Insomnia

[Harley]

Anyone got any 'non-banterous' remedies traditional, complimentary or alternative that they have direct experience of?

I'm sure this thread will strike a chord with a fair few oldies. I've been loosing 3-4 nights a week for months/years and have tried all sorts of combinations of approaches: hot baths, camomile, lavender, valerian, alcohol, more alcohol, etc, etc.

My difficulties may have started with work stress but I think it has now become ingrained and I really do not want to go down the road of sleeping tablets.

Any ideas?

[Carnage Head]

I normally read myself to sleep.

Make sure you do some exercise every day (even a bit of a brisk walk will do).

Don't exercise beyond 9.30pm (or earlier), if possible.

Another strategy:

Face the alarm clock away from you, so it is harder to check the time.

Or, finally... once, when my insomnia was pretty bad (at uni), when I was finally dropping off at 3, then 4,5,6,7,8, then 9am, I decided to go 'around the clock', and I managed (with the help of caffeine) to stay up until about 6pm. Then I woke up at 4am the next morning, then 'lied in' until 5am the next day, and so on, until I was back on track.

I've never had severe insomnia, though - but perhaps the above hints may help.

[DesignatedDriver]

don't know if it is relevant, but a few years back i was only able to sleep about 3 hours a night. went on for three months.

found out that it was the Vitamin C supplments i was taking. (was 1100% RDA - though why sell tablets that strong? are you supposed to cut them into 1/11th?)


afraid aside from that, have never found a pattern to putting me to sleep. tried herbal sleeping tablets once - had the opposite affect.

[Harley]

Thanks Carnage Head and DD.
As I am glucose intolerant I do try to exercise almost every day and usually in the early evening. If I don't exercise I get other symptoms which disturb my sleep anyway. I do often take vit C but I hadn't noticed a pattern connected with my insomnia - I'll check that. I try not to eat too much or too late in the evening, and I don't do any mental work after 9.00pm. Having anything other than a mouthfull of wine/beer might be an issue though.
I never have problems getting to sleep - I just can't stay asleep. I wake up after one or two REM periods (i.e. 90mins/3hrs) and then stay awake till nearly dawn - knackering. I have heard that meditation can help, if anyone has any experience of this I'd like to hear it.

Thanks for the advice. However I will ignore any suggestions posted at 3.30am or some such time as being blatantly useless.

[Mrs H.]

Harley - I meant to talk to you about this weekend but somehow never got the time - do you think you might actually be running out of energy and waking up because you need something to eat - even though you might not feel hungry. Try having a light digestible supper to see you through - you don' t have the reserves me and Mr H. carry We never wake up.