Insomnia - Can't sleep!

I’ve been getting into a regular sleep schedule lately. It feels nice. What I do is drink chamomile tea about a half hour before I want to go to bed. I browse the forums for a bit to get my mind on LDs. And then I get in bed and try Dork’s advice:

“Think about the area two inches above the roof of your mouth.”

It works really well, actually.

This may work for the average ‘Joe’, but I work shift work. This is a combination of working days and nights. It sucks because I go through episodes of insomnia, and cant keep a regular sleep schedule. Any advice from fellow shift workers out there.

You know what REALLY sucks?
2:38 a.m.
School night
Have to get up at 6.
Have a test tomorrow.
NO SLEEP.

I have a really SERIOUS sleep problem!!! Please help me out with any advice.

I have to drive to college for an hour and a half on the highway and then have a 7 hour day and drive back. Well I’ve been doing this without sleep at least 5-6 times this semester!! If this keeps up I’ll probably kill myself. Not sleeping screws with my complexion, I can’t concentrate, I look terrible, my immune system weakens and I catch colds much easier, etc.! And as terrible as this is, I still want to stay away from Night/Day medication because I’m allergic to a lot of drugs and I don’t want to get addicted.

When I try to sleep, I can’t shut my mind up especially when I’m anxious or excited. TV and going on the internet or something like that definitely does NOT help since I start concentrating on that. Or I keep playing a song in my head.

I read someone was recommending Kava tea. Does this really work?

Lina: I don’t know where i read it, but someone recommended that whenever you have a thought, notice it, take a word or a couple of them, and repeat again and again, extremely slow and sloooower for each time, so slow that you can’t even remember what word you begun with… It works.

If you have looping thoughts and concerns, write them down and tell yourself to leave it THERE on the paper and go to sleep here.

What about camomile? It’s totally safe and effective :smile:

moved to Insomnia - Can’t sleep! Part II :moogle:

I have troubles in falling asleep. If I wake up (In order to Wake Back To Bed), I almost never can’t fall back asleep (WILD-ing or not)

Also, I can’t nap.

in fact, Unless I am dead tired, I have troubles falling asleep.

Any advice?

I used to be nervous the night before an important exam, and i couldn’t sleep. I was drinking camomile, and it helped me a bit. Maybe you should give it a try :smile: Also check out the “Big insomnia topic”, you might find some useful hints and tips.

Personally i think it’s usually psychological. If you try to relax and don’t push yourself, you might sleep. Try thinking “i can’t sleep --so what? No problem. So, i will just close my eyes and if i sleep, ok, if not, no problem”.

That psychological Idea doesn’t realy work for me. Its like trying to make reverse psychologi on yourself…

Anyway, I will try to drink some tea. And to think sloooooolllllllyyyyyyyyy…

I have problems sleeping too. I’m always up to 2AM. Even if I take sleep pills I’m SILL up to 2AM. O_O

Do some workout, might tire you out :wink:

moved from quest forum to the BIG topic in which you should find lots of advice :moogle:

i cant sleep at night no matter what i do ive tried everything yoga tea evrything and it takes hours and hours for me to finnaly get to sleep please :help:

I know how that is. It’s especially horrible on school nights. I remember sitting in bed at 4 in the morning wide awake and extremely frustrated that I had school in 3 hours. Happened to me basically every night.

Practice meditation. I was going to recommend an herbal supplement that works incredibly well, but you should be older if your going to take it.

Look up how to meditate and do that every night right before bed, after taking a hot shower…that should help some.

Whatever you do, if some whacky doctor tries to give you pills to make you fall asleep, do NOT take them. You don’t need them and they are horrible for you. Also if you take those, they will probably kill your dream recall completely.

Exercise every day until you feel worn out. This is an important one. If you run lets say for 3 miles or so every day, it will leave you eagerly awaiting bed time by nightfall.

Sweet dreams :happy:

I only sleep 4 to 5 hours a night ambian dont work it just makes me feel as if im floating around inside my own head I was told not to take more than one but, one dont work so i take two and sometimes i think I might be sleep but I really cant tell. when im out of ambian I take tylenol pm and i just about get the same effect when I do fall asleep I dont even remember getting in the bed I just cant sleep and I really dont know why :confused:

May be it’s time to forget the ambian/tylenol and try simple relaxation?
When I get insomnia it is usually due to stress. Then if I start worrying about not being able to get to sleep the problem gets steadily worse.

there is a list of things members have previously advised in this post. So I suggest you read that post and I hope you are sleeping well soon.

And it is never a good idea to take more of a medication than advised :no:

I have a very big and bad problem relaxing dont work I have tried everything under the sun. Its so bad that I dream when im awake. im losing my memory fast. When I leave my house to go some where I have been 1000 times I get lost in my head I go blank for a couple of seconds. Everthing just leaves my mind and then I just panic maybe I should get a sleep study done :help:

edited uppercase :hugs: :bruno:

Sounds serious… perhaps you should see a medical care professional about this - or a sleep specialist? I don’t think anyone here has the knowledge to assist properly, so it’s best you do go see a doctor right away.

2hard - first of all, i don’t like to know you’ve been overdosing medication. this might indeed be the cause of some of these symptoms you’re having — to cut, double or change your prescription without consulting a doctor can have very serious outcomes.

judging by your description, this is clearly not a simple matter of insomnia; rather, insomnia is a symptom of something else that’s affecting your brain. your suicidal behaviour also concerns me deeply. this could be some kind of hyper-stimulation of a brain area, or clinical depression. at any rate, i can’t emphasize enough how important it is that you look for a psychiatrist right now.

what you have doesn’t seem anything out of the world, by all means: that set of symptoms suggests some fairly common psychiatric disorders which are all easily treatable if diagnosed in time. but you must look for a doctor, quickly — you could be as good as new in a month, but you must look for professional help.

i have really bad insomnia. i take medication to sleep but it doesn’t work all the time. so I’m glad i found this thread… maybe it can help me.

The only time I can’t sleep well at night is when I ask this question when I’m in bed ‘How do I go to sleep?’ It seems as if I forget how to fall asleep.