (feet phobic!) but it somehow changed the whole dynamic of not being able to sleep and off I went...

Or instead of lying there with your eyes shut trying to drop off keep your eyes open for as long as possible.

Homeopathic coffee (coffea 6c) if your mind is whirring- I don't care if it IS just a placebo, if it gets me to sleep it's in my insomnia arsenal

Lavender oil is the classic, though don't use too much as it's a stimulant.