Tips on getting to sleep please :ok:

Have tried:
+ lying in bed and thinking of England/counting sheep/summarising the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem;
+ reading a novel/text on cryptography/Anselm of Canterbury/teenage psychology;
+ drinking water/tea/hot water with honey mixed in;
+ threatening myself with all the dire consequences inevitable if I don't get enough sleep to get up at a decent time tomorrow :ugh:

aaaaaaand I'm still awake. Help! :\

The biggest problem is being worried that you aren't asleep.

I suffered for years.

The situation (for me) was relieved when I realised that I didn't have to get up at a given time the following day (I had long since stopped working), however I saw many dawns before falling asleep, and several '72 hour days' without a wink of sleep.

Thankfully, my GP is now supplying me with Tamazepam, so I usually get 'a night's sleep' thanks to chemicals.

If you don't have the drugs, then either read or listen to a radio talk programme (turned down low so you have to struggle to hear it - I use a small personal radio, but a standalone radio with an earpiece is just as effective).

Don't have any clocks within view - in fact I gave up wearing a watch altogether.

and finally . . . (although it might not work for you) I get up and make myself a small snack of buttered cream crackers (half a dozen - no cheese) which seems to satisfy any thoughts of whether I'm hungry (I don't eat large meals during the evening).

Suggest you listen to Radio 4 Afternoon Play or Archer's omnibus edition - you can get these from BBC site on the internet.

Same here but it dont bother me,made a cuppa,watching the snooker then one shall watch the Sopranos ,it finishes at 4 am,might get a bit of shuteye then.
Still be up wi the larks.:)

Read Marlborough: His Life and Times, instant doze.

After an excellent landing...

G-CPTN nailed it.
The biggest problem is being worried that you aren't asleep.


Pretty simple rule for me, and although I usually don't have problems falling asleep, I don't go to bed until I am tired, even if it means less actual time in the sack.

Also, I tend to have a late evening snack of breakfast cereal with milk. I don't know if that has anything whatsoever to do with it, but it sets up a ritual knowing that shortly afterwards, I'll be heading upstairs to bed.

Good luck, but if the problem persists, see a professional. Hopefully, it's not a long term issue. This of course is based on the presumption that you keep "regular" hours.

Don't know if you are familar with a substance called Melatonin. It's a naturally occurring hormone released by the Pituitary gland when the Hypothalamus detects darkness via the Retina. Melatonin effectively shuts the body down at night, and its production tends to decrease with age.

You can read more here:

Melatonin.com - Experts compared, sleep tips, jet lag, seasonal affective disorder. (http://www.melatonin.com)

Does have a tendency to leave you groggy all the next morning if you over do it. Recently I bought the 3mg tabs, and have ended up breaking them into quarters, which they don't do very well - very crumbly. I've found a quarter to half a tab brilliant if taken half an hour before going to bed. next time will buy the 1mg tabs.

With me it's because I have things on my mind, usually work. Sundays are particularly bad thinking about the coming week, all the stuff piling up, and I cannot "switch off". Unless I am hammered.

The only thing that works is eventually I am so tired I just sleep.

+ threatening myself with all the dire consequences inevitable if I don't get enough sleep to get up at a decent time tomorrow


Did a fair bit of study on sleep when I went onto long-haul flying.

Lying there agonising about not being asleep doesn't help. It is worth remembering that if you can lie down in a quiet, darkened room and relax then that is worth about 75% of full on sleep.

Meletonian works for some. I have tried the 3mg tablets and they make no difference at all!

There was an interesting thread on here a week ago,

S'funny I thought . . . must have dreamed it.:p

I'm suffering at the moment but that's due to Clipofloxacin antibiotic tablets, go to bed because one is exhausted, wake up 2 hrs later and that's it for the night.

A simple and reliable method for causing sleep, or a near equivalent, without drugs and in nearly any circumstances, is to methodically embrace utter mindlessness.

