Help - I Can’t Sleep

Monica you would think so, but it does actually work.

Surely all this counting naming etc is just keeping your mind working, which is just what you do not want.

I prefer to float through clouds, nothing to see, nothing to think, ditto floating in the sea, but keep your eyes closed, literally and figuratively, feel the sea, not looking at the clouds, or anything similar, lying on a grass bank, closed eyes listening to the wind blowing through the grass or trees.

TrendyNannie6

I must be very lucky as I am asleep within literally a few mins lay on left side, foetal position, duvet pulled up high, and I’m away ? 8 hrs

You are!

Jax, feel free to use me and give me a wave as you do, chances are I’ll be awake too ?

Happy to give it a try. If I'd done a 20 hike and a full on army day I might well drop off!

I do wonder if these more sedentary 18 months have contributed to my insomnia or is it just getting older?

I remember my grandmother always woke at 6 am.

Jaxjacky

I’ve used the alphabet of girls/boys names, fruit, vegetables, cars, flowers etc to get off to sleep if struggling. I now use GN user names, bit stuck on Q….

does it have to be alphabetical or just a random list

Jaxjacky I use similar methods - currently working through the names of places in Britain, but I have tried British rivers. I'm not sure, though, that the effort of thinking doesn't keep me awake!

I must be very lucky as I am asleep within literally a few mins lay on left side, foetal position, duvet pulled up high, and I’m away ? 8 hrs

I’ve tried everything sadly with little success. I say I sleep like a baby-I wake every two hours.
Can’t have a drink-need the loo several times at night despite restricting drinks after 6pm. It’s not caused by meds.
My relaxing is counting backwards from
1000 subtracting 7.
I also have a headband radio and listen to that on a timer

I can get to sleep, but not quite, about 95-99%, I am too far to sleep to use any techniques, or even get out of bed, read a book or listen to music, but I am not quite there and my mind is floating aimlessly between dream status and awareness.

That is what I need help for, just getting over the edge into full sleep.

I ask Alexa to play Sleep by Max Richter, ans set a sleep timer for 45 minutes.
If you don't have an echo smart speaker, try reciting a poem that you have committed to memory. Do it over and over, blocking out everyday thoughts, that works for me too.

Its a standard relaxation method. There are lots. They usually work.
The difficult part is staying asleep or getting back to sleep if you wake for the loo.
I can be awake from 1-5am. There is no pattern to when I get back to sleep quickly or stay awake for hours.
Camomile tea does help.

Am in bed now hoping for a better night.
Sleep dreams all, zzzzzzz

The technique is what I would call a body scan. It works as a habit I think and as long as you are in a state to allow yourself to relax. It doesn't work for me if I'm obsessing about something or if I'm over tired or too alert.
I hate insomnia. At the moment, I'm falling asleep but waking a couple of hours later and then am awake for hours. Camomile tea helps, also magnesium. I believe the latter relaxes your muscles.

Very often!?‍♀️

I work in a care home that has 39 rooms and to help me sleep I sometimes put the person in the room 1 to 39 I’m very open I dropped off before I get to 39….

It sounds rather like the relaxation technique after a yoga session.

Just as everyone nods off, the teacher starts waking everyone up gently.

I’ve used the alphabet of girls/boys names, fruit, vegetables, cars, flowers etc to get off to sleep if struggling. I now use GN user names, bit stuck on Q….

It’s a fairly standard relaxation technique blossoming, repetition is important. It’s taught in NHS groups in some areas. As meryl says go into it with the expectation of sleep, if that’s the wanted outcome and eventually it will become the switch that turns off wakefulness. If you wake in the night simply do it again. This may sound odd but I use it to combat white coat syndrome. My BP shoots up in a medical setting, if I can have ten minutes to use a modified version of this pre appointment my BP is normal enough not to scare clinicians.

I get to sleep but don’t stay asleep and wake after an hour or so.
Last night was typical, bed at 11 and woke at 12.30. Heard my usual programmes, Sailing By, the Shipping Forecast and world Service. Woke through the night,
Woe woe and thrice woe.

I just pull the duvet over my ear, my hair must already be covering my ear too as I lay on my side, foetal position and off I go!

I wish these things would work for me, but my brain has found a way of throwing restless legs into the mix at the very last minute(or even after I have fallen asleep) to scupper any potentially good methods!

I used to always imagined a school blackboard in front of me with nothing on it I should have written a book I might be rich my now

.??

I use the Paul McKenna Sleep hypnotism tape. There was another system I used years ago but I can’t remember what it was. Might have been in my Barefoot Doctor book (whatever happened to him?).