Unable to fall asleep and I’m so so tired

I play some sort of noise, at the moment Ocean Sounds although I have plays others like night sounds. I am easily woken (I'm a carer) but the normal sounds of the house don't disturb me when there's a background 'white noise' of some kind. I also find it makes me fall asleep more easily. I don't play it if I'm having a night of not sleeping well as I want to associate it with a good night's sleep. You have my sympathy as poor sleep is awful. I am a night own and a friend is a sleepless lark and we have been known to WhatsApp while I'm still up with a late night and she's up early getting breakfast 🤭

Jess20, similarly with me and a girlfriend: she is rising for her early morning walk and has showered and breakfasted whilst I can still, on a bad night, be just drifting off to sleep. We are all wired differently and need to find something that works for us.

It’s nearly 2 a.m. and I’m wide awake. Just one of those things. Most people find Tv keeps them from sleeping. In my case ,it aids my sleep. I tend to turn the TV off and analyse what I’ve just watched, mostly documentaries. I find solving virtual problems keeps me from worrying about my very real problems - quite perverse in a way 😂

I’ve been awake for ages. I got to sleep ok, but as I often do I woke up very early. My sleep headband is out of charge, so I can’t play the rain noises that help to get me back to sleep (my fault, as I should have charged it before the weekend but forgot). I might get a bit more sleep if I try now, but if I do I will sleep late and struggle to sleep tonight.

I have no problem getting to sleep. Mine is staying asleep. I seem to nap during the night, waking several times, the completely from 0300 onwards. It is exhausting. I have (classical) music on very softly all night, which helps if I don’t sleep on my hearing ear.
I try to have a sleep after lunch, but don’t always manage one.

I sleep in shifts😄. My sleeping pattern has changed over the past year or two. But to get enough sleep I do need to go to bed pretty early. So in bed by 9 when I fall very easily and heavily asleep until about 1-2 when I wake and then spend the next couple of hours reading or on my iPad until 3-4 when I then go to sleep again waking between 7-8. I simply cannot get straight back to sleep in the middle of the night which is annoying.

But it is what it is.

Wow I’m so encouraged by the range of ways in which people are dealing with being unable to sleep.
I sleep better now than I did ten years ago when work stress was causing me many problems. However I still wake up just a few times a month between 3 and 5 am and being awake then makes me feel miserable even if I was happy enough when I first woke.
I shall try out some of the suggestions here, thank you.

Hello everyone only 3 pit stops for me last night I’ve had a good sleep at long last

Doodledog

I’ve been awake for ages. I got to sleep ok, but as I often do I woke up very early. My sleep headband is out of charge, so I can’t play the rain noises that help to get me back to sleep (my fault, as I should have charged it before the weekend but forgot). I might get a bit more sleep if I try now, but if I do I will sleep late and struggle to sleep tonight.

As soon as I posted I turned off the light and went back to sleep. Sure enough I’ve just awoken. By the time I get turned around the morning will have gone, and I have a lot to do today😡

So many reasons for not being able to sleep - grief, anxiety, years of getting up to baby/ being a carer, the wrong kind of job! Like many I'd have to put my hand up to most of these, have rarely been in a position to get a good night's sleep. But like CrazyH I find television has some benefits, in my case it is being able to watch really hilarious comedy and laugh out loud. A no-holds-barred good laugh does seem to drive out other thoughts, if only I can get off to sleep before they come back again. I appreciate that in some situations in life this may not be an option, but I first discovered the saving power of a good laugh when I was 18, first year at university and my precious mother had died.

So sorry about to hear about your loss Bonnybanko. Its not suprising that your equilibrium has been jolted, but your sleep patterns will hopefully settle in time with the help of the advice on here.

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Because of running an international business (when most of my customers are 8 hours behind) my sleep pattern has gone out of the window. I ofren dont go to bed at all and then sleep next day. I avoid daytime appointments like the plague because I can never guarantee being there to keep them.

If I havnt slept within an hour of going to bed I get up, have a shower and do something else. No point in lying there. Its just a waste of time when I could be earning money.