Insomnia Support Group
Insomnia is a symptom, rather than a disease, and is characterized by inadequate quantity or quality of sleep. People with insomnia complain of difficulty falling or staying asleep, which results in significant impairment of daytime functioning. Insomnia is categorized as transient (shorter than one week), short-term (one to three weeks) or chronic (longer than three...
hi all
Im new here and have had on and off issues with my sleep for years. I'm feeling a bit tired due to broken sleep. I find I have to go to bed late, I have to make myself tired, but then the other day I went to bed around 8 as was very tired and I couldn't get off to sleep. usually I will read a book but then i end up reading it till 4 am. I also find that I will wake in the early hours and can never go back to sleep. I've taken sleeping pills before but I didn't want to become reliant on them. I used to Play badminton on a Monday Night, but had to stop as I could never get to sleep and would be awake till the early mornings.
I'm not sure if this is related to the above, but I have nearly fallen asleep driving, especially long drives. I get some sort of headache that makes me sleepy and my eyes just feel sore. I try my best to get an early night the night before I have to do a big drive. I find caffeine doesn't work so well anymore. When I was pregnant with my 3rd child my doctor had to order me not to drive long distance until delivery.
So if anyone has any suggestions, that would be great.
Im new here and have had on and off issues with my sleep for years. I'm feeling a bit tired due to broken sleep. I find I have to go to bed late, I have to make myself tired, but then the other day I went to bed around 8 as was very tired and I couldn't get off to sleep. usually I will read a book but then i end up reading it till 4 am. I also find that I will wake in the early hours and can never go back to sleep. I've taken sleeping pills before but I didn't want to become reliant on them. I used to Play badminton on a Monday Night, but had to stop as I could never get to sleep and would be awake till the early mornings.
I'm not sure if this is related to the above, but I have nearly fallen asleep driving, especially long drives. I get some sort of headache that makes me sleepy and my eyes just feel sore. I try my best to get an early night the night before I have to do a big drive. I find caffeine doesn't work so well anymore. When I was pregnant with my 3rd child my doctor had to order me not to drive long distance until delivery.
So if anyone has any suggestions, that would be great.
Be sure to discuss insomnia with your primary care doctor. You want to either treat or eliminate the possibility that any medical and/or psychiatric issues could be disrupting your sleep. If present, by treating any medical issues your sleep should improve.
If you have no untreated medical/psychiatric issues causing insomnia, then look to nonmedical root causes. These nonmedical issues cause the vast majority of sleeping problems, and are typically some combination of bad sleep habits and excessive worry about sleep. By treating them your sleep should improve.
Sleep, or the lack of it, is only the symptom, not the true root cause for insomnia. Sleeping pills by themselves therefore cannot address the true underlying root cause for primary insomnia.
There are a number of simple common sense things you can do nonmedically to help yourself sleep. The best source of these methods is contained in CBT, cognitive behavioral therapy, specifically designed for insomnia.
Let us know if you have more questions.
As soon as I started taking my diet and sleep schedule seriously, I started to feel a lot better. I picked up 8 good tips on how to sleep better from here:
http://www.timesmartme.com/timetips/re-energise/sleeping/