What do you do when you can't sleep?

[Merlin5]

I couldn't sleep the other night. So I swigged some whiskey and within half an hour I fell asleep. Also, I've found Kalms can work quite well.

Also,

 

[AndyCr15]

I'm usually asleep within 5 minutes of my head hitting the pillow, but one thing I've used when it's not worked is push ups until you collapse. I thought a raised heart beat would then make it tougher, but usually it tires me enough I'm off to sleep pretty quick after.

 

[Mason-]

Put my man Bob Ross on the TV and fall asleep contemplating where to add extra happy little trees into the painting in my mind.

 

[dirtychinchilla]

If we're also talking preemptive tactics then give up alcohol and exercise are good shouts. I all but gave up alcohol in November and slept very well indeed (and lost weight).

I've been feeling the lack of sleep effects of alcohol recently. It didn't used to happen to me when I was younger...I'm always out like a light if I've been drinking, but more and more I find myself half-awake in the middle of the night having been drinking.

I've been watching a bit of Bob Ross too.

 

[dirtybeatfreak]

The best insomnia remedy I've found is as follows:

If after 30 minutes of going to bed you are not starting to nod off get up. I watch a boring TV program until I feel tired and then I go back to bed.

The trick here is to watch something that is not stimulating, interesting or thought provoking . No films, no news, just something really dull.

I feel this works by resetting your bedtime routine so although you are going to bed later it's much more efficient than laying in bed for hours.

Yes this is my method. It was given to me by my CBT therapist back when my anxiety disorders started. Worst thing you can do is lay there if you can't sleep. Basically just get up again and try again later.

As above poster said, Bob Ross is great program to watch for this

 

[MissJen]

I give it a time limit and if I am still not asleep 30-40 minutes later I usually get up, go downstairs and make a hot drink. Usually end up on my PC or watching something on Netflix. Varies if I go back to bed or not, depending on how exciting the thing is I am doing

Edit: Above few posts, Bob Ross is so calming and relaxing to watch. I'll have to remember to give this a go next time I struggle to sleep.

 

[Feek]

I wish I had an answer, I have bouts of insomnia that last for weeks. The current one has been going since the start of December. I can be sitting downstairs, barely able to keep my eyes open but if I go to bed, I'll be there for hours, not sleeping.

Last night - Just over two and a half hours
Night before was good - I slept for a little over four hours
Then it was three and a half

Four hours is good for me at the moment.

It's not as though I'm an idle couch potato as I'm out walking every day, have been doing the best part of ten miles every day all throughout Christmas with only a couple of days where I've missed my walks. I'm not juiced up on booze either, have been taking it relatively easy this Christmas.

 

[Scam]

You guys watching TV/Netflix etc. are mad. Screens are very bad for your sleep cycle - most advice says to avoid them 1-2hrs before you want to go to bed. Why do you think all phones have night filters now? Manufacturers wouldn't do that unless there is some real evidence supporting it. And playing games right before bed is downright crazy.

I'm having a lot of trouble sleeping recently, just sometimes can't at all. I've started taking herbal sleep tablets on a Sunday night (and yesterday, whenever I'm back to work the next day) as I have the most trouble then if I've not done much during the weekend, slept in a bit and knocked my cycle out etc.

The best advice is to get out of bed and do something to take your mind off of it for 20-30mins. If I'm really struggling I'll go downstairs, pour a large whiskey and read for 20mins. It's annoying but does seem to work.

EDIT: I've been trying to 4-7-8 breathing but unsure if it really helps. It might be filed under one of those things to do that just makes you more stressed that you can't get to sleep

 

[Roland Butter]

My ancient boiler tends to wake me up early regardless .

Points deducted for squandering a very good, if dated set-up to a sexist joke.

Anyhoo, back to the subject, 3 words can cure your imsonmnniia, large bottle of red wine [hic] , oh no, that's 4 words isn't it ?

 

[Bonjour]

Count up to 200 then back down to 0 helps for me. If it's particularly bad, go to 400 in 2s or 600 in 3s, then again back down to 0.

 

[Bassmansam]

I had this from September- Early November on and off due to work stress, absolutely horrible and it seemed to be worse on a Friday/Saturday, more time to think about problems i guess. It really is awful, makes life much harder.

 

[Nasher]

A bit of whisky helps.

It's bad to keep taking pills tbh, you will become reliant on them at the same time as becoming more resistant in the long term.

