What do you do when you can't sleep?

[Maf]

IMHO the thing that most prevents people from sleeping is 'wanting' to get to sleep. Sometimes if you can't sleep, you get so obsessed with wanting to get to sleep that it actually keeps you awake.

Use some comfy earplugs and tell yourself that it really doesn't matter 'when' you fall asleep. It is invevitable that you will fall asleep when you're good and ready. Don't try to rush it.... help it.... The worst possible thing you can do is to worry about not getting to sleep.

Try 'Sleep Practice' ! OK I know this sounds wierd but take some time out during the day and set aside 15 minutes to 'sleep'. You don't need to lie down, just find a quiet comfy spot and spend some time exploring Sleep. Set an alarm or something (just incase you get good at sleeping!) The idea is that you will learn to sleep without the pressure of HAVING to get to sleep.

All this talk of sleep is sending me to sleep.... see , it works !

[firstimer1]

andi&di i agree wine does the trick as long as u make it to bed an not fall asleep on settee wiv laptop lol

[Growem]

I find thinking that I'm sleeping badly is a sure-fire way for me to have another restless night. If I sort of shrug it off and think, "na, I'll sleep fine," it honestly helps. Probably because I'm not winding myself up getting stressed at thinking I'm not sleeping when I've been in bed and am awake for more than I think is usual.

Other things I do to help sleep.

• - No caffeine after 3pm. I'm pretty sensitive, having not grown up drinking black tea morning noon and night.
• - Do some vigorous exercise during the day, but not within 2 hours of going to bed.
• - I don't like chamomile tea much, but it can help.
• - If I'm in bed and feel I can't sleep, I do a set of exercises. Starting at your feet, tense all the muscles in your feet, as hard as you can for 5-10 seconds. Then totally relax them. Then up to your legs, tense your calves for 5-10 seconds and then relax. Work your way up your body, bit by bit, including your face. I even try to include my brain, working it in a frenzy for a few seconds and then relaxing!
• - If I can't sleep because I'm stressed about what I have to do, I get up and make a list of everything I feel I need to get done. Then I accept the fact that midnight is not the time to do most of those things and that I'll start after a good night's sleep.

Just some ideas, maybe something will help.

[Shortie]

I have occasionally woken though to find that he's gone into the loo to read

Why read in the loo?

OK I know this sounds wierd but take some time out during the day and set aside 15 minutes to 'sleep'

Must remember to tell my Boss this when I want frequent naps during the day



I go through bouts of insomnia. Thankfully haven't had one for a good few months now, but I don't tend to wake up, just can't switch off. It's bizzare, it's usually when I'm stressed but I'll either be wide awake at 3am for days on end, or want to crash to bed at 9.30pm

When I'm like it there 's no pioint me laying there tryign to sleep and I agrovate myself more awake, there's no point in me trying to day dream to slepp as my mind wanders back to whatever is worrying me and I'm wide awake again, housework wakes me up more....

So I usually wind down on here and then have a nose on eBay. If I can get away witht he light being on without waking up Mr Shortie (who doesn't wake up for love nor money) then I read in bed. That's pretty much guarenteed to have me snoozing again

[di]

andi&di i agree wine does the trick as long as u make it to bed an not fall asleep on settee wiv laptop lol

BTW!Red not white~white just sends you a bit hyper & you end up having to drink far more than the weekly reccomended!~just for one nights sleep!

[Hilary B]

I find that wine will send me to sleep initially (if I get to bed reasonably soon after drinkingit), but I wake up around 3 am needing the loo, and often can't get back to sleep afterwards. The worst thing is staying up once I feel sleepy. If I have made myself stay awake for some reason, I can't 'disconnect' from that. Occasionally supper is late (work reasons), and I want to get up to bed, but OH is in no hurry and when I mention going to bed I get "Oh don't you want the afters?". well, only if they appear NOW darlin', because my system wants sleep SOON! (there are times I am VERY glad we have separate rooms these days, even if it did start by accident).

[Winged one]

Shortie, reading in the loo means he can sit up, have light on, and not worry about waking me. (Not that I would once asleep - light is not an issue for me and I have my own light on a timer as I used to regularly fall asleep with it still on which later woke OH!). I reckon he decides to use the facilities and then gets engrossed while in there - and he has never been one for reading in bed anyway. Whereas I have been reading in bed since I learned to read, and it is second nature to me. (He, on the other hand, needs to have the radio on with talking rather than music, so I often wake up to hear a discussion on the World Service about something or other - as radio through the night is fairly bad over here, OH turns on BBC radio 4 at bedtime and again during the night if need be).

If we both are awake, we might try our tried and tested method of getting to sleep quickly (ahem ) but we usually use that when we first go to bed.

