I've spent a lot of time recently looking for a forum where I might get some answers, or at least some sympathy, hopefully not the usual BS which one finds elsewhere in articles on sleep disorders and "insomnia". My own started at age 40 with no obvious cause, so forget the "crisis event" explanation. It got progressively worse as I sought help from my doctor who after the 'music at bedtime' and 'sleep hygiene' routines then prescribed sleeping pills, which didn't work, and which she then refused to reorder. It got progressively worse over time and 15 years on, by this time sleeping only a few hours every few days, I went to a specialist who listened to my story for 20 minutes and then said she didn't know what to do and I should try Melatonin....! This had no effect whatsoever so disheartened yet again, I continued with my "coping" system of going to bed, closing my eyes and allowing my mind to drift, relaxing to enable my body to recover & regenerate, hoping for sleep while waiting for morning to arrive. And then swimming before breakfast every day, which at least made me feel clean and fresh, such that in fact I was able to function at almost 100% through the day. However my insomnia deteriorated to the point where I no longer, ever, had the pleasant sensation of waking up and, to make matters worse, moved to another city 8 years ago where there was no swimming pool... So I started working out and found, surprisingly, that if I worked up a sweat on the elliptical, that this had a beneficial, almost magical effect, substantially dispelling the funk which accompanied getting up every morning after yet another sleepless night. So this has replaced swimming as my "coping" mechanism such that, now retired, I continue to function pretty much normally throughout the day (although my eyes hurt badly); no napping, and rarely any sleepiness. I (and my partner) have learned to live with this routine but needless to say it’s awful, particularly for her and those close to me, and this has devastated our social, as well as my quality of life, and I desperately want to get some sleep! Right now, about once every 2 months, I’ll take a half of my partner's 10mg. Ambien tablets following a particularly bad night, and this gives me about 3 hours of sleep. But I am very concerned about side-effects and dependency. Meanwhile I will benefit from Medicare in July 2018 and am exploring various options, but am extremely skeptical of anything or anybody, including “Sleep Centers”, even those attached to Neurology Departments of University hospitals, who claim to have solutions for this, I believe very small universe of chronic insomnia sufferers. I'm worried that this will almost certainly bring yet more frustration and disappointment. It's sad maybe, and defeatist, but I almost prefer to wait for the Big Sleep in a few years time!