 

[Avenged7Fold]

Exercise regularly during the week and eat a relatively clean diet and you won't have trouble sleeping, even on rest days. I use to suffer sleepless nights for years and though self medicating (be it drink or other things), it wasn't particularly healthy and never gave me the night's rest i get now, regardless of how much i slept.

 

[Uncle_Gravy]

Had it last night, and I get it quite often, I'll be led there clearly tired but nope, I give in and just stream some youtube to the TV, i should go to the Doctors and see if they'll give me magic sleepy pills.

 

[J-FRO]

Couldn't sleep last night either. I blame in on a combination of (1) it being the night before being back at work proper, (2) thinking about said work and what has to be done, (3) having only got out of bed at lunchtime (so trying to sleep at 11pm was never going to work) and (4) my mind just being generally overactive. I don't think I got to sleep until about 3/4am and then was up at 7.

I should have got up and just done something, but I was too stubborn to even do that. Luther tonight with a whiskey and then I'm sure I'll hit the hay.

Often if I'm worried about work I'll just get up and actively plan out/write down what I need to do and rationalise the problems and how they're going to be dealt with. I find it's better to do that than lay in bed worrying, if that's what it is keeping me up that is.

 

[kwerk]

I have this problem because I take a prescription stimulant all day every day (literally just speed), with nicotine on top. I think I probably have DSPD with is often comorbid with ADHD. I can rarely get any work done until evening.

Things I've found helpful:

• Long grinding exercise early in the day, like hiking up hills.
• Blue light filter on my phone and PC (f.lux).
• Not watching TV anymore.
• Avoiding caffeine and alcohol.
• Listening to mildly boring podcasts.
• Wearing a sleep mask.
• Using warm color light bulbs (2700k) and keeping the lights low when the sun goes down.
• Going outside and getting sunlight first thing in the morning.
• Feeling likeI'vwe done a hard days work that day.
• Occasionally I'll just do an all-nighter.

Supplements I take:

• L-theanine, one of my favorites. 200mg to help sleep.
• Magnesium glycinate 200-400mg.
• Taurine occasionally (about 500mg).
• Melatonin (prescription only in the UK). Up to 1mg. 0.3mg is the reccomended dose for ling term use. This stuff is extremely hit and miss, it puts me to sleep very quickly but I wake up fully alert 3 hours later and have extremely vivid dreams. It also works like viagra on me for some reason.
• A herbal tea wuth chamomile and valerian root. This works really well actually.
• Rooibos tea. It has natural relaxants in it. I drink it to avoid normal tea because you can put milk in it and drink it all day.
• Pycnogenol. Read some studies that ut improves sleep quality, but take it for other benefits. http://www.sleepreviewmag.com/2018/...ine-bark-extract-reduces-jet-lag-study-finds/

Ones I've used vefore that worked well, but I have reservations about:

• Kava (can be hard on the liver but is amazingly relaxing).
• 5-HTP. (Theoretically may cause serotonergic heart damage).

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_sleep_phase_disorder

 

[koolpc]

I often cant sleep. Sometimes 3am and still awake. Worst is when my legs get restless and body aches. Eventually i nod off but nothing seems to work.

 

[Scam]

Does anyone nod off only to wake up as they do so? That's what seems to happen to me a lot, it's like if I don't move an inch I could fall back asleep but by then I'm thinking about it and bam I'm awake

 

[kwerk]

Does anyone nod off only to wake up as they do so? That's what seems to happen to me a lot, it's like if I don't move an inch I could fall back asleep but by then I'm thinking about it and bam I'm awake

Do you hear a loud bang sometimes? You could have... EXPLODING HEAD SYNDROME!! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_head_syndrome

 

[Unisol Magic]

I’ve suffered badly in the past mainly due to work worries etc but have found it extremely effective to think of a subject e.g. bands, song names, animals, anything really and think of one that begins with each letter of the alphabet, in order of course.

This really helps shut out all of the other stuff that keeps you from nodding off.

It works for me and find I rarely get through to Z. I often have to go back through and fill in the ones I couldn’t think of initially but again this helps as it totally focuses the mind.

I also find it helps to go to bed early’ish and read/watch stuff on the iPad. Eventually it slips out of my hand which is time to roll over and nod off.

I used to start panicking I was still awake around say 1:00am - thinking things like I’ve got to be up in 4/5 hours so another tip is NEVER check the time and try and imagine it’s only around say 10:00pm