Can't sleep

I take a sleeping pill nightly, BUT, even with that I'm lucky to get 5 hours. Full moons affect my sleep and dream pattern, for sure, and tonight is a full moon with partial eclipse. I go to the spare room to cool off, and toss and turn in peace, coming back to DH around 6am for another snooze. It really hard. My sympathies to all fellow non-sleepers !

I make sure my bladder and bowels are sorted and that I am not dehydrated.

My mental strategy for calming myself is to lie in bed in my preferred sleeping position and tell myself a story. This story is a scenario from a favourite film which I recite in my internal voice as if telling someone else the story. I seldom get past "And then as he was lost on Sunset Boulevard he stopped and this beautiful hooker approached his expensive car. The he lowered the window and asked the way----- " The next thing I know I have slept.

I also am having a run of very bad nights, 4 hours last night ! I tried reading, music etc nothing worked. I feel spaced out now, plus my tinnitus returns after a bad night .....and am supposed to be out walking with a friend at 11.

Know what you mean Coolgran65. So want to go to bed because so tired but dread the inevitable tossing and turning.

I don't worry about it. I'll make a cuppa and either crochet, knit, read, or embroider (new hobby). I try and use the time to do something useful - and stops me from thinking. But then again, I sometimes have my best ideas and brainwaves at 3am. I consider it "special me time" and promise myself a snooze during the day.

if I wake up and cannot get back to sleep I take myself to the living room, read a book for a bit and have a cup of Pukka Night Time tea - it says:' Let the hush replace the chatter as you fall into a restful calm: a sleepy crush of oat flower, soothing lavender and silky-sweet lime flower . One cup and the path to sleep is clear - so give - in - let the rest begin'. Works for me x

I have DH snoring, shuffling and mumbling in his sleep, the traffic outside zooming by at all hours and since February DH has been on overnight dialysis so a noisy machine is whirring away all night, If I get out of bed and go to the spare room DH then can't sleep "because I'm not there!" and I then lie in the spare bed feeling guilty because he is hooked up to a machine so if he needs anything in the night or feels unwell I wouldn't hear him, so I still can't sleep. I have sleeping tablets for when I get desperate but I live my life on very little sleep and feeling tired all the time. I've never been a good sleeper to be fair but as I get older I am less able to cope with the tiredness. ( I do get up and read/do puzzles/drink camomile tea/eat toast/chocolate etc and when I go back to bed I get some rest then. Just wish I could have the sleeping tablets every night (I limit myself to 1 a week on nights when I know I will struggle). Sorry this is long winded but good to have a moan - thank you GNer's

I suffer from this quite often and I have now found what works for me.
I used to count from 100 back to 1 but ended up doing it so quickly that it stopped working.
I now go from A-Z and think of all the animals names for each letter and I am normally asleep before I get to the end. It stops you thinking and worrying about things as you are so busy trying to think of the names of the animals.
Give it a try, it certainly works for me. Good luck

My dear old mum used to say "blue moon" to herself over and over, apparently the brain gets tired of the repetition and gives up! sometimes works for me. I think at present lots of people are having trouble sleeping and then vivid dreams, a friend told me yesterday (by phone) that she dreamt we were in a luxurious swimming pool enjoying cocktails - I wish.

I’ve been an insomniac for years. I really sympathise. If I read one more article giving 10 tips for a good night’s sleep. . .there is an app called Sleepful which is the best I’ve used

Maybe sleeping all in one ho doesn't matter.

There's lots of evidence that we used to have a "first sleep" and s "second sleep".

Maybe you could just embrace it?

OMG I have the opposite problem- I sleep like a log and even if I go to the loo when I return to bed I am asleep within minutes.

I do have a routine- I must be warm so if that means a hot water bottle in July so be it. I read until midnight, switch off the light, turn on to my right side and within 5 minutes I am asleep.

I have a memory foam mattress and also a topper and it is like sleeping on a cloud.