For this JB might seem a good start, since it certainly has effects that might be called mindless, but the ingredients of JB are otherwise mostly very wrong for sleep. What you will want is something rather like the opposite of Jetblast.

The following steps describe a method for relaxation toward sleep that seems to work for others I've shared the ideas with - although perhaps all those people are just being polite and humoring one. Please be brutal as a critic if this does not solve your dissomnified quandary and set your life onto a path of ready accessibility to sleep when and as you may choose.

Preparation is optional - to do what you can to ease distractions and irritations that may interfere - loosen clothing, put drops in irritated eyes, make peace with your digestion, and find a place that is by some stretch of imagination suitable for sleep -- be it a combination of branches in a tree somewhere that will hold you up for a few z's, or a metre-thick mattress at the Fritzonia Elite Hotel.

The theory is to achieve a concurrent condition of a) hyperventilation, b) deep distraction in verbal part of the brain, and c) further distraction in visual part of the brain, combining to create a state of full attention to thoughts that have neither names nor shapes and thus no ready connection to waking consciousness. Eventually this condition transitions to simple sleep, which then proceeds as circumstances permit.

Since the objective is to help you stop thinking about things that may keep you awake, a good Step 0 is to instruct yourself to not follow any unrelated side-thoughts that may pop-up along the way. Make a pact with yourself to do a whack-a-mole maneuver with any such idle thoughts as may come to mind -- at least for the duration of the relaxing process, which you may consciously terminate at any time, if not already asleep.

Step 1 is to program yourself to mildly hyperventilate as a continuing activity. This may be accomplished by brute effort of deliberate heavy repetitive deep breathing for starters, or (more gracefully) by singing familiar songs quietly aloud ( especially ones associated with drinking or religion, or drinking and religion ). Repetition or chanting of a simple phrase with one or a few words can do well. For a simple one, try: long inhale through open mouth... pause... "High......." long exhale through nostrils... pause... "Low......." (repeat)(repeat).....etc(repeat).

Repeat the cycle at a calm and even pace throughout the period of transitioning toward sleep. As you become more relaxed, keep breathing with the chant, but mouth the sounds proportionally more in your mind, rather than generating much or any volume.

Step 2, in parallel with the cyclic process described above, you seek to concentrate entirely on your breathing and your chant, giving no attention to other thoughts that may pop up as you repeat and repeat and repeat the process of breathing and chanting. The only thought you may hold in your consciousness is: "My goal is that I will think about doing my chant and not think other thoughts".

Step 3, is really a variant on step 2, with a new option added as your calmness and focus increase. In step three you continue as before, with the added task and entertainment of choicefully visualizing a color in your mind's eye. What you seek to accomplish is to SEE a field of color in your mind as if you were in a brightly lit room painted entirely in that color -- with no other details, features, or variations. You may choose different colors on different occasions .... for experiments or simple variety. When initiating this. you are still quite conscious of choices and intentions in regard to the color seeing process, and thus able to be selective and to make decisions about various methods to enhance it, but the cyclic breathing and chanting that are still going on somewhere downstairs have formed a wall of protection from distractions, allowing you peace and time to pursue the goal of seeing the color that you have chosen. In this process you are playing a game with your mind and with your visual brain, which one does not normally consciously access in this manner. Some learning process is required to have it work reliably - or to get any result at all -- but that's ok because you are in a safe quiet place and have absolutely nothing else to think about, nor any hurry for success. One expedient is to summon up a visual recollection of something you have seen that seemed bright and colorful and happens to be the color you want. Do not digress with thoughts of history or cause or effect or time or anything else, just focus thought on seeing that color as the wallpaper on your mind's eye -- as though it is coming from your eyes, but not bothering about the details of how one might see things with eyes closed.. The ploy that often works is to conceptualize an object in visual memory, such as the door of a fire-engine for red (or yellow-green), the ant's-eye view of a lawn or field for green, etc. If you are trying for blue and suddenly are drowned in a sea of orange, savor the experience -- the rules permit selecting a new choice (such as the one that accidentally happens to work at the moment) anytime you might choose to. After all, it IS your brain --- and nobody else is keeping score, eh? Even though the process is described here with rules, it is the experience that counts -- the quest. The satisfaction of actually conjuring up a wall of rich color and contemplating it is quite warming for the spirit and the mind and the doing puts one into such a relaxed state that sleep comes naturally. Even if one is frequently disrupted or awakened by outside circumstances, the time spent in this style of guided relaxing process seems and feels as refreshing as sleep - sometimes more-so.