And if I am feeling restless and edgy before bed, I'll often go the chamomile tea route. (I have been known to try the toddler's "teetha" as that is pure chamomile granules).

And we do the lavendar room spray as well - and we often have the burner going downstairs in the late evening with chamomile, lavendar, rose absolute and sometimes mandarin oils to just relax.

[Polly Fouracre]

Maureen hi, I try to list (in my mind) flowers or veg starting with the letter 'A' and work my way through alphabet. Sometimes if I am feeling sad I will create my dream cabin...
small made of wood, tin roof so I can hear the rain, black pot belly stove, lovely box bed with big rugs and soft sheeps fleeces on it....
zzzzzzz zzzzzzzz zzzzzzzz

Shortie, will you insulate your hut with straw or dried bracken to keep you warm when the snow falls and can I build mine about a mile away from yours then we could meet, occasionally, half way.

[Headfry]

so the 'hut' villagers are so far ...
Headfry, Polly and I think Shortie too. Enough for a small party then! Horlicks and chamomile tea being the drinks of the the night!
night night all, sleep well

[rogesse]

Insomnia brings on other problems - I get over tired then the sleep paralysis sets in. At a good 40yrs+ I should be used to it but you end up knackered fighting your way to the surface!

[Johnny Appleseed]

I was asleep this morning until a frog in our pond started calling out loudly for a mate at 3:30am. I've never heard them this late in the year before - is this the frog equivalent of an Indian summer?

[Hilary B]

I want a home like that charcoal burner built himself in the woods. Local timber, strawbale walls, shingle roof, all totally biodegradeable!
I might opt for woolbased insulation, if only to support the rare-breed sheep it comes from (Herdwicks, the wool is rather similar in texture to a brillo pad, but apparently the basis for an excellent house insulation material).

With so many plants 'thinking' it is spring, hardly surprising if a frog gets confused too.

[Johnny Appleseed]

I want a home like that charcoal burner built himself in the woods. Local timber, strawbale walls, shingle roof, all totally biodegradeable!
I might opt for woolbased insulation, if only to support the rare-breed sheep it comes from (Herdwicks, the wool is rather similar in texture to a brillo pad, but apparently the basis for an excellent house insulation material).

With so many plants 'thinking' it is spring, hardly surprising if a frog gets confused too.

LOL Hilary I can see the headline now "Amorous August Amphibians" - but it is bizarre of them to be seeking to spawn at this time of year.

I think you could be right though - if the plants think it's Spring why not the frogs?

I love the idea of your home in the woods. One day perhaps.......

[Shortie]

I get over tired then the sleep paralysis sets in.

Shudders.... I dont' know if it's sleep paralysis or called something else, but unless I'm very ill I refuse to sleep during the day as when I was at Uni and stressed, if I caught 40 winks during the day I'd get something like this and it was horrible enough to put me off of having 'catnaps' ever again

[Marthaclematis]

I 'do' the Alphabet Game too to try and get to sleep, I pick a 'theme', it could be food / flowers /singers, anything. I have an Alphabet Game "plus" version where I imagine putting together a dinner table full of famous guests and then pick an item of food which they have brought and a country they have just visited - its fun putting different types of people together, so, starting with A: Angela Landsbury brought Asparagus and she'd been to Antigua. Next to her might be Bobby Brown who brought Borlotti beans and he'd been to Brazil (imagine what they would talk about sitting next to each other) C might be (prince) Charles and he brought Carrots and he'd been to China. Anyway it does concentrate the mind and to make it work PROPERLY you have to speak outloud, quietly but outloud - if hubby doesn't want to join in I just whisper the words.
Something else I do is I imagine I'm an actor on a film set, I'm acting 'asleep' and whilst I'm lying down I imagine the director at first pottering around with the lighting guy, at this point you are allowed to shuffle around as much as you like because no one is recording. Then I imagine that the director asks that we test the sound so I'll be asked to breathe deep like I'm asleep. I imagine that this takes some time so it has to be repeated. If I want to move or turn over I imagine the director actually asking me to move. After a while all is set, the lighting is right, the sound is checked and then I have to play the part, act asleep whilst whatever else is being acted out around me goes on. I can always imagine the director says 'cut' if I need to move again but soon there will be another 'take' and it has to be repeated all over again (the sound check, lighting etc...)

Blimey, reading this back it makes me sound like a crazy woman, but its true! And sometimes it works quickly and sometimes it takes longer but the 'dinner table' alphabet game is fun anyway and it does hold my attention better than just going through lists of authors or whatever. I'm going to bed soon and I think tonight Arthur Askey (you can have dead people as a portrait on the wall) will be looking down upon Billy Crystal who's sitting next to Caroline O'Herne. I bet she'll flirt.