Can't sleep

First
Why can't you sleep?

What thoughts are you going over and over in your head?

Most worries can be dealt with in the cool light of day and until we do so, they will continue to keep us awake at night.

So while you are up, make a list of the worries, or whatever it is that is troubling you, and some hints as to how to deal with them.

Go back to bed firmly resolved to tackle them when you get up.

Find someone that can help and deal with one problem at a time.

Hope this helps.

I am a rubbish sleeper and always have been. When I was a child I didnt sleep too good either and I must have been a nightmare to my parents. My DH often says that I didnt “learn’ to sleep. Never a truer word. Now that I am retired it isn’t too bad as i can get a lay in but when i worked I sometimes only had 2 hours sleep each night. Sorry but i have no answers.

This is exactly me too.I have a cup of decaff tea and read in another room and creep back to bed. Am terrible in the mornings...

Perhaps it has been mentioned before, but I find EFT tapping helps. Since the pandemic Nick Hortner has been posting lots of free tapping techniques to still anxiety, quieten the racing brain and aid sleep. If you are unfamiliar with it you will need to Google and learn the sequence, but there is loads on You Tube. My doctor would not prescribe sleeping tablets, but offered Mertazapine instead. This was given to Tom Bradbury, the news reader who had a psychotic episode due to lack of sleep. Apparently it can cause weight gain. So glad it's not the chocolate!

I stay in bed and read. I find Anna Ford novels good for reading in bed. Sometimes I read for an hour or two but some nights a few pages and I’m sleepy.

I've been using a programme called The Mindful movement to help me relax and fall into a deeper sleep. The lady who does this is called Sara Raymond and has the most soothing voice ever. You can google it or find the videos on u tube

I read until the pages turn green and blurry, or if i'm unable to put a light on I play games on my phone. The clue is taking your mind off what going on in the world.

I have an audible account and downloaded a get to sleep hypnotherapy track. I listen every night and am asleep before it ends . Ear buds in and I’m off. I wake just enough to remove them at some point. I would highly recommend

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!

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!

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!

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.

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,.

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!

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

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.

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!

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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?

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

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.