Not recently (knock wood) but when something big is on the horizon and I have a laundry list of things to do, I do get horrible insomnia. I hope that you get some rest soon. Tylenol PM or benadryl might be helpful until you find your good sleep place again.

Have you tried reading something that isn't too exciting? That usually does it for me. Also, how about going to bed later? How very frustrating your sleep problems must be.

I've had terrible insomnia for years. Two sleep studies show that I do not go to sleep! Duh! I've always been a night owl and could never change this no matter what I do, so I just go with it. That's what the sleep doctors said to do. Luckily, I work afternoons and evenings so I go to sleep about 2 - 4 am and get up at 10 am. Weird, but my family understands. Good luck.

It is 1 am and I am still sitting up, so hopefully I will fall asleep when I lay down in a few! Thanks for all of you who commiserate! Best to you all too.

Sleep medicine is one of the newest medical specialties. Many people I know (including some regulars here, and including myself) have been treated by sleep doctors and have experienced fantastic results. It sounds like you may be someone who could benefit from seeing a sleep doctor. My first choice would be to be seen by a sleep department at a medical school if you live near one. If not, find an MD who is fellowship trained in sleep disorders - their nominal primary specialty is less important. Sleep doctors come from many different directions - pulmonology, internal med, neurology, psychiatry, etc., Good luck, there's no need to continue to suffer from poor sleep.

I find having a routine helps. Turn of electronics. Turn the bed down, the humidifier on, wash my face, brush and floss my teeth, change in to PJ's, get in to bed and read for a few. Reading never lasts... I get to tired.

My problem is waking up early. as early as 4:30, and am ready to get up. Can't get back to sleep.

Moni

Yep, I'm one of the recovered insomniacs. My health was in serious jeopardy for years and critically so after menopause. It took sleep studies and three different sleep doctors, and a lot of COMMITMENT on my part. My last doctor was a neuropsychologist and he was the icing on the cake.

To make a very long story short, my 'cure' took about two years of evaluations, and some serious experimentation on my part. I changed my night habits, rearranged my bedroom, purchased a new mattress and pillow, lowered the nighttime temperature, and had to leave 'our' bedroom. Dearest husband is a human furnace, a snorer, and a dream talker.

I also learned self relaxation, deep breathing techniques that lower my blood pressure and put me to sleep in ten minutes. When I wake up a few hours later to visit the bathroom, I do the deep breathing again when I crawl back into bed. That gives me another four hours!

I can't help but feel like a poster child for insomniacs and recovery. It required expert medical intervention and true commitment on my part, but I'm sleeping a full 6-8 hours a night, every night (with few exceptions).

I have been an occasional insomniac since I was a kid - I have tried lots of OTC products, but my DIL turned me on to ZQuil - if I take it about 30 minutes before I turn out the light, I sleep through the night and am not wonky the next morning when the alarm goes off. ZQuil works great for me right now - don't know if my brain will become immune to its magical powers, but it works for now. I only take it about once a week. The rest of the nights I take my baby aspirin which works for me.

I know how awful insomnia can be. But if you listen to your body and develop disciplines...good sleep hygiene as they call it...you can improve.

If you are tired about 8, go to bed then. I typically get sleepy around 10 or 10:30. If I make myself stay awake through that sleepy time, I will be up for several more hours. But if I listen and go to bed then, I can get several more hours in.

Another thing I've found is that it's not helpful to wait to get ready for bed when I feel sleepy. If I do, then I wake myself up all over again washing, brushing, undressing, etc. Get ready for bed earlier so that when you are feeling sleepy, you can just crawl into bed and answer that call.

Another thing they suggest is to pay attention to light. As the evening goes on, turn down the lights and make it dimmer. I've also found that having a 3-way bulb by my bed helpful. I wake up and wait a minute or 2, then turn the light on low for a minute or 2, then to medium for a min or 2, then to high for a min or two. It's almost like a dawn simulator and helps me to wake up gradually and helps with my SAD.

Another thing I've found is, when I was following a controlled carb diet (Schwarzbein Principle), I was sleeping much, much better. So be careful of what you eat and when you eat. Not just caffeine, but think about sugars and starches too.

Another thing I've found helpful is to focus on breathing and count...while breathing, try not to think of anything but be aware of your breathing, and then the count at the end of the breath. So breathe in, breathe out, one, breathe in, breathe out, two...up to 10 then repeat counting backward from 10. I usually never make it to 1 again.

Physical activity promotes a good night of sleep. I'm talking about activity that makes your body tired, not just a walk.

Be sure you're sleeping on a mattress and pillow that's comfortable and conforms to your sleep position.

Drink. Try to avoid everything but water after 4 PM. I usually drink 2 glasses of water after 4 PM.

Eat foods that supplement melatonin. Walnuts are my favorite evening snack.

