What type of insomniac are you?

I'm none of those. What about the worrier, the 'is this all there is?' 4 a.m. panicker, the 'how am I going to cope tomorrow without any sleep?' clock-watcher...

I go to sleep for a couple of hours then am fully awake until it's time to get up. I've tried everything but nothing works. Any suggestions welcome.

And why is it always 4 or 4.30? The way my imagination takes off around that time and I start worrying about just about everything....?
Earlier, and I am fine, I just go back to sleep. Later is fine too especially if it is summer and light, but it is almost as if I am programmed to wake at 4.30. (And if it isn't me, it's Grace hearing a cat in the garden)

I fall into the can't nod off bracket. DH is asleep within about 5 seconds and then snores, I lie mulling over the last day, week, month, was that my life ? I usually have to do at least two bathroom trips before I can settle too.

ana I'm the same as you.

I used to be able to 'sleep for Wales', but since my DH died two and a bit years ago I've had problems. Of course, that might be coincidence. In fact had lunch with three friends this week and they all have sleep problems. Two are happily married and the third split from her OH three years ago. One reckons hormonal changes after the menopause are to blaim. Opinions and help gratefully received.

Well I blame having children for changing sleep patterns. I'm sure most of us as teenagers slept like logs. Once you have children you sleep with one ear on permanent alert and that then becomes your norm and you are easily woken up.

I usually have what I call "a mixed sleep" which means three or four hours proper sleep, with no problem dropping off but then wide awake and only snoozing fitfully for the rest of the night. It is rare that I am still in bed at 6am but DH sleeps on for at least an hour more than me. I seem to manage on that and if I feel like a zizz in the afternoon, well I just have one but again this is rare.

Children and patients on my case! Between them there were 4years when I never got a complete nights sleep. No night locus services then and we always visited when asked. Not like today.

In my case. Locums not locus! This iPad doesn't know Latin.
But locus IS Latin. As in iste locus!

I'm surprised it didn't change it to 'locust' jeni!

So am I!

Well, if you will insist on leaving your spellchecker on....

Is it true that older people simply don't need as much sleep as they used to when they were, supposedly, more active?

Teenagers sleep like babies because they grow like babies – lots.

My advice is, do not start your eight hours until midnight. (So long as you can stay in bed until 9 o'clock of course)

I need loads.

My sleep patterns are wholly predictable. I reckon that I could be dead and buried and, on the dot of 3.30 in the morning, the eyes will ping open and I shall start writing lists, planning schedules and drafting e-mails.

Oh, and plug yourself in to the World Service if you wake at 5ish. And if you need a wee - Do Not Put it Off. It won't go away and you will sleep better after you have been.

Sometimes if I am too hot I fidget a bit then can't sleep,other times it can be the 2am heebie jeebies sometimes the 4am one,but think I must be practising for the long sleep as I do seem to sleep better these days than I did 10 years ago and for longer and deeperxxmiserable when you can't though isn't it.

I suffer from Restless Leg or, in my case more accurately ILM (Involuntary Limb Movements), which means that I have no difficulty falling asleep but, most nights, am jerked awake again within minutes with one arm and one or both legs flailing. This does not stop until I get up and walk about for a half hour or so, then back to bed, fast asleep and wakened again in an hour. The walking about bit is why Americans call sufferers 'Night Walkers'. It is a nocturnal condition - I can 'Sleep for Scotland' easily and quietly between say 7.30am and 7.30pm but unfortunatley most things I need to do, eg Child Minding, Shopping, Attending Meetings, have to be done in daytime hours. I do manage to wash, iron, bake bread, make soup, etc. in the night.

I have, of course, tried every remedy that has been suggested to me, without success and have got to the stage where, if one more person kindly offers a simplistic 'don't drink coffee after tea time' remedy, they are liable to be throttled. I usually have no problem falling asleep, (it is the staying asleep that is the problem) but I have one 'works for me' suggestion that never fails to send me to the land of nod and that is to picture myself curled up in all the beds I have ever slept in, from my childhood twin bed, through bunk beds at Butlins, double bed in attic at Granny's, homes and hotels - very soporific. zzz

I find bananas help. High in potassium.

I wake up suddenly when I discover 'the meaning of life, the universe, and everything' or the number 42! Usually related to a problem that's been perplexing me at work.

I've learned the technique of 'brain dumping'. Some people keep a notepad and pen by the bed but my technique is to ring my work number and leave the answer or the query or whatever on my own answer phone. There is waits till I arrive at work in the morning and can deal with it.

In the meantime I can clear my head and get back to sleep..[star]

My insomnia started around 20 years ago, before that I had no problem sleeping. Now some nights it takes me around 2 hours to go to sleep and am then awake again after 2/3 hours then dozing for 30 mins on and off.

I have tried everything, sleeping pills get me to sleep but I feel awful the next day, herbal remedies don't work for me, counting sheep - how many do you have to count before giving up, getting up and doing something then going back to bed - usually leaves me more awake than before I got up, relaxation tapes - I am concentrating so much on doing the relaxation exercises that I can't relax!

I can get off to sleep usually, then wake up around 2 'ish. Go to loo then can't get back to sleep again because DH is usually snoring (right through my earplugs). I lie then and start worrying. What if this, and what if that? I then put the light on and read, which doesn't seem to disturb DH. Sometimes I manage to fall asleep again, but tend to wake with a start, picking up on the worries where I left off!

Let us never forget the man snoring for a medal who is lying in the bed next to us. That is probably the biggest cause of insomnia. It starts "woo, po, po, po, woo, po, po po" and ends up "honk, honk grunt, grunt, grunt, snort, snoooooort, honk, honk…"