Its rotten when we cant sleep, I wish I could help I will tell you what I was told. Try to go to bed at the same time each night, if your still awake in about 15mins, get up go into another room, may be read a little, then go back to bed. Don't watch TV in bed, your bedroom is for sleeping only. Its a clich but drink hot milk, if you have a little sandwich put lettuce on it, its good to help sleep. You can buy at the pharmacy something called, valerian its a herb, it relaxes you. Maybe you will get some better ideas later today, I hope so, good luck, Susie x

I use a couple of things that are natural like Dream Water its great and passion flower is great too look on line and you will find some natural things for sleep and they do work grreat. lisa

hi i hear people talk about meletonin for sleep...try soaking in a hot bath wioth a cup of baking soda it relaxes...sleepy time tea..theres a new nyquil product called ZZZZ its just for sleep...susie and lisa have great ideas too...i hope you find something that works so that you can sleep well (((hugs)))

Oh yes E you are right a nice bath and the tea is great i forgot about that i use it and love it too.

Thank you all. I do take a hot bath every evening (not too hot b/c of my foot) and use lavender when I have it. Melatonin doesn't work for me, unfortunately, but you've given me things to think about.

It's amazing to me that I could have this darned insomnia since the age of 8! It's even chronicled in my Diary, lol. I was 8 & had trouble sleeping. I remember it exactly- waking me mom & asking her what to do. I believe she said to count sheep. I recall watching the numbers flip over in those 80's type clocks we had, wondering what was happening.

I also remember staying home from school the next day. All I wrote was that something "weird" happened and I didn't go to sleep until past 4am and that I stayed home that day. But I remember it like it was yesterday. 8 years old!

At least now my son has afternoon preschool instead of morning, so once i get him on the bus at 11:40am, I can go back to bed if need be. Trouble with that is that I have to then sleep straight through or I don't fall back asleep at night.

I just wish I could be like millions of people who just get into bed, turn out the light & sleep! And with Winter coming, the cold weather will make the pain worse. So I certainly am taking notes here.
Thanks again :)

Hi Jen. It HAS been a while. Good to see you back again. I've always been one to "sleep like a rock", but my hubby has had so much trouble sleeping. Your description sounds just like him. He retired a month ago, and his sleeping patterns have not changed, but being able to nap in the daytime has done wonders for him.

One thing I will suggest is to hide your clock from view. My hubby would wake and look at the clock and count the hours until the alarm would go off. Maybe he was afraid the alarm wouldn't wake him. I don't know. But now that he doesn't have a need for the alarm to wake him up he's doing better. Just a thought.

In the past when I had trouble going to sleep, I would concentrate on seeing the darkness with my eyes closed, like it was a piece of black construction paper. It helped clear my mind so I could go to sleep faster. I know it sounds strange, but it actually did help me.

And if you find yourself thinking about things you have to do the next day that you don't want to forget, keep a pad and pencil by your bed to jot things down. My hubby would keep thinking about things at work that MUST NOT be forgotten, and THAT would keep waking him up. He was always worried about forgetting some important thing about the work schedule or something and if he wrote it down, it was safe to allow himself to stop thinking about because it was written down.

Another thing you might try is seeing a sleep specialist. My neurologist specializes in sleep disorders and can detect problems that other docs either miss or don't know about. It's easier for a doc to give you pills to help you sleep than it is to figure out what's causing your insomnia. Not that they're derelict in their duty, it just takes less time.

I hope you find a way to get more sleep dear, and I hope these suggestions help.

aroma therapy lavender camloimile tea is good for when ppl cant sleep also have sumone give u a massage before going to bed really soft music like native american music helps mealso being in my husbands arms helps also

WOW... I am having similar problems....I watch my wife sleep all night as I lie there either in too much pain to sleep or battling the side effects from the meds...I missed an outing today with my wife and friends because I was so tired yet I was awake too... The only thing I can recommend is to be open and understanding with your husband...It's hard to have a spouse like us and they usually have no idea what we go through but the understanding is a two way street... I hope you can find some relief...