I don't usually go to sleep until about midnight, then I wake at 3-4:00am, and back to sleep sometime after 5:00, too, for a couple of hours. If I'm really tired, and fall asleep early, I still wake up after 3-4 hours. I noticed my sleep patterns changed with menopause, and never got back on track. I just go with it--read a book or magazine, watch YouTube videos on my laptop, or check the local news sites. The more I worry about sleeping, the less sleep I seem to get.

When I experienced sleep problems, my doctor suggested trying Melatonin 300 mcg for a month or so to see if it helped. I took one or two tablets an hour before bedtime and read until I fell asleep. Within just a few days, I began getting a full night of sleep but continued the tablets for the full month. After that, I was able to go to bed around 10 or 11 p.m. and go to sleep almost immediately. That was twenty years ago and I've never taken Melatonin since then.

Needless to say, I would recommend doing your homework about Melatonin and check it out with your doctor. WEBMD

I was also going to recommend melatonin.

I use Kavinace, all natural and works great.

I have the opposite problem....I can't stay awake. A few times I have taken my husband to work in the wee hours and get so sleepy, I am afraid to blink because I fall asleep so fast. More than once I have had to pull into a Walmart or Kroger parking lot and sleep for ,30 minutes.

Thank you everyone for your comments.

I tried Melatonin years back and it did not work but I should try that again.

Thank you, Elmer for your suggestions. I know I don't have apnea or that sort of issue but a sleep specialist might be a good idea!

You mentioned medications and years back I did get prescribed Ambien. At that time stress and a major illness of a family member were the reason for my insomnia. Currently, although I have stresses like everyone, I am not overly stressed and it is one of the "easiest" times of my life.

When I took Ambien I did crazy stuff. Thankfully not the crazy like driving your car but I cooked food, wandered the house, made phone calls in the middle of the night. I stopped taking them flushed them (yes, I know you aren't supposed to do that) because I was still awake at 3 am and afraid I would take one.

To the poster(s) who talked about deep breathing and medication, I could do better at that. I do yoga and have practiced meditation so I know how to do it. I actually forced myself last night to not roll over, etc and did the deep breathing and just kept my eyes closed and actually fell asleep and stayed asleep for several hours. I need to focus on the routine part of it!

I think Ambien is a very dangerous drug. I know people who have done some REALLY crazy and dangerous things while taking it. I frankly wonder why it is allowed on the market.

You don't mention your age, but if you're menopausal, this might be the problem. During menopause, I had so much trouble falling asleep that I just quit trying and stayed up VERY late. I was lucky that by then the children were in college and DH was willing to feed cats/dogs and let dogs outside and back in and then confine them in the kitchen until I got up hours later. All I can say is "this, too, shall pass"!

For me, good sleep means sleeping in a VERY cold room (it was 51° when I went to bed last night). I go up around 5-6 PM, turn heat off completely, and turn down the covers. I usually go to bed between midnight and 2 AM as I don't need to be up until 8AM on days I have pulmonary rehab (earlier for church if I'm going), and on other days, I can sleep later.

I like to read before turning the lights out. In such a cold room, this involves a heating pad in the bed, a down bed jacket, and fingerless gloves. Good thing I'm not looking for romance as this would be quite a sight! When DH was alive, he didn't care.

Having bedclothes right makes a difference as well. I rarely sleep well in a hotel, regardless of Star rating, a everything is "different". I always take at least one of my down pillows with me and my down boudoir pillow - it's the one I scrunch under my head.

I always sleep best on the days I've gone to rehab and exercised, or have done a tiring chore such as ironing (gotta iron all those pillow cases!).

My Cavalier King Charles Spaniel sleeps between the pillows and snores like a stevedore. It's not irregular sleep apnea snoring - more like the very loud purring of a cat and it's positively soporific. Good luck!

Though I usually sleep pretty well, last night after about half an hour of shut-eye I woke with hot feet. That was it for many hours; I've learned lately that when I'm hot, (especially my feet,) no way, no how will I sleep. I got up to read and watch I Love Lucy for awhile, then went back to bed with cold feet. :)

I sometimes do have insomnia. Usually the night before we leave on a trip with the RV. My mind races with "Did I remember to do this or that?"

My doctor prescribed a really low dose of Xanax for those times, and so if I take a 1/4 mg an hour before bedtime, then I sleep like a baby. Otherwise I sleep normally.

anne, while apnea is one of the more common sleep disorders, there are many, many others and sleep docs treat them all. Like many other medical problems, sleep troubles can have many causes and many people have more than one sleep "problem" to deal with. And the various problems can also have treatment alternatives to try or choose from.

As rhizo says, one common thread of sleep difficulties is that they can adversely affect your overall health. She also mentioned the perseverance she needed to get her problems solved. Everyone is different but there's no reason to not have restful sleep during the hours you want to sleep. Good luck!

Doctors tried to say I had apnea, without testing; it's the in vogue diagnosis. I refused testing since I had NO classic symptoms other than not sleeping well.

