Insomnia

It's hateful having to get up for work a couple of hours after you've just gone off to the land of nod.
I get to the point of wondering if I'd be better staying up than risk oversleeping.

Bed at 23.30, fall asleep listening to iPlayer sounds, wake at 01.30. Lie there until 03.00. Get up and make a cup of tea and read a while. Back to bed at a bout 04.00. Lie there until 05.00 and then usually fall asleep again. No way can I get up for work at 07.30. My concentration is nil and I feel wrecked. At weekends I take an antihistamine tablet but no chance during the week because it makes me feel groggy and tired the next day. Insomnia is a curse.

They make me feel really jittery, on edge, and unpleasant.

I just thank God I no longer work

No singlegrannie,i have a husband who i sleep with and it helps him too.

This keeps me up all night!

sandelf - you beat me to it. I often listen to the BBC World Service if I can't sleep. The only snag is my DH has very good hearing and says he can hear my radio from my ear bud. I make sure he is really asleep before I turn it on. There is some interesting stuff to listen to but as soon as it gets boring I'm out like a light only to be woken up with a start when the pips go and the Today programme starts.

I’m another insomniac. I’ve more or less given up on finding a cure, so now I try to make bed as pleasant as possible. I use aromatherapy (bath oil and pillow spray), listen to either music, hypnosis mp3 tracks or a free app called Rain Rain which makes me feel snug in my bed as I listen to thunder or sea storms.

In winter I leave the room cool and use an electric blanket, so I get into a snug bed.

Even if I don’t go to sleep I can enjoy being in bed, which is so much better than lying there fretting about not sleeping.

I haven't slept well for many years. Bed around 12 and read until I fall asleep. Wake up after a couple of hours and have to get up. Back to bed around 8am and sleep for maybe 2 hours. I also suffer from restless legs 24/7 but it is under control with medication. Because of the restless legs I can't just lie in bed no matter how comfortable. I've tried all the sleeping pills, CBD oil, take magnesium, and attended the doctor for many years seeking help.

A few months ago I asked GP to refer me to a sleep clinic which she felt wasn't necessary. I paid privately to get seen at the sleep clinic. An overnight sleep test showed I had moderate sleep apnea and so I was referred across to the NHS for treatment. The waiting list is currently 3 years!!

It disappoints me greatly that in the 20 odd years that I sought help from my GP it was never suggested that I might have sleep apnea and I had to find this out for myself. Disappoints me more that I've to wait a further 3 years for treatment.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I've been there, done that. I don't know which sleep centre you've been referred to but I was "treated" at a famous one and it didn't help one little bit.

You might be offered CBT and/or melatonin and/or a CPAP machine. If you're overweight, you'll be advised to lose weight and you'll probably be given the advice you've read many times before.

I've had insomnia all my adult life and nothing has helped. It's better now that I don't have to work full-time because I don't have to worry about oversleeping or feeling rubbish through lack of sleep. I don't think people who haven't had chronic long-term insomnia really understand how debilitating it is,

Quite e agree, growstuff. It's impossible to explain how horrendous it can be

I've just come downstairs. Went up at one. Very tired. Lay there for 2 hours and I've given up

I'll try again in an hour or two

I posted earlier at 00.56
I dosed for maybe 30 minutes and I've been up again for 1.5 hours.
Why am I not exhausted enough that my body just takes the sleep it needs. Every so often, like Tuesday past, 5 days ago, I literally came to a standstill. I constantly kept drifting off throughout the day. I 'came to' sitting holding my make-up brush. I was drinking a cup of coffee when I fell asleep and dh took the cup of coffee out of my hands as I slept. I fell asleep mid conversation....... And so on.
There was an incident last December. I am retired 11 years but have continue to work the Election as I have done for over 30 years. I 'came to' .... And I was handing ID documents back to a Voter. I couldn't recall the previous 90 minutes but had been obviously functioning. This was in a hall of about 100 people. I went straight to my GP and she said it was exhaustion. An MRI was done and i t didn't show any signed of a stroke.
Needless to say my confidence has been rattled and I'll not p be working again. When I go back to bed now I'll go to the spare room so as not to disturb my dh. This happens too often and it makes me a little sad that I can't share our (lovely two weeks ago redecorated) bedroom.