That is the beginning, the middle and the end of my favorite process for finding deep and refreshing sleep without pills or props or even comfortable circumstances. Apologies if the description is tortuous - have never tried to write it up in instruction-booklet form before today, despite quite many years of using, refining, and sharing it with others.

taken from a forum. Couldn't have put it better me'self.

I posted on this in the medical forum some years back and it was made a sticky.

I personally can't touch benzodiazepines - they let lose the Hyde in me.




Temazepam is a benzodiazepine and is related to a lot of other sedatives/hypnotics such as diazepam (valium), flunitrazepam (rohypnol or ruphies), midazolam, oxazepam (serapax) etc.

Temazepam is usually given to people as a hypnotic (hypnos= ancient greek for sleep or something) to help them to sleep. Unfortunately temazepam can be addictive and also is often sold on the street. So many doctors are reluctant to prescribe it these days, prefering to give non-benzodiazepine hypnotics such as zolpidem or zopiclone - both of which have their own side effects and problems

Some dentists also prescribe temazepam for people who grind their teeth during their sleep. Other, non-benzo hypnotics aren't very effective for teeth grinding as they don't knock out the REM part of sleep, which is when most people grind their teeth most.

Most doctors recommend that you only take Temaze for a couple of days and not for an extended period
a) because it's addictive; and
b) as I mentioned above, it doesn't give you a proper, natural restful sleep as the sleep cycles are disrupted and you don't get much (if any) REM sleep - which is important for rest and recovery.

Shelly
Source(s):
Registered Psychiatric Nurse

The most important thing is:

use the bed only for sleep (OK and that other thing as well...;))

Do not eat in your bed, watch tv, work or lie awake in bed. Your bed must be associated with sleep, not work or anything else.

SO if you lie awake, get out of bed!

Have you tried excercise? Get yourself so tired you collapse in bed. :)

Tips on getting to sleep please
40 minutes of vigorous sexual actrivity usually works (or so I am told)

Have you tried exercise? Get yourself so tired you collapse in bed


Except that exercise within four hours of going to bed, (other than 'that' kind;)), is not recommended as the Adrenalin level is high.

Thank you everyone, keep them coming if you can :D

I've used temazepam in the past but don't want to take it again unless I'm having a really bad night (back then I was so distracted I slept for about 2 hours a night for a fortnight*). I've got melatonin too - but I'm not sure, are there any risks attached with long-term use?

*now see, 2 hours a night doesn't bother my father, but I'm still of an age where I need at least 6 :hmm:

Reading, internetting, eating and watching tv in bed are all things I do :( Will try to keep all that to the sofa and the desk, see if that works :ok:

I did eventually drop off - about 2? But then I woke up later :( If anyone also has tips on giving my circadian rhythm a kick up the rear end, it'd be much appreciated :zzz: :O

Try this, it works for me: picture the definite article "the" in your mind. I don't know how it works, but this action stops any extraneous thoughts from entering my mind; within a short while, I'm relaxed and nodding off (and snoring too, but that's another story)....good luck

PS the tips on exercise have me thinking, although I'm not sure it'll help me sleep - once upon a time I used to get up really early and go running before I had to get started with everything else. I'd love to do that again. Now to get to sleep early enough that I don't ignore the running alarm going off at 5:30 :sad:

Try this, it works for me: picture the definite article "the" in your mind. I don't know how it works, but this action stops any extraneous thoughts from entering my mind; within a short while, I'm relaxed and nodding off (and snoring too, but that's another story)....good luck

Oh my!

