How do you deal with insomnia?

[Metalhead]

It feels like the more I try to force myself to sleep, the more awake and alert I become. And I have to leave for work in a few hours.

 

[cornman]

I don't, i have a terrible sleep pattern. I fall asleep around 3am-4am and wake up around 10am.

 

[Atrapa Almas]

I use that awake time to learn, read, advance on my online courses or do some soft activity like stretching.

I also reflect on my stress source if it is stress related (like today).

Best of luck.

 

[Galvatrancis]

It feels like the more I try to force myself to sleep, the more awake and alert I become. And I have to leave for work in a few hours.

Normally, i use medication to help me sleep. I recommend you search a doctor if your insomnia continues. After all, its only logical.

 

[Heidi M.]

I researched that as soon as you wake up participate in some sort of exercise even 10 min of walking will help regulate the cortisol/melatonin balance. Though it takes some work for me, having routines is helping my sleep so much. Especially night time routines, turning off electronic and really to me it's turning off the outer world. Finally, I sleep w/an air purifier, i actually love the sound of the fan and so what i do is relax the body from head to foot and FOCUS on the sound of the fan, when any thoughts come to me i pull my mind back to the sound of the fan. I call it putting my head in the fan (sound) haha. Sometimes i have to get up and eat a bite of peanut butter, sounds weird but it works for me. I hope you find your own ways soon! Sleep is so important. Oh another thing that helped me after a 5 month bout of insomnia *10 years ago, was to start getting into my dreamworld, doing things to remember my dream so that i found it easier to turn off the outer-world and enjoy dreamland. I truly wish for you to find your sleep and dreamworld.. the best advice, imo, is to never TRY to sleep, just relax the body and the brain.

 

[Darkkin]

Read...

 

[Storm Hess]

It feels like the more I try to force myself to sleep, the more awake and alert I become. And I have to leave for work in a few hours.

Podcasts. I have a collection of podcasts that take my brain to other places. I normally exercise like a beast as well, so that helps calm me down toward bed time.

 

[Rasputin]

It feels like the more I try to force myself to sleep, the more awake and alert I become. And I have to leave for work in a few hours.

I have the same problem, and I think it may be a dopamine deficiency from undiagnosed ADHD. I have been taking melatonin and Doxepin to help me sleep, but I recently learned that melatonin reduces your dopamine levels in your brain.

I am going to stop taking melatonin and will substitute L-Theanine on a trial basis to see if that helps.

L-Theanine for Sleep and Anxiety - Doctorpedia Sleep and Wellbeing

 

[Misery]

The #1 thing that anyone ever told me about how to deal with this sort of thing is basically that when it's happening and you're in bed... just entirely ignore it. Instead of thinking about sleep or whatever, just think "wow it's nice I get to experience this comfy bed, I can just lay here and think about whatever" and then ponder random things, as if you dont actually care whether you fall asleep or not.

That's what worked for me when I used to have that issue.

 

[Crabcore]

I basically have to work out for 45+ minutes per day, eat a high-protein diet and take a decent amount of vitamins in order to get semi-normal sleep. It's got a pretty good success rate for me, but it still sometimes flies off the rails and I go months at a time getting very little sleep per night, sleeping during the wrong hours, etc.

 

[Metalhead]

I basically have very poor sleep hygiene. On nights before I go to the office, I try to be in bed by 10PM, but on all other nights, staying up until 3AM playing video games is normal for me. My RL friends have commented that I am not 15 anymore and recovering from those nights is not as easy as it used to be.

 

[Aspychata]

Sleeping at 3:00 or 4:00 am is quite normal unless l am working. Sometimes l toss around because sleep isn't happening. Then l just think really hard about things, sometimes that lulls me to sleep.

Good luck with this. Warm bath, heated blanket, warm milk or tea maybe?

 

[Nick12]

count sheep balloons and fire trucks