Hi, I too suffer from sleep issues and lately the pain is waking me up even with the Lunestra. It is frustrating. Here are a few things that have worked for me...the new Liquid Zzz by NyQuil is better than my Lunestra and I often switch it up so I don't build up a tolerance to the L; there are a couple albums from Liquid Mind on ITunes that work great for me; I often say a same prayer over and over again (I am not religious anymore but find repeating Hail Marys help me sleep and when I am really stressed out - works better than ohm or counting for me :). I hide the alarm clock, ESP when traveling, chamomile tea before bed, reading a boring book but with low lighting on my kindle. Most of these help me and I hope some of these or the others help you. Good luck. G

Once you become tolerant to a "hypnotic" class med, the only way to have it work for you again is to take a "med holiday" from it and let your brain reset. It usually takes 3 - 6 months. In the meantime there are other things you can do to have good "Sleep Hygiene" and help get on a solid sleep schedule.

SLEEP TIPS
1. Set regular hours for going to bed and getting up in the morning and stick to them, even on weekends. This may mean waking yourself from a sound sleep shortly after falling asleep, but it will lead to better sleep the next night.

2. Stay out of bed if you are not asleep. If you havent fallen asleep after half an hour, get up and read or watch television. Keep these activities short and nonstimulating such as reading or listening to relaxing music. Wait until you are very sleepy before you return to bed and repeat these directions.

3. Remove your TV from your bedroom. Dont read or watch television in bed and dont eat in bed. Aim to have your mind and body associate your bed with sleep and only with sleep

4. Avoid taking naps during the day or anytime outside the hours you set for sleep. If you do take a nap limit it to under 30 minutes.

5. Drink a glass of milk at bedtime. Milk contains L-tryptophan, a natural food substance which helps induce sleep.

6. Eat a small, mild, high carbohydrate bedtime snack to settle your stomach.

7. Get some exercise every day, but avoid strenuous exercise close to bedtime.

8. Do whatever you can to make your bedroom conducive to sleep. Keep the temperature cool. Ask those near you to respect your need for quiet. Make sure it is dark and use an eye mask if needed. Some people are soothed by a low, steady noise like a fan or white noise device.

9. Try to use your bedroom for sleeping only. Remove excess clutter in your bedroom and dont leave office work or to do lists in stacks near your bed.

10. If worries or thoughts of tomorrows activities intrude into your consciousness, get out of bed and make a list of them to be dealt with during your waking hours. Consider designating a worry chair; Get up, sit in the chair, and make yourself worry for 10 or 20 minutes, then go back to bed.

11. Meditate or practice relaxation techniques at bedtime. You can purchase guided meditations or relaxation training on tape or CD

12. Avoid caffeine containing foods and drinks such as coffee, tea, chocolate, etc.

13. Avoid alcohol. It makes you drowsy at first, but in the long run, its a poor sleeping pill which interferes with both the quality and quantity of your sleep.

14. Dont try to go to sleep. Sleep is a natural process which cannot be forced. Let yourself go to sleep. Avoid keeping track of how much time you sleep or stay awake at night. Refrain from clock-watching. It may be helpful to turn your clock away so it is not visible from your bed.

15. Establish bedtime rituals to signal your mind and body to begin to relax. These rituals should ideally begin 30-60 minutes prior to sleep and become automatic. You may even experiment with making a bedtime checklist that you follow nightly. Try taking a warm bath, listening to relaxing music or reading.

16. Dim the lights for 1/2 hour to 1 hour prior to bedtime to stimulate the release of your natural Melatonin.

17. You might lose some sleep at first by following these instructions, but if you stick to them, your sleep cycle should gradually improve.

Hi Jen, I too am a chronic insomniac have been since I was a kid, we are about the same age. You've been given great suggestions by everyone. I have a hard time turning my head off at night. Sometimes it's like a fast forward movie. I have tried every Rx sleep med & all the over the counters and the only one I found that really works is Rozerem (the name brand is Ramelteon) I take 8mg it takes one hour to start working I sleep through the night unless pain is really bad. I usually only get 4hrs tops right now. But with this med you stay asleep and you don't have that groggy feeling in the morning. I also put lavender lotion on my arms, I am only able to sleep on my left side so the lavender helps calm me. I also keep the alarm clock turned away from me a little. It's been proven even the little bit of red light from the clock is enough to penetrate your eyelids thus keeping you awake. Hope this helps and you have sweet dreams ahead.