I could not cope if I could not sleep- my mother was an insomniac.

I have had sleep problems for many years now and tried most so called cures and none have worked. Usually if I'm still wide awake at around 3am I get up, have a milky decaf drink and watch anything on the TV that's not scary or controversial in any way.
Since lockdown a different picture altogether, go to bed fall asleep and wake up feeling like a different person, relaxed and content. Just hoping things do not go back to usual once this is all over with.

As a long term insomniac, I usually get up, make a decaff coffee or tea, and sit and read for a while or find something mind blowingly boring on tv!
I have tried the herbal tablets and they are ok for a while but apparently shouldn't be taken long term and my GP will not prescribe sleeping tablets.
The only thing is that when I do get a good nights sleep, I look worse than when I don't!

This is such a difficult time. It's no wonder people aren't sleeping properly. I find I wake at about 5 (for a pee) and don't fall asleep again. Lately I've been imagining how Jane Austen's book Emma would work, set in the present. It is soothing and I do sometimes fall asleep again.

I tried sleeping tablets, had to take for 3 consecutive nights then a night off. Found on the nights off I had horrific nightmares so gave up.

I have always been a bad sleeper, even more so now I have fibromyalgia, so even laying in bed I am in so much constant pain. I have tried it all, lavender sprays, homeopathic remedies, mindfulness, hot milk, reading, recently tried CBD oil as I was having anxiety attacks since lock down and night terrors, have to say I was cynical, but it does actually work! I have two drops, 3 times per day and I am now much calmer and having the best most relaxed and refreshing sleep I have had for decades, give it a go!

Lavender spray on my pillow helps a lot.
I wake up between 3am and 4am then spray again and 80% of the time i drop back off.

Just looked up CBD oil, connections with the cannabis plant ....no wonder it works, might give it a try !!

25Avalon. That’s what I do with slight variations. Eg., I go through the alphabet and try to come up with a girls name ending in ‘a’ for each letter. Flowers, plants, boys names and the female counterparts. Sometimes it works!

Ironically, I'm sleeping better since C19 (also slept a lot better when I had cancer and was having treatment), because my insomnia triggers are work and family. Work is reduced, because I'm working from home,.

Thank you all so much for your answers. It is nice to know that I am not alone, though my heart goes out to those of you who struggle constantly. I finally went back to bed at 3.30 and did get a few hours sleep. I know that drinking too much coffee is bad for me as is going to bed before I am totally tired. coconut I have recently realised that the constant low level drone I live with, especially at night, may well be tinnitus. When this is all over I may well go to get my ears and hearing checked. I just wish my brain would be still. It is usually composing enormously long articles/letters to gransnet or agony aunts or newspaper letters pages , detailing my troubles or woes or frustrations and I want to scream "just leave me alone", but my brain never has listened to me! Thank you all again, and sweet dreams tonight.

I have been living for years with constant stress and the lack of sleep just compounds it all! Generally get about 4 hours a night and it's not enough .....

Recently taken to using CBD Oil which I think has helped in the actual 'getting to sleep' and does maybe give me an extra hour or so, but I expect I will become tolerant to that eventually!

I have disturbed sleep when I have something to worry about- so quite a lot recently!
I always read when I can't sleep which is why I always load my books onto my Kindle. I can them read by the back light & it does not disturb DH- although he sleeps like a log anyway.
He rarely comes to bed before 1-2am & I tend to wake about 3-4am.
It doesn't take long for me to feel sleepy again. I do get filthy looks from the cat though who insists on sleeping on top of me!

Since we started sleeping in different rooms I have slept better, but it’s still not good and I have taken prescribed medication which has worked but don’t want to get addicted.

I can get to sleep but wake frequently in the night. I don’t need to get up for the bathroom, and finally wake up about 5 am or earlier, so never a lie in. What a treat it would be to sleep til 7am. Trouble is I can’t doze, or nap, or zzzz during the day. But I survive!