As a linguist, and someone who thinks about random parts of language for fun in general, I'm really curious as to how that might work!

Get a small tape recorder and play any speech by Broon at low volume.
You'll be yawning and dozing in no time.

Seemples.

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/uu82/Lightning_29/seemples.jpg

40 minutes of vigorous sexual actrivity usually works

It does. MrsP can sleep through anything. :(

This works for me.

http://www.rainymood.com/:zzz:

A tot of whisky and 5 minutes of full on self abuse.

(The whisky is optional) :)

Yes, its time we all woke up to the problem of insomnia.

No caffeine for at least a couple hours before bedtime. Alcohol may or may not help you relax and crash out - personal preference. Ear plugs also help.

I suspect my variation on the 'worrying that you can't get to sleep' routine is that I do go to sleep and then dream that I can't sleep.

Just the opposite, I oft used to dream I had got up got dressed, visited the abutions,breckied and on me way to work,only to wake up a hour later and having to scurry out unbreckied half dressed and unabluted.
:uhoh:

Hardhatter said it: don't teach your brain it's OK to lie in bed awake. If you aren't sleepy don't lie there, get up, do something. Only lie down in bed when sleepy. You could also try Autogenes Training, never fails to make me drowsy.

On the other hand: you might try reading Steven King's novel "Insomnia"... it's jolly good.

I oft used to dream I had got up got dressed, visited the abutions,breckied and on me way to work,only to wake up a hour later and having to scurry out unbreckied half dressed and unabluted.

There you have it! Exactly why one desperately prefers the equivalent of a siege mortar for the wakening trill.

The whole 'not using my bed for anything other than sleep' thing (I'm single :p ) is going to be tricky...

...but then last night I collapsed into bed after anniversary celebrations so getting to sleep wasn't a problem. The problem was that it was already 2am by the time it happened!

In 1975 I had a serious motorcycle accident which fundamentally upset my sleep pattern and does so to this day.

The first few days afterwards I did not sleep at all, even with medication. Not an experience I would care to repeat. Then, for several months, I would get an hour. After a year I was getting a couple of hours. A decade later I could reliably sleep for about 4 hours at best.

Over a period of 35 years I have managed to achieve between 4 and 5 hours sleep a night. Some nights I don't sleep at all, but these are uncommon. Any more than 5 hours is equally uncommon.

I have learnt the following:-

i) if you are tired enough, you will sleep.
ii) if you can't sleep, then you are not tired enough. Don't worry about it.
iii) it is possible to be too tired to sleep. Having experienced this on a few occasions I can also say it is an experience I would not care to repeat either.
iv) use the quiet hours of insomnia to listen to your favourite music in the darkness. Either it will induce sleep or you will appreciate the music even more intensely than at other times.
v) learn to appreciate the onset of pre-dawn glow, and the magic of sunrise.
vi) if you are an insomniac, optical astronomy is a very suitable hobby. Buy the best telescope you can afford.
vii) insomnia is best not shared. If you have a partner, let them sleep. If you don't have a partner, you're lucky.
viii) use periods of sleeplessness for introspection, but avoid melancholia. Being quiet in darkness is often quite useful for solving thorny problems or resolving dilemmas.
ix) learn to live with it.
x) no-one stays awake forever.

I get excellent results with Nytol, not the herbal version. They are a stupid £2.80 for 20 in UK, I buy the equivalent (Diphenyl hydramine) @<hidden> $3.25 for 72 in US military base BXs. I do not use them regularly but when I do I get a good sleep and no nasty morning effects. I also use, as an alternative, a herbal tablet containing valerian, hops, lettuce etc, sold by Boots as Natrasleep - packs of 40 tablets and usually on a 3 for 2 offer.