Hugs & God Bless
Lisa

Hi... I'am also sorry you are going through this-- I take Nature's Melatoin 3-grams. and or sleeping time tea when I can't sleep, because I can not take a lot of the pharmaceutical's... Helps, in fact I need to take some now! been up all night from pain levels being extra bad last couple days... In fact I forgot I had some until i seen your post.
I hope things get better for you soon.

@Kat that is an awesome list- I use to have that list on my frig, to remind me of what to do. Thanks for posting it. I need to put it back up.
Angels2u :)

Hi, Thaliajen

Believe me, I understand your frustration with sleeping trouble my insomnia has worsened over the years although mine also has a self-imposed element to it...

[ as if anyone would purposefully stay awake and suffer the consequences! ]

Unfortunately, that was exactly the situation I found myself forced into As my disk and other problems worsened, I found that the longer I slept, just the lying still for that extended time, would cause my pain level when I awoke to be so much worse that any restorative benefit from the sleep would be completely negated and lost. When my body really started failing, I found that the six or seven hours sleep Id always had would set off my neck and back, and pretty much everything else for that matter, so I scaled back to five hours a night then four hours became the new mark required to accommodate my bodys limit... to avoid the new, then-unprecedented and truly horrific levels of pain upon waking.

Of course, the four hour limit eventually fell to three, where it stayed for quite a while but over the last six to nine months or so, Ive been limited to one to two hours sleep a night. There are times, usually after a sustained number of days at that greatly reduced amount of sleep, when exhaustion simply takes over and I drop off into a deep, more prolonged sleep... which is of course met with new excruciating pain when I finally do wake up, and then Im back to limiting my sleep for another round.

Lately, it is easier to limit my sleep as my Pain has become a very effective alarm clock, usually waking me all by itself after 90 minutes to two hours. I have, however, found some resources in the form of Brainwave Entrainment (Binaural Beats and Isochronic Tones) audio and video that help me quite a bit specifically and especially a recording called, Four Hours of Sleep in Forty Minutes. Trust me it works, and it can sustain me for one to two weeks with only a few hours of actual sleep every three or four days which is the limit to which my Pain has pushed me in recent months. True, it SUCKS(!) but these recordings truly do help me survive even under these extreme conditions, self-imposed or not.

Ive also found a HUGE number of brainwave entrainment files for meditation, relaxation, and also deep relaxation to induce sleep. Im certain that youd be able to find a number of files and/or sites to help you get more restful sleep, just fall asleep, just help with relaxation or meditation, or just take a short break during the day for a little mind vacation when you need it.

Here are a few links that might help get you started:

The 4 Hours Sleep in 40 Minutes recording I use pretty much every day:
http://www.amazon.com/Hours-Sleep-40-Minutes-Reducing/dp/B002BVM6TO/ref=tmm_other_meta_binding_title_0

MusicMeFree.com - the 1st site I found. I bought this Meditation and Inner Peace MP3 Pack and have found it to be incredibly helpful. The Delta Sessions and the Deep Sleep MP3 have been my favorites, and the quality and effectiveness of MusicMeFrees recordings are some of the best Ive found.
http://musicmefree.com/page_meditation_and_inner_peace_mp3_pack.php

Sonic Harmonics - a good site with 3 of the most useful MP3s Ive found available for free. If you become a member, theres a HUGE library of high quality MP3s, some with Binaural Beats, some with Isochronic Tones, and some just plain audio files to help with relaxation.
http://sonicharmonics.com

Free Binaural Beats offers the webs largest database of binaural beats and isochronic tones for meditation.
http://free-binaural-beats.com/

I hope some of these are useful to you or to anyone else reading this who might want to give them a shot I know that they have been incredibly helpful for me, and there are vast numbers of other sources and other files out there just Google brainwave entrainment or search for it on YouTube

Peace,

Dave

Hello... I just wanted to let you know that I take a medication called trazodone and it is the only thing that helps me fall asleep quickly and also stay asleep.
Maybe something to ask your doc about.
Good luck with your sleeping.... I have went through that for a long time when my fibro was flaring.
Best wishes
Cindi