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...
I'm 15 and I've had insomnia for at least two years. Once I'm asleep, I'm like a rock, but it's the falling asleep I have problems with. I'm usually in bed by 9:30, but I'm tossing and turning not doing anything besides being in bed until about 12:30 or 1:30 and I need to get up at 5 or 6 for school so I get 4 hours to 6 hours if I'm lucky. I'm too young to take medication and I've tried almost everything in the book: cutting out caffeine, listening to music, not listening to music, reading before bed, not looking at screens two hours before bed, I do yoga every night, exercising before bed, exercising right after waking up, white noise machine, etc. Everyone around me seems to ignore it but I can see it affecting my school work as I have no energy anymore and it's a fight to stay awake in school which I'm at 12 hours a day. My parents ignore there's a problem and won't help me. Does anyone have any ideas to fall asleep?
If you still have trouble, you may have anxiety or depression that is keeping you up. It's probably worth having a physical done at your doctor to rule out any metabolic or hormonal issues.
Avoid sugary foods and drink in the evening too. Good luck! Hang in there.
Sleep problems with high school and college age kids are surprisingly common, considering you generally do not face the same kinds of health issues that come later with normal aging.
From about age 14 through 30, it's common for the inner biological clock to slow down somewhat. The effect is for the day to feel like it lasts much longer than 24 hours. Your age group may experience more of a 28 to 30 hour day instead of a 24-hour day. This is why 11 p.m. may feel more like 7 or 8 p.m. And 7 a.m. may feel more like 3 or 4 a.m.
So resynchronizing your biological clock every day to a 24-hour cycle is important for better sleep. This is simple to do if you just make a commitment to get up at the same time every day, consistently, as much as possible. Use an alarm clock. Get up and out of bed ASAP and expose yourself to bright light immediately, preferably indirect sunlight. This gets your biological clock restarted in subtle but profound ways.
If you allow yourself to sleep in on weekends or any other day you may pay the price that night. So consistency is important. Your sleep system thrives on this sort of regularity.
Try experimenting a little with your bed time. At your age 9 or 10 hours of sleep is reasonable. If youre tossing and turning, cut that back a little by going to bed a little later (keep your wake-up time set) and see what happens. Youll soon discover your best sleep timing.
As Vent suggests, try not to exercise too close to bedtime. That can rev you up physically when you want to be ramping down. But exercise is good for sleep. Just better to do it earlier if you can.
Try to avoid or at least minimize any caffeinated beverages or foods with caffeine (there are many, including chocolate) after lunch.
You can also help yourself sleep by planning a relaxing wind-down period before bed each night. This can be something like a bath, getting your clothes ready for morning, reading something enjoyable, just whatever you like doing and find relaxing so you can let stress go before bed. Developing a consistent cool down routine every night helps prepare your mind and body for sleep, and this is an important step.
Think of it like this: your mind and body are like a finely-tuned machine designed to automatically get all the sleep you require. Then relax and let go the worry about sleep.
Good luck. Keep us posted on how you're doing.