I have only occassionally had bouts of insomnia but once I see the pattern emerging I fight back! I create a clear 'going to bed' routine, e.g warm drink, then lavender bath, read a book or do a soduku in bed. Light out at same time. If/ when I wake in the night for more than 15 minutes get up & go downstairs to make a warm drink. Read or do puzzle/ listen to music for half hour..then return to bed. This has worked for me..but all different! I have a friend who uses earphonesto listen to audio books when she wakes..that helps her.

My insomnia started when I couldn’t sleep because of DH when he was ill. I was always up half the night, changing bedding, calming him down etc. When absolute exhaustion overtook, and I did close my eyes my ears were still open. Only way I can describe it.
When he died I still laid awake listening for him and the habit continued.
Someone mentioned melatonin.
Oh my goodness, it works! And I’ve tried sleeping tablets from my GP, anti histamines, whiskey in hot milk, all sorts.
But I recommend trying melatonin, from Amazon it’s where I got mine.

Thank you.
I'm off to buy some.

Some years ago my sleep was so bad that I saw a professional who was recommended.
This was before CBT was widely recognised. He advised me to think of on thing that I liked doing/ being somewhere etc.
Never deviate from the choice you have made.
The majority of people will eventually fall asleep.
Over the following days/ weeks the brain thinks, ah, this is where I go to sleep.
It's training the brain, just like CBT.
I've done it for so long now that it's like breathing. I automatically do it.

If you want to sleep use nitrazepam

Some methods:

1. When I have had severe asthma attacks I would lie propped up on the settee and watch the tv with the volume very low. That enabled me to concentrate on the tv rather than on my difficulties in breathing.

2. Concentrate on your favourite film stars or actors and work through them alphabetically, thinking about films that you particularly like them in. I rarely got beyond E (Eastwood) or F (Peter Finch). If my mind wandered I would go back to the beginning.

3. Have a radio next to you, tuned to speech, rather than music and turn the volume down so it's barely discernible. And concentrate. I'm not sure that ear buds would work in the same way.

4. I have done all the above and found them to be effective but now I read using my kindle. I used to read a book with the bedside light on. I'd fall asleep and my OH would wake me up by telling me that I was sleeping without turning out the light. With my kindle I usually fall asleep before I've finished a couple of pages.

It's the concentration on something other than what's going on in your head that does it.

Someone up thread said citirizine anti histamine causes drowsiness. I’ve been taking these for years because the packet says it doesn’t normally cause drowsiness, but can sometimes. I’m going to start taking it at night, instead of the morning, to see if it makes a difference!

Works for me Toadinthehole! Sometimes a little too well!

How long before bed do you take it Chewbacca? Or can you take it if you can’t sleep, more spontaneously?

I take one little antihistamine tablet about an hour before I go to bed. If I take it any later, I can't wake up in time the next morning!

Thank you, and to think I’ve been taking them in the morning for years. I get horrible morning type sickness since menopause....and am now thinking maybe I was just tired, and it was making me feel sick! I was told citirizine was the non drowsy one, but on the instructions, it actually says 1 in 10 to 100 people become sleepy on them. They can cause insomnia, but that’s just for 1 in 1,000 to 10,000 people! It’s a minefield out there, but thank you for your help??

Hello SallyWally,
I get where you are coming from. Up until a few years ago, I had the very same issue with not being able to fall asleep even after having an exhausting day. There are a few changes I made in my nighttime routine that have helped me a lot.

First, I started to take natural sleep supplements before bed. I started with drinking chamomile tea every night. It helped me fall asleep quick and it became fancy little night ritual for me. But I think that it stopped being effective after a while. I used to wake up after only having gotten a few hours of sleep.

Then I finally decided to start taking melatonin supplements two-three hours before sleeping. The pill helped me fall asleep much faster and it also got rid of the problem of getting up in the night. I still take Vitamin Express melatonin supplements every night and I am able to get around 6-7 hours of uninterrupted sleep.

I also sleep with a sleeping mask on because I don't like any light coming in. I think you should focus on making sure you have a comfortable environment for sleeping along with maybe taking some natural sleep supplements.

Good luck!

I did !