I did notice I slept really well when on the highest doses of steroids I've ever been on, and a doubled inhaler dose after my sinus surgery. Once I dropped back to no steroids and regular inhaler, if f I woke up, and used the rescue inhaler, I would go back to sleep. Didn't use it, and I'd stay awake. I'm about to get a stronger maintenance inhaler, since it looks like poorly controlled asthma now that I got rid of my concomitant lack of breathing problem.

Might be something else, less obvious?? Hope you find sleep soon

Why go to a doctor for treatment of anything if you've decided to refuse to undergo diagnostic testing they request? I'm a patient, not a doctor, but I know that sleep studies can help diagnose many, many other problems besides apnea. Mine did.

I am blessed to sleep well but on those rare nights when I can't melatonin knocks me out quickly and doesn't make me groggy next morning. I always have it around.

i can sleep in front of tv if i get still and interested in something to a certain degree, i will go to sleep even if i want to watch the program fast forward dh got me a ipad for Christmas, i noticed that after a few minutes of listening to an audiobook i would fall asleep so now i just go to bed listening to a book and within just a few minutes, i am asleep (according to dh) if i wake up in the middle of the night, i'm almost always away around 2 to 3 am then i can't (couldn't) go back to sleep-now i just stick that earbud back in my ear and i'm asleep again within minutes

white noise is not helpful music doesn't work either only the book works...tv works if i'm listening to a cable news channel or weather station....this has worked every night since Dec 26....

I refused one test, not disregarded all advice snidely.

I AGREE

I prefer a different hospital system>

we have soooo ma ny choices

Anglophilia, I am in my late 40's. I had a hysterectomy but kept my "eggs" at a very young age. I still have the monthly emotional days but I imagine it might be close to "my time". I actually do say when I wake up covered in a head (hair soaked) sweat that was a good sleep! Last August my doctor ran blood work and he said my hormone levels are that of a 25 yo......so at least my blood looks young? LOL.

I have these nights and last night was one of them. I, unfortunately ,dozed off over an inane TV show and cursed myself. I knew when I hit the bed hours later I wouldn't be able to go to sleep. I was right and I am exhausted today. I'll need a nap. I try not to nap during the day but it happens when I doze off. My doctor wants me not to take AlevePM and to stop. I take one a night.

Anne: Really appreciate the info. you gave in cooking forum. Since I'm lactose-intolerant I used soy-milk for 2 1/2 decades and was so miserable with insomnia.

I got into reading about near-death-experiences and this woman was in a coma for days. She reported while out-of-her body & floating above & she saw wheat-fields being sprayed with poison. When she came back to life, she embarked on organic foods & same with other NDE's.

I researched further was shocked to find that wheat and oats are routinely SPRAYED WITH ROUND-UP to desiccate 3 days before harvest. It's shocking that Cheerios cereal is highest at 1,125.3 ppm in glyphosate (weed-killer-residue), versus 9.9 ppm for Trix cereal.

Weed-killer (glyphosate residue in foods) mess up one's hormones, contribute to many cancers, plus insomnia. Currently there are 700+ lawsuits against Monsanto for various cancers. Soy, oats, wheat are high in Round-Up residue.

Last night we were out of power (due to the storm) from 10 to 11:30 pm. Instead of soy milk and cereal for bed-time-snack, I used almond-milk and gluten-free cereal (imported from Australia) and I had the best sleep ever with vivid-dreams.

Round-up weed-killer messes up with one's sleep & UP the risk of many cancers. I was plagued with insomnia, until I cut out cereals & soy-milk before bed-time. See below link in Houzz for data of Round-Up residue in many common foods:

[https://www.houzz.com/discussions/worthy-roses-2018-and-favorite-products-and-health-and-glyphosate-round-up-dsvw-vd~5197301?n=107[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/worthy-roses-2018-and-favorite-products-and-health-and-glyphosate-round-up-dsvw-vd~5197301?n=107)

The thread is a year old - are you on some kind of a campaign with this and the same comment in another old thread with the same message?

The only campaign I have is to save folks the misery of insomnia. Try drinking soy-milk before bed-time and you'll see how it wreck your sleep. My neighbor in her 60's told me about how soy wrecked her sleep but I didn't believe her back then.

Cannot believe that I suffered for many decades until I accidentally found the solution by reading someone else's Near-death-experience. My niece had double mastectomy last week at 34, and this week I received the bad news that her surgery and chemotherapy DID NOT catch all the cancer-cells in her lymph nodes. That's the 2nd reason for all the research I did in on Round-up residue.

My niece was a vegetarian for decades and ate lots of food high in Round-up (soy, oats, wheat). I post to save people the miseries of insomnia. It's called empathy .. I had been there. See below link for round-up residues in food:

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/worthy-roses-2018-and-favorite-products-and-health-and-glyphosate-round-up-dsvw-vd~5197301